The Portuguese Rite
Consecrated in 2014, the Portuguese Rite renews the Masonic Tradition with the spiritual mission of the Lusitanian soul: to awaken the conscience, reintegrate the Being and serve the Fifth Empire with Wisdom and Light.
The Portuguese Rite was consecrated in 2014. If something is Good, Just and True, it may have been written yesterday, but it has just as much value as something that was written centuries ago, as long as there is a criterion for assessing whether these things lead man towards the fullness of the human condition.
The Portuguese Rite could only have flourished now: it was essential to take root in a generation of great thinkers who have lit the way in recent centuries, such as Agostinho da Silva, Almada Negreiros, António Quadros, António Telmo, Cunha Leão, Dalila Pereira da Costa, Fernando Pessoa, Francisco de Holanda, Gilbert Durand, Jaime Cortesão, José Augusto Seabra, José Marinho, Lima de Freitas, Luís de Camões, Manuel J. Gandra, Maria Gabriela Llansol, Natália Correia, Nuno Gonçalves, Orlando Vitorino, Paulo Borges, Pinharanda Gomes, Raul Leal, René Guénon, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Teixeira de Pascoaes. Only now do we have the spiritual and intellectual maturity to give it body and soul, projecting Portugal as the beacon of a new Initiatic Tradition, an underground and sacred reality. Portugal is the spiritual center of the future world.
The High Degrees of the Portuguese Rite advocate :
A Spiritualist Pantheism (as Einstein said: the religion of the future will be cosmic without theological dogmas that imprison us).
The driving force behind this “Mountain Order” is Spiritual Freedom, Science and Wisdom.
A language as an instrument of communication. The Portuguese language.
A Path of Awareness, Wisdom and Service
Origin and Purpose
Consecrated in 2014, the Portuguese Rite was born for this new era. While maintaining the essence of Freemasonry, it renews it with the spiritual mission of the Lusitanian soul.
Spiritual Mission
The Portuguese Rite is a reflection of Portuguese Universalist Humanism. It advocates an awakening of consciousness through inner evolution, founded on Spiritual Freedom, Science and Wisdom.
Fifth Empire
Camões prepares the mythical ground. Vieira offers a prophetic reading. Pessoa transforms it into a philosophical mystery. The Fifth Empire is a return to Paradise lost: a reintegration of beings, Universal Brotherhood.
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}A Rite to Reintegrate the Being and the World
“The religion of the future will be cosmic, without dogmas that imprison.”
The Time of the Fifth Empire
Jaime Cortesão explains that Portuguese Universalist Humanism is a reflection of the morphological richness of the Portuguese, who are capable of being EVERYTHING in EVERY way, because the truth cannot be in just one thing.
The Isle of Loves is the ultimate goal for the Portuguese. It is the 5th Empire. The total liberation of Man from Time and Space. It is not a physical place, but a place where Man and Nature will fully merge.
The moment when each of us will be able to be what we are (a poet on the loose, like God the Creator), where the beautiful adventure of Human Fraternity and Universal Love will exist. It is the return to the lost Paradise or the Reintegration of the Beings or the conquest of the Golden Age of Humanity.
Men will now be able to hear the Voice of the Goddess.
The purpose of the High Degrees of the Portuguese Rite is, like Fernando Pessoa’s vision of the Fifth Empire, universal in nature and the ultimate goal of the Portuguese Rite path is the Expansion of Consciousness.
As the poet wrote in his famous poem, “it will take EVERYONE, EVERYONE, EVERYONE.”
This inclusive and transcendent vocation means that the High Degrees are open to ALL Master Masons, of ALL Obediences, without distinction. Because only with the presence of ALL can the greater purpose of spiritual union and collective consciousness that the Portuguese Rite proposes be fulfilled.
Excerpts from the poem “5º Império” by Fernando Pessoa:
“For the work that must be promised
To our winged effort itself,
I call everyone without knowing
(It’s Time!) here!
EVERYONE, EVERYONE!
The hour passes,
Call them here, O ethereal sound
That vibrates on fire!
Glosam, secret, high mottos,
Given in the language of Mystery –
Not soldiers, but priests,
Of the Fifth Empire”.
I. The New Age. Freemasonry. The Portuguese Rite
Raising the Ancient Fire for the New World.The Portuguese Rite does not create a new Freemasonry, it simply renews it, keeping its essence but updating it with the ideals of this new era.
New Age Freemasonry (not just that of the new century) must understand these changes and be aligned with them at the risk of missing a unique opportunity if it doesn’t do so. It must refocus on its original mission and therefore make its way back to the beginning.
The Portuguese Rite was born for this new era.
As Pessoa said, first by Punishment, now by Mission.
The Portuguese Rite contains within itself the ability to express, in a concise and meaningful way, the uniqueness of the Portuguese spirit, reflecting its spiritual dimension and its role in unveiling a more harmonious sense of globalization – a process which, in its current form, has shown itself to be unbalanced. This rite thus constitutes a gift of incalculable value to Universal Freemasonry.
