The Most Excellent Master Degree is one of the most significant Degree in Ancient Craft Masonry. In this degree we are back at King Solomon’s Temple, which was begun so suspiciously and halted so dramatically in the third Degree...It is now finally completed amid much rejoicing and great splendor. The labors of the Craft are given the blessing of the Lord descending as fire from heaven, and King Solomon in his gratitude, received and acknowledged them Most Excellent Masters, empowered to travel and receive Master’s Wages, and charged with the responsibility of sharing their Masonic Light and Knowledge, with those who needed it... (1 King 6: 14-38)
The Most Excellent Master degree is the sixth in the system of degrees of the York Rite and is as intimately connected with the Master Mason degree as the Mark Master degree is with that of the Fellowcraft. The ceremonies commemorated in this degree refer to the completion and dedication of King Solomon’s Temple. The degree fills an important gap which long existed in our Masonic ritual system. As we know, the Temple was left unfinished in the Master’s degree, and the Royal Arch noted its destruction. The completion and consecration of the first Temple, its use as the glory of the Jewish nation for the 400 years which elapsed between the legend of Hiram and the destruction of the Temple, had been passed over by the rituals of all the other Rites extant during the 18th century.
Thus, the Most Excellent Master degree was authored and became essential to the overall legend of the Masonic degrees, and in developing the complete allegory of Freemasonry. The obligation of this degree is one of the most profound in all of Masonry. It recognizes for the first time that the real mission of Masonry, and each individual Mason, is to enlighten mankind and make the acquisition and teaching of knowledge a duty, rather than an ideal. A man may fall but the ultimate goal is to complete what you start and fulfill your true purpose of being.
