venerdì 12 novembre 2010

A Summary of some Key Degrees

SOVRANO SANTUARIO
RITO ANTICO e PRIMITIVO
ORDINE MASSONICO REGOLARE
FONTE UNICA E AUTENTICA

FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE

SOVEREIGN SANCTUARY OF THE 95 AND LAST DEGREE OF THE
ANCIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE
REGULAR MASONIC BODY OF FREEMASONRY


PUBLISHED BY KIND PERMISSION OF HIS GRACE THE
MW Bro Roberto Polastro
Sovereign Grand Conservator General of the Rite



A Summary of some Key Degrees

Brother, the Ancient and Primitive Rite is founded on Religion, Science, Knowledge and Virtue. Sweet religion unfolds to a man his sparkling destiny, it occupies his mind with its promises, it is a protector that guides him amidst his perils and it shows him the spirit of loved ones hovering around him, applauding his good works, and rejoicing when he shuns the paths of vice and error. It supports him as he falters upon the most dangerous of precipices, and amid the darkness of ignorance and error. It consoles him who is dying upon the bed of pain. If man, monarch of nature, is loaded with chains, religion breaks them; her sublime inspirations elevate him even to the Deity.

The cardinal and almost solitary aim of the Ancient and Primitive Rite, is to force the observance of a pure and rigid morality. Notwithstanding this, its avowed professors have been subjected, from the earliest times, to wicked persecution at the hands of malicious and malevolent neighbors. In the intrinsic merit and austere purity of Masonic morality, is to be found, Alas! The chief cause for its incessant afflictions. Freemasonry endeavors to compass virtue, and virtue is ever a stumbling block in the way of transgressors. Freemasonry is based upon truth, and the disciples of passion abhor truth. Freemasonry seeks the dissemination of Light, Science and Tolerance; the experience of history teaches that Light, Science and Tolerance have been persecuted by the vainglorious, the ignorant and the fanatical. Hence, see you not, that the persecution of Freemasonry follows a natural consequence of folly and hypocrisy.

As Discreet Masters you have been introduced into the Holy of Holies. Placed upon your lips was the Key of Silence, and upon your brow, the Square of Reason. The Glory of the Blazing Star was beheld, the All-Seeing Eye pervaded, and tears of regret ran over the urn containing the Heart of Truth.

Seized and brought into the Kings Chamber as a Sublime Master, your loyalty and zeal earn you your place and you are taught that you are a Son of God, and you rejoiced in sharing in the Divine Love.

Led through nine subterranean arches you discover a pedestal upon which is placed a delta, the counterpart of that hanging in the audience chamber of king Solomon. Upon their intersection, he Grand Omnific word, that preserved by the patriarch Enoch before the flood is found.

As Knights of Jerusalem and Knights of the Sword, we recount the stories of Cyrus and Zerrubabel, learning of the Jews in captivity, and the rebuilding of the Temple.

The Sage of Truth is taught the equality which exists between all men, and that sweet happiness which can only be found in a strictly observance of the Moral Law, death is but a dissolution of the physical body, returning to its natural composition of elements, the soul can never perish, and that Truth is God. It is revealed to the Knight Hermetic Philosopher the significance of the Hermetic Cross; it is a degree of science, treating of the powers and various properties of number, the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and all the laws of natural forces.

The duty of a Knight Kadosh is to dispel ignorance, punish crime, and to make war against ignorance, superstition, and tyranny. Justice, labor, meekness, fidelity, labor, patience, generosity and perfection were the mystic ladder you climbed. Man may fall from the pinnacle of fame with naught but a moments fleeting notice, arriving amongst the most common level of mankind. You have been instructed in the history of the crusades, of the Knights Templar, and the lamentable death of Jacques De Molay, and the Justice that followed the three assassins. The Patriarch of Truth seeks the fountain of Light, and the insight into the mysteries of science unrevealed. Passing through the black gloom of horror and despair your eyes behold the symbol of the Holy One. You learn by experience the nature of that mighty power which pervades space and is the source of all vitality. The discovery of the true import of the Masonic globes is uncovered to the Knight of the Planispheres and the allegorical nature of the twelve signs of the zodiac is explained to you. The Patriarch of Isis is instructed in the morality, ceremonials and perils derived from the lesser mysteries of the Egyptians at Memphis. You visited the ancient temple of symbols, saw the wonders of the labyrinth, and on being admitted to the inner temple, you received a full knowledge of the language of symbolism and the fruits of nature. The Patriarch of Memphis learns of the legend of Osiris as a dramatic representation of his birth, life, death and resurrection, comparing it to that of all men, with the sun being the sublime symbol. It is a ceremonial of the greater mysteries and teaches us that religion, like history, continually repeats itself.

Can you conceive any system which is more concise, complete or connected than that of the Ancient and Primitive Rite, comprehending as it does the wisdom and philosophy since the dawn of history? Inculcating the purest morality and the ever-enduring principles of natural religion and reason, standing paramount above all other systems as an institution of higher learning. The mason living according to her spirit cannot be other than a good, just, and upright man in every walk of life. Let it ever be our constant study to attain this perfection, so that when we are summoned from this earthly lodge, we may be found worthy and well qualified to take our place in the celestial lodge, where the Supreme Architect of the Universe rules now and throughout the ages.


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