Ars Latomorum

How to drive new and old members to the Commandery

1. Provide instruction about chivalry.
2. Practice chivalry.
3. Learn about the history of early knighthood, and what it meant to be an historical knight.
4. Avoid being an extension of the American Legion or VFW or National Sojourners or Heroes of ’76.
5. Talk about applications of Templar practices relevant to the modern world (i.e. In emulating those Knights who dedicated themselves to guiding pilgrims in centuries past, Masonic Templary is most esteemed when it guides the pilgrims of the Craft through the various windings of our Art to its most concealed recesses.)

How to drive away new and existing members from the Commandery

1. Reject, suppress, antagonize, or ignore the many legitimate expressions of Masonic Templary, such as those found in Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite (Knight of St. Andrew and Knight of Kadosh), the Rectified Scottish Rite (history and lineage to the Rite of Strict Observance), and the Royal Order of Scotland (Knight of the Rosy Cross). Sidenote: such expressions predate the J.L. Cross version Templary utilized by the York Rite.
2. Focus on excessive amount of drill and uniform inspections.
3. Support or engender your commandery as an evangelical Christian organization.
4. Believe all Masons should be Christian.
5. Believe all Christian Masons ought to be Templars (of any type).
6. Presume to know what Christian is, or isn’t.
7. Swear an oath to harm others of a different religion.
8. Behold to a vision of post-WWII America that only exists in the minds of a small remaining few.
9. Pander to a particular Christian interpretation of historical events by people not really trained to understand religion or history (refer to item 5).

This list builds upon and adapts a list originally posted elsewhere on the internet. To ensure any controversial claims I make do not devolve back to the author of the original and controversy-free list, I have delinked my list from theirs.

We all know the stories and legends of the Blue Lodge, the wages of the fellow, the manner in which to approach the east, the lessons of geometry, the apron, and most especially that of Hiram Abiff – the most famous Mason of all time – his death, and glorification and ultimately the reason we are here today.

But what if I were to tell you all of this, everything we do in the Blue Lodge, every perfect ashlar removed from the quarry and set in place at the temple, was only half the story?

Brothers, I come to you tonight to tell you the story of a secret. A secret buried in every lodge, a secret hidden in plain sight, a secret denied all Master Masons, and yet a secret that defines, and actuates everything thing we do as Masons.

Anciently Brothers this secret was with us. Our Scottish Brethren knew it. From their stories much is known. When London was razed by fire, the Scots brought this secret to England, and restored it with their Craft. And for a time peace and harmony was known in our Lodges. Drink was plentiful, wisdom flowed, and beauty adorned our works.

But hate grew in the hearts men, and in a cruel twist of politics and religion, that secret was expunged from English Craft, thrown aside in the rubbish of the temple, it’s written memory burned from St. Paul’s churchyard, and the secret that for so long enjoined us in Universal Brotherhood was shattered, and replaced with a substitute.

And thus my Brothers, ignorance and deceit descended upon our Lodges, obscured our vision, and forever deprived Master Masons of the full glory of our Art. Even now, in this room, ruffians lurk, hiding in the darkened recesses, ready to descend upon you, betray their oaths, and bring darkness and despair into your hear – an old hate, a ghost of the past, sprung from deep within our Lodges, a shame we will never forget – a western door poorly guarded, and forever propped open. A tyler whose sight was turned elsewhere.

Of this there is no doubt, for we even acknowledge it in our Master Mason degree. You can only receive all the light that can be conferred upon you in a Lodge of Master Masons, and we don’t know if you will ever be in possession of the True secrets of a Master Mason.

But there is hope – for the secret was written on the strongest material known to our Craft, and so good and rightly are our Lodges, that our vision hindered as it is, is not so dim as to be blind, for even our Fellowcrafts are given glimpse of the map to repository of the secret; but getting there takes a guide.

And that my Brothers is what I am here to do tonight – I cannot restore the secret to your Lodge. What was done cannot be undone. But I can bring you to it. I come to you tonight, to set you on a pilgrimage, to be the first marker, the first guide of many– to set you upon the York Rite of Freemasonry.

Brothers, now is the time, and this is the place. Make your mark, look beyond the veils, reclaim the past, and seize the Lost Word!

In emulating those Knights who dedicated themselves to guiding pilgrims to the most concealed recesses of the life of Christ, Masonic Templary is most esteemed when it guides the pilgrims of the Craft through the various windings of our Art to its most concealed recesses.

I was recently asked which of the two rites of freemasonry common to the American experience I preferred. I gave my response to which the questioner suggested I convert it into a blog post.

I don’t see value in contrasting the two common rites of American masonry for the following reasons:

• because the York Rite is anything but;
• it undermines the currents of masonry giving rise to these rites;
• it sets up an unnecessary antagonism between the two.

I prefer to look at currents or schools of Masonry of which I see two dominate currents in the US: the Craft current and the Haut-Grade current (which includes a sub current of Chivalric Masonry).

