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Scottish Rite Degrees
By Chuck Anway, Wise Master
The Degrees of the Scottish Rite are one-act plays often staged with
costume, scenery, special effects, and the full rigging of any production.
Their purpose is to examine different philosophies, ancient religions, and
systems of ethics. Through all of these, people have tried to answer
certain universal questions. The Degrees of the Rite do not tell a person
what he should think about these questions. Instead, they tell him about
what great thinkers and civilizations of the past have thought, and they
try to create a situation in which the candidate or Brother can gain
insight. Agreeing with Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth
living, the Rite helps with this self-examination by providing reference
points.
Theatre is the oldest known means of teaching,
especially of teaching abstract ideas. It was one of the principal means of
instruction in the Middle Ages as well as in ancient Greece and Rome.
Masonry borrows the techniques of theatre to make its lessons more
impressive and to aid the candidate in forming the beginnings of what it is
hoped will be a lifelong pattern of study and thought. Most of the Degrees
are set in ancient Israel because it is from the legends surrounding King
Solomon's Temple that Masonry takes many of its parables and lessons.
Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe also serve as Degree settings.
Almost every Master Mason who is afforded an
opportunity to petition for the Scottish Rite Degrees naturally raises the
question in his mind, "Why should I take the Scottish Rite
Degrees?" It is a fair and quite appropriate question for him to ask
as it is of utmost importance that the prospective initiate have a clear
and definite understanding of what the Rite stands for and is endeavoring
to accomplish. Here are a few reasons.
The Scottish Rite Degrees give  us a sense of
historical values and standards. Today is the child of yesterday, and no
one can understand the significance of the epochal events that are shaking
the world unless he sees them from the vantage point of history. Out of the
crises of the past, man has discovered principles that are as solid as the
mountains, as enduring as the stars.
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The moral truths that prevailed in Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome are just as
valid, just as imperative in the digital 21st century. In his confidence in
the reality of these principles, man has built his faith in the permanent
value of moral truth. Here is to be found the basis of optimism, of faith
in the free institutions, and of confidence in a civilization resting on
ethical principles. No man can witness the Degrees of the Scottish Rite and
be either a cynic or a pessimist. They renew his faith in God, in man, and
in the process of history.
The
Scottish Rite Degrees put into picturesque but explicit language the civic
and social ideals implicit in the Blue Lodge Degrees. For centuries,
Freemasonry has been a tremendous force for enlightenment, freedom, and
social progress in Europe and in the Americas. It was neither caprice nor mere
prejudice that caused the Nazis and Fascists to proscribe Freemas onry. Why did
the Nazi oppressors hate Masonry? Why did they violate the sacred emblems
of the Craft? Why did they hunt down with ruthless cruelty our Masonic
leaders? Particularly, why did the totalitarians persecute "Masons of
all Degrees"? They knew that tyranny is threatened wherever a Masonic
Lodge or Temple exists.
Freemasonry
is a compelling and conquering spiritual force, and the reasons are
revealed in the Scottish Rite Degrees. Scottish Freemasonry is the foe of
intolerance, fanaticism, and superstition. It battles every form of racial
and sectarian prejudice and bigotry. It is a mighty exponent of freedom in
thought, religion, and government. Thus, the Scottish Rite is a rite of
instruction. It interprets the symbols and allegories of Masonry in the
light of history and philosophy using the words of the supreme prophets of
humanity, ceremonies of the great religions of the world, and significant
episodes from history to point the moral and adorn the tale.
The Scottish Rite makes application of the
doctrines of Freemasonry to every realm of human activity. The individual
Mason is taught to put into practice in his personal life and thought the
lessons learned in the Blue Lodge.
Socially, the Scottish Rite is Freemasonry
Militant, not in the sense of propaganda and agitation, nor by endorsing
specific causes or sponsoring particular political movements, but by
showing through illustrations from history and human evolution how the
Mason may make his influence felt for the principles of free thought, free
government, free education, and free religion. The Scottish Rite Mason is
the foe of intolerance, bigotry, and ignorance in all their forms. That is
what the Scottish Rite Degrees are all about.
The degrees of the Scottish Rite are divided into
six sections, originally there were seven, but the 15th and 16th Degrees
(originally a section to itself called the Council of Princes of Jerusalem)
were merged with the Chapter of Rose Croix.
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