Greater East Switzerland

The Greater East of Switzerland was created on June 24, 1959, as a result of the release of three lodges from the Swiss Alpine Grand Lodge (AAR). These three boxes have become; two lodges in Lausanne , Evolution and Anderson, and a third lodge, in Zurich , the Flaming Star (Zum Flammenden Stern). And already all together they opposed the entry of the ASCL into the regular Freemasonry of the United Great Lodge of England . These three lodges then created a free, liberal, adogmatic and sovereign symbolic Masonic organization ^[2] , which was called the Greater East of Switzerland ^[3] .

Since 1961, the Greater East of Switzerland has been one of the eleven Masonic obediences that founded CLIPSAS when signing a memorandum in Strasbourg . VVSh still remains a member of this international adogmatic organization ^[4] .

In 1967, several lodges of the Swiss Alpine Grand Lodge also wanted to join the Great East of Switzerland. After entering the lodges "Mozart and Voltaire", "Loyalty and Freedom" and "Apollonius of Tyana", the Greater East of Switzerland took a new name - "The Great Lodge of Switzerland".

In November 1995, by the decision of the convention , the original name was returned - the Great East of Switzerland ^{[3] [1]} .

The Greater East of Switzerland is one of three Swiss liberal obediences, which is part of a group of mutual recognition, called "Liberal Freemasonry in Switzerland" (LMS). In this group, in addition to the VVS, are: the Swiss Federation of the Masonic Mixed International Order of Human Rights and the Great Women's Lodge of Switzerland ^[3] . VVS is exclusively male obedience ^[5] , but each lodge decides for itself whether to invite women or not.

In 2016, the great east of Switzerland united 500 masons in 18 lodges, of which 13 lodges work in French, 4 in German and 1 in Spanish. The vast majority of these boxes are in French-speaking Switzerland ^{[6] [1]} .

The great east of Switzerland does not impose either ritual or statute, each box can freely practice what it chooses. VVS lodges practice three degrees (apprentice, apprentice, master) of symbolic masonry. These rituals ^{[6] [1]} are:

• Ancient and accepted Scottish charter (5 lodges, in French);
• Schroeder's ritual (4 lodges, in German);
• Revised Scottish Statute (3 lodges, 2 in French and 1 in Spanish ^[7] );
• French charter (3 lodges, in French);
• Rucheon's ritual (2 lodges, in French), developed by François Ruchon (1897-1953), the Geneva historian of Freemasonry ^[8] ;
• Evolution Ritual (1 lodge with the same name ^[9] , in French).

• Great Swiss Lodge Alpina
• Swiss referendum on Freemasonry (1937)
• Lausanne Convention
• Liberal Freemasonry
• CLIPSAS

• Paul-Emile Chapuis, Le difficile chemin vers la fraternité , Editions des Voirons, Lausanne, 1987.
• Georges Kleinmann, La Franc-maçonnerie helvétique: II L'apport de la franc-maçonnerie suisse à la franc-maçonnerie libérale , in: Maçonnerie, maçonneries , Ed. par Jacques Marx, Ed. de l'Université de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 1990, p. 85-100.

Site of the Greater East of Switzerland