Spartacus wrote:


Baigent et al claim that a copy of the P.E.Z was known to be in
possession of the Memphis & Misraim Lodge that Papus was involved with.
Does anyone known where or how Baigent et al acquired this supposed
information?

Probably James Webbs "The Occult Establishment", Chapter 4.

The Memphis Misraim that Papus became involved with existed almost
entirely on paper, and was traded to him by John Yarker, who also gave
similar status to Theodore Reuss and Aleister Crowley. Papus had to
first be made a mason in the Swedenborgian Rite also from Yarker, in
order to take charge of his Memphis Misraim titles. None of bodies are
like the Grand Orient of Masonry, a couple of dozen people.

Papus and his fellow esotericist/spiritualist Phillipe Nizier cosied up
to the Romanovs by claiming that they were head of the Spiritualists in
France (a more headless association couldn't be imagined). In the
process they interacted with several Anti-semitic figures, who are
guessed to have been associated with the P.E.Z. by James Webb in "The
Occult Establishment". They only managed to incite the paranoia of the
Russian Secret Police foreign section Okhrana chief Pyotr Alexandrovich
Ratchkovsky, who followed them back to France and badgered them with
phony accusations that eventually lead to the death of Phillipe.

One branch of Memphis Misraim, operating under the Grand Orient of
France (there are two others in the same Orient system) claim that they
took possession of a large collection of Masonic texts and documents
that were seized by the Nazis during WWII, and later fell into the hands
of the Russians. There have been all sorts of claims of what it
contained, and it is likely that some esoteric pretenders are placing
items into it as well. A copy of the P.E.Z. wouldn't be difficult to
find in any large older library.

Malgwyn