The doors, in order
An initiate does not pass one door but several, and each asks for something else. Here are those doors in the order in which one of them went through, each with the text of the first degree and the test drawn from it.
The thread of this page comes from an interview: a former head of an order tells his path, from the 1970s to the 2000s. It is a testimony, which we cannot verify. What can be verified is the texts: for each door we say what the witness reports, then what the entrance text asks, and we note where the two do not match.
| The door | What the witness says | What the text asks | The test |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. A Rosicrucian order by correspondence | The first door: one enrols and receives lessons. | Manual of 1932: one is invited to apply, then pleads all the same; a committee, a ballot, an oath signed before initiation. | AMORC in 1932 |
| 2. A Rosicrucian gnostic school | The second door: the Dutch School of the Golden Rosycross. | What the school itself publishes: eighteen years, a vegetarian way of life, no alcohol or drugs. | The School of the Golden Rosycross |
| 3. The Martinist Order | Reserved, in the branch he knew, for members of another order who had reached a certain degree. | Ritual of 1896: being free, two signatures, an inquiry, the blindfold, and coming from “a strong desire of knowledge”. | The Martinist first degree |
| 4. Regular Freemasonry | A condition set for going further: being a Mason in a regular obedience. | Constitutions of 1723: good report, free-born, of mature age. | A lodge of 1723 |
| 5. The Golden Dawn | Received in London in 1980; one had to be a regular Mason. | Neophyte ritual: the blindfold, the obligation of secrecy and study, the penalty. | The Golden Dawn Neophyte |
| 6. The Rite of Memphis-Misraïm | A lodge that received only heads of orders. | Statutes of 1849: free condition, learning, good morals, a sponsor, a will, an oath. | The first degree of Memphis |
| 7. The Fraternity of Myriam | Kremmerz’s Italian school, turned towards healing. | Kremmerz’s rule: what it asks of the beginner. | The Egyptian order |
| 8. A fraternity of alchemists | Seven years of alchemy in the laboratory before going further. | No text of this fraternity read. The nearest text is that of another order of alchemists: the laws of the German Golden and Rosy Cross of 1710. | The Golden and Rosy Cross of 1710 |
| 9. The Italian Egyptian order | One does not apply: one is watched, then chosen; the antiquity of the family counts; a “seal” received in a dream decides what follows. | No text of this order is public. The nearest text is Cagliostro’s Egyptian rite, which is a different order. | Cagliostro’s Egyptian rite |
What the row of doors shows
The texts ask little, the orders ask more. The Martinist ritual of 1896 admits “people of all condition and religion”; the statutes of Memphis want only “probity and knowledge”. The conditions the witness speaks of — being a Mason already, holding a degree elsewhere already, being a head already — are not in them: they were added by later branches, and we have read them in no text.
The same door comes back. From one order to the next, the first degree repeats the same gestures: a sponsor, an inquiry, a ballot with black and white balls, a blindfold, a door to knock at, an oath. Only what one promises to study changes.
The last door has no handle. At the end of the path the witness describes societies where nothing is asked any more: one is chosen. That is also what the two ancient texts on the consecration of a priestess say, where no woman applies: see the consecration test. As for the “seal” received in a dream that the witness speaks of, no text describes it; what Lenain says of dreams and their genii is on the page the genius of your dream.