What Are the York Rite and Scottish Rite Degrees?

Every Freemason starts with the three degrees of the Blue Lodge: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. A Master Mason may then join further bodies, often called the higher degrees. In the United States the two main ones are the York Rite and the Scottish Rite. Their degrees continue the Blue Lodge stories, and the Royal Arch is where the exposures print the word Jahbulon.

Key Points

• Duncan’s monitor (1) carries the York Rite chapter degrees in its title: “Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and the Royal Arch.”
• In Duncan’s Royal Arch, three companions give “the words, Jah-buh-lun, Jehovah, G-o-d … at low breath” (p. 224) (1).
• The Royal Arch obligation ends: “to have my skull smote off, and my brains exposed to the scorching rays of the meridian sun” (p. 230) (1).
• In Richardson’s Knights Templar degree (2), the candidate drinks “the fifth libation” from a human skull, “the sealed obligation” (pp. 119–120).
• Pike’s Morals and Dogma (3) lists the Scottish Rite degrees from “1°–Apprentice” to “32°–Master of the Royal Secret.”

The York Rite

Duncan prints the chapter degrees in order: Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch (1). Richardson’s monitor also prints the Knights Templar degree (2).

The Royal Arch

The Royal Arch tells of rebuilding the temple and finding what the Master Mason degree lost. In the Blue Lodge the true word of a Master Mason “was lost at the death of Hiram Abiff,” and a substitute is given (1). In the Royal Arch, three companions join hands “three times three” and give “the words, Jah-buh-lun, Jehovah, G-o-d … at low breath, each companion pronouncing the syllables or letters alternately” (p. 224) (1).

Churches have objected most to this word. The Methodist Conference called it “an example of syncretism, an attempt to unite different religions in one, which Christians cannot accept” (4). Its 1996 review says, “Since 1985 the governing body of the Royal Arch has removed all references to the word from its rituals.” (5) See What Is the Great Architect of the Universe?.

The Knights Templar

Richardson’s 1860 text has the candidate drink wine from a human skull as “the fifth libation,” which is “called the sealed obligation, as it is to seal all his former engagements in Masonry” (2).

The Scottish Rite

Albert Pike wrote Morals and Dogma as lectures on the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. Its preface gives the correct titles (3):

The book was “Prepared for the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree” (3). Pike’s preface says the teachings “are not sacramental” and “Every one is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound.” (3) The Lucifer passage often quoted from the book sits in the lecture on the 19th degree. See Albert Pike and Lucifer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a 32nd-Degree Mason Higher Than a Master Mason?

The numbering is the Scottish Rite’s own. Pike’s list begins with the three Blue Lodge degrees, and the higher bodies are joined only after them.

Do Higher-Degree Masons Learn a Different God?

No primary source found for this page says so. See What Is the Great Architect of the Universe?.