Meet the Grand Lodge of France

Successor to the first Parisian lodges of 1728 created by the English, the end product of historical scissions and mergers, the Grande Loge de France is the largest and historically the oldest French offshoot of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

It is heir to the Scottish Rite lodges which, in the nineteenth century, were placed under the authority of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of 1804.

The present Grande Loge de France, founded in Paris on 7 November 1894 through the merger of these currents, is the guardian of the symbolic tradition and degrees of Craft Masonry: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason.

A major power in French Freemasonry, the Grande Loge de France is an independent and sovereign national Masonic body with the same motto as the French Republic: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and professing an undefectible fidelity and devotion to these principles.

As a traditional and universal initiatic order, the Grande Loge de France observes the traditional "Old Charges" of Universal Freemasonry. It works to the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe, whom it sees as a Creator Principle (or Supreme Being), in the presence of the three greater Lights of Freemasonry: the Square, the Compass and the Volume of the Sacred Law which, in our Lodges, is the Bible.

In keeping with the ancient vocation of the Craft, the Grande Loge de France works for the improvement of Man. Its exclusively male members are chosen for their ethical and human qualities. Deeply attached to tolerance, the Grand Lodge scrupulously avoids involvement in any political or religious debate.

Outstanding men, intellectual, artistic and historical figures have been members of the Grand Lodge of France.

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It is never easy to shed light without misrepresenting, or to attempt to explain what Freemasonry is and particularly the Grand Lodge of France.

Its best definition might well be the actual text of the Article 1 of the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of France which goes: “Freemasonry is a universal, traditional and initiatic order based on fraternity. It constitutes an alliance of free men and of good repute, of all races, all nationalities and all faiths. ” 

Is it a universal religion? 

Indeed, if one considers the etymological sense of the word religion, from the Latin religare (to bind) or relegere (to take in, to gather together). Certainly not if we mean by that a separate and distinct religion, in competition with the others.

The Chevalier Ramsay used to declare: 
“Freemasonry is indeed the resurrection of the noachide religion, that of the Patriarch Noah, that religion prior to any dogma, which allows us to go beyond the differences and oppositions of the various faiths”. Thus could always be found in Masonic Lodges men who call each other "Brother" even though often dissimilar in their origins, denominations, faiths, convictions and habits, but convinced of Freemasonry's fundamental principle, the law of Brotherly love.

Let's quote Anderson again, in his Constitutions which remain, for the Grand Lodge of France, the text of reference. It is said there: “masonry becomes the center of union, and the means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remain'd at a perpetual distance”.

A universal and traditional order based on Fraternity, the Grand Lodge of France is fundamentally an initiatic order. It is Initiation which allows the “old man” to get rid of his old being and to be reborn, like the Phoenix, as a new man, able to reach the dimensions of his inner life and that which, in him, is spirit and liberty, understanding and love.
 

Universal Freemasonry and its principles

Freemasonry is a universal, traditional and initiatic order based on Fraternity.

It constitutes an alliance of free men of good repute, of all races, all nationalities and all faiths.

The goal of Freemasonry is the moral improvement of mankind.

To that end, the Freemasons work towards the constant improvement of the condition of mankind, both on the spiritual and the material levels.

The Freemasons recognize each other as Brethren and owe each other help and assistance, even at the risk of their lives.  The same way, they must give assistance to anyone in danger.

In the constant search for truth and justice, the Freemasons accept no hindrance and set themselves no limits.

They respect other people's opinions and the free expression thereof.  They seek the conciliation of the opposites and want to unite men in the actual practice of a universal set of morals, and in the respect of everyone's personality.

They regard work as a duty and as a right.

Freemasons must respect the laws and the legitimate authority of the country where they freely live and meet.

They are enlightened and disciplined citizens and model their existence on the demands of their conscience.

In their practice of the Craft, they see to it that the traditional rules, ways and customs of the Order are respected.

Freemasons, in the joint pursuit of the same ideals, recognize each other by means of words, signs and grips that are communicated traditionally in Lodge during Initiation ceremonies.

Those words, signs and grips, as well as the rites and the symbols, are an inviolable secret and can not be communicated to whoever has not the quality to know them.

Each Freemason is free to disclose his Masonic membership or not, but he may not reveal that of a Brother.

The Freemasons join together to form, accordingly to Masonic tradition, autonomous groups known as Lodges.

Lodges are governed according to the decisions made by the majority of Master Masons gathered in stated meeting, but cannot deviate from the general principles of Freemasonry nor the laws of the Grand Lodge to which they belong.

Lodges group together to form Grand Lodges, national and independent bodies, guardians of tradition, exerting undivided and exclusive juridiction over the three degrees of symbolic Freemasonry: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason.

The Grand Lodges are governed in accordance with the traditional principles of the Universal Masonry, with their own constitutions and with the laws they have regularly promulgated for themselves.

They respect the sovereignty and independence of the other Masonic bodies and don't allow themselves any interference in their internal affairs.  
They maintain among themselves the relationships necessary to the cohesion of Universal Freemasonry.

They freely enter treaties and fraternal alliances among themselves but do not acknowledge any Masonic authority, national or international, superior to their own.

They decide on their regulations alone and in a sovereign manner and take care alone of their own administration, their internal justice and discipline.

Thus is maintained the universal character of the Masonic Order, respectful of the personality of each national Masonic body, of the autonomy of each Lodge and of the individual freedom of each Brother, so that Love, Harmony and Concord might reign among all Freemasons.  
 

Origins of Freemasonry

The history of Freemasonry can be divided into three periods.

Initially there was a Masonry, called Operative, to which belonged only craftsmen, members of the building trades.

Those Lodges then admitted men of good report, known thereafter as Accepted Masons.

Finally, the Lodges lost their operative character to become purely speculative, i. e. philosophical.

It might be good to briefly recall that Operative Masonry is a guild system connected to the building trades. Its members, the builders of all time, had and still have the feeling of participating in a sacred work. Let's quote these lines from Albert Lantoine, Masonic historian, regarding the builders of cathedrals: 
“This Art, which consisted in proportioning the various parts of a monument, in erecting daring spires and bell-towers, in bowing imposing vaults on which the sound, far from fading, reached a more harmonious height, seemed a magical art”.

Those operative Masons travelled from town to town and had no permanent premises. To store their tools, prepare their work, to learn or to relax, they used temporary premises called Lodges. They were called free masons (fr. francs-maçons) because they were not tieded to a fiefdom, they were “franc”, which in French means “free”. They obeyed a certain number of rules, aimed not only at respecting quality standards in their work but also at preserving the secrets of their craft. Their obligation also entailed duties of solidarity.

It is this operative Freemasonry which probably transposed itself into speculative Freemasonry in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The obligations of the operative Freemasons became moral Law, their building tools became symbols, and the social promotion of the builders became spiritual, moral and material betterment of mankind and society.
 

History of the
Grand Lodge of France

The first French Lodge was created in Paris in 1732 with a charter from the Grand Lodge of London. English lodges had existed since 1728, possibly 1726. Rapidly, other French Lodges were created in the rest of the country. In 1738 all these Lodges constituted the premier Grand Lodge of France.

At the eve of the French Revolution, Masonry had gained a considerable importance in France. Tens of thousands of Freemasons belonged to one of two major Masonic bodies: The Grand Lodge of France, and the Grand Orient of France created in 1773. In Lodge, and since the very beginning, noblemen rubbed shoulders with members of the middle classes. The Grand Lodge of France and the Grand Orient of France briefly merged in 1799.

In 1804, the Supreme Council of France of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was created and caused Scottish Rite lodges to be brought together in a Scottish General Grand Lodge. This Supreme Council still exists today, rue Puteaux in Paris, and has jurisdiction over the higher degrees (4 to 33) of the Scottish Rite.

By the end of the same year (1804), Napoleon the 1st forced Masons to have but one Grand Lodge, the Grand Orient of France, for the three first degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason), the Supreme Council of France maintaining its authority over the higher degrees of French Freemasonry. Shortly  after Napoleon's fall his decision was no longer respected, the situation of French Masonry evolved and many Lodges were created outside the Grand Orient's juridiction. Progressively, those Lodges gathered under the authority of the Supreme Council of France.

