Trance Dances, Rebels, & Bygmester Finn: Irish Freemasonry

Since we are coming up upon that date which represents perhaps the most despicable demonstration of misplaced national pride in the world, Saint Patrick's day, rather than adding to the volume of frankly embarrassing behaviors that Irishmen, and many who are not Irish indulge in in the name of a most sober saint, Patrick, I thought it might be interesting to note a few articles which touch upon some perhaps not so widely known aspects of Irish Freemasonry.

Today, many assume, wrongly so, that Freemasonry in Ireland is associated with the Orange Order, and has always been primarily anti-Irish and anti-revolutionary in character. As with most else that they've had to say about the Irish or about Freemasonry, the English lie. They lie through their teeth.

Freemasonry was not founded in 1717, much less in London, and no, it has not always been anti-Irish. It was after all, originally founded by the people who ultimately came to support the Jacobite cause. Many Irish died fighting for the Jacobite cause, and the Jacobites were in the main supportive of the native Irish cause. Freemasonry has been active in Ireland fairly much as long as it has in Scotland.

In Ireland, Freemasonry has taken some fairly interesting twists and turns, both in relation to cultural practice, the arts, and politics.

The notion that Freemasonry, whether Operative or Speculative would first arise on English soil is, if one contemplates the idea for more than a moment, a preposterous notion. When the English, latecomers to insular Europe arrived in Post Roman Britain, they had little skills in stone working. All the early Saxon churches were produced, like the rest of English architecture, out of wood and wattle, in true barbaric fashion. The Celtic speaking peoples, and their predecessors, had been building with and carving magical and esoteric symbols in stone there for millennia already. Ultimately, they were most likely responsible for teaching the English what they understood of both the operative craft and ultimately the speculative as well. And if, as it has been noted, English Speculative Freemasonry owes its birth to its northern neighbor, Scotland, it later required the Irish, in the guise of the antients to sort out the mess they promptly made of it.  The Irish were present in France after the defeat of the Jacobite cause, and the existence of the Irish Master Degrees and the record of Irish masons who founded what ironically was called the first "English" lodge in France, is in fact well documented. (Hayes, Richard. The Irish Brigade and Freemasonry. Reprinted in "Ireland and Irishmen in the French revolution. 1932)

Irish Freemasonry is ancient indeed, and the quintessentially Irish symbol of Freemasonry, the Baal's Bridge Square, is dated to 1507.  It represents undeniable evidence that Masonic philosophy and practice was kicking up its heels in Ireland long before 1717.

Various scholars have tackled the quandaries presented by the remnants of Irish culture, long in duration and unfortunately subject to confusion due to the destructive influence of the English invasion, cultural as much as military. One such scholar, Alan Nowell, has written a number of articles in the academic journal, Irish Archaeology, on the subject of early Irish dance, archeological evidence, and its possible relationship with Freemasonry. In his view, the Irish dance Fer Cengail, (O.I. meaning tied or connected men) may have middle eastern roots and may be related to other lore associated with the Freemasons. Whatever reaction one may have to his position, it represents both a fascinating read, and an amazing research topic. (Nowell, Alan. "An Insular Dance: The Dance of the Fer Cengail?" in Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer 2005. pp. 36-39.)

It should be noted, from a purely historical perspective that Freemasons were very involved with Irish efforts at gaining independence prior to their more successful attempts in what became the United States. The American Revolution was aided and abetted by many Irish and Scottish Masons. The claims that all Irish masons involved in revolutionary activity in Ireland were "Hedge" or unrecognized Masons is about as honest as the claims of the First English Grand Lodge that Masons did not discuss politics in their meetings, and were politically motivated claims.  The Irish connection must also be noted in the case of Elizabeth St. Leger who in the 1600s was the most noteworthy Female Freemason, and also that Prince Hall and his first African American Freemasons were initiated by an Irish Military Lodge.

