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

64 The Degree Rituals
The Twenty-fifth “Ben Franklin” Degree
The 1855 ritual of Albert Pike was the earliest surviving ritual of the 25°.
True, in the first decade of the 19th century Doszedardski had mentioned the
degree by name, “Knight of the Brazen Serpent,” as one of the French “Philosophical
Grades,” and Killian Van Rensselaer had recorded the signs and
passwords of the degree in his 1845 manuscript. However, neither of these
sources provided anything of the content of the ritual. Pike, himself, did not
cite a source for his work, leaving us to conclude that it was a product of his
own creation. The theme of the ritual was easy enough to create. It was suggested
by the traditional title of the degree. After Pike’s fashion, however,
the Old Testament story of Moses and the brazen serpent was secondary to an
exposition of symbolism and the philosophy of equilibrium.
Consequently, the Pike ritual was virtually all that existed of the degree,
and it remained the authorized ritual of the 25° in this jurisdiction for 30 years
from the Union of 1867. Then, the revised ritual of 1896 introduced a dramatization
of the Old Testament story of the brazen serpent and emphasized faith
as the lesson of the degree. Another revision in 1951 added a new ceremonial
section to the ritual but made little change in the drama. In 1993, the 1951 ritual
was transferred to the Lodge of Perfection, becoming the ritual of the 6°,
where it remains to the present time, in substance the 1896 drama of the
Brazen Serpent.
The removal of the “Brazen Serpent” ritual from the 25° was part of the
“realignment” of degree rituals with Old Testament themes from the Consistory
to the Lodge of Perfection, a policy approved by the Supreme Council
in 1985. This decision, of course, necessitated the preparation of new rituals
to replace the traditional rituals of the Consistory degrees. In the case of the
25°, the origin of the replacement ritual began two decades before it finally
was implemented.
In 1974, in anticipation of the national bicentennial celebration, the
Supreme Council approved the preparation of a dramatization of events in
the life of Benjamin Franklin to be made available to Valleys for presentation
during 1976. The Committee on Rituals subsequently recommended that the
“Franklin Allegory” be considered as a tentative alternate ritual for the 25°.