The relationship between Brethren, regardless of their juridiction, are harmonious, friendly and fraternal. One can remark on this subject that despite their differences, the Masons' fraternal feelings have always prevailed; an important and unusual phenomenon in itself, which deserves to be highlighted.

The year 1877 marked an important turning point in the history of French Freemasonry. That year, the Grand Orient of France decided to allow its Lodges to give up the invocation to the Grand Architect of The Universe 
- and the Bible - fundamental elements of Freemasonry, thus stirring up quite serious turmoil in the Masonic world.

The Supreme Council of France then became the other major pole of French Freemasonry. In the year 1894, ninety years after its foundation, it helped rebuild the Grand Lodge of France in its present form, and definitively delegated to it all authority over the first three degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

While 97% of its Lodges work the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Grand Lodge of France has admitted, during its history, some Lodges working other rites. Among these, six Lodges work the RSR (Rectified Scottish Rite)and one works Emulation in the English language.

Prohibited in 1940, as well as the other French Grand Lodges, the Grand Lodge of France was restored on the 17th of September, 1945. World War II has doubtlessly been the harshest time ever met by French Freemasonry which - and this is unique in its history - was prohibited and persecuted by the government.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the membership of the Grand Lodge of France approaches 30,000 Brethren.
 

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
Anderson's Constitutions
The Grand Architect of The Universe

The Grand Lodge of France, an initiatic Order, works the first three (Blue or Craft) degrees of the 33 degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, a rite characterized by its spiritual dimension and worked by the largest number of Grand Lodges in the world.

The Grand Lodge of France has adopted Anderson's Constitutions as its text of reference and invokes during all its ritual work the Great Architect of the Universe, a Creator Principle (Supreme Being), to be interpreted by each of its members according to his faith.

Anderson's Constitutions have been first established in 1723 by the English clergyman James Anderson, who states therein that Freemasonry must be the centre of the Union, the union of men of different origins, denominations, social conditions and cultures who, without Freemasonry, would have never met nor esteemed one another.

The Grand Lodge of France sets no limit to the search for Truth, and in order to ensure this freedom for all, it demands tolerance from all.
 

The structures of the
Grand Lodge of France

The Grand Lodge of France, a Federation of Lodges working the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, is supervised by a Federal Council of thirty-three members, elected for three years by a sovereign assembly composed of the Lodges' elected Deputies and called a Convent (Grand Lodge Communication).

The Federal Council is presided over by the Grand Master, directly elected by the Deputies during the Convent.

The Federal Council governs the Federation in the respect of the Constitution it has given itself. It watches over the respect of the Tradition and of the Ritual, which, save for rare exceptions, must remain the same for all the Lodges.

Because it alone has the the power of Initiation, the Lodge is the fundamental and original element of Freemasonry.

Presided over by a Worshipful Master elected or reelected for up to three years, the Lodge cannot have less than seven Master Masons and generally counts, at the Grand Lodge of France, about fifty Brethren.

The Grand Lodge authorizes the creation of Lodges and provides their Charters.

The Grand Lodge of France,
Initiatic Society

Initiation allows the symbolic transition from darkness to light. Its principle is to make man descend into himself so that he can discover the dimensions of his inner life, his place within the Universe, the meaning of his fate.

Initiation is a long quest which leads the Freemason, strengthened by it in his approach, to the conquest of the Beautiful, the True and the Right.

The Masonic method rests on the understanding and use of the traditional symbols.

The Masonic secret

The Masonic secret is above all of spiritual nature, and covers no political plot nor any wheeling-dealing.

Essentially, it lies in the absolutely incommunicable nature of the initiatic experience. Experiencing it is always indispensable and cannot be revealed in rational speech.

In order to be genuine and efficient, this initiatic experience can only exist among men sharing the same method, subjected to the same rules, identifying with a common tradition, which leads to the exclusion from the premises of any person not following the same path.

