Le Droit Humain - History
The International Order of Mixed Freemasonry Le Droit Humain was founded in France in the late nineteenth century, during a period of strong feminist and women's suffrage campaigning. It was the first Co-Masonic Order, and also the first truly international Masonic Order. Today it has members from over 60 countries worldwide.
French Masonry had long attempted to include women, the Grand Orient de France having allowed Rites of Adoption as early as 1774, by which Lodges could "adopt" sisters, wives and daughters of Freemasons, imparting to them the mysteries of several degrees.
In 1879, following differences among members of the Supreme Council of France, twelve lodges withdrew from it and founded the Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise (GLSE). One of these Lodges, Les Libres Penseurs (The Free Thinkers) in Le Pecq, reserved in its charter the right to initiate women as Freemasons, proclaiming the essential equality of man and woman.
Maria Deraismes, co-founder of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain.
Georges Martin, co-founder of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain.
On January 14, 1882, Maria Deraismes, a well-known humanitarian, feminist author and lecturer, was initiated into Les Libres Penseurs, after of the lodge withdrew from its Grand Lodge . The Worshipful Master, Bro. Houbron, justified this act as having the highest interests of humanity at heart, and as being a perfectly logical application of the principle of "A Free Mason in a Free Lodge".
In 1890 the Lodge La Jérusalem Écossaise, also of the Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise, petitioned other Lodges for the establishment of a new order of Freemasonry that would accept both men and women. This time La Jérusalem Lodge did not propose to initiate women itself, but to create a new order working in parallel. The main proponent of this was Dr. Georges Martin, a French senator, advocate of equal rights for women, and also a member of Les Libres Penseurs.
On March 14, 1893, Deraismes, Martin and several other male Freemasons founded La Respectable Loge, Le Droit Humain, Maçonnerie Mixte (Worshipful Lodge, Human Rights, Co-Masonry) in Paris. They initiated, passed and raised sixteen prominent French women.
Shortly after, on April 4 of the same year, the first Grand Lodge of Co-Freemasonry was established, the Grande Loge Symbolique Écossaise Mixte de France (Grand Lodge of Mixed Scottish Rite Freemasonry of France), which would later become known as the International Order of Co-Freemasonry "Le Droit Humain". This was a radical departure from most other forms of Freemasonry, for not only did the new order not require belief in a Supreme Being (the Grand Orient de France had discarded this requirement in 1877)—it opened its doors to all of humanity who were "... just, upright and free, of mature age, sound judgment and strict morals."
As early as 1895 the Lodge Le Droit Humain (with no number) was travelling around—to Vernon, Blois, Rouen and Havre, in what were called selections—it gave conference and started to hold initiations in the presence, every time, of a large audience Lodge Nr.1 was thus created in Blois in 1895, but, permanently excluded in 1902, this lodge re-awoke only recently. Its Mother Lodge Le Droit Humain now took over the position of Lodge Nr.1 whilst splitting up again in Paris to form Lodge Nr.4. Three lodges were founded in the provinces:
Lodge Nr.1 in Lyon (1896)
Lodge Nr.3 in Rouen (1896) and
Lodge Nr.5 in Havre (1902)
Annie Besant wearing 33° Masonic regalia.
Several prominent members of the Theosophical Society joined Co-Freemasonry, including Annie Besant, George Arundale, Charles W. Leadbeater and C. Jinarajadasa. Henceforth, wherever they took Theosophy, they also introduced Co-Freemasonry.
The Order of Universal Co-Freemasonry in Great Britain and the British Dependencies was founded by Annie Besant and officers of the Supreme Council of the French Maçonnerie Mixte (known today as The International Order of Freemasonry for Men and Women, Le Droit Humain) on September 26, 1902, with the consecration of Lodge Human Duty No. 6 in London. Besant remained head of the Order until her death in 1933. The English working, influenced by the Theosophy of its leading members, restored certain Masonic practices not required in the French working, notably that its members hold a belief in God or a Supreme Being. The permission received from France to reinstate this in the English workings is known as the "Annie Besant Concord", and in 1904 a new English ritual was printed, which firmly established this requirement as central to the work. The revised ritual was called the "Dharma Ritual", also known as the "Besant-Leadbeater" and more recently as the "Lauderdale" working. The Dharma Ritual also attempted to restore prominence to esoteric and mystical aspects that its Theosophically-minded authors felt were the heart of Freemasonry, so that it became foremostly a spiritual organisation; Co-Freemasonry of this Order was therefore sometimes called "Occult Freemasonry". Leadbeater served of the presiding officer of the Sydney Lodge #404 and various lodges and chapters of the York and Scottish Rites.
Origins of Le Droit Humian in the United States - The origins and development of Le Droit Humain in the USA cannot be separated from the life and activity of one of its primary founders, the Frenchman Louis Goaziou.
Born in Brittany, France in 1864, he emigrated to the USA in 1881 where he worked in the coal mines of Houtsdale, Pennsylvania. Three years later he married Marie Bourgeois, born in Namur in 1866. Goaziou wanted to improve the appalling working conditions of miners and set up, in 1866, the Association of United Miners, as well as two Associations for mutual help, whose aims he defended in a weekly French speaking magazine. Through this he attracted the attention of a professor of French at Columbia University in New York, Antoine Muzarelli, founding member of the New York Lodge La'Atlantidelaboring under the Grand Orient de France. It was Muzzarelli who contacted Le Droit Humain's then Grand Master and Co-Founder George Martin, offering to found Lodges in North American for Le Droit Humain. In this way, Muzzarelli became the founder of Co-Freemasonry in North America.
