Overview
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is one of two principal appendant systems in English-language Freemasonry (the York Rite is the other). It confers a sequence of additional degrees, numbered four through thirty-three, that elaborate on the moral and philosophical themes presented in the Craft (first three) degrees.
The Rite is governed in each jurisdiction by a Supreme Council. The Mother Supreme Council was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1801, and the United States today is divided into a Northern Masonic Jurisdiction (headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts) and a Southern Jurisdiction (headquartered in Washington, D.C.). Supreme Councils in other countries operate by treaty with these and one another.
Origins & history
The Rite’s degree structure derives from the Rite of Perfection, a twenty-five-degree system circulating in mid-eighteenth-century France, which was carried to the French colonies in the Caribbean and from there to Charleston in the late 1700s. The Mother Supreme Council, formally constituted in Charleston on 31 May 1801 by John Mitchell and Frederick Dalcho, expanded the Rite to its present thirty-three degrees and issued the foundational Constitutions that have governed the Rite’s organisation ever since.
The degrees were substantially rewritten in the United States by Albert Pike during his tenure as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction (1859–1891). Pike’s revisions, published privately as Morals and Dogma in 1871, gave the American Rite the philosophical character it has retained, although Pike himself stated the work was not to be regarded as authoritative on points of doctrine.
Beliefs & practices
The Scottish Rite degrees are presented as a continuous philosophical curriculum drawing on biblical, classical, and chivalric narrative. The first set (4° through 14°) is termed the Lodge of Perfection and concerns the rebuilding of the Temple. The Chapter of Rose Croix (15° through 18°) introduces specifically Christian and Hermetic material in the Northern Jurisdiction or more comparative-religious framings in the Southern. The Council of Kadosh (19° through 30°) treats philosophical and chivalric themes. The 31° and 32° prepare the candidate for the honorary 33°, conferred by the Supreme Council on members elected in recognition of distinguished service.
Membership requires existing Master Mason standing in a regular Craft lodge; the Rite does not initiate from outside Freemasonry.
Sources
- Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
- A Bridge to Light
- Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide