The Degree Rituals The Supreme Council, 33 ... - Scottish Rite, NMJ

22 The Degree Rituals
A Matter of Faith — The Sixth Degree
The 6° in the Francken Manuscript bore the unusual and unwieldy title
“Perfect Master by Curiosity of Intimate Secretary.” This name, at any rate,
was descriptive of the reception, where the candidate intruded into the presence
of King Solomon as an unintentional eavesdropper and thereby gained
admission to the degree. Another unusual feature was the fact that the lecture
explained the delta as symbolic of the Christian triad, Faith, Hope, and Charity,
an anomaly for the Old Testament setting of the ritual. Nevertheless, this
explanation (although deleted by Albert Pike) remained a part of the 1871
ritual, the first to be approved after the Union of 1867. A succession of 6° rituals
over more than 150 years made only minor verbal changes, except for abbreviating
the title of the degree to “Intimate Secretary,” improbable as that
name may have been for a Scottish Rite degree.
A major revision finally appeared in the ritual of 1966 although it remained
consistent with the essence of the Francken ritual. In accordance with
the conventional form of degree rituals as they developed during the 20th
century, a ceremonial section, including the obligation and investiture, was
followed by a dramatized elaboration of the eavesdropping incident represented
in the reception of the Francken ritual. This remained the ritual of the
6° for more than a quarter century.
In 1985 the Supreme Council approved the transfer of degree rituals with
Old Testament themes from the Consistory to the Lodge of Perfection. This
plan ultimately resulted in withdrawal of the traditional 6° ritual which in
substance dated back more than 200 years to the Francken Manuscript. It
was replaced in 1993 by a tentative ritual that had been the ritual of the 25°,
“Knight of the Brazen Serpent.” The 1993 tentative ritual, with some modifications,
later was approved as the 6° Ritual of 1996.
The new ritual of the 6° consisted of a prologue, and introductory scene
one, in which the officers of the lodge discussed the problems and needs of
the contemporary world in preparation for the lesson of the degree which
then was exemplified in dramatic form in scene two. The dramatization,
which dated back to 1896 and owed its inspiration to Albert Pike, was based
on the biblical account of Moses and the Brazen Serpent. The lesson of the
degree was faith — in ourselves, in each other, and in God.