Chapter 75 of Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco "The only ones who elude ... the eternal sleep ... are those who in life are able to orient their mind toward a higher way. The initiates, the Adepts, are at the edge of that path. Having achieved memory, anamnesis, in the expression of Plutarch, they become free, they proceed without bonds. Crowned, they celebrate the "mysteries" and see on earth the throng of those who are not initiated and are not "pure," those who are crushed and pushing one another in the mud and in the darkness." -- Julius Evola, La tradizione ermetica, Rome, Edizioni Mediterranee, 1971, p. 111 Rashly I volunteered to do some quick research. I soon regretted it. I found myself in a morass of books, in which it was difficult to distinguish historical fact from hermetic gossip, and reliable information from flights of fancy. Working like a machine for a week, I drew up a bewildering list of sects, lodges, conventicles. I occasionally shuddered on encountering familiar names I didn't expect to come upon in such company, and there were chronological coincidences that I felt were curious enough to be noted down. I showed this document to my two acomplices. 1645 London: Ashmole founds Invisible College, Rosicrucian in inspiration. 1660 From the Invisible College is born the Royal Society; and from the Royal Society, as everyone knows, the Masons. 1666 Paris: founding of Academie Royal des Sciences. 1707 Birth of Claude-Louis de Saint-Germain, if he was really born. 1717 Creation of the Great Lodge in London. 1721 Anderson drafts the constitutions of English masonry. initiated in London, Peter the Great founds a lodge in Russia. 1730 Montesquieu, passing through London, is initiated. 1737 Ramsay asserts the Templar origin of Masonry. Origin of the Scottish rite, henceforth in conflict with the Great Lodge of London. 1738 Fredrick, then crown prince of Prussia, is initiated. Later he is patron of Encyclopedists. 1740 Various lodges created in France around this year: Ecossais Fideles of Toulouse, Souverain Conseil Sublime, Mere Loge Ecossaise du Grand Glob Francais, College des Sublimes Princes du Royal Secret of Bordeaux, Cour des Souverains Comandeurs du Temple of Carcassonne, Philadelphes of Narbonne, Chapitre des rose-Croi of Montpellier, Sublimes Elus de la Verite... 1743 First public appearance of Comte de Saint-Germain. In Lyon, the degree of chevalier kadosch originates, its task being to vindicate Templars. 1753 Willermoz founds lodge of Parfaite Amitie. 1754 Martinez Pasqualis founds Temple of the Elus Cohen (perhaps in 1760). 1756 Baron vond Hund founds Templar Strict Observance, inspired, some say, by Frederick II of Prussia. For the first time there is talk of the Unknown Superiors. Some insinuate that the Unknown Superiors are Frederick and Voltaire. 1758 Saint-Germain arrives in Paris and offers his services to the king as chemist, an expert in dyes. He spends time with Madame Pompadour. 1759 Presumed formation of Conseil des Empereurs d'Orient et d'Occident, which three years later is said to have drawn up the Consititutions et Reglement de Bordeaux, from which Ancient and Accepted Scottish rite probably originates (though this does not appear officially until 1801). 1760 Saint-Germain on ambiguous diplomatic mission in Holland. Forced to flee, arrested in London, released. Dom J. Pernety founds Illuminati of Avignon. Martinez Pasqualis founds Chevaliers Macons Elus de l'Univers. 1762 Saint-Germain in Russia. 1763 Casanova meets Saint-Germain, as Surmont, in Belgium. Latter turns coin into gold Willermoz founds Souverain Chapitre des Chevaliers de l'Aigle Noire Rose-Croix. 1768 Willermoz joins Pasqualis's Elus Cohen. Apocryphal publication in Jerusalem of Les plus secrets mysteres des hauts grades de la maconnerie devoilee, ou le vrai Rose-Croix: it says that the lodge of the Rosicrucians is on Mount Heredon, sixty miles from Ediburgh. Pasqualis meets Louis Claud de Saint-Martin, later known as le Philosphe Inconnu. Dom Pernety becomes librarian of king of Prussia. 1771 The Duc de Chartres, later known as Philippe-Egalite, becomes grand master of the Grand Orient (then, the Grand Orient de France) and tries to unify all the lodges. Scottish rite lodge resists. 1772 Pasqualis leaves for Santo Domingo, and Willermoz and Saint-Martin establishes Tribunal Souverain, which becomes Grand Loge Ecossaise. 1774 Saint-Martin retires, to become Philosphe Inconnu, and as delegate of Templar Strict Observance goes to negotiate with Willermoz. A Scottish Directory of the Province of Auvergne is born. From this will be born the Rectified Scottish rite. 1776 Saint-Germain, under the name Count Welldone, presents chemical plans to Frederick II. Societe des Philathetes is born, to unite all hermeticists. Lodge of the Neuf Soeurs has members Guillotin and Cabanis, Voltaire and Franklin. Adam Weishaupt of Illuminati of Bavaria. According to some, he is initiated by a Danish mercant, Kolmer, returning from Egypt, who is probably the mysterious Altotas, master of Caglistro. 