California Masonic Symposium: 'Fringe Freemasonry and the Mysteries That Bind Us'

by Christopher Hodapp

The California Masonic Symposium is hosted annually by the Grand Lodge of California. This year's event will be held next Wednesday, August 28th and will feature presentations on some of the most mysterious and esoteric Masonic-related rites and organizations that are often referred to as “fringe Masonry.” Many have borrowed styles, substance, symbolism, and practices from the Masonic fraternity, but while "fringe" may sound derogatory at first blush, the label isn't meant to be pejorative. 

As the Symposium's website explains:

According to the online site CasueIQ there are 3,361 fraternal organizations in the State of California, employing 16,194 people, and earning more than $18 billion dollars in revenue each year. Freemasonry is one of the oldest in the world. With the collected mix of fraternal orders it makes us contemplate the questions: Out of all the fraternal orders, how many were influenced by the Freemasons? And what aspects of Freemasonry were borrowed by these orders? Why did they feel a need to branch off and create their own bodies? These are the questions that will be explored in the 2024 Grand Lodge of California Symposium:Fringe Masonry: Exploring the Mysteries that Bind Us 

The interest in “Fringe Masonry” has grown in recent years as Brothers have turned their attention, once again, towards the esoteric. Yet, the term itself may be alien to many regular Freemasons. Writing in Ars Quatuor Coronatorumin 1972, Ellic Howe states that Fringe Masonry is “not irregular Masonry because those who promoted the rites did not initiate Masons, i.e. confer the three Craft degrees or the Holy Royal Arch degree. Hence they did not encroach upon Grand Lodge’s and Grand Chapter’s exclusive preserve.”

Simply stated, these orders did not bother the Grand Lodge because they did not mock or rewrite the blue lodge degrees; this is probably the reason they were left alone – they were not a threat to blue lodge Masonry. 

Nevertheless, Howe’s description is too broad. Fringe Masonic Rites and Orders are not those (such as the Order of the Temple or the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite) that are recognized by regular Grand Lodges. Rather, active Fringe Masonic organizations are those that exist outside of the world of regular Masonry but that often rub up against it (often claiming to be, in some sense, Masonic). Such organizations have included the Rite(s) of Memphis and Misraim, the Swedenborgian Rite, the Ancient Order of Zuzimites and the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry to the Asiatic Brethren, that claim, in one way or another, to connect to regular Freemasonry. 

Other orders include, but are not limited to: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A), an order influenced by Masonic principles and the Tarot, and Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis, in which he tried to create rituals acceptable to regular Freemasons. 

Historically, the members of these organizations have taken a serious interest in spirituality and, as Howe says of Fringe Masons in England during the late 19th century, many were “identified with occultism.” 

The Fringe Masonry of that place and time was composed of “a small and amorphous group of men, most of whom knew one another,” says Howe. Nevertheless, Memphis and Misraim, the Swedenborgian Rite, the Zuzimites, and many other Rites and Orders of the 19th century, represent a continuation of the explosion of “Masonic” and quasi-Masonic Rites and rituals of the preceding century. 

Extremely popular during their day, some of these rites and orders were absorbed into regular Freemasonry (the Rite of Perfection forming the basis of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, for example), while others collapsed and disappeared or were absorbed into later Fringe Masonic Rites. 

During our symposium we will notice certain themes or the names of individuals reappearing. Some of these themes (such as Kabbalah, alchemy, and Rosicrucianism) also appear in the degrees of Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (most obviously in the alchemical- and Rosicrucian-influenced Rose Croix degrees). 

 Our aim is not to endorse individual esoteric orders, magical practices or fringe Masonry, as such; rather, in keeping with previous symposiums, it is to be part of the current cultural zeitgeist, in pursuit of a deeper understanding of our complex world.  

PLEASE NOTE: This year's symposium will be held online, and there will be no in-person program. The Symposium will begin Wednesday, August 28th at 7:00PM Pacific Time (10:00PM Eastern), and is expected to last approximately 90 minutes. 

The program will be moderated by Gabriel G. Mariscal, Senior Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge of California. He is currently a member of the Grand Lodge Leadership and Development Committee, which serves as the think tank of the Grand Lodge and creates content for the leadership retreats. He is also a member of the Grand Lodge Masonic Education Committee. He is the chairman of the Public Education Advisory Committee of Sacramento for the California Masonic Foundation.

Speakers will include:

• Angel Millar, editor-in-chief of the Fraternal Review publication and author of Three Stages of Initiatic Spirituality: Craftsman, Warrior, Magician; as well as The Crescent and the Compass: Islam, Freemasonry, Esotericism and Revolution in the Modern Age.
• Jaime Paul Lamb, author of Myth, Magick & Masonry: Occult Perspectives in Freemasonry (2018), Approaching the Middle Chamber: The Seven Liberal Arts in Freemasonry and the Western Esoteric Tradition (2020), and The Archetypal Temple and Other Writings on Masonic Esotericism (2021).
• Joe Martinez, Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia and co-host of the Masonic Roundtable podcast.

There is no charge to view the Symposium, but you must register in order to get access to the program online. To register, CLICK HERE.