The most significant modern work of Anglo-Irish literature, indeed it is commonly considered the most important modern novel in the English language, is James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake." The song of the same name is well known by Irish people world wide,  but the book is seldom read by popular audiences.  Most College English majors read the book, and I myself read it while still in High School. Finnegan's Wake is written in highly idiosyncratic, mixing standard English, neologistic multilingual puns (often taken from Gaelic) and portmanteau words, which produce a very dreamlike and surreal reality. In this epic novel, there are extensive references, in Joyce's quixotic language, to Freemasonry. Many articles have been written on the subject, but one, to me which is most interesting is Laura Peterson's "The Bygmester, His Geamatron, and the Triumphs of the Craftygild: "Finnegans Wake" and the Art of Freemasonry (James Joyce Quarterly, Vol 27, No, 4. Summer 1990. pp. 777-792.)

In case you are curious about Finnegan's association with Freemasonry, perhaps it is best to read Joyce's first remarks about the Master himself,

"Bygmester Finnegan, of the Stuttering Hand, freemen's maurer, lived in the broadest way immarginable in his rushlit toofarback for messuages before joshuan judges had given us numbers or Helviticus committed deuteronomy (one yeastyday he sternely struxk his tete in a tub for to watsch the future of his fates but ere he swiftly stook it out again, by the might of moses, the very water was eviparated and all the guenneses had met their exodus so that ought to show you what a pentschanjeuchy chap he was!) and during mighty odd years this man of hod, cement and edifices in Toper's Thorp piled buildung supra buildung pon the banks for the livers by the Soangso. "

Clearly, one cannot doubt that this description demonstrates all the clarity of many a Masonic piece of architecture, but with a great deal more alliteration.  Although we have our own infinitely superior native language, Buidheachas do Dhia, which as all Gaelic speakers know, is the language spoken in heaven, we have seen fit, out of compassion to our less fortunate neighbors, to have vastly improved the literature of theirs.

 Lá Fhéile Phadraig maith daoibh uilig!

Irish Freemasonry in 18th Century France

There is great need for further and more accurate research on 18th Century Freemasonry. Nowhere is this need more apparent than for 18th Century France. That is not to say that good research is lacking. It is simply that so much material exists which has not yet been studied.  Those who have taken a cursory look at the archives returned to France from Russia recently have noted that only a small percentage of the material has been examined. With that in mind, the influence of Scotland and Ireland in the development of Freemasonry and especially the higher degrees in 18th Century France is a topic which deserves greater respect than it has been given in Anglophone circles.

James II

Freemasonry was unquestionably brought to France by Scottish and Irish Jacobites who were garrisoned there. Whether or not they were the first to do so, is still being debated by some. That they had a great impact on the development of the Higher Degrees in 18th Century France should not be. When the impact and presence of the Irish and Scots in Pre-Revolutionary France is taken into consideration, their involvement in the development of Freemasonry should not be hard to reconcile.

The Irish Brigade was a brigade in the French army composed of Irish exiles, led by Robert Reid. It was formed in May 1690 when five Jacobite regiments were sent from Ireland to France in return for a larger force of French infantry who were sent to fight in the Williamite war in Ireland. The Irish Brigade served as part of the French Army until 1792.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, which ended the war between King James II and VIIand King William III in Ireland, a separate force of 12,000 Jacobites had arrived in France in an event known as Flight of the Wild Geese. These were kept separate from the Irish Brigade and were formed into King James's own army in exile, albeit in the pay of France. Lord Dorrington's regiment, later Rooth or Roth, following the Treaty of Ryswick in 1698, was formed from the former 1st and 2nd battalions James II's Royal Irish Foot Guards (formerly on the Irish establishment) of Britain.

Charles Radcliffe

The Irish Brigade became one of the elite units of the French Army. While increasingly diluted by French and foreign recruits from elsewhere in Europe, its Irish-born officers and men often aspired to return to aid Ireland and regain their ancestral lands, as some did during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

Irish regiments participated in most of the major land battles fought by the French between 1690 and 1789, particularly Steenkirk (1692), Neerwinden (1693),Marsaglia (1693), Blenheim (1704), Almansa (1707), Malplaquet (1709), Fontenoy (1745), Battle of Lauffeld (1747); and Rossbach (1757).

