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The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a rite within the broader context of Freemasonry. It is the most widely practiced Rite in the world.^[1][2][3] In some parts of the world, and in the Droit Humain, it is a concordant body and oversees all degrees from the 1st to 33rd degrees, while in other areas, a Supreme Council oversees the 4th to 33rd degrees.

It is most commonly referred to as the Scottish Rite. Sometimes, as in England and Australia, it is called the Rose Croix,^[4][5] though this is just one of its degrees, and is not to be confused with other Masonic related Rosicrucian societies such as the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Its name may vary slightly in various jurisdictions and constitutions. For example, the English and Irish Constitutions^[6] omit the word Scottish.^[7][8]

The Scottish Rite stands as a full Rite of Freemasonry and not an appendant body.^[9] Master Masons from other rites may, in some countries, join the Scottish Rite's upper degrees starting from the 4th degree due to its popularity.^[10][11] This Rite builds upon the ethical teachings and philosophy offered in the Craft (or Blue) Lodge through dramatic presentations of its individual degrees. It is crucial to note that the term "Blue Lodge" refers to the first three degrees of Masonry, regardless of the Rite being practiced. In the Scottish Rite system, the first three degrees are considered Blue Lodge degrees rather than "Red Lodge".^[12]

History

Scots Master Degree

There are records of lodges conferring the degree of "Scots Master" or "Scotch Master" as early as 1733.^[13][14][15] A lodge at the Devil (Tavern), Temple Bar in London is the earliest such lodge on record.^[16] Other lodges include a lodge at Bath in 1735, and the French lodge, St. George de l'Observance No. 49 at Covent Garden in 1736. The references to these few occasions indicate that these were special meetings held for the purpose of performing unusual ceremonies, probably by visiting Freemasons.^[17]: 5 The Copiale cipher, dating from the 1740s^[18] says, "The rank of a Scottish master is an entirely new invention..."^[19]

Myth of Jacobite origins

French writers Jean-Marie Ragon (1781–1862) and Emmanuel Rebold, in their Masonic histories, first claimed that the high degrees were created and practiced in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning^[20] at Edinburgh, which is entirely false.^[21]

Estienne Morin

A French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin, had been involved in high-degree Masonry in Bordeaux since 1744 and, in 1747, founded an "Écossais" lodge (Scottish Lodge) in the city of Le Cap Français, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. Over the next decade, high-degree Freemasonry was carried by French men to other cities in the Western hemisphere. The high-degree lodge at Bordeaux warranted or recognized seven Écossais lodges there.

In Paris in the year 1761, a patent was issued to Estienne Morin, dated 27 August, creating him "Grand Inspector for all parts of the New World". This Patent was signed by officials of the Grand Lodge at Paris and appears to have originally granted him power over the craft lodges only, and not over the high, or "Écossais", degree lodges. Later copies of this Patent appear to have been embellished, probably by Morin, to improve his position over the high-degree lodges in the West Indies.^{[17]: 31–45}

Morin returned to the West Indies in 1762 or 1763, to Saint-Domingue. Based on his new Patent, he assumed powers to constitute lodges of all degrees, spreading the high degrees throughout the West Indies and North America. Morin stayed in Saint-Domingue until 1766, when he moved to Jamaica. At Kingston, Jamaica, in 1770, Morin created a "Grand Chapter" of his new Rite, the Grand Council of Jamaica. Morin died in 1771 and was buried in Kingston.^[22]: 16

Rite of 25 Degrees

Early writers long believed that a "Rite of Perfection" consisting of 25 degrees, itself the predecessor of the Scottish Rite, had been formed in Paris by a high-degree council calling itself "The Council of Emperors of the East and West". The title "Rite of Perfection" first appeared in the Preface to the "Grand Constitutions of 1786", the authority for which is now known to be faulty.^{[17]: 75–84} The highest degree in this rite was the "Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret".

