Traditional Egyptian Rite
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Our Traditional Egyptian Rite has its roots in the City of Naples, a city that is the omphalos of the Hermetic Sciences in the Mediterranean area.The city of Naples since its foundation has been closely linked to numerous forms of esotericism that came from Ancient Egypt through Hermeticism and Philosophical doctrines, corroborated with Kabbalah.
Naples was also the Athanor, were the most important structured forms of Freemasonry in the Bourbon Kingdom was generated. The High Degrees system took shape and grew, which generates a profound change in the thought of the Di Sangro.
Don Raimondo de Sangro, Prince of San Severo, was the greatest expression of the Hermetic Thought of the 1700, in the Kingdom of Naples and one of the most illustrious thinkers in Europe. His research, dictated by his multifaceted speculative acumen, led him to move from Alchemy to Holy Science, passing through a significant path in Freemasonry which soon designated him at the help of the prestigious Neapolitan Masonry with the High Dignity of Grand Master. In fact Grand Master of the First Regular masonic Lodge, historically attested and constituted in Italy as early as 1728, the "Lodge of Perfect Union", which in its emblem is carried naturally, Egyptian symbols such as the Pyramid, the Sphinx and the Radiant Sun at noon, together with the Moon and the Masonic Columns.
This fertile humus of knowledge, induced the Price to create within his Lodge of Perfect Union, better known as the "Di Sangro" Lodge which adopted the High Degree System of Scottish Freemasonry. At that time actually there were three Lodge in Naples: Di Sangro, Carafa and Moncada, who took their names from the Venerable Master who directed them. The Lodge of Raimondo de Sangro had 280 brothers, including in the list the most illustrious names of the Kingdom of Naples. The Grand Master, on December 10, 1747, in his Palace, created an "Internal Circle" from which they will come to life the Arcana Arcanorum, identifying the Brothers that were more ahead in the path of Royal Art, selecting them among Aristocratic Freemasons and belonging to the higher ranks of the military hierarchy, together with exponents of the High Nobility.The "Inner Circle" of the Traditional Egyptian Rite, met confidential in the Avito Palazzo del Principe di Vico San Domenico Maggiore.
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This "Initiatory Cenacle", which united the best Hermetists of the Kingdom, took the distinctive title "Rosa d' Ordine Magno" and was intended for those of Hermetic notions, aimed at practicing a structured form of strong Operational Freemasonry. Some of the prominent figures that joined him was his eldest son Don Vincenzo di Sangro, Baron of Tschoudy, Don Paolo d'Aquino to name a few, including Don Gennaro Maria Carafa Cantelmo Stuart, Prince of Rocella, who brought his Templar descent as a dowry to the Egyptian Hermetic Association and received through the Jacobite transmissions of the Neapolitan branch of the Stuarts, linked by blood ties to Casata.
This restricted Masonic system, in its most complete and perfected form, will reach the present day over the centuries, continuously through Initiatory Transmission, maintaining the principles of the Traditional Egyptian Rite, which is expressed under the name "Ancient & Sovereign Egyptian Rite of Misraim & Memphis - Sovereign Grand Sanctuary of Ionian - Superum." The Prince, meant Freemasonry as a Path of Light and Palingenesis, this really prompted Don Raimondo di Sangro to free himself from a Path that was Masonic, ricked becoming merely associative, to create a strongly Operational and Transmutatory one, thus continuing his Great Magisterium within the Traditional Egyptian Rite. Together with his disciples the "Scala di Napoli" will give life to a traditional operative route, which has come to this day in an uninterrupted line of Initiation, which over time, will inspire multiple groups which will develop between Lyon, Bordeaux and Paris, otherwise known as the "Arcana Arcanorum"