They also remained strongly attached to the Jacobite cause, taking part in the rising of 1715 and the rising of 1745. For the latter, a composite battalion of infantry ("Irish Picquets") comprising detachments from each of the regiments of the Irish Brigade, plus one squadron of cavalry, was sent to Scotland. This force saw action at the second Battle of Falkirk (where they cemented the victory by driving off the Hanoverians causing the clans to waver) and Culloden, alongside the regiment of Royal Scots (Royal Ecossais) which had been raised the year before in French service. As serving soldiers of the French King the Irish Picquets were permitted to formally surrender after Culloden with a promise of honourable treatment, and were not subjected to the reprisals suffered by the Highland clansmen. Many other exiled Jacobites in the French army were captured en route to Scotland in late 1745 and early 1746, including significantly, Charles Radcliffe, 5th Earl of Derwentwater, a captain in Dillon's regiment who was executed in London in 1746.

The Baal's Bridge Square

Freemasonry in Ireland is the second oldest system in the world and the first evidence for its formally institutionalized existence comes from the Dublin Weekly Journal of June 26th 1725. The paper describes an event which took place two days previously on June 24th - a meeting to install the new Grand Master, the 1st Earl of Rosse. Unfortunately the exact date of the foundation of the Grand Lodge is not known, but the installation of a new Grand Master would suggest it was already in existence for some time.

There is considerable evidence that there were Masonic Lodges meeting in Ireland prior to the eighteenth century, for example the manuscript known as "the Trinity Tripos" dating to the 1680s, and the Baal's Bridge Square, discovered in Limerick in the mid nineteenth century, which dates to the early sixteenth century.

The following article sheds some light on the presence and involvement of Irish Masons in the Irish Brigades in France prior to the French Revolution. The slightly out of date, and biased character of the author's opinions do not detract from a fairly concise documentation of some basic data on the Irish role in the development of Freemasonry in France. It was written by Richard Hayes for The Old Limerick Journal,  French Edition in 1932 and more recently reproduced on the official website of the City of Limerick, in Ireland.

The Irish Brigade and Freemasonry 

Certain facts disclose Irish influences of various kinds that contributed to the establishment of masonry in France in the eighteenth century – some authorities even maintain that it was introduced there by Irish Jacobites. The cult was apparently non-existent in France until 1721. In that year, an English Catholic nobleman, Lord Derwentwater, and an Irishman, O’Hegarty, a prominent shipowner established at Dunkirk the first civil lodge in that country. Four years later, they established a similar one at Paris, while, in 1732, ‘one Martin Kelly’ founded the first lodge at Bordeaux. The lodges were largely composed of Jacobite exiles and their main object was the restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne.

At that period, it was, however, in the French army that the chief strength of masonry lay, and this continued right up to the Revolution, in the causation of which it is now seen more and more clearly, as has been stated elsewhere, that Masonic influences played a large part. The number of lodges in the various regiments increased from the year 1750 to the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, and various dates during that interval mark the years of their constitution. In the official list of French lodges, that of Walsh’s Irish Regiment (La Loge Parfaite Egalité) always took premier place. In 1772, the Grand Lodge of France definitely recognized it as the senior Field Loge of the French army and, in addition, admitted its claim to date its constitution from the year 1688. This was confirmed by the Grand Orient in 1777. (The regiment, which was originally that of Roth, did not leave Ireland until 1691). In the middle of the eighteenth century we find the military lodge of this regiment composed of MacCarthys, Butlers, Nagles, O’Callaghans, Husseys, Keatings, FitzPatricks and other representatives of old Irish Catholic families. At the same period there was a lodge in Dillon’s Regiment functioning at St Germain-en-Laye which was made up of Lallys, Lynches, Burkes, O’Neills, Dillons, MacDonnells, Fitzgerals…And at this time, too, Jacobite influences in various French Masonic clubs were shown by the names given to new degrees – ‘Irish Master’,‘Perfect Irish Master,’ ‘Puissant Irish Master,’ &c.

