Finland
Le Droit Humain is active in Finland. Their website seems to list 14 lodges. (The small logos on the bottom of each page.)
The Scandinavian Federation of Le Droit Humain is the Scandinavian Federation of the International Masonic Order Le Droit Humain.
The Order was first established in the Nordic countries when the Lodge Yggrdrasil was founded in Kristiania in 1912 [by James Wedgwood from the UK]. The lodge did not survive the Second World War. In 1923, Lodge Bifrost was also founded in Trondhjem, but it is currently not active.
In 1917 the first lodge was formed in Denmark, and in 1918 in Sweden. Iceland and Finland soon followed, and today have the largest membership in the Nordic region.
In Norway, a Masonic group was established in Stavanger in 1979 with 3 members. In 1981 the number of members had increased to 7, and in the same year the Lodge Isis was formally inaugurated and received its charter from the Supreme Council of the Order in Paris. In September 2007, the Lodge had 40 members.
The Lodge Jotunheim in Drammen was founded in November 2017 as a triangle under the Lodge Parsifal [Denmark]. Jotunheim Lodge was assigned its own lodge number in January 2019. In August of the same year, the lodge was officially inaugurated. The lodge has 15 members.
In Sweden, there is a lodge in Stockholm. In Denmark, there is Lodge Odin in Copenhagen, Lodge Hermes in Aarhus and Lodge Parsifal in Aalborg.
Wikipedia Norway (11 April 2023)
Ruusu-Risti (Rosy Cross) was founded in 1920 by Pekka Arvast as a split-off of the Theosophical Society. Later a split-off of Le Droit Humain was incorporated to form “the Masonic core” of the organisation. They seem to have three lodges working with a revised Dharma ritual in which elements of the national epic Kalevala have been written.
Grand Orient de Finlande was founded in 2017 with the help of the Grand Orient de Estonia and is a mixed gender organisation.
Update June 2022. The website is gone. The organisation could be dismantled.
Update December 2023, quoting a responder:
Grand Orient of Finland does not officially exist, as it is just a generic term for the Grand Orient of Estonia chartered lodges in Finland. Grand Orient of Estonia is chartered by Grand Orient of Belgium and Grand Orient of Austria, so the lodges operating in Finland are legal and fully authorised.
Instead of a website, the focus has been on the advancement of existing members, as well as the translation and printing of rituals. Secondly, the necessary information can be found on the Grand Orient of Estonia website.
Thirdly – sad but true – a dedicated website only provokes the mentally ill and other conspiracy theorists, taking up everyone’s time in vain.
Last month we celebrated the sixth anniversary of the Grand Orient in Finland.
There appears to be an organisation working in Finland with the name “Svenkska Kvinno-Frimurarorden“, or ‘Swedish women’s Freemasons order. They are listed as having been active since 1946, having around 45 members and work with the “Swedish Rite”. I have found no website, nor found presence in Sweden.
A member of the Finish Le Droit Humain wrote me:
Föreningen Ingri r.f. is a Swedish-speaking, for women only (not mixed) Masonic organization. The founders of the organization were originally members of the LDH (Phoenix Lodge no. 742). The rituals of Föreningen Ingri are based on the rituals of the English and Scottish grand lodges (LDH’s Dharma workings and higher degrees). The association was registered on November 12, 1947.
They don’t have a website. http://www.uskonnot.fi/yhteisot/view.php?orgId=664
Maria Ordenen. This seems to be a Freemasonry-like (but not Masonic) organisation such as the Weavers are one in the Netherlands. Founded in Norway in 1916, working with seven grades with a more feminine symbolism and a distinctly Christian tone (as Freemasonry in Scandinavia has). There are 41 lodges in Norway, 15 in Sweden, 6 in Denmark, 1 in Iceland, 2 in Finland and 2 in Germany.
In Finland there is also the Swedish women masonic order wich uses a ritual that is based on the Swedish rite.
Do they have a website? What are they called?
Svenska kvinno-frimurarorden.
Dont know of any homepage for them.
They are mentioned in https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://issuu.com/svenskafrimurareorden/docs/frimuraren_nummer_4_2017&ved=2ahUKEwiU96rn4KHmAhXpmIsKHZvOAUIQFjALegQIBxAJ&usg=AOvVaw0g2NMB-5Og8hQ29hJEjsNW at pages 45-47.
Interesting. The text says “Orden inledde arbetet ar 1946”, but I can’t find almost nothing about them. Apparently no website or anything.
Grand Orient de Finlande has been always clandestine organisation with no authorisation from anyone. It’s current status seems to be deceased. The website is down and it has no functions.
That’s an example of the thin ice I’m on concerning this website. I try to avoid obvious scam organisations, but on the other hand, I don’t want to meddle with the whole recognition issue. I know (Grand) lodges that are not recognised by any other, but still do good work. This non-recognition in these cases are usually personal rather than that there’s something wrong with the Freemasonry of the (Grand) lodge.
In any case. I don’t check every link too often, so thanks for letting me know the Grand Orient de Finlande website is gone. I’ve edited the info a bit and if there’s still no new website in a while, I’ll remove this GL from the page.
Not sure if Ruusu-Risti freemsonry could be recogniced as freemasonry. It works only one lodge in Finland and has been built by single person that was exiled from LeDroit Humaine. It does not have any recognition anywhere outside it’s own circe.
I try to avoid scam organisations, but I also avoid recognition issues. Difficult to judge sometimes. Even on its own, at first glance Ruusu is ‘Masonic enough’ for these pages.