FUSION

Fusion Of the Two Rites

Rite of Memphis and Misraim

The Antient and Primitive Rite is an amalgamation of several Masonic Rites and numerous degrees. The primary Rites involved are the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of 33º degrees, the Rite of Memphis of 90º degrees and the Rite of Mizraim of 96º degrees. Both Memphis and Mizraim Rites appear to have a large number of Degrees in common.

Rite of MISRAIM

More than one writer of the time suspected that Saint-Germain's guiding hand was upon a number of Masonic and secret spiritual societies whose heads were unknown. Besides the Frates Lucis and the Knights Templar, his name is associated with the Asiatic Brothers, the Order of Strict Observance, and Rite of Misraim, which he helped to found. Sometime about 1770, Saint-Germain traveled to Venice. The Rite of Misraïm had been founded in Venice in 1788. Its filiation came through Cagliostro who had entrusted it with the lower (first) Degrees of The Grand Lodge of England and the higher Degrees of German Templar Masonry. This Rite was introduced into France near the commencement of the present century. It made considerable progress, and in 1817, application was made on the part of its friends to the Grand Orient, to accept it as a legitimate branch of Masonry. The application was denied, partly on the ground that the antiquity of the Rite had not been proved, and partly because of the 90º degrees which its ritual comprised 68 were already included in the French system. First Brother TASSONI, who would have maintained a small Misraïm Rite in Venice, constituted in 1750 and structured in 10 or 20 Degrees. In Italy the Lodges of esoteric spirit were present essentially in Venice and Naples, which, as we have seen, are two important cities for the Misraïm Rite.

The first mention of the Rite was in Venice in 1788. A group of Socinians (an anti-trinitary Protestant sect) asked a patent of constitution from Cagliostro who was then in Trieste (he came to Venice and stayed for six weeks). They did not want to participate in his Magical-Kabbalistic rituals, so they chose to work at the Templar Rite. So Cagliostro conferred their only Masonic Light. He had the first three Degrees of English Freemasonry and the higher Degrees from Germany, which was greatly influenced by the Templar tradition. H.P.Blavatsky suggests an intimate connection between Cagliostro and Saint-Germain and affirms that Saint-Germain "supervised the development of events" in the career of and directed Cagliostro to assist him. Saint-Germain first appeared in Venice early in the century, looking about forty-five years of age, extremely handsome, with intense eyes and a charming manner. It was believed that Cagliostro had been his pupil and was initiated by Saint-Germain himself. Cagliostro was ever faithful to his teacher, though often attacked by cunning and malicious men and women.

The name of Misraim is the plural form of Egyptian, which is the only reminder of this Egyptian Rite which gave their obediential personality. It spread rapidly to Milan, Genoa, Naples, and appeared in France with Michel Bedarride who had received the Grand Mastery (ultimate powers) in 1810, in Naples, from B. DeLasalle. From 1810 to 1813, the three Bedarride brothers successfully developed the Rite in France, almost under the protection of The Scottish Rite. Indeed, it had illustrious Masons at its helm: the Court of Muraire, Sovereign Grand Commander of The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; the Duke Decazeo, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke of Leicester, the Lieutenant-General from Teste, etc. The Rite of Misraim is interesting and instructive, but many of its degrees are too abstruse to be popular. The initiation is a reproduction of the ancient rite of Isis, and represents the contests of Osiris and Typhon, the death, resurrection, and triumph of the former, and the destruction of the latter. there are 90º degrees divided into four series - symbolic, philosophical, mystical and cabalistic, and again divided into seventeen classes.

The traditions of this system are full of anachronisms, historical events and characters, separated by hundreds of years, being made to figure on the same scene at the same time. The work entitled "De l'Ordre Maconnique de Misraim" published at Paris, in 1835, by Mons. Marc Bedarride, purporting to give the history of the Order, is a mere romance, and full of puerilities. Nevertheless, many of the degrees are highly interesting and instructive. During the White Terror, Misraïm quickly became the Masonic Obedience which transmitted the required Third Degree to the Carbonari, and this group then had 22 Lodges in Paris, 6 in Lyon, 6 in Metz, 5 in Toulouse, 3 in Bordeaux, 3 in Geneva, 3 in Lausarme, and 1 in Couriray. The police of the restauration obtained its dissolution because it was fiercely anticlerical and anti-royalist. After being clandestine for 18 years it was restored in 1838 and dissolved once more in 1841. Again brought out of the underground in 1848, Misraim evolved towards its merger with the Rite of Memphis in 1881, which was the realization of Garibaldi.

