How many years old is Egyptian Freeladonry

Claims of a direct continuity between modern Freemasonry and ancient Egypt are rejected by Masonic historians: there is no direct structural continuity linking the Craft to the ancient Egyptians 2. Historical research published by Quatuor Coronati Lodge traces the formal "Rite of Memphis" to the period between 1838 and 1870.

High-degree systems adopting Egyptian themes arose in the late eighteenth century. The Egyptian Masonry established by Count Cagliostro (Joseph Balsamo) was active in Lyons, France, where he founded the Mother Lodge Wisdom Triumphant 3. The rituals for these Egyptian Craft grades required candidates to already hold the qualification of a Master Mason 3.

Administrative developments in Egyptian rites occurred during the nineteenth century. In Naples in 1864, an agreement was made between a Scottish Rite body and the Rite of Memphis (then consisting of ninety-six degrees) regarding the conferring of symbolic degrees 1. On May 8, 1876, a reorganization established three separate Grand Bodies: the National Grand Lodge of Egypt, the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, and the Sovereign Grand Council of the Memphis Rite 1. The National Grand Lodge declared itself independent in 1879, and a separate Grand Lodge was formed by a dissenting faction in September 1922 1.

Works cited

From the library. Each claim above is numbered to the work and page it came from.

Albert C. Mackey Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences p. 667 Mackey details the administrative history of the Rite of Memphis, its 1864 Naples agreement, the 1876 reorganization in Egypt, and later Grand Lodge splits.

Walter Leslie Wilmshurst The Meaning of Masonry 1920 · p. 1 Wilmshurst explicitly denies any direct historical continuity between modern Masonic systems and ancient Egyptian institutions.

Arthur Edward Waite A New Encyclopædia of Freemasonry (Ars Magna Latomorum) and of Cognate Instituted Mysteries: Their Rites, Literature and History 1921 · p. 126 Waite outlines the eighteenth-century origin of Cagliostro's Egyptian Masonry, its Mother Lodge at Lyons, and its requirement of the Master Mason degree.

Where to go next