It advocates an awakening of consciousness through evolution in the different Masonic degrees of the Rite, anchored in the myths of the history of Portugal, which in a similar way to other myths of other Rites is Universal, but in our case also eschatological and salvific.
We are in the INTERREGNO, the space between realms, in other words the fog. A moment of inversion and darkness.
According to the Portuguese prophet, Portugal will play a key role in safeguarding Europe.
The Portuguese Rite is more interested in the enigmatic verticality of cosmic Man than in the popular horizontality of the human part. The imperative need for self-knowledge is the foundation of self-realization or self-redemption.
For those who don’t know the Portuguese Rite, allow me to make an analogy with one of the oldest Rites practiced in Freemasonry, the Rectified Scottish Rite or Rectified Scottish Regime, aka RER.
Likewise, for example, the RER aspires to the Reintegration of Beings, one of the fundamental pillars of the esoteric thought of Martinez de Pasqually, a theory with a strong influence on the tradition of Christian occultism, which says that the spiritual mission of human beings is to return to their original state of purity and union with the Divine – in other words, to reintegrate themselves into the Unity.
The Portuguese Rite is inspired by a spiritual movement that began around 900 years ago, where the conceptualization of the Fifth Empire originated, the Empire of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Fifth Empire, which is nothing more than Universal Brotherhood, an eschatological and salvific Resurrection or Redemption of the Human Being, which is the identity process of the Lusitanian soul.
The 5th Empire and the Empire of theHoly Spirit are concepts deeply rooted in the Portuguese spiritual and cultural tradition, with prophetic, mystical and messianic roots originating in the 12th century.
The origin of this philosophical-spiritual perspectivegoes back tothe prophetic thinking of figures such as Joaquim de Fiore, Camões, Bandarra, Padre António Vieira, Fernando Pessoa, Agostinho da Silva or Eduardo Lourenço.
It is a metaphysical and initiatory vision of human existence.
II. The Portuguese Rite and Spirituality
Where Tradition rises in Spirit.Spirituality today is not confined to retreats or isolated reflections. It has to be done collectively, in an egregore, forming a Spiritual Monad, a Universal Fraternity that brings together “all the separate embers of a fire, to light the Fire of Love”.
The Portuguese Rite aims to awaken inward.
That’s why, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said,
“There isn’t just one religion, there are hundreds. Spirituality is only one. Religions are” tollbooths “for Spirituality. Religion is a cause of division. Spirituality is the cause of unity. Religion seeks you out so that you believe. Spirituality you have to look for. Religion follows the precepts of a holy book. Spirituality seeks the sacred in all books. Religion dreams of glory and paradise. Spirituality makes us experience glory and paradise here and now.”
We are in a phase of change and differentiation of energy, where Evil is more Evil and Good is more Good, because it is on the darkest nights that the stars shine the brightest.
To be Spiritual in the 21st Century is to bring Spirituality to Materiality. It means being a Man of Action.
In a world of rapid transformation and where the most fundamental principles that have always governed us are disappearing, the current relevance of a more advanced system within the Portuguese Rite is notorious.
Divine mysticism will act in the form of human ethics. This is why self-knowledge is the root of all self-realization. Where the vertical root is missing, the horizontal branches cannot grow.
Ethical action is an inevitable consequence of mystical being. Action must be the outflow of being! Ethical living must be the spontaneous fruit of mystical awareness!
III. The Portuguese Rite and the 5th Empire
Where Being and Destiny Meet.Camões prepares the mythical ground. Vieira gives it a prophetic interpretation. Pessoa transforms it into philosophical mystery and future hope.
Portugal, in its deepest soul, sees itself not just as a country – but as a mystery, a mission and a living prophecy.
In this sense, the Portuguese Rite aims to be a bridge between East and West, science and faith, matter and spirit.
The 5th Empire is a profound synthesis of spirituality, philosophy, science and universal culture. To truly understand it requires an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach – where knowledgemerges rather than divides.
The 5th Empire is an Empire of Integration:
#ScienceWithSpirit
#FaithWithReason
#IndividualWithCosmos
The Time of the Fifth Empire
The High Degrees of the Portuguese Rite have four dimensions: spiritual, scientific, cultural and meta-science (science is the way to reach God through reason).
We will move from Believing to Understanding.
This is why its 9 High Degrees (the Portuguese Rite has 12 Degrees: 3 + 9) will cover fundamental spiritual and scientific areas of study.
It is more important than ever to be a Freemason of Thought, Word and Deed.
Nowadays we can’t just do Initiations, Passages to Companions and Exaltations to Masters. It is essential to seek out the true meaning of the Symbols, Words and Allegories that we use in our rituals and in the Order’s Ceremonies.
The true Alchemist doesn’t turn Lead into Gold, but Thought into Energy.
João Pestana Dias
Sovereign Imperator
Grade 11 and last of the High Degrees of the Portuguese Rite