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

The Degree Rituals
dieval Germany. 7 These extra-legal tribunals dispensed what was purported
to be impartial justice, regardless of rank or affluence, for criminal acts and
excesses committed by minions of both church and state. The vehmgerichte
apparently had three grades or degrees of membership, thereby paralleling
the later organization of the symbolic lodge. As the motto of the 21°, Pike
adopted the Latin form of a fitting phrase, “Let justice be done though the
heavens should fall.”
At the Union of 1867, the Pike ritual was the accepted form of the 21° in
this Jurisdiction with an important addition — the Ordeal of the Three Tests.
In 1886, the ritual was further elaborated by expanding the reception to introduce
a number of historical rulers of the period, including Kings Richard the
Lionhearted and Philip Augustus. The addition of these characters was ahistorical
in the extreme, an instance of celebrity namedropping that was meaningless
for the development of the dramatic action.
The next change of note was made in the ritual of 1919. As a result of patriotic
emotions generated by World War I, which also would motivate replacement
of the original allegory in the 20° by the “Washington” allegory,
references to “Prussia” were deleted from the ritual. The title of the degree
was altered to “Patriarch Noachite,” virtually the only vestige of the original
Francken ritual. Somewhat surprisingly, the German setting of the ritual remained
unchanged.
In 2003, the reference to “Belus”, a form of Baal, the infamous deity of the
ancient Canaanites, and the word “infidel”, used as a gratuitous and derogatory
reference to the Islamic faith, were removed from the ritual.
The first significant revision of the ritual since 1886 came the following
year. As in the case of other recent degree ritual revisions, length of playing
time and the number of essential cast members were major considerations.
The opening and reception, moreover, were not separate sections of the ritual,
as Pike had incorporated them as an integral part of an overly long, single
scene drama. Thus, downsizing the essential cast to only ten characters, plus
optional supernumeraries, provided a means to achieve a significant reduction
7 Pike’s apparent source and possible inspiration for selecting the vehmgerichte as the background
for the 21° ritual was an 1837 publication, Secret Societies in the Middle Ages by
Thomas Keightley, which also was a source used by Albert Mackey for his encyclopedia.
The 1827 novel Anne of Geierstein by the popular author of the period, Sir Walter Scott,
also cannot be overlooked as a possible source.
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