Rite of Memphis-Misraim

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The Rite of Memphis-Misraim is a fringe Freemasonic rite which was formed by the merging of the two rites of Memphis and Misraïm under the influence of General Garibaldi in 1881.

The Rite of Misraïm

From as early as 1738, one can find traces of this Rite filled with alchemical, occult and Egyptian references, with a structure of 90 degrees. Joseph Balsamo, called Cagliostro, a key character of his time, gave the Rite the impulse necessary for its development. Very close to the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta, Manuel Pinto de Fonseca,^[1] Cagliostro founded the Rite of High Egyptian Masonry in 1784. Between 1767 and 1775 he received the Arcana Arcanorum, which are three very high hermetic degrees, from Sir Knight Luigi d’Aquino, the brother of the national Grand Master of Neapolitan Masonry. In 1788, he introduced them into the Rite of Misraïm and gave a patent to this Rite.

It developed quickly in Milan, Genoa and Naples. In 1803, it was introduced by Joseph, Michel and Marc Bedaridde. It was forbidden in 1817, following the incident of the Four Sergeants of La Rochelle and the uneasiness caused by the Carbonari.

The Rite of Memphis

The Rite of Memphis was constituted by Jacques Etienne Marconis de Nègre in 1838, as a variant of the Rite of Misraïm, combining elements from Templarism and chivalry with Egyptian and alchemical mythology. It had at least two lodges (“Osiris” and “Des Philadelphes”) at Paris, two more (“La Bienveillance” and “De Heliopolis”) in Brussels, and a number of English supporters. The Rite gained a certain success among military Lodges. It took on a political dimension and in 1841 it became dormant, probably because of the repression following the armed uprising of Louis Blanqui’s Société des Saisons in 1839. With the overthrow of Louis-Philippe in 1848, the Order was revived on March 5, with its most prominent member being Louis Blanc, a socialist member of the provisional government with responsibility for the National Workshops.

In 1850 Les Sectateurs de Ménès was founded in London which proved popular with refugees fleeing France for London at that time. About ten lodges were set up by French refugees, the most important being La Grand Loge des Philadelphes chartered in London on January 31, 1851, which continued to exist until the late 1870s. During this time it had about 100 members, often called Philadelphes. Between 1853 and 1856 other lodges of the Rite of Memphis were established.^[2]

In 1856, Benoît Desquesnes, the exiled secretary of the Société des Ouvriers Typographes de Nord proposed that the higher degrees of the Rite of Memphis were not only superfluous, but undemocratic and inconsistent with the Masonic ideals of equality. Despite the attempts of Jean Philibert Berjeau to dissolve the Philadelphes, they implemented this proposal and elected Edouard Benoît as master. This group became renowned for their involvement in revolutionary politics. However the Gymnosophists and the L'Avenir lodges remained with Berjeau. In 1860 the number of degrees was reduced to 33, and by 1866 Berjeau dissolved them, most of the Gymnosophists joining the Philadelphes.^[3]

In Egypt, the Rite developed quickly under the direction of Solutore Avventure Zola, Grand Hierophant from 1873 until the reign of King Farouk. Marconis de Nègre implanted the Rite in America around 1856. This was developed under the energetic Grand Mastery of Harry Seymour.

The Rite of Memphis-Misraïm

In 1881, General Giuseppe Garibaldi prepared to fuse the two Rites, which would be effective as of 1889. Its popularisation was greatly increased owing to the works of English Masonic scholar John Yarker, who became Deputy Grand Master in 1900 and Grand Master in 1902. He was succeeded in this office by noted occultist Theodor Reuss in 1913.

Currently the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm operates in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Spain, France, Martinique, Mauritius, New Caledonia, Portugal, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Russia, Uruguay, USA, and Venezuela.^[4]

In 1981, Francesco Brunelli contacted the known Italian initiate Frank G. Ripel to restructure the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm and the situation of the Rite was the following: 99º or International Head of the Egyptian Oriental Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm, 98º or Incognito Superior (from the degree VIIº to the XIIIº of the Order of the Rosa Mistica), 97º or Substitute of the International Head, 96º or National Head, 1º-95º or Operative Freemason (from the Iº to the VIº of the Order of the Rosa Mistica). In the renewed Egyptian Oriental Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm of which we are about to talk, from 1º to 95º, the 6 Alchemical Operations are found and associated to the degrees 1º-3º, 4º-33º, 34º-42º, 43º-63º, 64º-74º and 75º-95º.

Frank G. Ripel was at the head of the Egyptian Oriental Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm between 1981 and 1999, when he put it in "sleep."

At the end of March 2003, Frank G. Ripel, being Grand Master of the O.C.I. (Order of the Enlightened Knights) had a contact with the Spanish Gabriel López de Rojas, founder and Grand Master of the Illuminati Order, O.H.O. of the IO-Societas O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientalis), where by de Rojas received additional Italian O.T.O lineages via Ripel, including 33º degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, maximum degree of a pair of Egyptian Rites. When Gabriel López de Rojas learned that the Egyptian Oriental Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm of Frank G. Ripel was in "sleep", proposed to Ripel "to wake it up again" and he accepted, making it to revive, on May 1, 2003, with the name of Egyptian Freemasonry of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm.

See also

• Ancient and Primitive Rite

Notes

1. ^ Faulks, p. 6.
2. ^ Prescott, p. 15
3. ^ Prescott, p. 15-16
4. ^ Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm - An International Order

References

• Boris Nicolaevsky, “Secret Societies and the First International,” in The Revolutionary Internationals, 1864-1943, ed. Milored M. Drachkovitch (Stanford, 1966), 36-56.
• Faulks, Philippa and Robert L.D. Cooper. 2008. The Masonic Magician: The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite. London, Watkins Publishing
• Prescott, Andrew. The Cause of Humanity: Charles Bradlaugh and Freemasonry

External links

• International Masonic Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm