Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
alchemical influence — the mark of a practice of high degrees … In these times of expansion , where nothing is yet regulated , we know that certain practices are liable to appear for a moment , only to yield to the passing of time .
Is the Louët lodge a mixed lodge ? Well , we can be sure that it would not be “ mixed ” in the sense that we understand the word today . Societal roles are still very differentiated and , even if men and women mix in salons , there is no risk of confusion between the genders . It would be more a case of a side-by-side participation that sought to recreate , within the Masonic temple , the harmony and felicity of the first hours of creation .
And was the Rite of Adoption practiced in this lodge ? The words “ Grand Mistress ” and “ Trustee ,” used in two of the letters , make a case for the lodge ’ s belonging to Adoptive Masonry . For in all rituals of lodges of adoption , the Sister who is at the head of the lodge is named Grand Mistress , and whoever is in charge of the Instruction of Apprentices is named Trustee . This vocabulary is specific to the Rite of Adoption . It is still used at Cosmos , the lodge of the Grand Loge Féminine de France ( GLFF ), which practices the Rite of Adoption today .
Consultation of the other manuscripts allows us to make a few remarks that shore up this hypothesis : Manuscript G , which is concerned with the “ emblematic temples of Freemasonry ,” mentions the Orient lit by the Sun , the Moon , and the Flaming Star . 39 This symbolic arrangement is characteristic of the early years of Masonry ; it is still , in our day , one of the specific features of the Rite of Adoption to see , above the seat of the Venerable Mistress , the Orient lit up by a star with five branches containing the Yod at its heart . Elements of document H , concerning the “ Third Temple ,” also incline us to this reading . The biblical heroes , called precursors , Noah , Abraham , Jacob , Joseph , and Moses , are named in the exact order in which they figure in the ceremonies of the Rite of Adoption , and with the same symbolic meaning . The expressions “ Mysterious Scale ” and “ open the eyes ” immediately evoke the Rite for which they are well known .
These clues do not , of course , constitute formal proofs . One would have to cross-reference with other documents — but do any exist ? Let us hope that they lie dormant in some as yet unexplored archive .
Meanwhile , Madame Louët de Cordaiz was housed in her château de la Hurtauderie , sometimes written “ Hurtodrie .” 40 On the national Carte d ’ État-Major map , we currently find , south of Longué , a locality by the name of “ la Hurtauderie .” There is no longer any trace of the château , but it still existed at the end of the nineteenth century . It was , according to Célestin Port , historian of Maine-et-Loire , an old noble residence situated in the commune of Longué , occupied by “ M . Messire Nau , Chevalier de N .-D. du Mont Carmel et de Saint Lazare , Commander of Avesnes in Hainaut in 1687 , Gabriel Isaac Nau de Cordais , Captain of the Basigny regiment in 1703 , and Jacques François Nau de Cordais in 1723 and his family , up until the Revolution .” 41 This
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 39 “ The first under the name of Salomon , where we find represented above the Sun , the
Moon and the Flaming Star , is only the cult of the first men , paying homage to the unadulterated divinity to be discovered , and under the vault of the sky that announces to them the greatness of god .” Manuscript G , page 1 . 40 Erroneously transcribed “ Hurlanderie ” by R . Meyer , see note 7 above . 41 Célestin Port , Historian and archivist of Maine-et-Loire , author of Dictionnaire
historique , géographique et biographique de Maine et Loire ( Paris : Dumoulin , 2 vols , 1874 / 1878 ), 379 .
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