After the Battle of Fontenoy

In his interesting work, La Franc-maçonnerie en France des origins à 1815, the Catholic writer, Gustave Bord, states:

For more than a hundred years historians and economists are asking why a country so fundamentally monarchical and Catholic as France could have suddenly changed its ideals and faith,,,France was sick at the end of the eighteenth century and that sickness was due largely to masonry and particularly to the Masonic spirit. It is there we must look for the real causes and logical explanation of the Revolution…In 1689, the Irish regiments embarked for France with their military rolls and their Masonic rolls – the former were executive agents, the latter the directive power. It was through the Jacobites, who followed James the Second into France, that masonry was introduced into the French army.

And Louis Madelin…perhaps the most dispassionate historian of the Revolution, in his analysis of political and social conditions in France immediately before that event, writes in La Revolution Fraçaise (1911) that the army, which was the cradle in France of freemasonry, introduced by the Irish regiments from England, continued to be its favourite haunt.

For some time before the outbreak of the Revolution , the Masonic cluibs, under the sinister influence of German Illuminism, were undoubtedly active centers of intrigue against the Monarchy and the Church. The majority of the French nobles had been members, but on seeing the trend of opinion in their circles they began to leave the clubs during the years immediately previous to 1789.

In the first year of the Revolution there was a well known Masonic club in Paris, the Club de la Propagande, whose object was not only to consolidate the Revolution in France but to spread its principles to other countries. The leading figures of the time were among its members – Robespierre, Lafayette, Condorcet, Danton, Abbé Gregoire and others. The names of its Irish members are given in the records as ‘Boyle, Okard and O’Konnor.”

(Reprinted from Ireland and Irishmen in the French Revolution, London, 1932)

Regular vs Liberal Freemasonry? What it's really about.

By all accounts, there exist two major divisions within Freemasonry. These are more politely referred to as Regular and Liberal Freemasonry. Coming from the so-called regular side, you can also hear a lot of uncivil comparisons. Terms ranging from Irregular and Clandestine to "bogus" get bandied about and none of it is done with a shred of courtesy. For an institution claiming to focus on Universal Brotherhood, morals and ethics; an institution claiming to take good men and make them better, this sure falls far from achieving its stated goals.  

If we listen to those who speak on behalf of mainstream Freemasonry in the US, that is the offspring of the UGLE, you will hear a great deal of legalistic arguments that would appeal to a lawyer, but not appropriate to philosophers. One might be forgiven for smelling excuses and justifications rather than explanations. In fairness to most "regular" masons, they have been indoctrinated to accept this approach on faith, and rarely have been called on to examine it rationally. The explanations focus on legalistic definitions and details. The dogmatic details of mainstream masonry define any Masonic organization as legitimate if it possesses recognition from the UGLE or other organizations which themselves were recognized by the UGLE. These arguments are based on political power and control. This is especially ironic as the supposed original lodges of the first London Grand Lodge would have been unable to meet the qualifications demanded by mainstream masonry themselves. There is no element to any of these definitions which reflect a concern with ethics, morals, or personal development, which supposedly are the main purpose of Freemasonry in general, and due to its rejection of esoteric interests, of mainstream freemasonry more narrowly.

I will not expend energy attempting to dissect this argument according to its own perspective. I do not view it as particularly relevant. I am not a lawyer, but further, such arguments are concerned with temporal and political control, and thus do not bear any relation to the stated purpose of the institution. For that reason, I do not view such legalistic foundations as having any real merit or being worthy of serious consideration. I've never seen any of the negative remarks offered about non-mainstream lodges to have any merit either. The so-called "bogus" masons I have met face to face have largely been at least as moral, ethical, and considerate of others as their mainstream brethren.

This leaves us asking what is the real difference here. If one ignores the denominational bigotry, we can see, from an historical perspective that there was a meta-principle which divides "Liberal" and "Regular" Freemasonry. This difference is most clearly identified in historical perspective and has nothing to do with dogmatic practices such as biases surrounding gender, religious, racial, or sexual preferences, none of which ultimately should have any place in intelligent Freemasonry. 