In an overly generalized way I see degrees breaking down into the currents as such:

Craft: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason, Mark Master, Royal Ark Mariner, Installation of the Master/Board of Installed Masters, and the Royal Arch. To a lesser extent I include the Past Master (virtual) and the Most Excellent Master as I see them as solutions to the problems solved in the Installation of the Master and other legalistic problems. Additionally Noachide Masonry more properly belongs in this school, although many Noachide degrees are more greatly developed in the Haut-Grade environment. Such degrees must be weighed and vetted individual before assignment.

Haut-Grade: All degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Royal and Select Master, Super Excellent Master, all orders of the Commandery. While many of the ineffable degrees of the AASR contain elements of the Craft current, how we received these degrees is indubitably within the ecossais frame, which according to Mackey distinguishing hallmark of ecossais masonry is the preservation of the Master’s Word, where English craft masonry did not. For practical application, anything deriving of the Scots Master Degree, and/or Ramsay, or largely promulgated from either of the two are of the Haut Grade School.

Direct Answer

So which is a better current of Masonry? It depends on what you are looking for. If you want Craft Masonry, the Lodge and the Chapter will be most satisfying. If you want Haut-Grade Masonry, then, the Scottish Rite, the Council and the Commandery are ideal.

The York Rite has a heavier Craft experience, but contains both Craft and Haut-Grade. The Scottish Rite contains very little of the Craft current, and is fundamentally a Haut-Grade system. Interestingly, while many join the York Rite looking for chivalric masonry, i.e. Templary, and while I maintain the Order of the Temple is still to most beautiful and most intense and most real degree experience I’ve had in Masonry, chivalric masonry is without equivocation (in my mind) a component of the Haut-Grade current and reaches a fuller expression within the Scottish Rite, not the York Rite.

Rambling Answer

To call the York Rite a rite is incorrect. The degrees and orders of the York Rite do not offer a progressively unfolding experience of Masonic initiation.

To be fair, when Étienne Morin assembled his Order of the Royal Secret, he didn’t really create a Rite either. His efforts are better viewed as a “greatest hits album” of Masonic degrees within the Bordeaux region of France. Although his original ‘patent’ gave him authority over the ineffable, or Craft degrees, he was not satisfied with a Craft focus, and this ‘patent’ was modified or his power increased over the sublime (high degrees), where his interests truly resided. He was not unique amongst his French Brothers in this regard. France is the home of Haut-Grade masonry, and Bordeaux was a hot bed for the same.

When Mitchell, Dalcho and Co. established the first Supreme Council in 1801, this situation remained largely unchanged. It wasn’t until Pike’s efforts to rework the Scottish Rite that it became a proper Rite of Freemasonry.

The York Rite however remains largely a greatest hits collection of popularly worked Masonic degrees by itinerant Masonic lecturers. It is a catalog of the American Masonic experience. While some of these have coalesced into bodies, i.e. the Chapter, the Council, and the Commandery, as well as AMD, other invitational and honorary bodies, how a Mason receives these degrees from body to body is not progressive, and sequential experiences within a given body, do not always comment on, or reveal more of, previous experiences. In total, editorial evolution of all the various experiences of the York Rite are not entirely consistent on an agreed movement forward.

With new framework of currents, the question about which is the better Rite is clearly unfair, for the York Rite, isn’t a Rite. The York Rite is a confederation of degree systems, sometimes just a warehouse of degrees looking for a home and for masonic authenticity in the American schema. The new framework allows for a appreciation of the evolution of the Rites, and perhaps the intended goal and meaning of them. And the framework of currents allows us to escape unnecessary brand loyalties, and because we can approach Masonry more as a menu of experiences, we can tailor our individual growth to our individual tastes without antagonism.

So, to truly understand Haut-Grade Masonry within the American milieu, you need both the Scottish Rite, and Cryptic Masonry and the Orders of the Commandery, and several of the side and invitational bodies of the York system (Royal Order of Scotland, much of the higher AMD and SRICF experiences immediately to mind) in this Mason’s opinion. As given in the short answer, this includes Chivalric Masonry, which is a component of Haut-Grade masonry, and has its fullest expressions (for the majority of US masons) in the Scottish Rite, not the Order of the Temple. However, the Order of the Temple experience itself is perhaps the most beautiful individual experience.

If you want Craft masonry, the Council, the Commandery, and the Scottish Rite won’t be nearly as important as the Chapter, and many of the side degrees of the York Rite, such as the Operatives, the Royal Ark Mariner, and other Craft and Noachide elements of AMD and side degrees.

But in all honesty, to be an effective Mason in the 21st century, in the US, I really think you need both. Both currents contain essential expressions of the Initaitic experience in Freemasonry, which to me anyway, is the heart and soul of our brotherhood, and has been since the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Photo Credit: Colin K.

Freemasonry: No Secrets. Just Answers.