The Rectified Scottish Rite by Rémi boyer

“From the Doctrine of Reintegration to the Imago Templi“

The latest of Rémi Boyer’s important books made available to us through the translation skills of Michael Sanborn focuses on the Rectified Scottish Rite. Following on from deeply moving analyses of the Blue Lodge, the Rose Croix and Elias Artista, and Martinism, this book, while not exactly part of the ‘Way of Awakening’ series, could be considered their close cousin.

Before we look at the book itself, let’s take a few moments to lay to rest the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Since the beginning of 1900, when Edouard Blitz first attempted to establish the Rite in the United States and was roundly attacked by the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, this mistake has been made again and again by Masons who cannot be bothered to do any research on the matter! The Rectified Scottish Rite is most certainly not claiming to be a better version – or even a version – of the Scottish Rite! The most superficial glance at the history of Freemasonry in France will reveal that almost every Rite had the word ‘Scottish’ (or ‘Ecossais’) in its title: an attempt both to give it a patina of respectability given the prevailing belief that Freemasonry was begun in Scotland by the Knights Templar (blame Chevalier Ramsay and his ilk for that), and to show a link to the exiled King James II of England, who was only too happy to arrogate the title of Grand Master to himself and sign no end of charters and warrants for a fee, or for a display of loyalty to the Jacobite cause.

However, perhaps the title is something of a misnomer. When Jean-Baptiste Willermoz penned the rituals, trying to encapsulate the teachings of his former master Martines de Pasqually, he hijacked the Rite of Strict Observance out of Germany to do so. Perhaps, then, a better – and less controversial – title might have been The Rectified Strict Observance? But we are stuck with the Rectified Scottish Rite…

But this isn’t the place for a history of the Rite. Rather, it is a brief panegyric to what is yet another extraordinary book from the pen of that master surrealist and esotericist, Rémi Boyer.

The book is divided into three parts. Part One gives a summary of key points of the doctrine of Reintegration as outlined by Pasqually in his Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings (shortly to appear in print by Rose Circle Publications and translated by Michael Osborne). In this, it leans heavily on the excellent work by one of the preeminent experts on the subject and author of many important books in French, Serge Caillet.

Once this basis is established, Part Two seeks to identify the traces of these lessons in the Grades of the Rite, in order to demonstrate that the Scottish Rectified Rite is not simply a collection of rituals, but rather a blueprint to be studied and followed in order to achieve reintegration with the Prime Source and the restoration to our primitive position of glory.

Part Three considers the crowning part of the series of Grades, the Profès and Grand Profès in which, after the preceding six grades which both introduced and amplified Pasqually’s teachings and followed his almost gnostic exegesis on the Old and then New Testaments, the direct teachings of the master are finally revealed in two extraordinary lectures which provide a direct link with Pasqually, and quote almost verbatim from his own Treatise. Indeed, this is the first time any part of these two important lectures have appeared in English, since a small and quiet circulation in Volume 4 of The Martinist Tradition, a series of books produced by the Order Martiniste et Synarchique (OM&S) in Barbados some 34 years ago.

In his Preface, Serge Caillet sets the scene, pointing out that the Rite has six Grades which reflect the six days of creation, being three Blue Degrees, one ‘Pivot’ Degrees, the Scottish Master of St. Andrew, which moves us from the traditional scenery of King Solomon’s Temple towards more modern times, and two Chivalric Degrees, which take us from the precincts of the old Temple into the New Jerusalem. He also points out that this fourth book turns the triptych of the Awakening Series into a ‘happy quaternary’, since the fourth provides the point in the center of the triangle, a notion which is visited and revisited throughout the book.

After introducing us to the three paths to Reintegration, the theurgical path of Pasqually, the mystical Christian path of Saint-Martin and the chivalric path of Willermoz, Rémi Boyer takes us through a comprehensive introduction to the importance of numbers, which we have already seen in the Rose Circle Publications edition of both Saint-Martin’s and Papus’ treatises on numbers (The Numercial Theosophy of Saint-Martin and Papus) as well as their application to the Universal Table (or Universal Image, since the French word tableau can refer to a table, image or portrait). He discusses the central theme of man’s fall from his initial position of glory and rulership and his degradation, as well as alluding to the means of his restoration to his original station, and his reintegration with the Divine Principal which emanated him in the first place. For this is the goal of Martinezism, Martinism and Willermozism, as Papus rather clunkily described the respective paths.

The second part goes on to identify allusions to the doctrine of reintegration in the Degrees, and gives many examples of how the themes are introduced cryptically at first, then less obscurely as the Mason begins to obtain a firmer grasp of the messages contained within the Grades; until finally he is told that the world of symbolism is being replaced by plainer and more straightforward explanations (thought whether this is strictly true is left to the reader’s imagination). Remember again that this is not just a series of Grades: this is a practical blueprint of how to follow the Path of Return, cleverly concealed in a Masonic Rite!

Now, it is accepted that it can be difficult to visualize a Masonic Order when one doesn’t have access to the rituals themselves. We hope to remedy this omission later this year in the publication of the Blue Degrees of the Rectified Scottish Rite. The fact is that the original manuscripts, which reside in the Willermoz Archives housed in the Part Dieu Library in Lyon, are over 200 hundred years old, and therefore bear no copyright. They have also been published at least three times in French under ISBN numbers, so are in the public domain. All that remains is for them to be made available in English, which is our ambition.

The final section gives perhaps the first opportunity for most readers to see at least part of the (in)famous lectures given at the Profession and Grand Profession of the Order, the formerly secret two Grades hidden behind the other six. This alone makes the book an essential addition to any serious scholar of Freemasonry or Martinism.

This book brings to a close the series on Masonic and Martinist Ritual. All four books are treasures and any single one can be used for years of meditation and deep study, if the heart desires.