The main difference can be identified by looking at the original principles of Freemasonry and how they evolved over time. Whatever it was before the non-operative membership began to dominate, and I do not accept the theory that "gentlemen" masons were responsible for the creation of speculative masonry, it makes rather more sense to view the speculative, philosophical, and symbolic aspects of operative masonic lodges were precisely what drew "gentlemen" freemasons to them, by the 17th century it appeared to be fairly cosmopolitan in character. This cosmopolitan attitude  is clearly demonstrated in the Freemasonry which grew both before and after the arrival of Jacobite Higher Degrees from Scotland and Ireland in the first half of the 18th Century in France. It was this cosmopolitan character with its aesthetics and values which inspired enlightenment philosophy, political speculation, and sparked ideas which led to modern democracy, the opposition to slavery, and eventually modern ideals of universal suffrage and equality. 

It was this Freemasonry which inspired people to revolt against monarchy and institute the democratic governments of the United States, France, Haiti, and the Bolivarian Revolutions throughout Latin America, as well as less successful attempts such as that of the United Irishmen (Éireannaigh Aontaithe) of 1798. It was also this cosmopolitan strand of Freemasonry which became embedded in the Memphis Misraim and Carbonari of Giuseppe Garibaldi. 

The foundation of the Grand Lodge in London, in the year of 1717 was clearly a political act of self preservation, assuming it doesn't in fact represent a myth. Freemasonry was closely associated with Scotland and hence the Jacobites. In the new Hanoverian world, to be associated with Freemasonry was tantamount to demonstrating loyalty to the crown rather than the Hanoverian usurper, George I. That was a dangerous if not fatal choice, and so a non-jacobite history had to be rapidly invented, no matter how spurious it may in fact have been. Anderson's claim that the event even occurred needs to be re-evaluated before their 300th anniversary in 2017, but the outcome, regardless of the legitimacy of the claims, was a new form of Freemasonry under Hanoverian authority. The Hanoverian kings lost no time putting this new institution to work as an instrument of its new efforts at empire building. It supported the monarchy, in opposition to the cosmopolitan forms which continued to exist on the continent, moving rapidly to invalidate opposition to its authority and to its monopoly on the claim of authenticity. 

The masonic influence on the revolution in what was to become the United States stemmed from the continental Freemasonry of Benjamin Franklin and his French masonry of Loge Les Neuf Sœurs, far more than the English Freemasonry of Washington. It was liberally assisted by masons among the radical Irish later forced to escape after the aborted Irish revolution of 1798, those disenchanted Scots Jacobites who came to the Americas just as others helped forge High Degree Masonry on the continent, and people such as Joseph Warren.

This, rather than the various dogmatic issues usually pointed to, is what created the difference between "Liberal" and "Regular" Freemasonry ~ the radical re-visioning of society and our scientific and political institutions which had always been the true landmarks of Freemasonry rather than the support of the institutional status quo of pre-Enlightenment Europe. 

Louis Amiable, Une loge maçonnique d'avant 1789, la loge des Neuf Sœurs (Les Editions Maçonnique de France, Paris 1989)

Jessica L. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire: Freemasons and British Imperialism, 1717-1927. (UNC Press, Chapel Hill 2007)

Margaret C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans (Cornerstone Book Publishers, Lafayette, La. 1981 & 2006)

David S. Wilson, United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic (Cornell, Ithica, NY 1998)

Other Rites: Parfait Maître Irlandais - Leçons

Leçons - Lectures

Q. Are you a Perfect Irish Master?
A. Interrogate me and my answers will make you recognize me.
Q. How have you been announced in lodge?
A. By four knocks.
Q. Whom did you meet at the door of the lodge?
A. The brother Junior-Warden, who awaited me in order to instruct me.
Q. What did he teach you?