The Masonic secret is required from all Freemasons on two essential points: 
- The contents of initiation, for the reasons exposed above.
- The Masonic membership of other Brethren. Indeed, if any Freemason is free to disclose his own membership he must never reveal that of other members of the Craft.

The Grand Lodge of France and politics

Let us recall article IV of the Declaration of Principles of the Grand Lodge of France, the best definition of its attitude towards matters political:

“Neither the Grand Lodge of France nor its Lodges get involved into any debate concerning political or religious matters.  For the education of the Brethren, lectures about such matters, followed by exchanges of views, are allowed.  However, such exchanges of views must never give cause to a vote, nor the adoption of resolutions, as this could be liable to compel the opinions or feelings of some Brethren”.

One could hardly be more explicit.

All members of the Grand Lodge of France are personally and individually free, outside Lodge, to adopt any political position as long as it is not contrary to Masonic principles.  The Grand Lodge can and will take no stand within the political debate.

The Convent, the Federal Council, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France would allow themselves to alert public opinion only if people's freedom and rights were seriously jeopardized.

The Grand Lodge of France and religion

Neither the Grand Lodge of France nor its Lodges ever involve themselves into any controversy concerning religious matters.

Every Mason of the Grand Lodge of France is entirely free inasfar as religion is concerned, but he must respect his Brethren's convictions. Here, too, we strive to find the "Center of Union" mentioned in Anderson's Constitutions.

The Grand Lodge of France has no religious dogma: while its members search for Truth during their work in Lodge, it does not claim to be in possession of it.

The Grand Lodge of France and women

The Grand Lodge of France is traditionally and strictly a male Grand Lodge and admits no women to its ritual assemblies. From 1901 to 1940, the Grand Lodge of France has created women's Lodges similar to the Eastern Star and known as “Lodges of Adoption”. Those Lodges, regrouped after 1945 in an autonomous and independent Federation, currently compose the Feminine Grand Lodge of France.

On Regularity and Recognition

One often hears, among Masons as well as outside Freemasonry,  talk about “regularity” and “recognition”. Many people confuse the two concepts or don't know what they mean, and a brief explanation could be useful here.

Regularity is the respect of a certain number of criteria which render a Lodge - or a Grand Lodge - really Masonic. This regularity differentiates between them and the very many imitations of Freemasonry which have existed throughout the ages and to this very day. The criteria of regularity take their inspiration from the Old Charges of Anderson's Constitutions of 1723. To be Masonically regular, a Lodge must: 

1) Assemble on premises the entry of which is reserved to Masons only, good and true men of a mature and discreet age and of good report, working a traditional ritual inspired by the Biblical texts concerning the erection of the Temple of Jerusalem and by the major characters having taken part in it.

2) Prohibit any political or religious debate in Lodge and work under the invocation and to the Glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe, in presence of the Square, Compass and Volume of the Sacred Law.

3) Admit to its ranks only men having demonstrated their human qualities and their capability to improve themselves, with no discrimination of race, religion, wealth, social status or ethnic origin. These men are individually initiated by means of a ritual based on the Biblical text.

For a Grand Lodge to be regular, it must in addition:

1) Either exist from “time immemorial”, that is before 1717, or have been created under a charter given by a regular Grand Lodge.

2) Have been constituted by at least three Lodges coming from a a regular Grand Lodge.

3) Be wholly independent of any other Masonic body, national or foreign, of any political party or system and of any religion or Church.

Recognition, on the other hand, is an administrative agreement between two Masonic bodies whereby these Masonic bodies recognize each other's degrees and agree to allow intervisitation between their members. Such a purely political agreement gives no indication of the “regularity” of one or the other of the concerned Masonic bodies. It is extremely common for regular and irregular Masonic bodies to mutually recognize each other.

How does one become Freemason ?

One becomes a Freemason through a Masonic Initiation. Only a Lodge can confer this Initiation.

That is to say that the Grand Lodge of France does not recruit members. The Grand Secretary's office, if contacted, can only put a candidate in touch with one of its Lodges, which will investigate him and freely decide - or not - to initiate him.