1778 Saint-Germain, in Berlin, meets Dom Pernety. Willermoz founds Ordre des Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cite Sainte. templar Strict Observance and Grand Orient agree to accept the Rectified Scottish rite. 1782 Great conference of all the initiatory lodges at Wilhelmsbad. 1783 Marquis Thome founds the Swedenborg rite. 1784 Saint-Germain presumably dies while in the service of the landgrave of Hesse, for whom he is completing a factory for making dyes. 1785 Caglistro founds Mephis rite, which later becomes the Ancient and Primitive rite of Memphis-Misraim; it increases the number of high degrees to ninety. Scandal of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, orchestrated by Caglistro. Dumas describes it as Masonic plot to discredit the monarchy. The Illuminati of Bavaria are suppressed, suspected of revolutionary plotting. 1786 Mirabeau is initiated by the Illuminati of Bavaria in Berlin. In London a Rosicrucian manifesto appears, attributed to Caglistro. Mirabeau writes a letter to Cagliostro and to Lavater. 1787 There are about seven hundred lodges in France. Weishaupt publishes his Nactrag, which describes the structure of a secret organization in which each adherent knows only his immediate superior. 1789 French Revolution begins. Crisis in the French lodges. 1794 On 8 Vendemiaire, Deputy Gregoire presents to the convention on the project for a Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. It is installed in Sait-Martin-des-Champs in 1799, by the Council of Five Hundred. The Duke of Brunswick urges lodges to dissolve because a poisonous subversive sect has now corrupted them all. 1798 Arrst of Cagliostro in Rome. 1804 Announcement in Charleston of official foundation of Ancient and Accepted Scottish rite, with number of degrees increased to 33. 1824 Document from the court of Vienna to French government denounces secret associates like the Absolutes, the Independents, the Alta Vendita Carbonara. 1835 The cabalist Oettinger claims to meet Saint-Germain in Paris. 1846 Viennese writer Franz Graffer publishes account of a meeting of his brother with Saint=Germain between 1788 and 1790. Saint-Germain received his visitor while leafing through a book by Paracelsus. 1865 Foundation of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (other sources give 1860, 1866, or 1867). Bulwer-Lytton, author of the Rosicrucian novel Zanoni, joins. 1868 Bakunin founds Intenational Alliance of Socialist Democracy, inspired, some say, by the Illuminati of bavaria. 1875 Elena Petrovna Blavatsky, with Henry Steel Olcott, founds Theosophical Society. Her Isis Unveiled appears. baron Spedalieri proclaims himself a member of the Grand Lodge of the Solitary Brothers of the Mountain, Frater Illuminatus of the Ancient and Restored Order of the Manicheans and of the Martinists. 1877 Madame Blavatsky speaks of the theospohical role of Saint-Germain. Among his incarnations are Roger and Francis Bacon, Rosencreutz, Proclus, Saint Alban. Grand Orient of France eliminates invocation to the Great Architect of the Universe and proclaims absolute freedom of conscience. Breaks ties with Grand Lodge of England and becomes firmly secular and radical. 1879 Foundation of Societas Rosicruciana in the USA. 1880 Beginning of Saint-Yves d'Alveydre's activity. Leopold Engler reorganizes the Illuminati of Bavaria. 1884 Leo XIII, with the encyclical humanum Genus, condemns Freemasonry. Catholics desert it; rationalists flock to it. 1888 Stanislas de Guaita founds Ordre Kabbalistique d la Rose Croix. Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn founded in England, with eleven degrees, from neophyte to ipsissimus. Its imperator is McGregor Mathers, whose sister marries Bergson. 1890 Joseph Peladan, called Josephin, leaves Guaita and founds the Rose-Croix Catholique du Temple et du Graal, proclaiming himself Sar Merodak. Conflict between Rosicrucians of Guaita's order and those of Peladan's is called the War of the Two Roses. 1891 Papus publishes his Traite methodique de science occulte. 1898 Aleister crowley initiated into Golden Dawn. Later founds Order of Thelema. 1907 From the Golden Dawn is born the Stella Matutina, which Yeats joins. 1909 In the United States, H. Spencer Lewis "reawakens" the Anticus Mysticus Ordo Rosae Crucis and in 1916, in a hotel, successfully transforms a piece of zinc into gold. At uncertain dates follow Lectorium Rosicrucianum, Freres Aines de la Rose-Croix, Fraternitas hermetica, Templum Rosae-Crucis. 1912 Annie Besant, disciple of Madame Blavatsky, founds, in London, Order of the Temple of the Rose-Cross. 1918 Thule Society is born in Germany. 1936 In France Le Grand Prieure des Gaules is born. In the "Cahiers de la fraternite polaire," Enrico Contardi-Rhodio tells of a visit from Comte de Saint-Germain. "What does all this mean?" Diotallevi said. "Don't ask me. You wanted data? Help yourself. this is all I know."