A. He let me know the excellence of this degree and the duty which it requires.
Q. Who introduced you?
A. The Senior Warden.
Q. Where did he place you?
A. In the West of the lodge.
Q. What did he do with you?
A. He had me put the right knee on the floor and made me pronounce the word: Givi.
Q. What signifies this word?
A. Bend the knees.
Q. What did the Very Perfect Illustrious answer?
A. Ki.
Q. What does this word signify?
A. Rise.
Q. What did the Senior Warden then do?
A. He placed a drawn sword under my chin and made me perambulate four times around the lodge, which is the emblem of the temple of Solomon.
Q. Why did you have a drawn sword under the chin?
A. To recall my first obligation and to show that I had rather have my tongue cut out than reveal the secrets, which were confided to me.
Q. What do the four perambulations you have to make signify?
A. The four ages of Man: his birth, his adolescence, his old age and his death.
Q. How did you arrive at the base of the throne of the Very Perfect Illustrious?
A. By four measured steps, which brought me to the four parts of the temple.
Q. What does this step signify?
A. The entire inspection we have over all workmen and the works of the temple and the lodge.
Q. What did the Very Perfect Illustrious do with you?
A. Upon the testimony he received about my zeal, he received me Prevost and Judge over all workmen and then gave me possession of the heart of Hiram.
Q. What did he give to you after this?
A. A golden key, the attribute of my degree, a Sign, A Token, and two Words.
Q. What is the purpose of the key?
A. To open the case of ebony in order to take out the designs.
Q. How do the Perfect Irish Masters wear this key?
A. They wear it hanging on a ribbon of a fiery colour.
Q. What does it signify?
A. That only we know the place where the heart of Hiram reposes.
Q. Where does it repose?
A. In a golden urn, closed and placed under the secind step of the middle chanber when mounting.
Q. How do you have yourself made known as a Perfect Irish Master?
A. By my Sign, Words, and Token.
Q. Give them to me!
A. Here they are ... he gives them.
Q. What did you perceive on entering the lodge?
A. The knotted cord placed in the form of a canopy under which hung a case of ebony wood and a triangle surrounding a Gஃ and an Aஃ intertwined,
Q. What does the case contain?
A. All of the plans and designs of the lodge.
Q. What do the two letters Gஃ and Aஃ signify?
A. That God has been the Geometrist and the Architect of His temple bu the designs with which He inspired Solomon.
Q. What more did you see?
A. A key, a balance, and different letters of which the meaning is known to me.
Q. What does the balance signify?
A. The exactitude with which we have to fulfil our functions: being committed to ending the strife which may occur between the workmen.
Q. What do the letters JஃHஃSஃ signify?
A. The first is the initial of the Great Architect of the Universe, the second that of the Architect of the temple and the third that of the Master, who as the first discovered the corpse of Hiram.
Q. Where were you placed?
A. In the middle chamber.
Q. On what did you work?
A. On the tomb of Hiram.
Q. Where was he buried?
A. In the sanctuary of the temple.
Q. What is the purpose of the pouch you wear on your apron?
A. To contain the designs which the Masters have to take the proportions of, on the drawing-boards.
Q. What do the red, blue, and black rosettes signify?
A. The red represents the blood Hiram shed, the blue the fidelity of the Perfect Irish Masters and the black the mourning of the true Masters the death of our Worshipful Master Hiram.
Q. How many lights are there in the lodge of the Perfect Irish Masters?
A. Sixteen.
Q. How are they placed?
A. By fours, on the four cardinal points of the Tracing Board of the lodge.
Q. What is your age?
A. Sixty four years or the square number of four times four.
Q. What is the hour?
A. The night did already proceed.

After this answer the Very Perfect Illustrious gives four knocks as before with his mallet on the altar, which serve as a signal to all of the brethren to rise and to stand to order. After the wardens have repeated them on their own mallets, the Very Perfect Illustrious says to the whole assembly: My brethren, it is time to leave the work, the lodge of the Perfect Irish Masters is closed. Let us do our duty by four times four. The wardens repeat the same thing and all give together the Sign, clap sixteen times, by four times four as before, with their hands. When this is done they embrace each other. Then the alms-box for the poor circulates and after the usual banquet each retires in peace.

~Finis~

Other Rites: Le Parfait Maître Irlandais

Somewhere in the nineteenth century, a creeping  amnesia came across the Americas and it was known by the name of Preston-Webb. I will readily admit my bias in regards to ritual. Before I even began to wrestle with the myriad ethical and procedural disappointments which mainstream Freemasonry represents to me,  I found myself aesthetically disenchanted with its foundational ritual. In all fairness, there is nothing wrong with the Preston-Webb rituals. It is perhaps unfair to call them the "white bread" of Masonic rituals although I read or heard some mainstream mason describe them that way. I understand a bit of the history of the adoption of Preston-Webb rituals in North America and it is completely appropriate that a person sees the beauty in those traditions with which they are accustomed. My critique is simply based upon a personal aesthetic which values variety.