Rite of MEMPHIS

The Rite of Memphis was constituted in Montauban in 1815 by Freemasons who had taken part in the Mission to Egypt with Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. Most of the members who accompanied Bonaparte on the Mission in Egypt were Masons belonging to the old initiatic Rites: Philaletes, African Brothers, the Primitive Rite, and all were Masons of the Grand Orient of France. Having discovered in Cairo a Gnostic-Hermetic survival, and in Lebanon the Druse-Masonry that Gerard de Nerval had also met, and which dated back to the operative Masonry which had accompanied their protectors, the Templars, the Brothers of the Mission in Egypt decided to renounce the Masonic affiliation which had come from the Grand Lodge of England and to start again with a new Rite that would owe nothing to England, who was then the number one enemy. And thus was born the Rite of Memphis in 1815, in Montauban, under the direction of Samuel Harris and Marconis de Negre. A modification of the Rite of Mizraim, organized in Paris, in 1839, by Messieurs Marconis and Mouttet. It afterward extended to Brussels and Marseilles, thence to New York. It was composed of 90º working and 6º official degrees. For a time it excited some interest in Paris, and then fell into obscurity until 1860, when it was reorganized, the 96 degrees reduced to 30, and then merged into the Grand Orient of France, where it is permitted to slumber. It may now be regarded as extinct.

As the Rite of Misraïm (sometimes called the Oriental Rite) regrouped the Jacobites who were nostalgic of the Republic and the Carbonari, the Rite of Memphis very quickly regrouped the semi-retired of the ex-great army and the Bonapartists faithful to the Eagle. The two Rites, moreover, had the same Grand Master in 1816, a prelude to the future merger. But the Grand Orient was then monarchist in its majority, its seal was comprised of the Fleur-de-Lis, and it succeeded in obtaining the dissolution of Memphis. But that did not last, however, and in 1826 this Rite took up its work again inside the same Grand Orient. Dissolved in 1841, just like Misraïm, Memphis also became clandestine and returned from the underground only in 1848, with the advent of the Republic. Dissolved again in 1850, reactivated in 1853, Memphis joined the Grand Orient in 1862 because it was obliged to do so by a decision of the Prince-President. With numerous Lodges abroad, it had illustrious people within its ranks, such as Louis Blanc, and Garibaldi, who soon became the unifier of Memphis and Misraïm.

The source of the 'Antient & Primitive Rite of Memphis-Mizraim' had to be a Rosicrucian source. Their 'philosophy' was simple. According to their Traditional History the Source of Rosicrucianism was Ancient Egypt. According to the traditional History of the M:.M:. Rite the source of the two Rites was .... Ancient Egypt. One has to remember that the traditional source of the Memphis Rite is not the same source as the origin of the Misraim Rite. Both Rites existed next to each other before 1880. The Memphis-Rite mentions Ormuz as it's founder, while the Misraim-Rite mentions Menes as it's founder. To these two rites were added initiatic Degrees which came from esoteric obediences of the 18th Century: The Primitive Rite, The Rite of Philadelphes, etc.

Shortly after its installation in England (June 4, 1872), the Grand Lodge of Memphis of this country named General Garibaldi honorary member and relations were immediately established with the Scottish Supreme Council of Sicily and the Grand Orient of Egypt. On October 26, 1876, the National Grand Orient of Egypt (Rite of Memphis) conferred to the Very Illustrious Brother Garibaldi the title of Grand Master “Ad Vitam”. Under his Grand Mastership, in 1881, after many discussions, were merged the Rites of Memphis and of Misraim, which had in many countries the same High Dignitary. This merger was made official in Naples in 1899 and took the name of the “Ancient and Primitive Oriental Rite of Memphis-Misraim”. Garibaldi was often designated as the “real citizen of the World” and defined as the “Knight of Humanity”. He was above all a “gatherer” esteemed for his sincere abnegation, his integrity and his courage. He had a great dream, “The United-States of Europe”. He preached unity between men and was convinced of the necessity to fight “for Humanity and Freedom in general”. Unshakable opponent of the roman Church, he requested the separation of the Church and the State. He wanted to introduce the free, secular and compulsory education by suppressing the religious congregation; however, he refused atheism, indifference and “miserable materialism”.

