Jean-Marie Ragon

Jean-Marie Ragon

Jean-Marie Ragon de Bettignies (born 25 February 1781 at Bray-sur-Seine, died 1862 at Bruges) was a Freemason, author and editor.

Biography[]

Jean-Marie Ragon was born at Bray-sur-Seine.^[1] His father worked as a notary. He was initiated into Freemasonry in 1804 at Bruges where his duties as paymaster in the imperial administration had led him. He worked as a member of a team charged with the critical examination of dictionaries for the Journal Grammatical and published a method of reading. He was also the editor of the first French Masonic revue, Hermes.^[2]

Masonic career[]

Jean-Marie Ragon was initiated into the lodge Les amis du Nord at Bruges, which at that time was administered as a department of France. He likewise belonged to the lodge Le Phœnix of the Grand Orient de France and to the Rite of Memphis-Misraim, as well as to the Order of the Temple of Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat. He founded and presided over the celebrated Parisian lodge Les Vrais Amis, which later became Les Trinosophes, which enjoyed, thanks to him, a certain renown. He occupied the post of Worshipful Master of this lodge for many years, from 1817 onwards.^[2]

According to Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, the editor of the , Ragon "laboured hard to distinguish between the actual history of various Masonic societies and that vague traditional history which to so great an extent refutes itself."^[3] Mackenzie also asserted that Ragon "supported the idea that Elias Ashmole was the main founder of Freemasonry in its present form."^[4]

The Mass and its Mysteries Compared to the Ancient Mysteries

Literary works[]

He was the author of a number of widely influential Masonic works :

• Cours philosophique et interprétatif des initiations anciennes et modernes (1840) (available on Gallica) ;
• De la maçonnerie occulte et de l'initiation hermétique (1853), Maison de vie publisher, 2009, 171 p. ;
• Rituel d'Apprenti (1859), Éditions du Prieuré, 1992, 108 p. ;
• Rituel de Compagnon (1859), Éditions du Prieuré, 1992, 69 p. ;
• Rituel du Maître (1859), Éditions du Prieuré, 1992, 80 p. ;
• Orthodoxie maçonnique (1853), Cercle des amis de la Bibliothèque initiatique, 1972, 414 p. "pdf" (PDF). ;
• Rituel d'une pompe funèbre maçonnique, Equinoxis, 2014, 21 p. ;
• Rituel de la maçonnerie forestière (1860), Editions du Prieuré, 1993, 48 p. ;
• Perhaps Le Livre rouge, Lavigne, 1842, 144 p.
• La Messe et ses mystères comparés aux mystères anciens, ou Complément de la science initiatique, 1844, 468 p. ;
• Edition : Paris : Éd. Télètes , 2000 Tuileur general de la Franc-Maçonnerie,;
• Notice Historique sur le Calendrier, 1842, 48 p.[1] ;

Literary works translated into English[]

• The Mass and its Mysteries Compared to the Ancient Mysteries 2011, 423 p. ;
• Short Treatise on (Modes of Use of) the Calendar, 2017, 100 p. ;

References[]

This Freemasonry-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t