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

The Degree Rituals
Good and Evil — The Nineteenth Degree
The 19°, “Grand Pontiff,” now the first of the Consistorial degrees, was
one of the Rite of Perfection degrees recorded in the Francken Manuscript.
In its earliest form, it consisted primarily of a kind of lecture with references
to the “New Jerusalem” and other symbols from the New Testament Book of
Revelation. Albert Pike’s ritual expanded on these elements to include a series
of 12 lectures on the struggle between good and evil. The ritual of 1886 developed
this theme into a dramatic allegory which forms the basis of the modern
ritual. It introduced Philetus the Neophyte, his visit to the Shades, and
the personified Spirits of Evil and of Masonry. This ritual continued intact
until a shortened form appeared in 1953.
After more than a century of presentations to Scottish Rite Masons, making
it one of the longest running degree rituals in the Jurisdiction, the 19° ritual
underwent major revisions. This process was not quickly or easily
accomplished. Over a period of five years, commencing in 1988, a succession
of five draft revisions were prepared. The primary author of these successive
revisions was a clergyman, Ill. Richard C. Thistle, 33°, a member of the Valley
of South Bend and a consultant to the Committee on Rituals.
In the course of these revisions, the ritual was rewritten in more contemporary
language. An addition to the prologue explained the derivation of the
word “Pontiff” from the Latin “pontifex,” literally “bridge-builder.” The appearance
of the Spirit of Evil and his confrontation with the Spirit of Masonry
were staged as a vision of the pontiffs. The obligation and the anointing were
eliminated as anticlimactic to the principal action of the allegory, thereby setting
a precedent that would be followed in subsequent revisions of other degree
rituals. In place of these deletions, a charge was added at the close of the
ritual. The fifth such revision was approved as the 19° Tentative Ritual of
1993.
For nine years the approved revision remained in limbo as the tentative ritual
until it was superseded by a further revision, the 19° Ritual of 2002. The
2002 ritual retained the prologue and scenes one and two of the tentative
ritual without change and made two minor deletions from dialogue in scenes
three and five.
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