That there are a host of good reasons for people to be exposed to the rich and varied range of rituals which we all as masons can claim as our heritage. It is another reason why I view regularity and its raft of offensive descriptions of the "Masonic other" to be perhaps the most serious flaw in our society. It separates and robs people of their rightful heritage which should comprise all of Freemasonry. The issue of maintaining secrecy and restricting access to your own rituals is understandable and grounded in a variety of esoteric issues, despite some masons' desire to deny that there exists an esoteric component to freemasonry. However, apart from in North America, almost all rituals are readily available to Mason and Non-Mason alike. The important secrets do not lie in the words of the initiation, but rather its legitimate experience, and that, no administrative body or Grand Lodge controls.

The isolation which is typical of North American Freemasonry often includes a lack of even the most basic familiarity with other forms of ritual apart from the fairly homogenized Anglo-American forms. I hope this short presentation of an important 18th Century Higher Degree ritual translated from the French will serve to whet the appetite of those North Americans who have not included this aspect of masonic study in their own education to date. Apart from the fact that it is a glaring gap in their education, I believe that most who explore this subject will find it not only valuable but quite enjoyable.  Because of the length of this ritual, and its attendant lesson, it will be posted in two entries.

Le Parfait Maître Irlandais or the Perfect Irish Master

In the early years of Freemasonry in France, the higher grades began to develop primarily under the influence of the Jacobite followers of the Stuart Kings in Exile who had been defeated by the Hanoverian pretenders to the throne in the Islands. While these grades eventually came to be identified primarily with the Scottish, before the rise in popularity of Scottish or Ecossais masonry, a number of Irish degrees had circulated in France. This is not surprising when one considers that there were many Irish and Scottish soldiers and aristocrats who had been forced into exile in France, Spain, and Italy. Over time, the Irish component became incorporated into developing systems which subsequently came to be called Scottish or Ecossais. One such degree is that which is called the Perfect Irish Master which follows. The version presented here comes from a translation of the Cayers Maçonniques: Rituals of the Lodge of Perfection by Gerry L. Prinsen. 

This degree was the 7th Degree in a system including the the first three degrees, which in essence is a version of that Rite most commonly known today as Morin's Lodge of the Royal Secret, the immediate predecessor to the Modern Scottish Rite.

Decoration of the lodge

The lodge shall be decorated in blue, as are the altar and the throne, with curtains in which hang cords, all spread with golden stars. Under the canopy must hang a case of ebony wood and a triangle next to it. It encloses the letter Gஃ and Aஃ intertwined. At the other side, the letters JஃHஃSஃ, also intertwined. It is lighted by sixteen lights placed in fours on the four corners of the tracing board, which represents the Temple of Hiram and the unfinished tomb of Hiram. With the title of Very Perfect Illustrious he holds in his right hand the royal baton and is, as are all brethren, decorated with a pair of gloves and an apron of white leather doubled and trimmed with red, the apron decorated in the centre with a small pouch of the same colour, accompanied by three rossettes placed in a triangle with the point raised: one red, one blue, and one black. In the center is the picture of a case of ebony wood. Besides this he and all the brethren are decorated with a large collar of a fiery colour to which hangs a golden key. The golden key of the Master should be enclosed by a triangle of the same metal and accompanied by the letter Gஃ and Aஃ at each side. Regarding his apron, his gloves and his collar, they are all trimmed with golden lace and fringes.

The Senior Warden us at the West and the Junior Warden outside the lodge in order to wait for and instruct the candidate on the excellence of the degree he is going to receive, as well as on the duties he is going to take. Everything thus arranged the lodge is opened as follows.

Opening of the Lodge

The Very Perfect Illustrious, having assured himself of the dorrs being tyled and of all brethren being masons, gives four knocks with his mallet on the altar in this manner: • • ... • •, which ser as a signal to all brethren to rise and to stand to order. The wardens having repeated same with their own mallets, the Very Perfect Illustrious asks some questions from the catechism to the senior warden and ends by saying
Q. What is the hour, my brother?
A. Six or seven o'clock.
Q Why do you so answer thus?
A. Because the truth of the Very Illustrious Prefect Irish Master has to be made known at all hours of the day.

