booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

East; but above these were concealed degrees leading up to the Rose-Croix, which formed the capstone of
the edifice.[32] Pasqually first established his rite at Marseilles, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, then in Paris, and
before long Martiniste lodges spread all over France with the centre at Lyons under the direction of Willermoz,
a prosperous merchant living there. From this moment other occult Orders sprang up in all directions.
In 1760 Dom Pernetti founded his sect of " Illumines d'Avignon " in that city, declaring himself a high initiate
of Freemasonry and teaching the doctrines of Swedenborg. Later a certain Chastanier founded the "Illumines
Theosophes," a modified version of Pernetti's rite; and in 1783 the Marquis de Thome started a purified
variety of Swedenborgianism under the name of " Rite of Swedenborg."
Beneath all these occult sects one common source of inspiration is to be found-the perverted and magical
Cabala of the Jews, that conglomeration of wild theosophical imaginings and barbaric superstitions founded
on ancient pagan cults and added to throughout seventeen centuries by succeeding generations of Jewish occultists.[33]
This influence is particularly to be detected in the various forms of the Rose-Croix degree,
which in nearly all these associations forms the highest and most secret degree. The ritual of " the eminent
Order of the Knights of the Black Eagle or Sovereigns of the Rose-Croix," a secret and unpublished document
of the eighteenth century, which differs entirely from the published rituals, explains that no one can attain
to knowledge of the higher sciences without the " Clavicules de Salomon," of which the real secrets
were never committed to print and which is said to contain the whole of Cabalistic science.[34] The catechism
of this same degree deals mainly with the transmutation of metals, the Philosopher's Stone, etc.
In the Rite of Perfection as worked in France and America this Cabalistic influence is shown in those degrees
known under the name of the " Ineffable Degrees," derived from the Jewish belief in the mystery that
surrounds the Ineffable Name of God. According to the custom of the Jews, the sacred name Jehovah or
Jah-ve, composed of the four letters yod, he, vau, he, which formed the Tetragrammaton, was never to be
pronounced by the profane, who were obliged to substitute for it the word " Adonai." The Tetragrammaton
might only be uttered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies amid
the sound of trumpets and cymbals, which prevented the people from hearing it. It is said that in consequence
of the people thus refraining from its utterance, the true pronunciation of the name was at last lost.
The Jews further believed that the Tetragrammaton was possessed of unbounded powers. "He who pronounces
it shakes heaven and earth and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror."[35] The Ineffable
Name thus conferred miraculous gifts; it was engraved on the rod of Moses and enabled him to perform
wonders, just as, according to the Toledot Yeshu, it conferred the same powers on Christ.
This superstition was clearly a part of Rosicrucian tradition, for the symbol of the Tetragrammaton within
a triangle, adopted by the masonic lodges, figures in Fludd's Cabalistic system.[36] In the " Ineffable degrees
" it was invested with all the mystic awe by which it is surrounded in Jewish theology, and, according
to early American working: " Brothers and Companions of these degrees received the name of God as it
was revealed to Enoch and were sworn to pronounce it but once in their lives."
In the alchemical version of the Rose-Croix degree referred to above the Ineffable Name is actually invested
with magical powers as in the Jewish Cabala. Ragon, after describing the Jewish ceremony when the
word Jehovah was pronounced by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies, goes on to say that " Schem-hammphorasch,"
another term for the Tetragrammaton, forms the sacred word of a Scotch degree, and that this belief
in its mystic properties " will be found at the head of the instructions for the third degree of the Knight
of the Black Eagle, called Rose-Croix," thus: Q. What is the most powerful name of God on the pentaculum?
A. Adonai. Q. What is its power? A. To move the Universe.
That one of the Knights who had the good fortune to pronounce it cabalistically would have at his disposal
the powers that inhabit the four elements and the celestial spirits, and would possess all the virtues
possible to man.[37]
That this form of the Rose-Croix was of purely Jewish origin is thus clearly evident. In the address to
the candidate for initiation into the Rose-Croix degree at the Lodge of the " Contrat Social " it is stated: This
degree, which includes an Order of Perfect Masons, was brought to light by Brother R., who took it from the
Kabbalistic treasure of the Doctor and Rabbi Neamuth, chief of the synagogue of Leyden in Holland, who
had preserved its precious secrets and its costume, both of which we shall see in the same order in which he
placed them in his mysterious Talmud.[38]
Now, we know that in the eighteenth century a society of Rosicrucian magicians had been instituted in
Florence which was believed to date back to the fifteenth century and to have been partly, if not wholly
composed of Orientals, as we shall see in the next chapter; but it seems probable that this sect, whilst
secretly inspiring the Rose-Croix masons, was itself either nameless or concealed under a disguise. Thus in
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
— 92 —