Author Archives: Br:.

Hiram’s Grave

The Grave stone on which are carved the Hebrew letters (right to left): – Cheth, Vau, Resh, Mem; below these: – Alepth, Beth, Yod. Below this inscription is an equilateral Triangle enclosing the Hebrew letter Yod.

Often on third degree tracing boards, you see the letters H and A in Masonic cipher or M and A. The former refers to Hiram Abiff, the latter to the password of the third degree. Here we have Hebrew letters spelling: CVRM ABY, which -I suppose- stands for “Churam (Hiram) Aby (Abiff).

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Zodiac Man

Ravignat (see further reading) gives no source for his “88th Degree: Supreme Grand Council General of the 88th, Sovereign Grand Princes of the 88th”, but I think it (partly) comes from Fonds Gaborria Ms.-372: “Rite de Misraïm. Les 3 suprêmes conseils du système d’Arcano, Arcanorum des 88e, 89e et 90e degrés, 17e classe” which contains three “Arcana Arcanorum” degrees.

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Rebis

Ravignat (see further reading) gives no source for his “90th Degree: Supreme Grand Council General of the 90th and Last Degree, Sovereign Grand Princes of the 90th”, but I think it (partly) comes from Fonds Gaborria Ms.-372: “Rite de Misraïm. Les 3 suprêmes conseils du système d’Arcano, Arcanorum des 88e, 89e et 90e degrés, 17e classe” which contains three “Arcana Arcanorum” degrees.

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Sun on Double Square and Triangle

For his “45th Degree: Chevalier du Soleil – Knight of the Sun”, Ravignat presents the same image as above. He says it is a “Jewel of the Knights of the Sun from the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite”. I found the same image on the website of Brick Masons and they say that it is a 28th degree Memphis-Misraim jewel. “Chevalier du Soleil” is indeed the 28th degree of Memphis-Misraim (Ravignat uses a different counting in his reconstructed Traditional Egyptian Freemasonry).

In Ravignat’s translation of the ritual we find the following passage:

Newly made Knight and Sage, it is my pleasure to invest you with the collar of this degree. It shows a Sun, the Glory of God, within a triangle and forming a double square.

Here is not not as much an officier jewel, but a badge of the degree.

Brick Masons

Two Serpents and a Cross

There is something odd here. In the Gaborria collection are two Misraim texts. One is said to be a 51th degree ritual, the other one has a bit of a vague description: “Le Chevalier du soleil. Prince Adepte. Grade philosophique composé par le bénédictin Don Pernetti. 28e de l’Ecossisme. 51e de Misraïm. 72e grade de la 8e série du Chap… Métr… de Fr…”. In short, a 28th Scottish degree, a 51th Misraim degree and also a 72nd degree in the Metropolitan Chapter. It is -indeed- the 72nd ‘degree’ in the collection of 81 that was compressed to the seven degrees of the French Rite.

When you look at both tracing boards, it seems that we are not looking at two serpents on a cross (or Caduceus), as the snakes appear to ‘stand up (somewhat) straight’.

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