The Illustrious Role of Haiti in the Freemasonry of the Western Hemisphere

In many ways, the geographical cradle of our history of initiation, the foundations of some of the most important aspects of Freemasonry in the New World is Haiti. 

Without question, some of the most important moments in the development of American Freemasonry, (US citizens please note: America is a continent and not a nation) began in Haiti. With that in mind, it is shameful that there has not been a greater response among US Freemasons to the recent natural disasters that have befallen our island neighbors. Masons should be more active in forming a chain of union for Haiti and its people.

Haiti, the Caribbean country so recently devastated by a terrible earthquake has a long history of unattained possibilities and all too material misfortune. It was the scene of important historical events and developments decisive in the evolution of Masonic initiation including  being the original site for the introduction of Ecossaisme, the Elus Cohen and Primitive Martinism to the Western Hemisphere.
On December 5, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on a Caribbean island which he named Hispaniola. The western portion of this island was in 1697, ceded to the French who named the island with the name of Saint Domingue.

In the eighteenth century, Saint Domingue was the most successful French colony due to the export of sugar, cocoa and coffee. The region seemed to evolve with the impetus of new ideas and swiftly took the intellectual and Freemasonic movements further than did those of France.

The desire for freedom flourished in the hearts of the enslaved, and in 1794, Haiti was declared a nation and became the first country to abolish slavery. The Haitians had to struggle until 1804 to assure independence. The Haitian Declaration of Independence was a far more radical and true attempt at freedom than was that of the United States, as it guaranteed freedom to all men and women regardless of color or ethnicity and it totally abolished slavery. The US granted voting rights regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude to its citizens 66 years after Haiti did and suffrage to women 116 years after Haiti. Without exception, all people on Haitian soil were free. For that, Haiti was a made a pariah state and has suffered until today, to all of our shame.

The Masonic Personalities of the 18th Century in Saint Domingue

Estienne Morin

A French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin, had been involved in high degree Masonry in Bordeaux since 1744 and, in 1747, founded an "Ecossais" lodge (Scots Masters Lodge) in the city of Le Cap Francais, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Over the next decade, high degree Freemasonry continued to spread to the Western hemisphere as the high degree lodge at Bordeaux warranted or recognized seven Ecossais lodges there. In Paris in the year 1761, a Patent was issued to Estienne Morin, dated 27 August, creating him "Grand Inspector for all parts of the New World." This Patent was signed by officials of the Grand Lodge at Paris and appears to have originally granted him power over the craft lodges only, and not over the high, or "Ecossais", degree lodges. Later attempts to disparage the validity of this Patent calimed, without material evidence that it appeared to have been embellished by Morin, to improve his position over the high degree lodges in the West Indies.  The political equivocations of the Bordeaux Lodge provide little to support such claims.

Early writers long believed that a "Rite of Perfection" consisting of 25 degrees, the highest being the "Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret", and being the predecessor of the Scottish Rite, had been formed in Paris by a high degree council calling itself "The Council of Emperors of the East and West". The title "Rite of Perfection" first appeared in the Preface to the "Grand Constitutions of 1786. It is often argued that this Rite of twenty-five degrees was compiled by Estienne Morin and is therefore more properly titled "The Rite of the Royal Secret", or "Morin's Rite". Whether that is to bolster the claims of legitimacy for Charlston is unclear. Regardless, in the person of Morin, Haiti's central role in the advancement of Higher Degree Masonry in the Americas is unquestionable.

Morin again returned to the West Indies in 1762 or 1763, to Saint-Domingue, where, armed with a new Patent, he assumed powers to constitute lodges of all degrees, spreading the high degrees throughout the West Indies and North America. Morin stayed in Saint-Domingue until 1766 when he moved to Jamaica. At Kingston, Jamaica, in 1770, Morin created a "Grand Chapter" of his new Rite (the Grand Council of Jamaica). Morin died in 1771 and was buried in Kingston.  On July 21, 1802 the Supreme Council of the French West Indies in Haiti was formed out of the older 1836 Supreme Council of Saint Domingue.

The Caribbean History of Martinez Pasqually

More or less the same time, Jacques de Livron Joachim de la Tour de la Casa Martinez de Pasqually also a Mason from the French city of Grenoble, inherited a property in Saint Domingue and traveled to the place which was within the modern territory of Haiti. He had plans to establish the Chevaliers de l'Ordre de Masons Elus Coens (Order of the Knights Elect Priests of the Universe) which he had previously founded in France. There are still echoes of this Order in the Americas, but despite romantic claims to the contrary, they all appear to derive from the late 19th and early 20th Century based upon the romantic reinventions of Gérard Encausse (Papus) and Robert Ambelain.