It is now generally accepted that this Rite of twenty-five degrees was compiled by Estienne Morin and is more properly called "The Rite of the Royal Secret", or "Morin's Rite".^[17]: 37

However, it was known as "The Order of Prince of the Royal Secret" by the founders of the Scottish Rite, who mentioned it in their "Circular throughout the two Hemispheres"^[23] or "Manifesto", issued on December 4, 1802.^[24]

Henry Andrew Francken and his manuscripts

Henry Andrew Francken, a naturalized French subject born as Hendrick Andriese Franken of Dutch origin, was most important in assisting Morin in spreading the degrees in the New World. Morin appointed him Deputy Grand Inspector General (DGIG) as one of his first acts after returning to the West Indies. Francken worked closely with Morin and, in 1771, produced a manuscript book giving the rituals for the 15th through the 25th degrees. Francken produced at least four such manuscripts. In addition to the 1771 manuscript, there is a second which can be dated to 1783; a third manuscript, of uncertain date, written in Francken's handwriting, with the rituals 4–25°, which was found in the archives of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Lancashire in Liverpool in approximately 1984; and a fourth, again of uncertain date, with rituals 4–24°, which was known to have been given by H. J. Whymper to the District Grand Lodge of the Punjab and rediscovered about 2010.^[25] Additionally, there is a French manuscript dating from 1790 to 1800 which contains the 25 degrees of the Order of the Royal Secret with additional detail, as well as three other Hauts Grades rituals; its literary structure suggests it is derived from a common source as the Francken Manuscripts.^[26]

Scottish Perfection Lodges

A Loge de Parfaits d' Écosse was formed on 12 April 1764 at New Orleans, becoming the first high-degree lodge on the North American continent. Its life, however, was short, as the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded New Orleans to Spain, and the Catholic Spanish crown had been historically hostile to Freemasonry. Documented Masonic activity ceased for a time. It did not return to New Orleans until the late 1790s, when French refugees from the revolution in Saint-Domingue settled in the city.^[22]: 16

Francken traveled to New York in 1767 where he granted a Patent, dated 26 December 1767, for the formation of a Lodge of Perfection at Albany, which was called "Ineffable Lodge of Perfection". This marked the first time the Degrees of Perfection (the 4th through the 14th) were conferred in one of the Thirteen British colonies in North America. This Patent, and the early minutes of the Lodge, are extant and are in the archives of Supreme Council, Northern Jurisdiction.^[22]: 16 The minutes of Ineffable Lodge of Perfection reveal that it ceased activity on December 5, 1774. It was revived by Giles Fonda Yates about 1820 or 1821, and came under authority of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction until 1827. That year it was transferred to the Supreme Council, Northern Jurisdiction.

While in New York City, Francken also communicated the degrees to Moses Michael Hays, a Jewish businessman, and appointed him as a Deputy Inspector General. In 1781, Hays made eight Deputy Inspectors General, four of whom were later important in the establishment of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in South Carolina:

• Isaac Da Costa Sr., D.I.G. for South Carolina;
• Abraham Forst, D.I.G. for Virginia;
• Joseph M. Myers, D.I.G. for Maryland;
• Barend M. Spitzer, D.I.G. for Georgia.

Da Costa returned to Charleston, South Carolina, where he established the "Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection" in February 1783. After Da Costa's death in November 1783, Hays appointed Myers as Da Costa's successor. Joined by Forst and Spitzer, Myers created additional high-degree bodies in Charleston.^{[22]: 16–17}

Physician Hyman Isaac Long from the island of Jamaica, who settled in New York City, went to Charleston in 1796 to appoint eight French men; he had received his authority through Spitzer. These men had arrived as refugees from Saint-Domingue, where the slave revolution was underway that would establish Haiti as an independent republic in 1804. They organized a Consistory of the 25th Degree, or "Princes of the Royal Secret," which Masonic historian Brigadier ACF Jackson says became the first Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite.^{[17]: 66–68} According to Fox, by 1801, the Charleston bodies were the only extant bodies of the Rite in North America.^{[22]: 16–17}

Birth of the Scottish Rite – 1801

Although most of the thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite existed in parts of previous degree systems,^[27] the Scottish Rite did not come into being until the formation of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1801 at Shepheard's Tavern at the corner of Broad and Church Streets (the tavern had been the location of the founding of Freemasonry in South Carolina in 1754). The Founding Fathers of the Scottish Rite who attended became known as "The Eleven Gentlemen of Charleston" and included, John Mitchell, first Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Frederick Dalcho, Alexandre Francois Auguste de Grasse, Jean-Baptiste Marie de La Hogue, Thomas Bartholemew Bowen, Abraham Alexander, Emanuel de la Motta, Isaac Auld, Israel de Lieben, Moses Clava Levy, James Moultrie and Isaac Da Costa.