Rite of MEMPHIS-MISRAIM

The Rites of Memphis and Misraïm, until 1881, followed parallel roads and even in concert in the same particular climate, Indeed, the Rites begin to regroup Masons of the Grand Orient of France and of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite who were interested by the studies of the esoterics of Masonic symbolism: Gnosis, Kabbalah, even Hermetics and Occultism. Now, these two Rites had inherited and were the depositors of the old initiatic Obediences of the 18th Century: The Rite of Philalethes, The Rite of Philadelphia, The Hermetic Rite, The Primitive Rite, etc., and all this represented, in Misraïm: 90º Degrees; and in Memphis: 95º Degrees.

Starting from 1881, the fusion of the two Rites (of Misraim and of Memphis) occured through the work of the Italian Sovereign Grand Master, Grand Commander, Grand Hyerophant General Bro. Giuseppe Garibaldi, through an organic and harmonic integration. General Giuseppe Garibaldi reunified the Rites of Memphis and Misraïm and became the Grand Hierophante of both. The two Rites were collected in one body under the denomination of Oriental Masonic Order of the Ancient and Primitive Rite Of Memphis and Misraim; and to the 95º existing degrees, two others (of administrative character) were added, the 96º and 97º the former being more specifically for Sovereign Grand Masters, Grand Commanders of National Obediences.

The position is "Ad Vitam" and is transmitted to a successor by investiture - the latter degree competes, instead, to the Sovereign Grand Master, Grand Commander, Grand Hyerophant General, Sublime Master of Light, is prerogative of the Egyptian Grand Sacerdotal Magisterum the position is also "Ad Vitam" is transmitted to a successor, always by right of investiture.When Garibaldi was appointed the first International Grand Master, "ad vitam" (the Brothers abroad had not suffered the political persecutions like in France), a kind of classification was made, which was not hierarchical in the beginning but which quickly became such. In fact, the 95 Degrees of the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm should be considered an ambulatory where rests old Masonic Degrees that are not practiced anymore, or very little, and not as a scale of values. Furthermore, the agreements of 1863 with the Grand Orient of France, and of 1896 with the Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite, which was to become the Grand Lodge of France, speak only of the classical 33 Degrees (Rite of Perfection, followed by the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite). After the death of Garibaldi, in 1882, the Rites entered in a "dark" period up to when, in 1890, various lodges of both Rites were federated and the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm appeared. In 1900, the Italian Ferdinando Francesco degli Oddi became Head of the Memphis-Misraïm and was replaced, by the English John Yarker, in 1902. The Rite reached the 97 degrees.

In France, the Obedience is the meeting place of Masons who share an attraction for esoterics, hermeticism, symbolism, etc. There are about 90 Lodges in France, not counting the higher Degree workshops. In these Workshops are a few hundred members among whom we find Masons from all Obediences who are most qualified in the field of esoterics, Some are even at the helm of other, more secret organizations. The Memphis-Misraïm higher Degree Workshops must work: the 4th Degree (Secret Master), the 9th Degree (Master Elect of Nine), the 13th Degree (Royal Arch), the 14th Degree (Grand Elect of the Sacred Vault), the 18th degree (Knight Rose-Croix), the 28th Degree (Knight of the Son), the 30th Degree (Knight Kadosh), the 32nd Degree (Prince of the Royal Secret), and the 33rd Degree (Sovereign Grand Inspector General). The 66th Degree (Patriarch Grand Consecrator) is conferred only to certain Brothers who could be called upon to act as Consecrator, and a certain particular preparation is required. Some have compared it to an Episcopal Consecration.