Martinez's father Pasqually,  was said to have been issued a patent by King Charles Stuart granting him the title of Grand Master and authorizing him to transmit his powers to his firstborn son. This rank and power was transferred to Martinez when he was 28 years old. Martinez subsequently wrote a treatise on the Reintegration of Beings and a commentary on the Pentateuch from the point of view of the philosophy of the High Masonic Degrees.

On September 20, 1774, a little less than two years after his arrival Martinez died in Port-au-Prince.  It is said that he named Armand Cagnet Lestère as his successor. However, Armand had little time to devote to the Order and Martinism was silenced. Current claimants to the Martinist banner all derive their origins from the aforementioned 19th and early 20th Century French reinventions.

Martinez Pasqually left students and followers in Europe including the Masons Willermoz and Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. At first they intended to adopt the principles of the Lodge of Saint-Germian-en-Laye and practice the Seven High Degrees. However, internal disputes led Saint-Martin and Willermoz to create independent institutions. Abandoning Enlightenment ideals they sought inspiration from the controversial "speech of the Knight Templar of Ramsay," creating a Senior Corps in Europe. Jean-Baptiste Willermoz founded his own Masonic Lodge, "La Parfait Amitie", which began to conduct studies of alchemy. While the Elus Cohen and Martinism may have ultimately been silenced, Willermoz' efforts, which more truly may be said to have retained the seed of Martinist thought survived through its evolution into what is today called the Rectified Scottish Rite and Swedish Freemasonry.

Out of these origins, according to some authors, the structure of the Scottish Rite has established itself in seven traditional categories:

1) Symbolic Degrees of Apprentice, Fellow and Master;
2)  Degree of development of the Universal Symbolic Degrees
3) Degrees based on Enlightenment
4) Jewish and biblical Degrees
5) Templar Degrees
6) Alchemical and Rosicrucian Degrees
7) Administrative and Higher Degrees.

Joseph Cerneau

One more significant player in the History of Freemasonry in the Western Hemisphere emerged from the cradle of Haiti. Although much controversy and a great deal of unjustified slander was leveled at him by that autodidact and self appointed revisionist of Scottish Rite Masonry, Albert Pike, Joseph Cerneau, an unassuming, and apparently quite sincere Freemason and Jeweler from Villeblevin in Central France, became involved in Freemasonry while living in Pre Revolutionary Saint Domingue. At the time of the Haitian Revolution he, like quite a few Frenchmen living in Haiti escaped and went to Cuba. He is remembered for having founded the first Masonic Lodge in Cuba in about 1804 or 1805 before having been deported, as far as can factually be discerned, for the triple crimes of having been French, formerly living in Haiti, and being also a Freemason.

The Spanish authorities at the time lived in terror of the French contagion and Cerneau appeared dangerous to them for these reasons. It seems that their suspicion, if misplaced was not totally unwarranted, as a few years after the innocent Cerneau left for New York, an Afro-Cuban freemason, named Aponte, was caught and executed for attempting to lead a rebellion modeled upon that of Haiti.
Although Cerneau himself did nothing that the "Gentlemen" of Charleston did not themselves do, his form of Scottish Rite, although having much if not more to recommend it, fell victim to the savage attacks of Albert Pike and his southern "Gentlemen" after Cerneau himself had already returned to France, disgusted by the corruption and petty politics of North American Freemasonry in the early 19th Century.

Cerneau did not leave however, until after he has successfully spread his vision of the Higher Degrees to much of the Caribbean and Latin America, having personally granted the 33rd degree to none other than Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco, known to those devoted to short and unimaginative names as Simón Bolívar, the liberator of much of Latin America.
Today, Joseph Cerneau is recognized in most of the Americas as the father not only of Cuban Freemasonry, but of the Scottish Rite, and Freemasonry in general in their part of the globe.

This is but a brief introduction to the interaction of Haiti and Freemasonry, a subject to which we will return again.

A Cerneau Rite Research Yahoo Group

The Cerneau Rite Yahoo Group: Masonic Education for the Rest of Us!

For those of you who might not be familiar with the name of Joseph Cerneau, he was the victim of the nastiest smear campaign probably ever launched in the United States. To read what the illustrious but sometimes problematic Albert Pike had to say about him, one might be forgiven for thinking he was the demon seed. Unfortunately, Pike was as wrong and as biased about Cerneau as was humanly possible. This is particularly unfortunate as he has become practically the only viewpoint permitted in polite company on the subject here in the U.S.A.

But don't take Pike's word on the subject, and don't take mine, either. I may be right, but in the service of healthy discussion, and because while to pit myself against Albert Pike as the source of masonic truth may in this case be justifiable, it is far and away too immodest. I certainly wouldn't compare myself to Albert Pike, even after several single malts and the best Cuban Maduro.

