It is nice to know that the universalism which is one of the characteristics of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, presided, so to speak, over its creation, since, if its origins are European (essentially, French), it is by crossing the Atlantic that the Scottish Eagle took flight. As the title of the 1802 Circular states, the Rite is for both hemispheres.

A school of spiritual and moral improvement, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, like all human organisations, has a history: although it was officially born in 1801, its beginnings go back, if not to the origins of modern Freemasonry, at least to its establishment in our country.

This history has not always been a long, quiet river: the events of "great history", human ambitions, and structural quarrels have punctuated this journey in many countries.

But always, there were men and wills to restore the Rite in its traditional purity and regularity.

After recalling the major event that was the creation of modern Freemasonry, a breakdown by period allows a better understanding of the history of the Rite

• 1717-1730: birth of modern Freemasonry;
• 1725-1761 : the dawn of Scottishism;
• 1761-1801: birth of the Rite;
• History of the Rite in France since 1804