The 87th, 88th, 89th, and 90th Degrees comprise what is referred to in textbooks as the Arcana Arcanorum. Those who are admitted to the 95th Degree become the protectors and conservators of the Rite as their name, Patriarch Grand Conservator, indicates. It is among them that the International Grand Master chooses the members who serve on the International Sovereign Sanctuary, supreme governing body of the Rite. Additionally, the 66th, 90th, and 95 Degrees may be conferred on Masons in recompense for their valor, their knowledge, and their fidelity; the 95th Degree confers upon them the right to sit on the "Council of Sages" in their quality as Grand Conservator of the Rite. Other Degrees, such as the Royal Arch, are not mandatory and are left to the choice of the Brothers. Knighthood (Chivalry) is transmitted to certain Brothers with the 20th Degree (Knights Templar or Knight of the Temple), descended directly from the Ancient Strict Templar Observance and the Knights Beneficent of the Holy City of Jean-Baptiste Willermoz. The Lodges of Memphis-Misraïm work the Egyptian Rite. On their altars, they add to the traditional interlacing of the Compass and the Square, the Rule, symbol of the Grand Architect of the Universe and of Divine Law.

The Rite of Memphis-Misraïm perpetuates the tradition of attachment to the principles of tolerance and freedom of thought which made it the refuge and recruitment ground of the Carbonaris during the Reign of the White Terror in the 19th Century. During the 19th Century, the Carbonaris recruited members in Misraïm and Memphis. They had numerous Lodges in France, and some of their dignitaries were very influential persons, such as the Duke Decazeo and the Count Muraire, who were both Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite. In 1921 Three Patriarchs - Giuseppe Sullirao, Giovanni Sottile and Reginald Gambier Mac Bean, aroused Memphis Rite in Palermo. Reginald Gambier Mac Bean establishes as a Grand Master of Sovereign Sanctum for Italy and for semi colonial territories. In 1923 Reginald Gambier Mac Bean passes all his powers to Marco Edigio Allegri via diploma. In the Archives of Sovereign Grand Sanctum of Adriatic (Superum), three scrolls are kept that make restitution of the incipiencies and shunts of the two Rites whose merger was contributed to Marco Egidio Allegri’s own accord. He stood as Supreme Force of the Misraim of Venice at 1923 and also Grand Master "ad vitam" of the Memphis Rite at Palermo where he was later on put to sleep at 1925.

In 1945, after the end of World War II, M.E. Allegri activated his privileges as Supreme Force as 90º of Misraim and Grand Master “ad vitam” of the Rite of Memphis and merged these Rites to one, creating the Ancient and Primitive Oriental Rite of Misraim and Memphis that was developed into 95º degrees, proceeding in the foundation of Sovereign Grand Sanctum of Adriatic (Superum), The Sublime Secret Temple, The Sublime Consistorium of the 30º 90º degrees, and the Sublime Peristyle of Orphics. The Grand Sanctuary Adriatic (GSA) of M.M. was founded by Marco Edigio Allegri in 1945, which incorporated martinist and apostolic currents into the Rite. M.E.Allegri also founded in perpetuity the Ruling Mother Lodge of «OSIRIS» and established the Sublime Councils and the Ruling Mother Lodge in the zenith of Venice to confirm the origin and to ensure the continuum of our Worshipful Rite in the future.

During all the 1940-1945 war, the Most Honorable Past Grand Worldwide Master of Honor Robert Ambelain, continued to run clandestinely in his home the Lodge ”Alexandria of Egypt”. On June 1946, M.E. Allegri passed over the Eternal Grand Pyramid, after he put on sleep the lesser Chambers of the Rite, leaving as a successor though his will Ottavio Ulderisco Zasio that ruled the High Hierophancy till 1966, day of his passage to the Eternal Grand Pyramid, succeeded by Count Gastone Ventura as it was said in the will of the passed. Count Gastone Ventura awakened the Rite on all the Chambers at the Winter Solstice of 1971 and ruled the High Hierophancy. In 1967 Gastone Ventura entrusted Francesco Brunelli, then 33 ° 90 ° 95 °, a license to form a Consistory of Sublime degrees 30° to 90°, restricted to the Tiber Valley.

In 1970, Francesco Brunelli, an admirer and follower of R. Ambelain, famous French writer of esoteric Masonry, which he considered "his Master" and that, among other things, was Grand Master General of an Order called "Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm", coming from the line Pessina-Yarker-Reuss-Papus-Teder-Bricaud-Ambelain, prepared probably for ambition or perhaps at the suggestion of Ambelain a conspiracy against the Gastone Ventura which resulted in 1971 in a rebellion that led to its exit from the chain Martinist and the chain of Ancient and Primitive Oriental Rite of Misraïm and Memphis. In 1971 after the rebellion of Brunelli, Gastone Ventura in the Temple of the Pyramid of the Sovereign Grand Shrine Bologna and the Adriatic proclaimed the actual awakening of the Ancient and Primitive Oriental Rite of Memphis and Misraïm.

Brunelli repeatedly was asked to return the license for the establishment of regional Consistory in the Valley of the Tiber, which was never, however, constituted. Brunelli never return the license. After his release from the two orders, Brunelli founded the Order Martinist old, traditional, and with a license of "his Master" Ambelain, the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm - Italian Grand Shrine - attached and subordinate to the Sovereign Sanctuary Paris International (currently Rite belongs to the Chamber of Rites of the Grand Orient of Italy - G.O.I.). In 1973 Brother F. Brunelli is honored by the depository of the sovereign powers of the French subsidiary of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraïm Brother Robert Ambelain. In 1981 Gastone Ventura passed over the Enternal Grand Pyramid leaving as his successor Sebastiano Caracciolo, current Emperor Sovereign Grand General Hierophant.

In 1979 Italian Symbolic Rite and Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraïm is entered into a treaty of friendship. The sign for the Brothers: Stephen Lombardi, Grand Master and Antonio de Stefano, Grand Secretary; for A.P.R.M.M .Brothers: Francesco Brunelli – Sovereign Grand Master and Grand Secretary Chancellor - Giancarlo Seri. In 1982 Brother Francesco Brunelli appoint ritually as his successor acting Deputy Grand Master Fr Giancarlo Seri. Brother Francesco Brunelli, for reasons of health transfers the powers and the insignia of sovereignty for Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraïm to Fr Giancarlo Seri. Fr Robert Ambelain, Sovereign Grand Master of A.P.R.M.M. French subsidiary in Paris, in the presence of the other great masters of European national allegiances, acknowledges the legality and regularity of the sequence of initiation of Fr . Giancarlo Seri from Brother Francesco Brunelli.

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, 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 Order of the Enlightened Knights (O.C.I.) had a contact with the Spanish, Gabriel López de Rojas, founder and Grand Master of the Illuminati Order, O.H.O. of the Societas O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientalis), 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.

In 1982 the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, Fr. Ennio Battelli, make written confirmation by the authorization granted to A.P.R.M.M. from the outset of his magisterial office, for using the Ritual of our venerable Rite for the first three degrees of Blue Freemasonry, and in the same document stresses: ".... at meetings during visits of an official nature, the Lodges should work according to the ritual in use in the Communion." In 1983 the A.P.R.M.M., after a long negotiation with the G.O.I. (about 10 years), confirms and reaffirms its will (as did Brother Francesco Brunelli, in 1973, when he revived the work of our Venerable Rite within the G.O.I.) to not practice independently of the first three degrees of Freemasonry but to fully accept the Constitution and the regulations of the G.O.I. through the single practice of relative degrees to which the Scala Philosophica A.P.R.M.M. proposed since 4º grade and giving it exclusively to Masters Freemasons, active and in good standing belonging to the G.O.I.

On May 10th 1991, the French Obedience was admitted into C.L.I.P.S.A.S. (Centre of Liaison and Information of the Masonic Powers, Signatories of the Call of Strasbourg), thus registering its action on the sides of European and liberal Freemasonry. The Rite of Memphis-Misraïm perpetuates its traditions of fidelity to democratic principles and to the initiatic Sciences.