After this answer the Very Perfect Illustrious says to the whole assembly: My brethren, let us set to work, we shall have the visit of our deacons. The lodge of Perfect Irish Masters is opened, let us do our duty. The Senior Warden repeats the same to the two columns, they all give the Sign, the claps each with sixteen knocks, by four times four as before, with their hands. Then each resumes his place and the proceed to the initiation as follow.

Initiation

When the lodge has been opened, the Brother Preparer, on the order of the Very Perfect Illustrious, leaves and goes to see the candidate in the chamber of preperation. There he takes from him his sword and all offensive and defensive weapons. Being disarmed he has him decorate himself with the attributes of the last degree he has acquired and then conducts him with free sight to the dorr of the lodge., where he finds the Junior Warden, who as was said before, instructs him about the excellence of this degree and also about the duties he is going to assume. When the candidate is instructed thus, the Junior Warden gives four knocks as before on the door of the lodge. The Senior Warden having heard them informs the Very Perfect Illustrious, who orders him to see who knocks thus.

This brother goes immediately to the door, where he gives four knocks and then opens the door and says to the Junior Warden:
Q. What do you demand, my brother?
A. It is a Master, who desires to be initiated as a Perfect Irish Master.
Q Is he worthy of this?
A. Yes.

Upon this answer he closes the door, returns to his place and gives the answer of the Junior Warden: A Very Perfect Illustrious, who has asked the candidate whether he be assured that he was worthy of it. Having heard that the answer is yes, the Very Perfect Illustrious says to him: let him enter. This brother goes to the door again, where he knocks as before, upon which he opens and receives the candidate from the hands of the Junior Warden. He introduces him into the West of the lodge, where he has him say: 'Givi', upon which he has him kneel on the right knee. In that posture the Very Perfect Illustrious takes the word and prounces: 'Ki'.

Upon that answer the Senior Warden has the candidate rise and then places a drawn sword across his throat and subsequently has him thus make four times the perambulation in the lodge. Upon his return to the West he has him advance by four great steps to the East, the right foot behind the left leg forming the figure 4. In that posture the Very Perfect Illustrious has him place his right hand on the Volume of the Sacred Law and says to him: It is with joy that I recompense your zeal for Freemasonry and your attachment to Masons by constituting you Prevost and Judge over all workmen of this illustrious lodge. Assured as we are of your discretion, we shall not make any difficulty in confiding to you our most interesting secrets. May the peaceful Genius, who presides over our order procure you, by the will of the Supreme Being, source of perfection,  the same fervour for the degree to which we are going to elevate you, that you had for those or have for them. You will partake in the possession of the heart of Hiram, which we preserve in a golden urn since we discovered him assassinated. Try to have sufficient firmness not to divulge what is going to be confided to you about this degree, even if you are forced by the most terrible torments. Please Answer.
A. I assure this on the same oaths I contracted on entering the order and promise to render justice to all my brethren.

After this answer the Very Perfect Illustrious has him rise and pass to his right side, where he gives him a knock with his royal baton on each shoulder, saying to him: By the authority I have received and the unanimous consent of this august assembly I receive you as a Perfect Irish Master. While saying these things he decorates him with gloves, apron, collar and jewel of which the description was given above. Having decorated him thus, he embraces him and gives him the Sign, Words and Token as will follow.

The Sign is given by forming with the thumb and index of the right hand a square and bringing it to the chin as if to support it.  The answer to this Sign is by supporting the nose with the two middle fingers of the right hand in the form of compasses.

The Token is given by knocking once with the end of the little finger on that of the examinator, who will answer by two and so on.

The Sacred Word is Tito and the password is Xinchen, which is spelled as that of an Apprentice.

After the Very Perfect Illustrious has given to the candidate the Sign, Words, and Token, he sends him out to have himself recognized as Perfect Irish Master to the whole lodge, which is done. Upon his return he has him take a seat among the brethren. When the initiation is concluded he proceeds to the lecture as follows.

The Lecture will follow in the next Posting. 

Happy Holidays!