Foucault's pendulum - Umberto Eco [202]
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 de 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 P61adan, 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 oc-culte.
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. Max Heindel founds the Rosicrucian Fellowship. At uncertain dates follow Lectorium Rosicrucianum, Freres Alnes de la Rose-Croix, Fraternitas Hermetica, Tern-plum 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.”
“We’ll have to consult Aglie. I doubt that even he knows all these organizations.”
“Want to bet? They’re his daily bread. But we can put him to the test. Let’s add a sect that doesn’t exist. Founded recently.”
I recalled the curious question of De Angelis, whether I had ever heard of the Tres. And I said: “Tres.”
“What’s that?” Belbo asked.
“If it’s an acrostic, there has to be a subtext,” Diotallevi said. “Otherwise my rabbis would not have been able to use the no-tarikon. Let’s see...Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici. That suit you?”
We liked the name, and put it at the bottom of the list.
“With all these conventicles, inventing one more was no mean trick,’’ Diotallevi said in a sudden fit of vanity.
76
If it were then a matter of defining in one word the dominant characteristic of French Freemasonry in the eighteenth century, only one would do: dilettantism.
—Rene Le Forestier, La Franc-Mayonnerie Templiere et Occultiste, Paris, Aubier, 1970, 2
The next evening, we invited Aglie to Pilade’s. Though the bar’s new customers had gone back to jackets and ties, the presence of our guest, in blue chalk-stripe suit and snow-white shirt, tie fastened with a gold pin, caused eyebrows to be raised. Luckily, at six o’clock Pilade’s was fairly empty.
Aglie confused Pilade by ordering a cognac by its brand name. Pilade had it, of course, but the bottle had stood enthroned on the shelf behind the zinc counter, untouched, for years.
Aglie studied the liquor in his glass against the light, then warmed it with his hands, displaying gold cuff links that were vaguely Egyptian in style.
We showed him the list, telling him we had compiled it from the manuscripts of the Diabolicals.
“The fact that the Templars were connected with the early lodges of the master masons established during the construction of Solomon’s Temple is certain,” he said. “And it is equally certain that these associates, on occasion, recalled the murder