Supreme General Grand Holy Royal Archs Chapter


SOUTHERN & WESTERN JURISDICTION
OF THE UNITED SUPREME COUNCIL A.A.S.R.



7th Degree



The Holy



Royal Archs Degree
(1Kings8:6-9)





In the Holy Royal Arch Degree we find the actual completion of the Master Mason’s Degree and the Recovery of the Lost Word. After the death of King Solomon, his magnificent Temple was destroyed, and the Israelites carried away captive to Babylon. Here they lived for about seventy years, many of them acquiring considerable wealth, and some attaining high rank and influence in the Chaldean government. However, when liberated by King Cyrus, many of them returned to Jerusalem and began the rebuilding of the Temple. While this work was going on and the rubbish of the ruins of the first Temple was being cleared away, many interesting and valuable discoveries were made, chief of which was the recovery of the Lost WORD. With the recovery of that which was lost, it would seem to the novice that his search for Light was ended, however, in order that he might better acquire the lessons, a seemingly inverse movement of the Degree historically is set up.


To understand the history and inspiration of the Royal Arch degree in Masonry, we must remind ourselves that the Constitutions of 1723 fixed the craft degrees at only two. The Master Mason degree did not appear until 1725 and was considered to be a side degree for some 15 years without the slightest recognition from a Grand Lodge.


Back to Top

High Priest



Holiness Unto Thee Lord
(Jeremiah 2:3)



No Masonic standing was dependent on the 3rd or Master Mason degree until the Constitutions of 1738. The entire Masonic world, then, witnessed the development of a new and important degree and its adoption without any formal sanction. until then there was only the 1st and 2nd Degree... All else were vaguely recognized side degrees only practiced by a few. There never was any precise manner insisted upon of conferring degrees until the Union of the two English Grand Lodges on December 27, 1813 (U.G.L.E.).

The Royal Arch degree is a formal product of that union but seems to have arisen in England and France simultaneously after 1740. It was inspired by the growing familiarity of the Master Mason degree among 18th century Masons and the problem of it being patently incomplete. The great virtue of Hope was deferred and the one who sought the ultimate secret of Freemasonry was given a substitute. How could there have been a better demonstration of the propriety of a fourth degree to do for the third what the third had promised to do for the second? It is no wonder then that the Royal Arch degree was created. When the Grand Lodge of the Ancients established its Constitution in 1751, it made the Royal Arch an essential degree to the craft system of degrees, thus launching what would become the “ne plus ultra” of Capitular Masonry worldwide.





Ark of the Covenant



(Exodus 25:10-22)



When the Grand Lodge of the Ancients established its Constitution in 1751, it made the Royal Arch an essential degree to the craft system of degrees, thus launching what would become the “ne plus ultra” of Capitular Masonry worldwide.


In the Union of 1813, the degree was established as a Landmark of Masonry, attaching it to the Master Mason degree for all time. The degree is based on the discovery of a secret vault built by King Solomon under the Sanctum Sanctorum of the first Temple at Jerusalem. There is a resurrection of that which had been buried—a discovery of that which had been lost—and exchange of that which, like the body, is temporary for that which, like the soul, is permanent. The True Word is revealed.


The building of the sacred Temple out of the ruins of the first represents the rebirth of the human race in a new dispensation to be later revealed—and our own rebirth into a higher state of consciousness with God the G.A.O.T.U..







SEE YOU SOON...



Tel: 713-828-6608