In all honesty, while I think that to say that Pike was factually challenged about Cerneau is an understatement, I am not writing this blog entry to blast Pike, whom I find a fascinating figure in his own right. Rather, my intent is to raise a little attention for two subjects of which I am fond.  They are interrelated. That is to say, they are both part of my fascination with Joseph Cerneau, the Freemason who is almost more despised in North America than Morgan.

Masons really ought to think twice about Cerneau and his role in the Development of Freemasonry in the Americas, because he was every bit as important as Pike, and perhaps even a little more so. At any rate, his influence during his own lifetime extended geographically much further than did Pike's. And, Pike's spleen not withstanding, he was a pretty good Mason. One who died, by the way, penniless and disenchanted by the ugliness of Masonic politics, back in his native France.

That brings me to the main focus of this entry, the work of another good Mason.  Pat King is a thoughtful and studious mason. He founded a Yahoo group 9 years ago, back in May of 2003 to discuss research and other information concerning Cerneauism and the history and memorabilia of the Cerneau Rite. His approach was to let the actual history speak for itself, rather than to further promote the vindictive chatter of the Goliath who slew David, or in this case, Joseph. Bro. Pat actually is much more even handed in discussing the subject than I am being in this post, and he welcomes any and all opposing viewpoints. My approach here, is of course, intended to bait my readers and maybe get them curious enough to check out Bro. Pat's quiet and more objective little group. The serious scholarship that this group hosts, thanks in large part to Pat King, deserves a lot more attention.

Bro. Pat has taken the rational view that since all of the principles in the original debate are moldering together in the clay, perhaps it is time to take an honest look at some old masonic history.

He notes, in one of the earliest posts in the group, what the original fight was all about.

"The crux of the battle between the NMJ and the Cerneaus was a "control issue". The NMJ (and all other current SR Supreme Councils)functions on an autocratic or hirerarchical system. The Actives select the new Actives and no one has a say but Actives. Its a "closed shop". The Cerneau Supreme Grand Council (1880's) was a representative body composed of delegates from every chartered body. It met in the 32' so all could attend. It was representational like our Grand Lodge. The Supreme Council 33' was an appendant body which only controlled thatdegree and had no say in governing the Rite in general.

Bringing it closer to home, ET Carson wanted to keep the AASR in Ohio "under his thumb". There were Lodges of Perfection, Councils P of J and Chapters Rose Croix around Ohio.....but only one Consistory 32' - in Cincinnati (his home). This accounts for the disparity in charter dates around Ohio between the bodies 4-18 and those 19-32. In fact, there was not another AASR NMJ Consistory chartered in Ohio until after the "Cerneau wars" broke out. (Which was in Cleveland, btw).

To put it simply....you could not be a 32nd unless you travelled to Cincinnati and got Carson's approval. That's the way he wanted it. (Talk about "anal-retentive" !!)

The Active 33rds (NMJ) of that era styled themselves "Sovereigns of Masonry" and God Forbid someone introduce democracy into their little kingdom. It was, indeed, "a tempest in a teapot" for the percentage of SR members to blue Lodge membership was quite small (smaller than that ratio today).

The Cerneau Supreme Grand Council, on the other hand, regularly chartered all four bodies in one location at a time. They also got closer to the people in that places like Newark, Felicity, Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky had bodies as well as Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Toledo.

It is interesting to note that at one time the Cerneau SR outnumbered the NMJ SR in Ohio. Carson was desperate and resorted to desperate (and dishonorable) methods. Had he not succeeded in his perfidy, we would all be Cerneau SR Masons today.

Now there's an interesting thought.......

- Pat"

It should further be noted that in the rest of the Americas, Joseph Cerneau is viewed as a father figure for Freemasonry in general. He founded the first Lodge in 19th Century Cuba, and in spite of the absurd suggestions of Pike and his masonic offspring, he was exiled from Cuba for no other reason than that he was French and had been active in Haitian Freemasonry. At that time, no more was needed for the Spanish authorities to banish you, a fate he shared with many other innocent fellow nationals. Today he is viewed with respect as the father of not only Cuban Freemasonry, but of masonry in much of South America. He actually initiated Simon Bolívar and made him a 33° Mason.

Pat King typifies what is best about any variety of Freemasonry. He is thoughtful, fair, and unafraid to speak the truth, which he does with gentleness and usually with more diplomacy than the subject deserves. If this has whetted your appetite, go visit Pat King's quiet Kingdom in Yahoo Groups. You have to be a Master Mason to join, but I don't think it matters whether you are a member of the Southern Jurisdiction, the Northern Jurisdiction, or a Cerneauite or only a local blue lodge. He's a good man and a better mason. Go on, support him! The group is simply called "Cerneau - Cerneau Masonic Research."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cerneau/