The Rite of Adoption was a
Masonic rite which appeared in France in the 18th century. Lodges of adoption were usually attached to regular craft lodges, but admitted the female relatives of Freemasons to a mixed lodge with its own ritual. The number of degrees varied over its history, but the first three bore the same names as the craft degrees, although the pass-words and themes of the ritual were quite different.
After flourishing during the second half of the eighteenth century, spreading to much of continental Europe, the lodges were declared unconstitutional by the
Grand Orient de France early in the nineteenth, then after almost a century of eclipse, revived as female only lodges in the early twentieth. It was these lodges who later adopted the Freemasonry of their male counterparts, becoming the
Grande Loge féminine de France.
The Rite of Adoption is often seen as a prototype for contemporary concordant bodies admitting the wives and daughters of Freemasons, such as the
Order of the Eastern Star
The Order of the Eastern Star is a Masonic appendant body open to both men and women. It was established in by lawyer and educator Rob Morris, a noted Freemason, and adopted and approved as an appendant body of the Masonic Fraternity in 187 ...
.
Upper degrees
Different and specific systems of Upper
Degree Masonry were added to the three
symbolic degrees, though it is still uncertain whether the
rituals
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...
for these upper degrees were used. One of these rituals was that of the
Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba ( he, מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא, Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ; ar, ملكة سبأ, Malikat Sabaʾ; gez, ንግሥተ ሳባ, Nəgśətä Saba) is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she bring ...
, under the name of "Princess of the Crown", which was the highest of 10 degrees attested at the end of the 18th century.
[La Grande Loge Féminine de France Autoportrait, Collectif, Guy Trédaniel éditeur, 1995.]
See also
*
List of Masonic Rites
In Freemasonry, a Rite is a series of progressive degrees that are conferred by various Masonic organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central authority. In many cases, such as the York Rite, it can be a col ...
Bibliography
*Daniel Ligou et al., ''Histoire des francs-maçons en France'', Privately Published Vol 2, 2000 {{ISBN, 2-7089-6839-4
*''La Grande Loge Féminine de France Autoportrait'', Collectif, Guy Trédaniel éditeur, 1995
Notes
Adoption