The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm

A path to personal transformation.

The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm is a Masonic Rite of Hermetic and Gnostic tradition, using esotericism and symbolism as its means. It offers those who embrace it a path of personal transformation sustained over time. An inner journey. It is based on the idea that there is work to be done on oneself, work that is not simply a matter of opinion or intellect, but of a deeper reorganisation, accepting to measure oneself and seeking to correct oneself. It is about embarking on a journey that engages the whole person.

This Rite takes on an esoteric dimension in the true sense of the word : working on oneself and continuing a tradition received and maintained by our elders. When we use the word ‘esoteric’, we are referring to a path that speaks to layers of ourselves that ordinary language does not touch. It is a process that exists to shift the way we understand ourselves and our place in the world.

Traditions and Mysteries

We are part of a tradition that has its roots in the ancient initiatory currents of the West, the East and the Mediterranean region. In Hermetic vocabulary, Tradition (with a capital T) refers less to a set of dusty doctrines than to a breath, a transmission of immemorial origin that circulates through the ages, changing its form but not its nature.

It is often presented as an invisible thread : it winds its way from late Egypt to Alexandrian Hermeticism, born at the crossroads of the Greek and Egyptian worlds, irrigates texts such as the Emerald Tablet, passes through the Neoplatonists, the medieval mystics of the East and West, the great cults of classical and late antiquity, alchemy, Christian Kabbalah, and can be recognised at the heart of certain modern initiatory traditions. It navigates more broadly, in the manner characteristic of ancient civilisations of teaching not only through discourse, but through lived experience. This thread is not made up of fixed dogmas but of a method of inner transformation.

From this perspective, Tradition is :

• An origin : the idea that true knowledge does not come from human intellectual construction, but from a primary source or ‘creative intelligence’.
• A transmission : something is passed on from human beings to human beings, from school to school, under the guise of symbols, rituals and myths.
• An orientation : it aims at the conversion of consciousness, not the accumulation of information.

Hermeticists like to say that Tradition does not teach what to think, but rather which direction to turn in order to become receptive. It is not a closed system, but rather a framework for transforming the self : learning to read within oneself, to rid oneself of inner disorder, to recognise the Unity that underpins multiplicity. Tradition is not nostalgia for the past. It is a movement of living memory : what is transmitted is only true when it produces a transformation now, in the person who receives it.

The image is almost organic : an ancient river, but still fresh, where everyone must go down to draw water and drink. Nothing can replace experience. That is why we say that Tradition cannot be proven, it is verified in the human beings who conform to it. The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm recognises itself as the heir to this lineage of initiatory teaching. A heritage that considers that certain truths are not imposed from outside as dogmas, but are discovered from within through a journey of discovery.

A personal journey of discovery, still alive in the 21st century

This path requires a gradual and progressive entry. This path is yours. What you discover along this path belongs to you alone.

We describe this path as a commitment. A commitment to oneself : accepting to look at oneself without complacency. A commitment to others : respecting everyone’s dignity and the confidentiality of what is exchanged.

This Rite carries a long memory. It carries the memory of traditions in which human beings are considered responsible for the order of the world. It echoes the great ancient Mysteries that closely linked self-knowledge and the relationship with the sacred. It also carries the modern work of gathering and formulating the so-called ‘Egyptian’ traditions, work that crystallised this corpus into the Masonic form that we assume today.

To say that our Rite is still alive means that it continues to be practised with seriousness. It continues to be passed on without interruption. It continues to demand a real commitment from those who enter into it.