The French name of the society is *Académie des Vraies Maçons*. Founded at Montpelier, France, by Dom Pernetty in 1778, the Academy was focused on instructions in Hermetic Science, developed through six Degrees:

1. The True Mason
2. The True Mason in the Right Way
3. Knight of the Golden Key
4. Knight of Iris
5. Knight of the Argonauts
6. Knight of the Golden Fleece

The Degrees thus conferred constituted the Philosophic Scotch Rite, which was the system adopted by the Academy. It later changed its name to the Russo-Swedish Academy, which suggests a connection with the Alchemical Chapters existing in Russia and Sweden at that time.

The entirely Hermetic character of the Academy of True Masons is evident from a few paragraphs cited by Clavel (page 172, third edition, 1844) from a discourse by Goyer de Jumilly at the installation of an Academy in Martinique. The orator said: “To seize the graver of Hermes to engrave the doctrines of natural philosophy on your columns; to call Flamel the Philalete, the Cosmopolite, and our other masters to aid in unveiling the mysterious principles of the occult sciences - these, Illustrious Knights, appear to be the duties imposed on me by the ceremony of your installation. The fountain of Count Trevisan, the pontifical water, the peacock's tail, are phenomena with which you are familiar.”