What was to evolve into the appellation “Imperator” has its source in a rare initiation had by H. Spencer Lewis in 1909 in the Belcastle castle ruin, where he was permitted to stay by the nephew and daughter of Jean Baptiste Gaston Gabriel Marie Louis Lacoste. He was given a bronze scarab by the nephew which he used to identify and signify his Office of Imperator.
A successor to the Office is chosen by personal selection and the transmission of the scarab is done in a private, personal ceremony which HSL did for his son Ralph M. Lewis in 1924.
In June 1986, Gary L. Stewart was transmitted the Office of Imperator of the Traditional and Initiatic Rosicrucian Movement in the same fashion. It is important to realize that the public installation ceremony written by RML is not part of the transmission process.
In August 2018, GLS started the process of selecting and initiating his successor as Imperator (and Knight Commander of the OMCE which he created in 1990). In February 2020, after the traditional preparatory process, the traditional heir was presented with the symbol of Office. The presentation of the symbol is not the final initiatory act, but as it transfers the authority of Office, it is the most important one. The final process occurred on November 19th, 2020, in a private ritual.
Such is our custom in the transmission of Office. It has no substitute.