Da Costa in particular had been commissioned to establish Morin's Rite of the Royal Secret in other countries; he formed the constituent bodies of the Rite in South Carolina in 1783, which in 1801, became the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. All regular Scottish Rite bodies today derive their heritage from this body. Subsequently, other Supreme Councils were formed in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in 1802, in France in 1804, in Italy in 1805, and in Spain in 1811.^[28]

On May 1, 1813, an officer from the Supreme Council at Charleston initiated several New York Masons into the Thirty-third Degree and organized a Supreme Council for the "Northern Masonic District and Jurisdiction". On May 21, 1814, this Supreme Council reopened and proceeded to "nominate, elect, appoint, install and proclaim in due, legal and ample form" the elected officers "as forming the second Grand and Supreme Council...". Finally, the charter of this organization (written January 7, 1815) added, “We think the Ratification ought to be dated 21st day May 5815."^[29]

Officially, the Supreme Council, 33°, N.M.J. dates itself from May 15, 1867. This was the date of the "Union of 1867", when it merged with the competing Cerneau "Supreme Council" in New York. The current Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, was thus formed.^[30]

Albert Pike

Born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 29, 1809, Albert Pike is asserted within the Southern Jurisdiction as the man most responsible for the growth and success of the Scottish Rite from an obscure Masonic Rite in the mid-19th century to the international fraternity that it became. Pike received the 4th through the 32nd Degrees in March 1853^[31][32] from Albert Mackey, in Charleston, South Carolina, and was appointed Deputy Inspector for Arkansas that same year.

In 1857 Pike completed his first revision of the 4°-32° ritual and printed 100 copies. This revision, which Mackey dubbed the "Magnum Opus", was never adopted by the Supreme Council. According to Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, the Scottish Rite's Grand Historian, the Magnum Opus became the basis for future ritual revisions.^[33]

In March 1858, Pike was elected a member of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and in January 1859 he became its Grand Commander. The American Civil War interrupted his work on the Scottish Rite rituals. Around 1870, he, and the Supreme Council, moved to Washington, DC. In 1884 his revision of the rituals was complete.

Scottish Rite Grand Archivist and Grand Historian de Hoyos^[34] created the following chart of Pike's ritual revisions:

Pike also wrote lectures about all the degrees, which were published in 1871 under the title Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.^[35]

General organization and degree structure

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is a rite comprising 33 degrees. The first three degrees are administered by "blue lodges" or "symbolic lodges." They are called "Blue degree" and not "Red degrees". The Scottish rite is by far the most practiced rite worldwide. The next thirty degrees (from the 4th to the 33rd), the high or side degrees - a further development and complement to the first three - are administered by the "Supreme Councils of the 33rd and final degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite."^[36] However, the name can slightly vary depending on the jurisdictions.

There is no international governing body aside from Le Droit Humain, which is an international order; all other Supreme Councils in each country is sovereign unto itself in its own jurisdiction.^[37]

The thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite are conferred by several controlling bodies. The first of these is the Craft Blue Lodge, which confers the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason degrees. Craft Blue lodges operate under the authority of national (or in the US, state) Grand Lodges, not the Supreme Council.

It is important to note that there is no higher degree in Freemasonry than the third degree, that of Master Mason. That is why the degrees with a number higher than the third must be considered as “side” degrees, (even when called High degrees), they are seen as degrees of instruction or improvement, and not as “higher” degrees, that is, implying a particular power that a Master Mason could claim to be above the others.^[38][39] The hierarchical structure of Freemasonry can be likened to a three-tiered edifice, with the third tier, the Master Mason, being the highest. Attaining this level grants a Freemason access to the corridors of the third tier, where he can delve deeper into his Masonic education and broaden his understanding of the craft. They represent a lateral movement in Masonic education rather than an upward movement and are degrees of instruction rather than rank.^[40]

Degree progression in the Scottish Rite

Inspired by the Solomonic Tradition and centered on the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the Scottish Rite closely combines the criterion of duration, as characteristic of the initiatory process, with the criterion of construction, which commits the adept to the path laid out by the Rite. Building oneself in the AASR system is seen as a long process which is accomplished on the path of truth, justice and wisdom.

