Adonhiramite Rite

Did You Know?

• The Adonhiramite Rite's key text, "Recueil Précieux de la Maçonnerie Adonhiramite", was published in French in Philadelphia, USA, by 1785, just 3 years after its first part appeared.
• Jean Baptiste Marie Ragon's 1837 work "Orthodoxie Maçonnique" falsely attributed the Adonhiramite Rite's founding text to Baron de Tschoudy, who had died in 1769, 13 years before the first part was released.

History

Louis Guillemain de Saint Victor's work was so well received that by 1785, just three years after the first part appeared and in the same year as the second, it was already being published in French in Philadelphia, USA. This publication became a canonical reference for the Adonhiramite Rite, leading to wide dissemination across Europe, where it became the main rite of the Grande Oriente Lusitano and spread to its colonies in Africa, Asia, and the New World, including Brazil.

In France, it was regarded, alongside the structure of the General Grand Chapter, as the standard of "Masonic Orthodoxy." Later, in 1837, Jean Baptiste Marie Ragon published "Orthodoxie Maçonnique suive de La Maçonnerie Oculte," in which he made two significant errors. First, he wrongly attributed the "Precious Compilation of Adonhiramite Freemasonry" to Baron de Tschoudy, who had died in 1769, thirteen years before the first part appeared. Tschoudy's own work, "The Flaming Star," had founded an alchemical Order of the Flaming Star, unrelated to the Adonhiramite Rite. Second, Ragon stated that the rite consisted of 13 degrees, considering the Degree of Noachite to be the 13th.

The Great Schism of 1973

In 1973, thirteen Great State Orients left the Central Power of the GOB, causing the loss of most of its Lodges practicing the Adonhiramite Rite and an internal split within the "Very Powerful and Sublime Grand Chapter of the Noachite Knights for Brazil," which could only admit Brothers linked to the GOB. To recover the rite within the GOB, remaining Adonhiramite Brothers, led by Brother Aylton Menezes, renamed the body the "Excelsior Council of Adonhiramite Freemasonry" (ECMA). They then completely reformulated the rite to make it more attractive to a Masonic population mostly accustomed to the 33-degree system of the REAA, rather than a system of only 13 (or effectively 12) degrees.

Influence in the World

In the late 1800s, the Adonhiramite Rite was a key method for spreading high-degree Masonic systems from France, Germany, and Scandinavia throughout Europe and Latin America. It introduced additional degrees beyond Master Mason and brought occult and pseudo-Templar ideas into Masonry and later para-Masonic groups. Although not widely practiced now, it was a significant product of European occultism that shaped continental Freemasonry. The rite remains active in Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay, and France.

Influence of the Adonhiramite Rite on the Scottish Rite

Despite its name, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite actually began in Paris, France, around 1758. The Adonhiramite Rite, which appeared in 1781, contributed many degrees that later became essential to the Scottish Rite, helping to shape its structure and rituals.