Jean-Marie Ragon

Born at Bray-sur-Seine.[1] to a father who worked as a notary, he was initiated into freemasonry in 1804 at Bruges where his duties as paymaster in the imperial administration had led him. He was one of a team charged with the critical examination of dictionaries in the Journal grammatical and published a method of reading. He was also the editor of the first French masonic revue, Hermes[2]

Jean-Marie Ragon was initiated at the lodge Les amis du Nord at Bruges, at that time part of a department of France. He likewise belonged to the lodge Le Phœnix of the Grand Orient de France and to the Rite of Memphis-Misraim, as well as to the Order of the Temple of Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat. He founded and presided over the celebrated Parisian lodge Les Vrais Amis, which later became Les Trinosophes, which enjoyed, thanks to him, a certain renown. He occupied the post of Worshipful Master of this lodge for many years, from 1817 onwards.[2]

He was the author of a number of masonic works which have had a wide influence :

• Cours philosophique et interprétatif des initiations anciennes et modernes (1840) (available on Gallica) ;
• De la maçonnerie occulte et de l'initiation hermétique (1853), Maison de vie publisher, 2009, 171 p. ;
• Rituel d'Apprenti (1859), Éditions du Prieuré, 1992, 108 p. ;
• Rituel de Compagnon (1859), Éditions du Prieuré, 1992, 69 p. ;
• Rituel du Maître (1859), Éditions du Prieuré, 1992, 80 p. ;
• Orthodoxie maçonnique (1853), Cercle des amis de la Bibliothèque initiatique, 1972, 414 p. "pdf" (PDF). ;
• Rituel d'une pompe funèbre maçonnique, Equinoxis, 2014, 21 p. ;
• Rituel de la maçonnerie forestière (1860), Editions du Prieuré, 1993, 48 p. ;
• perhaps Le Livre rouge, Lavigne, 1842, 144 p.