Egyptian Rite Freemasonry
Webster also suggests Falk was the source for the “Egyptian Rite” Cagliostro created in London. In order to justify this knowledge of Middle Eastern mysteries, Cagliostro claimed he was born an orphan on the Island of Malta. His earliest memories, he claimed, are of the holy city of Medina in Arabia, where he lived in the palace of the Mufti Salahaym. Four persons were attached to his service, the chief of whom was an Eastern Adept named Althotas, who instructed him in the various sciences and made him proficient in several Oriental languages. Though both teacher and pupil conformed outwardly to the religion of Islam, Cagliostro later wrote, “the true religion was imprinted in our hearts.” 68
It was Cagliostro who had been responsible for the mystical teachings incorporated into the Masonic Rite of Mizraim, the Biblical name of Egypt, based purportedly on the secret teachings he learned on his travels to that country. The army of Napoleon, composed of members of Asiatic Brothers, and Martinists, brought Cagliostro’s Masons to Egypt, where they supposedly came in contact with a native esoteric fraternity, representing the Grand Lodge established by the Ismailis in the eleventh century.
In 1798, a Grand Lodge of Freemasonry was established at Cairo. Samuel Honis, a native Egyptian, was supposedly initiated at the Grand Lodge of Cairo by the Comte St. Germain. Afterwards, Honis brought the Egyptian Rite to France, and in 1815 a lodge was founded by Honis, Marconis de Negre, called “the Negro” because of his Egyptian features. In 1816, this lodge was closed, and Honis and Marconis disappeared from the scene.
However, in Paris in 1838, his son, Jacques-Etienne Marconis de Negre, commonly known as Marconis, established the Memphis Rite, as a variation of Cagliostro’s Rite of Mizraim, but failed to attract much of a following. Having gone underground for some time, the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry, known as the Antient and Primitive Rite, was eventually revived along with a great number of Frankists who had joined the ranks.
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