YORK RITE
-VS-
SCOTTISH RITE

The York Rite is a collection of 10 Masonic degrees and orders which are conferred in the United States under a trilateral system of governance consisting of Chapters, Councils, and Commanderies. In most other countries these same degrees are conferred by separate Bodies operating independently from other local Masonic jurisdictions. The name derives from the City of York where, according to one Masonic legend, the first meeting of Masons in England was held in the year 926 A.D. The York Rite (along with the Scottish Rite) is one of two appendant Bodies of Masonry beyond the level of the Craft or Blue Lodge that is focused on expanding a Master Mason’s understanding of several important ideas introduced in the first three degrees of the Blue Lodge. The York Rite has a special and close relationship to the Blue Lodge degrees. It continues the lessons learned in the Fellowcraft degree. It completes the journey that Hiram began in the Master Mason degree. It teaches the meaning of the True Word...that some say gets Lost...and then Found. It offers impressive lessons from the Christian Knighthood tradition in a ceremony which is among the most beautiful in all of Masonry. In fact, the third tier of the York Rite, known as the Orders of Templary, has traditionally been styled the Christian Order of Freemasonry. The York Rite takes the Master Mason on a journey into the oldest traditions of English Freemasonry. Every serious student of Masonry should be a York Rite Mason. We know our Masonic Brothers will benefit from the added knowledge gained through their York Rite experience.

The Scottish Rite is a collection of 33 Masonic degrees and orders... to include the Royal Arch Ritual which is similar to that of the York Rite Royal Archs Ritual in several ways. It begins with the 13th Degree known as Master of the Ninth Arch. The 13th degree dramatizes the dangers encountered as men search for the Lost Word. This degree instructs us to have liberty in our mind and hearts. It encourages the initiateto be It is a story that describes an ancient archaeological excavation, perhaps at a different time and place or situation? Nevertheless, the background story centers around workers from Babylon that are deemed trustworthy as they report back to the Most Excellent Principal with their discoveries. The foreground reads like a dramatic play that embraces themes of how the weakness and wickedness of man can lead to the loss of God's sacred WORD, the Divine measurement of the Temple itself. In their quest they find a Key-Stone that leads into several Arched volts where they find a white pedistal and a golden plate. Upon the plate is engraved a Triple Triangle and some charactors writen upon them.

A person that has earned the The 14th Degree in Scottish Rite Masonry is called a Grand Elect Mason. This is considered by some as the Final degree of the Lodge of Perfection, the 14th degree embodies the essence of symbolic Masonry. The core value taught in this degree is reverence to God...and its meaning is to teach the initiate that perfection can only be achieved once human knowledge and divine knowledge are united as one. In other words, your thought and action align with the G.A.O.T.U. which you should have learned to subdue and circumscribe in the symbolic degrees. We should strive to be true to ourselves and our God. Reminding me of the ancient adage written across the archway of the Egyptian Temples, "Know thy self, and to thy own self be True."