Originally printed by Albert Pike in 1879, this enlarged edition includes a variety of important early rituals. In 1789 the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania chartered a lodge in Port-au-Prince, which introduced “Ancient York” Masonry to Saint-Domingue.

In 1855 the Scottish Rite’s “Mother Supreme Council of the World” at Charleston, S.C., appointed a committee of five persons to review and standardize its initiation ceremonies and rituals. Only one person completed the task, 46-year-old Albert Pike who would ultimately become the most influential Scottish Rite Mason in history.

The disappearance and presumed murder of William Morgan in 1826, by Masons, set off an intense anti-Masonic period which lasted until ca. 1842. The fraternity, which was once called the “handmaid of religion,” was denounced as an institution of the devil.

Although not widely used in the United States, the Scottish Rite (the largest Masonic system in the world) has a unique type of ritual which is used in more countries than any other.

LES PLUS SECRETS MYSTÈRES des Hauts Grades de la Maçonnerie Dévoilés (The Most Secret Mysteries of the High Degrees of Masonry Unveiled), edited by M. de Bérage, was an exposé published in 1766 and was the first printed book to give the rituals of the hauts grades (high degrees) of Masonry.

The study of the development of the ‘Higher Degrees’ after 1730 has, for the past century, failed to produce new insights. Previous research has been geographically narrow or limited to one degree or order and thus failed to offer new insights. The authors decided to take a holistic approach, and so geographically covered England, Ireland, Scotland, and of course France, along with Germany and the Netherlands. The study adopted a forensic approach to the available evidence by undertaking detailed reading of the documents found. The discoveries exceeded expectations and the book details their ‘archaeological finds’ – and offers a novel perspective on the development of the Higher Degrees during the eighteenth century.

Étienne Morin: From the French Rite to the Scottish Rite presents a fresh perspective on the ancestor of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Order of the Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret from the perspective of the founder of the system himself.

Many have heard of the Thirty-third Degree and the Scottish Rite, but lesser known is that it sprung from an equally important Masonic system. Created by the Frenchman Stephen Morin in the 1760s, the 25-degree system known as the “Order of the Royal Secret” used many of the most important Masonic degrees of the time. With its genesis in the French Caribbean, by 1764 these “high degrees” were established in New Orleans, and by 1767 they were brought to Albany, New York. Ultimately, its rituals were absorbed into the Scottish Rite at its creation in 1801. This original work, copied from a rare manuscript, provides the complete original system, from 4° Secret Master, to 25° Prince of the Royal Secret. Also included are the detached degrees of Select Master of 27°, Knight of the Royal Arch, and Grand Master Ecose, which appeared at the back of the original manuscript.

This book, focused on the French Rite, covers the founding principles of the Enlightenment and their influence on the birth of modern Freemasonry as we know it today. The authors revisit the fundamental values of the Enlightenment, from a rational approach to religious tolerance and cosmopolitanism. The French Rite is the direct heir of the Grand Lodge of England founded in 1717/1721. The philosophical, religious, and political culture of the Enlightenment permeates the French Rite today.

The Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in 33 degrees is the most widespread system of masonic higher degrees worldwide. It was developed in the 18th century, drawing on the most diverse well springs of esoteric traditions and philosophical currents. It is represented wherever Freemasonry is active.