In Search of the Lost Word

Why ‘Solomonic Degrees’? I call them so because it is the actions of Solomon, King of Israel, Hiram King of Tyre and Hiram Abif – as well as their successors – which form the allegorical and symbolic basis for the journey undertaken within them; the candidate searches for the masonic light in his quest for the Lost Word. Brethren should recall the exchange between Master and Wardens at the Third Degree opening :

What is that which was lost?
The genuine secrets of a Master Mason.
How came they lost?
By the untimely death of our Master…

How often we hear those words and overlook the fact that they encapsulate all that we seek. The story of King Solomon’s Temple is, for Freemasons, an allegory for our search for the Lost Word and, thereby, of our pursuit of Truth. These degrees should not be just collected as if we were cub-scouts in search of badges. We should view them as intimately bound up with the three Craft degrees and with the progression towards the Supreme degree of the Holy Royal Arch, when that Word is finally recovered.
    The Royal Arch often comes so quickly after raising that we may have missed the arduous ‘historical’ and symbolic journey leading to our exaltation. Perhaps this speed from Craft to Royal Arch should change. It might mean more if the journey were longer and demanded more consideration by us on the way.

Rite of Passage

Between the times in which the Craft and Royal Arch degrees are set, four other rites and degrees lead their members to the Temples in Jerusalem and to the symbolism which revolves around them: the Mark Degree, the four degrees of Royal and Select Masters (known as the Cryptic Rite, as the ceremonies take place in a crypt or vault beneath the Sanctuary of the Temple), two of the Allied Masonic Degrees and thirteen of the so-called Intermediate Degrees (4th to 16th) of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. One of these degrees – Excellent Master – while part of the Royal Arch as conferred by the York Rite in America, and also worked in Scotland – is, regrettably, not conferred in England. English Freemasons are able to be fully admitted to the remainder of these degrees, although the Intermediate Degrees are merely conferred by name on candidates for the 18th Degree (the justifiably coveted Rose Croix which I will consider in the next issue). However, it is possible to see these Intermediate Degrees performed, with two demonstrated each year by permission of the Supreme Council 33°, the governing body of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. Having said that, there is little in any of these thirteen to justify their being worked regularly; at best, the issues which they cover are of lesser importance to our main pursuit of the Lost Word, being mainly concerned with the re-organisation of the work rendered necessary by the murder of Hiram and the steps taken to apprehend his murderers. The best of them are the 15th and 16th which are based on the liberation of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, the reconstruction of Jerusalem and the commencement of the building of the 2nd Temple in the time of Zerubbabel, although both of these are ritually worked better in the respective degrees of Excellent Master and the Red Cross of Babylon.

A Sequence of Degrees?

There are in fact as many as 25 degrees which relate to the Temples of Jerusalem, but it is impossible to receive them in what might be considered a chronological order. In England, there is in no sense a separate and progressive rite which is formed by these degrees, and there is no doubt that the powers that be would frown on such a system, which is one reason why it is rarely talked about; the other reason is historical accident, as a result of which they are spread about without heed to place or meaning. We should also note Grand Lodge’s position with regard to these other degrees. For a whole variety of 19th century masonically political reasons, the Act of Union of the two English Grand Lodges of 1813 makes it clear that “pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees, and no more, viz, those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.” This has not changed in the 185 years since 1813, although many brethren as well as Grand Lodge officials and officers are very active in these additional degrees.
    These other degrees began to appear in England in the 1750s, way after pure Antient Masonry was established here. In England, we have nothing like the York Rite in America, or the Swedish Rite in Scandinavia, which bring together under one sovereign body many of the degrees which we consider universal, as well as many which are often described as Christian. However, for the sake of this article, these 25 degrees have been arranged chronologically (see Box), so that masons can appreciate that there is an historical ‘sequence’ to them, even though the events related in all the degrees are little more than masonic legend, based around events related in the Old Testament. There is an historical sequence, but more importantly, there is an esoteric one. The only real problem in listing them chronologically comes with the 3rd Degree, which focuses on the death of Hiram Abif, just before the degree of Royal Master, and which extends up to just before the degree of Most Excellent Master.

From Loss to Enlightenment

Without divulging more than is proper, the tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters for the name of God: yod, hé, vau, hé) – that which was lost – could only be pronounced by the three Grand Masters acting in unison. The death of Hiram rendered this impossible, so to forestall the loss of the pronunciation forever, clues were placed in a secret vault where they remained until the three sojourners discovered them in the Royal Arch, centuries later. In the ceremonies, each of the presiding officers represents one of the original Grand Masters or his successors or substitutes, while the candidate represents a Jewish workman, contemporary character, or even most memorably, Hiram himself. We experience the building of the first Temple in the Mark Degree, the pain of the loss of the Word in the Third Degree, and the steps taken to preserve it by means of the construction of a secret vault whose existence faded into legend. We may appreciate the attempts, as illustrated in a wide variety of degrees, to carry on as normal after that loss, before embarking on a symbolic journey and crossing of a river, leading to a fraternal banquet in the Red Cross of Babylon. This leads directly to the building of the Second Temple and, ultimately, to the exaltation of discovery and realisation in the Royal Arch.
    However, there is clearly more to this than the search for a means of pronunciation of a word, even that as significant as the word explained in the Mystical Lecture of the Holy Royal Arch. Each mason will bring to this quest – for a quest it is – what he seeks; after all, is not all Masonry veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols – as indeed spiritual life is? The Solomonic Degrees are one way of approaching that mysterious journey. There is, of course, no need to be admitted to any of these degrees between Craft and Royal Arch in order to experience what that journey has to offer, but those degrees are there if the Solomonic route seems right for you.
    Some of these degrees are especially memorable and symbolically important, such as the crossing of the bridge in the Red Cross of Babylon, and the advice given by the Principal Conductor of the Work to Adoniram in the degree of Royal Master.
    There are, of course, other forms in which a Freemason’s journey can take. The third article in this series will explore the Degrees of Knighthood, as an alternative and yet complimentary way of making that daily advancement in masonic knowledge.