This long and lengthy process to obtain the degrees can be found within the foundational documents of the AASR, the Constitution and Regulation of 1762,^[41] that is present on the altar of every Lodge in the Southern Jurisdiction. The foundational document proscribes the following minimum time allowed to receive the degrees: "All these degrees, into which one can only be initiated in a mysterious number of months, to arrive at each degree in due succession, make the number, in all, of 81 months. ^[42]

Thus, almost seven years was the minimum allowed time to obtain the 25 degrees, in the foundational document of the AASR.

The process cannot be a solitary, silent quest for self-fulfillment; the collective project must always prevail over individual pretensions in the AASR system.^[43]

The Motto of the Scottish Rite: Ordo ab Chao

This motto is probably found for the first time in the patent of February 1, 1802 issued by the brother, Alexandre, Auguste comte De Grasse, marquis de Tilly.^[43]

The motto "ordo ab chao" implies the action of a principle of order, the chaos from which each of us comes symbolizing the suffering and disarray of the human spirit that precedes the path to a spiritual life of peace and brotherhood.

It is explained as denoting the mission as Masons is to bring order out of chaos. It becomes a source of hope for those in darkness, who aspire to the Light.

The Craft Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is a full Masonic Rite and has its own distinctive versions of the Craft or Blue Lodge rituals which includes the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason degrees. It is the most practiced Rite in the world thus most Master Masons are made thought the Scottish Rite system with the exception of the United States of America where most Lodges do not work the first three degrees in the Scottish Rite but rather join after the attainment of the third degree in their own systems.

However, some U.S. Lodges do practice the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite blue degrees, and, in recent years, they have grown in number.^{[44][45][12][46][47][48]} There are 11 lodges in New Orleans (Historically all located in the district 16 they recently approved a new one district 20),^{[49][50][51][52]} 16 in New York City^[53] as well as Washington DC, Hawaii^[54] and California,^[55] that work in the Scottish Rite Craft degrees. Nonetheless, it is worth highlighting that they may not necessarily be using the Rituals of either the Southern or Northern jurisdictions, as they might have their own distinctive Scottish Rite Rituals.

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite blue degrees are more common in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin-American jurisdictions. All lodges in the International Order of Freemasonry for Men & Women, Le Droit Humain, work "seamlessly from the first to the thirty-third degree and practice only the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. These two characteristics define it as an Order and not as an Obedience".^[56] Most lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grande Loge de France use these degrees,^[57] as do a few of the lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grande Loge Nationale Française. It is also a dominant ritual, out of the other rituals in use, in the Grand Lodge of Spain. There are two Lodges in Australia that practice the AASR Craft degrees, The Zetland Lodge of Australia No. 9 and Lodge France 1021, both of which are under the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.^[58]

An hypothesis from Masonic historian Alain Bernheim, Belgian Masonic scholar Pierre Noël hypothesized in a 2002 paper that the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Craft degrees might be derived from a French translation of the Masonic exposé Three Distinct Knocks, issued in London in 1760. But this theory is heavily debated among Masonic Scholars. ^[59]

Degree names

In 2000, the Southern Jurisdiction in the United States completed a revision of its ritual scripts. The current ritual is based upon Pike's, but with some differences. Generally, the current titles of the degrees and their arrangement in the Southern Jurisdiction remains substantially unchanged since the time of Pike.

In 2004, the Northern Jurisdiction in the United States rewrote and reorganized its degrees.^[60] Further changes have occurred in 2006.^[61] During those two revisions, the names of 21 out of the 33 degrees were changed.

The list of degrees for the Supreme Councils of Australia, England and Wales, and most other jurisdictions largely agrees with that of the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S. However, the list of degrees for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States is now somewhat different and is given in the table below. The list of degrees of the Supreme Council of Canada reflects a mixture of the two, with some unique titles as well: