Orders of Wisdom
The rituals of the Orders of Wisdom continue the degree of "master", extending and deepening a symbolic and initiatory journey that commenced in the "blue lodge."
The dissemination of the orders was interrupted by the French Revolution; they reached their peak during the First Empire and underwent a gradual transformation during the 19th century, merging with the practice of the high degrees of the Ancient and the accepted Scottish Rite.
[P 1] The chamber members were charged with examining the Masonic practices of the time to establish a version of high-degree rituals that could serve as a common reference.
[P 2] While maintaining the visual elements and symbolic representations of the ceremonies, there was a desire to secularize the 18th-century Masonic rituals to reduce the overly pronounced religious connotations present to some degree.
They unanimously endorsed the conclusions of the orator, Roëttiers de Montaleau, who recommended studying the Masonic reality of the time and bringing order to it first,[P 8] without creating a new system.
To do this, it was decided to follow the "known analytical order", which, among the many grades of all kinds in that verbose era, revealed a number recognized by the generality of Freemasons.
The codification of the three symbolic degrees was completed,[P 13] and they were definitively validated during the 149th plenary assembly of the Grand Orient de France on July 15 August 19 and 12, 1785.
[P 16] This newly established institutional body, which announced its intention to create its statutes and entrusted the task of drafting them to Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau, Jean-Pierre Saurine, and Louis Georges Salivet (1735–1805), positioned itself as the federating organ of high Masonic degrees in France.
[P 17] This body was restricted by only admitting lodges that were constituted under the auspices of the Grand Orient de France and that had resolved to draft and codify the high degrees to establish uniformity of practice within the chapters under its jurisdiction.
The newly established institution explicitly stated, in its inaugural article, its intention to federate the high-degree chapters of the lodges of the Grand Orient and constituted itself as a second chamber of grades.
Opponents of this unification perceived it as an attempt to supplant the symbolic lodges and place the Grand Orient de France (GODF) under the control of the high degrees.
He relied on a document dated March 21, 1721, which purported to be the patent of a Rose-Croix chapter granted to the Duke of Antin and transferred to the Count of Clermont.
[P 23] The document was quickly established[Note 4] as a fabrication by a Masonic decorator at Dr. Gerbier's request and debunked by Claude Antoine Thory with a long, fact-based argument.
[3] With the opposition contained and the desire for union affirmed by both structures, Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau presented a first project to the Chamber of Grades on March 22, 1785, during the 52nd assembly of the Grand Orient.
"[P 29] The founding Freemasons continued to act in this chapter in an honorary capacity within the central obedience, their past work has provided a solution to the problems posed by the various high-degree bodies.
[P 30] After encountering numerous difficulties since 1784 in unifying the rite and the governing bodies, the Grand Orient announced its new doctrine on high degrees in a circular dated February 19, 1789, a few months before the French Revolution began.
The events and upheaval of the Revolution, and the subsequent dormancy of Freemasonry, did not allow the newly constituted regime to fully deploy in the lodges and chapters of France.
[P 31] Although predating the creation of the thirty-three-degree high-degree system of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (AASR), the original practice of the higher orders according to the Regulator of Knight Masons was modified in France in the second half of the 19th century.
Guilly and a group of twelve other masons established the Jean-Théophile Desaguliers chapter in Neuilly-sur-Seine[B 5] and initiated the practice of the Orders of Wisdom in their original form.
The fixation fell within the "known analytical order" previously established in the Chamber of Grades, with the Grand Chapter finalizing the works carried out by the latter through a second reading.
However, the oldest traditions of Scottish clans still feature insignia from the 16th century bearing a raised hand armed with a dagger accompanied by the motto Vincere Aut Mori, which translates as "Conquer or Die.
[21][22] Le Régulateur des Chevaliers Maçons provides the following description of the lodge board: On the upper part of the southern line, a well will be drawn into which a ray of light falls vertically.
[16] This degree references Ramsay's discourse, which links Freemasonry to chivalry and the Crusades and is set in the context of rebuilding the temple in the Holy Land.
[B 10] The Grand Chapter subsequently adopted this order under the name Knight of the East, which served as an archetype for the grades that re-enacted the chivalric myth of 18th-century Freemasonry.
[P 36] Le Régulateur des Chevaliers Maçons describes the lodge board as follows: Behind the Throne will be a transparency representing Cyrus' dream: a roaring lion ready to pounce on him.
[P 37] Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau proposed a revised, dechristianized version of the ritual to the Grand Chapter, which remains faithful to the structure and iconography of the Rose-Croix ceremony of that time.
This new version represents a clear separation between the religious and the Masonic, with the Knights Rose-Croix being the descendants of a lineage of initiates who possess a vast array of knowledge, extending back to the earliest traditions and various philosophical currents of the Lights.
The statutes of the Grand General Chapter formalize the creation of a Vth order for the conservation and study of rituals on the one hand and an "administrative chamber" on the other.
"[Note 13] They are classified as follows:[B 11] The latest iteration of the Vth order has adopted a monochromatic aesthetic, with white serving as the primary color.
[P 45] The primary objective of the members was to collect and comprehend Freemasonry, a task analogous to that of the Philalethes, of which Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau served as secretary from April to June 1787 and later as session president during the final months of their convocation.
