This article is taken from the February 2022 issue of Fraternal Review titled, “Fringe Freemasonry”.

While its origin lies in the British Isles, as Freemasonry spread across western Europe during the 18th century, numerous new high “Masonic” degrees and Rites were created, especially in France and the territories of Germany. These often used, and not infrequently blended together, the symbols and teachings of alchemy, hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Christian esotericism, chivalry, and Kabbalah (originally a Jewish mystical tradition which, by then, had also been adopted and reinterpreted by Christian thinkers).

Among these Rites were the Strict Observance (which claimed a Templar origin), the Asiatic Brethren, and the “Order of the Royal Secret” (often called the “Rite of Perfection”). Founded by Freemason and theurgist Martinez de Pasqually during the 1760s, the Élus Coëns (aka Elect Cohen) practiced a form of ceremonial Christian theurgy. And De Pasqually himself influenced Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, the Christian esotericist often referred to as “the unknown philosopher.” Under Adam Weishaupt, the Illuminati attempted to attach itself to Freemasonry, and to draw Brothers into its fold with the aim of furthering its political agenda. Another important Order to emerge was that of the Gold and Rosy Cross (sometimes referred to as the “Golden Rosicrucians”).

Although it restricted its membership to Freemasons, it taught the practice of alchemy, claimed to possess the elixir of life, and claimed to be able to raise spirits with the aid of a ghost raising machine. Surprisingly, being more conservative, it also opposed the Illuminati. In his Masonic dialogue Lessing And Falk (published 1778), the playwright Gotthold Lessing (1729-81) has the character Falk inform Lessing about the Freemasonry of the day.

At one point, Falk states the following: “Whether it is really possible to manufacture gold or not is all the same to me. But I am quite convinced that intelligent men will wish to be able to manufacture it only with respect to Freemasonry. Also the first person to whom the philosopher’s stone will be vouchsafed, will in the same instant become a Freemason. And it is nonetheless remarkable that all reports which the world tells of real or supposed gold-manufacturers confirm this.” Yet, more peculiar still, when Lessing questions Falk about the conjuring up of spirits, he responds, “The same applies practically to them. Spirits cannot possibly listen to the voice of any other person than a Freemason.”

While many disappeared, the influence of some of the Rites and Orders of this time remains with us. The twentyfive degrees of the Rite of Perfection formed the basis of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. De Pasqually’s Élus Coëns was revived and is still active in various forms. SaintMartin’s teachings were codified by the French esotericist and medical hypnotist Gérard Encausse (Papus), who founded the Martinist Order. And, while there are several Martinist Orders today that initiate both men and women (often as a precursor to the Élus Coëns), the Hermetic Order of Martinists is only open to “Master Masons of a Lodge under the authority of the United Grand Lodge of England, or of a Grand Lodge recognised by them.”

Again, the degree structure of the Gold and Rosy Cross was adopted by the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.), that restricted its membership to regular Freemasons, after its establishment in London in 1866. In an address to the SRIA titled “The Rosicrucians, Past and Present, At home and Abroad,” William Wynn Westcott said the following: “The aim of our own Society at the present day is to afford mutual aid and encouragement in working out the great problems of Life, and in discovering the Secrets of Nature; to facilitate the study of the system of Philosophy founded upon the Kabbalah and the doctrines of Hermes Trismegistus…”

Two of the leading lights of the S.R.I.A.—William Wynn Westcott and S. L. MacGregor Mathers—went on to found the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which practiced ceremonial magic based on Hermeticism, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and other subjects explored, intellectually, by the aforementioned Masonic Rosicrucian society.

Although adding two new degrees, the Order also adopted the degree system of the Gold and Rosy Cross and Societas Rosicruciana. While it attracted prominent figures, such as actress Florence Farr and poet W. B. Yeats, the Golden Dawn’s most notorious member was, undoubtedly, Aleister Crowley. He would later be initiated into an irregular Scottish Rite in Mexico City in 1900 A.D. and, a few years later, into AngloSaxon Lodge No. 343 in Paris, in 1904; although it too was not recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England.

The following year, Crowley—the world’s most notorious occultist—completed a Sufi-inspired book of mystical poetry called The Scented Garden Of Abdullah. Apparently seeing Sufism and Freemasonry as parallel Orders, in the introduction to The Scented Garden, Crowley writes, “I cannot here discuss the curiously patriarchal system of the mystic fraternity in vogue among Muslim[s], if only because I am a Freemason.”

Later, he would join, and eventually head, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), itself founded by Freemasons Theodor Reuss and Carl Kellner. Reuss had received a charter to establish a branch of the Societas Rosicruciana in Germany and, in 1902, was in regular communication with Westcott, who suggested that Reuss print a list of the society’s High Councils in his periodical, Oriflamme.

Nevertheless, claiming legitimacy from older fringe Masonic Rites, the O.T.O. would later profess to teach sex magical secrets that would unlock the Mysteries of Freemasonry and religion. In 1912, Oriflamme announced that a branch of the O.T.O. for Great Britain and Ireland had been established. Named Mysteria Mystica Maxima, this was to be headed by Crowley. Today, however, the O.T.O. notes that “membership” in the Order “does not, of itself, confer any status in Freemasonry.”

Written by Angel Millar

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