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"That I May Achieve Enlightenment": Women’s Masonic Activity and Rituals in Sweden 1776–1803
Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Society, Culture and Identity (SKI).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7383-9857
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This lecture explores the emergence and development of women’s masonic activity in Sweden in the late-eighteenth through early-nineteenth century, arguing that mixed and female masonic orders enabled alternative conceptions of femininity in early modernity. While the Anderson Constitutions of 1723 bars women from initiation, the mid-eighteenth century witnessed the establishment of several mixed orders inspired by masonry in Europe. In France, female family members of male masons were initiated into a parallel degree system via so-called Adoption lodges from the 1740s on. Adoption lodges spread across mainland Europe through the second half of the eighteenth century, attracting women from the highest strata of society, including at the Swedish royal court. The starting point for the lecture is 1776, marking the initiation of Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, by her husband, Duke Charles (later Charles XIII), the end point coinciding with the banning of all secret societies at the Swedish court in 1803. I will discuss the activities and grade symbolism of the women’s lodge of Adoption led by Duchess Charlotte, as well as the short-lived, co-masonic lodge Gula Rosen (Eng. “The Yellow Rose”). Though primarily available to elite women, I will argue that women’s activity in mixed and female masonic orders challenged early-modern gender norms, and that grade symbolism within these orders put forth a positive view of women’s spiritual and intellectual striving and capacity.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
Keywords [en]
freemasonry, Illuminism, Enlightenment, esotericism, femininity
National Category
History of Religions
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-77336OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-77336DiVA, id: diva2:1970028
Conference
Religion: Concealed and Revealed, Turku/Åbo, June 9-12, 2025
Available from: 2025-06-16 Created: 2025-06-16 Last updated: 2025-06-17Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
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  • de-DE
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  • en-US
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  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
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  • Other locale
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  • asciidoc
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