Swedenborg Rite

[[File:Emanuel Swedenborg.PNG|thumb|upright=1|[[Emanuel Swedenborg]] (1688–1772), the fraternity's namesake]] {{Freemasonry}}{{Short description|Hermetic fraternal order circa 1773-1908}}

The '''Swedenborg Rite''' or '''Rite of Swedenborg''' was a fraternal order modeled on [[Freemasonry]] and based upon the teachings of [[Emanuel Swedenborg]] (1688–1772). It comprised six [[Degree (freemasonry)|Degree]]s: Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master Neophyte, Illuminated Theosophite, Blue Brother, and Red Brother.<ref name=EoF2>Albert Gallatin Mackey and H. L. Haywood, ''Encyclopedia of Freemasonry Vol. 2'', p. 997 reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2003 {{ISBN|0-7661-4720-7}}</ref>

It was created in [[Avignon]] in 1773 by the Marquis de Thorn. It was initially a political organization, although the political ideology was eventually discarded from the rite.<ref name=Row>{{cite encyclopaedia|encyclopedia=Masonic Biography and Dictionary|author=Augustus Row|publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co.|location=Philadelphia|year=1868|pages=139|article=Illuminati of Avignon or Swedenborg Rite}}</ref> This version of the Swedenborg Rite died out within a decade of its founding.

Starting in the 1870s, the Rite was resurrected as an [[Hermeticism|hermetic]] organization. This version faded out sometime around 1908.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chaos Out of Order: The Rise and Fall of the Swedenborgian Rite|author=R. A. Gilbert|date=1995-09-14|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/aqc/swedenborg.html|publisher=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A. M.}}</ref> In 1982 a patent of the Swedenborg Rite was transmitted by the English Freemason Desmond Bourke, in his office at the British Museum, to Masonic author [[Michele Moramarco]], who after revising the rituals by Bourke's permission revived that tradition in Italy under the title of "Antico Rito Noachita" ("Ancient Noachide Rite")

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == * {{cite web|url=http://www.mainemason.org/mlr/swedenborg1.htm|title=Swedenborg, The Man, The Religion and The Rite|author=William G. Peacher|year=1992|publisher=Maine Lodge of Research, AF&AM|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705015658/http://www.mainemason.org/mlr/swedenborg1.htm|archive-date=2008-07-05}} * {{cite book|title=Swedenborg Rite and the Great Masonic Leaders of the Eighteenth Century|author=Samuel Beswick|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=1870|edition=republished 1994|isbn=9781564594242|location=New York}} * {{cite book|title=Nuova Enciclopedia Massonica|author=Michele Moramarco|publisher=Centro Studi Albert Schweitzer|year=1989|location=Reggio Emilia}}

[[Category:Hermeticism]] [[Category:Swedenborgianism]]