Universal Freemasonry

Historians and scholars have stated in various investigations that Universal Freemasonry is of a purely hermetic origin, meaning that its roots sink into the Initiatic Tradition coming from ancient Egypt and that it had in Greece a very important place of evolution.

In fact, the term hermetic derives from Hermes Trismegistus, the thrice-great, as the god Thoth was known in Greece and in Alexandria, Egypt.

And it is said to be an Initiatic Tradition because it brings together a doctrine whose purpose is to allow and enhance human evolution toward a spiritual perspective whose foundations can be found in the great traditions of thought and initiatic philosophy of various cultures in other latitudes of the world. Initiatic because it has a ceremony from which everything arises.

Modern Freemasonry vs. Ancient Freemasonry

In modern Freemasonry—that which was constituted from three centuries ago to the present—different versions of what the Order intends have emerged. But for spiritualist Freemasonry, also known as Egyptian Freemasonry, the best-founded version is the one that places Universal Freemasonry within the Judeo-Christian Tradition. The Masons of the Regular Grand Lodge of Colombia of Memphis-Misraim rigorously investigate and study this and other versions of Universal Freemasonry, tracing all the guiding threads back to what is known as ancient Freemasonry, whose roots are purely Egyptian and Greco-Roman.

Contemporary Freemasonry is a child of the Renaissance and the period called the Enlightenment, both of which occurred in Europe. These great social processes modified the way Western countries view history, the sciences, the arts, mystical and religious thought, etc., moving from religious purism to the era of illustration and science illuminated by reason.

For our Masonic Order, it was always important to find the most subjective reality, that version of the initiatic life of the communities and schools of antiquity that cultivated Initiation in the manner closest to the initiatic society of ancient times. These investigations produced an enormous cultural heritage that was poured into the degrees of the Egyptian Rites (the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro, of Memphis, of Misraim, the Crata Repoa, the Rite of African Architects, etc.). Of course, the above does not deny—much less set aside—science and its findings, which come to verify the wisdom of antiquity.

This would be the best possibility of knowing authentic Freemasonry, the ancient one, which includes the idea of a Divine Being but with full freedom of criteria on this topic and on any other, within the framework of a very profound but open and liberal doctrine.

Spiritualist Freemasonry has its own lines of work and investigation; it does not seek to deny or combat the religiosity of the Mason. On the contrary, in its explorations it gives him greater arguments to understand the origin and evolution of religions without becoming involved in the discussion of origins and dogmas.