OPEN KEYNOTE BY DR. Manon Hedenborg White

Warmly welcome to the open keynote by Dr. Manon Hedenborg White (Malmö University) on

“That I may achieve enlightenment”: Women’s masonic activity and rituals in Sweden 1776–1803

on Wednesday June 11, 2025, at 15.30-17.00 in Auditorium Aava A152, Arcanum, Arcanuminkuja 1, Åbo/Turku.

The keynote is part of the conference Religion: Concealed and Revealed organized by Centre for the Study of Christian Cultures (CSCC), Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture (DI) The Polin Institute for Theological Research.

Abstract

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.

Bio

Manon Hedenborg White is Associate Professor of History of Religions at Malmö University. Her research focuses on esotericism, new religious movements, and spirituality with a particular emphasis on issues of gender, sexuality, and authority. She is the author of The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism (Oxford University Press, 2020), co-editor of Esotericism and Deviance (Brill, 2023), and author of more than 20 research articles and book chapters. She is co-director of the Esotericism, Gender, and Sexuality Network (ESOGEN) and serves on the board of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.