Still Running Off at the Keyboard

PIKE IN PARIS

Susanna pointed out this passage from the Prologue of RAVALETTE: THE ROSICRUCIAN STORY by Paschal Beverly Randolph.

The Prologue was written by R. Swinburne Clymer, a noted Rosicrucian.

It will be recalled by those familiar with French Rosicrucian history that this body of men met in special session whenever one of the American members had an opportunity to visit Paris. Such sessions were held when General Ethan Allen Hitchcock attended on June 1, 1850, in company with the then Neophyte Paschal Beverly Randolph; again at the visit of Doctor Randolph in 1856, and still again during his last visit in 1861.

The last session was held at 19 Avenue du Maine for the express purpose of selecting and installing the incoming Supreme Grand Master, Paschal Beverly Randolph, and present at this session were the members of the Councils of Three, Seven and Nine, the then acting Supreme Grand Master Elphas (sic) Levi, and among others were Lord Bulwer-Lytton, Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, Charles Mackay, Count Guinotti, Count Brasynsky, Napoleon III, Alexis de Malakoff, and the Americans, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Albert Pike and Raldolph. As a matter of fact, every country where the Fraternity was active was well represented, including France, Germany, England, Poland, Russia and Egypt. (p. 21)

Footnotes on this page are also of interest. They read:

In the beginning this Order was known as The Rose of Perfect Silence and later changed to The Order of the Rose, or L'Ordre du Lis. When the Rosicrucian Fraternity became active in England, the High Council decided that as France used the Fleur de Lis as its Heraldic emblem, it would be more appropriate that the Order should be known as L'Ordre du Lis, while the English activity should be given the name of The Order of the Rose. This usage has been continued since and the Order was most active under the administration of the great humanitarian, Sydney H. Beard.

Also:

Brilliant and advanced as were the members of this august gathering, those we met while in Paris compare most favorably, and their individual achievements are outstanding. There is but one Camille Savoire or Albert Lantoine, and Madam Bricaud and her Martinist-Gnostic Library at Lyon are a fond memory.

The book indicates clearly that the order known as The Rose of Perfect Silence, later The Order of the Rose or L'Ordre du Lis was a Rosicrucian order. The book does not indicate that this is a Masonic lodge.

However, the Grand Lodge of British Columbia offers a different perspective on this Lodge at their website. In their brief biography of Eliphas Levi they claim:

A prolific writer on Magical Freemasonry, he has been called, "the last of the Magi." Born, Alphonse-Louis Constant, and trained for the Roman Catholic priesthood, Levi is best known for his DOCTRINE OF TRANSCENDENTAL MAGIC (1855), RITUAL OF TRANSCENDENTAL MAGIC (1856( and HISTORY OF MAGIC (1860), all written before his brief association with Freemasonry.

Initiated: 14 March, 1861
Dropped from rolls: August 21, 1861
Lodge Rose du Parfait Silence
Grand Orient of France, Paris

One would get the impression from this that the Grand Orient Lodge and the Rosicrucian Order were one and the same.

Another page in the Grand Lodge website gives a longer biography of Levi. Here we are told that he became a Master Mason on August 21, 1861. Here, too, the Lodge Rose of Perfect Silence would appear to be part of Grand Orient.