s--that of the Lotus, founded in 1881, and
situated in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, which has in turn created the
lodges of St James, 1884, and of St Julian, 1889. The Lotus itself was
preceded "by the organisation of some Areopagites of the Kadosch Grade
of the French Rite and of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite," who
practised theurgy under the direction of Ragon and Eliphas Levi, both of
whom are represented as given over, body and soul, to all the practices
of lawless diabolism, the latter being apparently the leader, after
whose death the association met only infrequently, until it was revived
by Phileas Walder, the friend, as we have already seen, of Albert Pike.
It was he who imported the New and Reformed Palladium from America into
France, and, assembling the disciples of Levi, founded the Mother-Lodge
of the Lotus.

The ritual obtained by Leo Taxil was printed in Latin and English, with
an interleaved French version in manuscript. As presented by its
discoverer, there is no doubt that it is an execrable production,
involving the practice in open lodge of obscenity, diabolism, and
sacrilege. Passing over the first three grades, and beginning "at the
point of bifurcation," we find it stated in the ritual of the fourth
degree of Elect that the New and Reformed Palladium has been instituted
"to impart a new force to the traditions of high-grade Masonry," that
the Palladium which gives its name to the order was presented to the
fathers of the order by Eblis himself, that it is now at Charleston, and
that Charleston is the first supreme Council of the globe. Thus it will
be seen that the Palladian ritual confuses the Palladium Order with the
Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite. For the rest, the legend of the fourth
degree is the first part of what is termed a blasphemous life of Jesus,
representing Baal-Zeboub as his ancestor, Joseph as his father,
according to physical generation, and Mirzam as his mother, who is
highly honoured as the parent of many other children. Adonai is the
principle of evil, and Eblis, otherwise Lucifer, the good God. But the
ritual of the fourth grade is innocent in its character when compared
with the abominations of the fifth degree of Templar-Mistress. The
central point of the ceremonial is the resurrection of Lazarus, which is
symbolically accomplished by the postulant suffering what is termed the
ordeal of the Pastos, that is to say, by means of public fornication.
The purpose of this