The humanitarian ideal of the new Masonic order struck him as absolutely compatible with the Socialist ideas of Louis Goaziou. Muzzarelli contacted Goaziou in 1903 with the idea of creating in Charleroi (Pennsylvania) either a Lodge under the Grand Orient. He did not inform Goaziou of the option to form the Lodge of under Le Droit Humain, into which their wives also could be admitted, until he arrived in Charleroi in October 1903 to institute the Lodge. The charter members decided they would found the Lodge under Le Droit Humain. The first three degrees were conferred on them by Antoine Muzarelli, and over two days, October 18 and 19, 1903, the first Co-masonic American lodge, Alpha No 301 was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Louis Goaziou became the first Worshipful Master.
This French speaking Lodge continued until 1973. Six other Lodges were founded in 1904, three working in French, one in Slav, one in Italian and one in English (under the direction of John Goaziou, a brother of Louis). Soon Lodges were founded in Chicago, St. Louis and in California. The Rose-Croix degrees were given to Louis Goaziou by communication in November, 1904 (please note, Goaziou's Grand Lodge Eternal record in Larkspur, CO, indicates he received this degree from Muzzarelli September 1, 1905) and he became a member of Chapter Nr.1 in the valley of Paris. The first American Chapter (Nr.?) was formed in Charleroi with six charter members.
It was Muzzarelli who conferred upon Goaziou the Degrees of the Scottish Rite up to the 30th. Muzzarelli named Goaziou his deputy in early 1907. Unfortunately, the two men fell out over mutual charges of financial irregularity combined with personal dislike. The Order also was in disarray because too many Lodges had been founded too quickly. The new Order also experienced external pressures, including persecution by the existing Male-Only Orders in the US. In the fall of 1908, Muzzarelli was pressured to call what remained of the Lodges he founded, just less than half, to a convention in St. Louis, Missouri. Tragically, Muzzarelli, who in addition to pressures in the Order also had many personal problems, committed suicide October 15, 1908. Though Goaziou made it plain he would prefer the presidency go to another Co-Mason, it was Goaziou who took charge of the financial and administrative affairs of the lodges, and who was elected President at the convention in St. Louis.
The American Federation of Human Rights had received charter from the US Government in 1907 but it was at the 1908 convention that the American Federation was officially constituted. The 31st, 32nd and the 33rd degrees of the Scottish Rite were conferred on him on 21 November 1909, and he was designated by the Supreme Council as its Representative for the American Federation.
The same year Annie Besant was staying in the USA where she installed an English speaking lodge in Chicago and granted the degree of Installed Master to certain members- a degree which did not exist either in the Grand Orient or the Scottish Rite (a version of this degree exists in Muzzarelli's journal, apparently around 1905, so it's not universally agreed that Besant introduced this degree into the AFHR). A new trend began in American Co-masonry. Whilst some members of French and Italian origin, mainly recruited in the mining industry, had concentrated on social problems, other Masons entered the AFHR to try to bring the Order under Theosophic influence, seeing in the Ancient Mysteries the origins of masonry. So long as Goaziou was alive and Grand Commander of the Order, the AFHR followed a middle path between these two extremes
When the 1914-1918 war ended, operative work started by Louis Goaziou recommenced. Headquarters in Larkspur Colorado was established in 1916. Within a few years, the mortgage of the property was paid off. The administrative building in Larkspur was built between 1921–1924 in order to replace the first building, which had become too small. In 1922 the potash mines in Colorado went bankrupt and this led to about 100 Italian members of Le Droit Humain losing their jobs. Despite their real interest for the building of Larkspur, many of these miners felt they had no option but to leave Masonry.[18] In addition to these departures, an economic downturn have taken hold in North American. It was no longer possible, through lack of funds, to realize the initial project to construct, next door to the administrative offices at Larkspur, an orphanage and a home for the elderly. However Louis Goaziou's hard effort to achieve these goals were not successful. With the coming of the Great Depression, membership went into steep decline, which did not recover until after World War II, in the time of his successor, Edith Armour.
Other Federations and Jurisdictions...
Africa - Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo and Tunisia.
Asia - Israel, Japan, Lebanon.
Australia - Brisbane, The Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Daylesford, Adelaide.
Europe - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Belgium - The Belgian Federation of Le Droit Humain (French: la Fédération Belge du Droit Humain; Dutch: Belgische Federatie van Le Droit Humain) is a Belgian cupola of masonic lodges which is accessible for men and women, and works in the 33 symbolic degrees of freemasonry. The first Belgian Lodge of Le Droit Humain was founded in 1912.[3][4]
Great Britain - The British Federation of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry Le Droit Humain was the first Federation to be established outside France, thus making the Order truly International. On 26 September 1902 Lodge Human Duty No. 6 was consecrated by the Grand Master, The V. Ills. S. Marie Martin 33°, assisted by Officers of the Supreme Council, including one of the Co-Founders of the Order, Georges Martin 33°. The first Master of the Lodge was Annie Besant, who would become the first Grand Commander of the British Federation.
The British Federation works the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite from the 1st to the 33rd degree inclusive. In addition the Allied Degrees of Mark, Royal Ark Mariner, Excellent Master, Holy Royal Arch of Jerusalem, Knights Templar and Royal Order of Scotland are worked.
North America - Canada, Mexico, and United States of America.
South America - Argentina, Bolivia Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Here is the History and founding of Le Droit Humain... the mixed gender freemason order that I have belonged to for over 9 years. So clandestine, so irregular... only because they admit women. In this era, the 21st century, is that even a reason anymore? And was it ever a real reason to exclude women? My order holds valid charters, older than many charters held by jurisdictions/lodges in the United States that call mine clandestine. Have these haters even looked up the history? probably not... but can you expect any less from someone that still thinks women don’t deserve enlightenment? no, you can’t.
