Lodge of Perfection

4° Through 14°
Solomon's Lodge of Perfection

The degrees of the Lodge of Perfection are better known as the "Ineffable Degrees" of the Scottish Rite Masonty because their princial purpose is the investigation and contemplation of the inefable (unspeakable) name of Diety.

Officers

Thrice Potent Master
Stephen T. McGuire, 33°

LESSONS OF THE SCOTTISH RITE, LODGE OF PERFECTION

There are eleven degrees assiciated with the Lodge of Perfection, 4° through 14°

4° Master Traveler

The Fourth Degree emphasizes duty, fidelity, integrity, and the necessity for secrecy in all confidential relationships.

Your first steps into our sanctuary are duty, reflection and study. They teach us to honor those relationships to God, family, country, Masonry. The apron is white and black, with a letter "Z" and all-seeing eye. The jewel is an ivory key with the letter "Z" on the wards.

5° Perfect Master

This degree teaches that impure thoughts and selfish, unworthy ambitions are corrupting and destructive, and that a man who forgets his duty to family, country, and God will be morally and spiritually destroyed.

Honesty and trustworthiness is the cornerstone of the foundation of Masonic honor. This virtue should be in all of our undertakings. The apron is white and green, with a cubic stone and a Hebrew YOD. The jewel is a compass open on a segment of a circle, to an angle of sixty degrees.

6° Master of the Blazen Serpant

This degree teaches that devotion to one's friends and zealousness in performing one's duties are rewarding virtues.

In this degree we should learn duty, charity and toleration. We are told to reshape ourselves and our thinking into charity, self-control, and success. Be a peacemaker. The apron is white and red, with Hebrew letters YOD HEH in the center, and a small triangle containing the Hebrew letters (clockwise from top) BETH, NUN, and SHIN. The jewel is a gold triangle with the same three letters inscribed.

 
7° Provost and Judge

This degree teaches us to judge righteously,without respect to person, and that one law and one custom shall apply to all. Let justice be impartial, tempered with deserved mercy.

We learn that impartial justice protect person, property, happiness and reputation. These degrees teach us to judge with patience and impartially. The apron is white, edged with red, with a key and five rosettes. The jewel is a golden key.

8° Intendant of the Building

This degree teaches that each new honor is meant to be a step toward perfection in the moral code; each a development of a particular duty; and that benevolence and charity are necessary virtues of leadership.

We should strive for perfection by using the great principles of "God's inherent love, charity, morality and kindness". The apron is white, with red and green, with a balance, a five-pointed star, and a triangle with the Hebrew letters BETH (for Ben-khurim), YOU (for Jakinah), and ALEPH (for Achar). The jewel is a gold triangle with the same three letters.

9° Master of the Temple

This degree reminds us that through the ages man has searched for God in many ways, and worshipped Him in many tongues, but that Universal Worship is found in service to our fellow man.

Scottish Rite virtues are at the very heart of this degree, truth, candor and generosity. We should use these to shape our lives and conduct. The apron is white, lined with black, and sprinkled with blood, with an arm holding a dagger, and a severed head held by the hair. The jewel is a dagger, hilt of gold and blade of silver.

10° Master Elect

This degree teaches that a violator of his obligations and commitments will not go unpunished and, further, that excuses, rationalizations, and other evidences of lack of repentance, will very likely increase the severity of the penalties.

This degree teaches toleration of others. Everyone has the right to his own political or spiritual views. The apron is white, with a black flap, and with three arch-shaped gates -- over each a head on a spike. The jewel is a dagger as in the previous degree.

11° Sublime Master Elected

This degree dwells on good citizenship. Evil doings should be punished. Honesty and respect for others should be rewarded. Be earnest, honest and sincere

This degree teaches sympathy. We should sympathetic to our brother masons and to all mankind as well. The apron is white, lined with black, with a flaming heart in the center. The jewel is a dagger suspended from a black cordon inscribed with the words "Vincere aut Mori," the pledge "that you will rather die than betray the cause of the people, or be overcome through your own fear or fault."

12° Master of Mercy

This degree teaches that the Mason, as he learns to use the tools and instruments of his trade and skill, also learns to contemplate the many aspects of life and deal with them as a child of God, steadily advancing to those heights of experience which we call perfection.

This degree teaches faith in moral and virtues and in God. "Life is what each man makes of it; the optimist turns a trial into a blessing. The apron is white, lined with blue and gold (symbolizing the Craft degrees), with a protractor, plain scale, sector, and compasses. The jewel is a gold triangle, with a Hebrew ALEPH on the obverse and the five types of columns on the reverse.

13° Master of the Ninth Arch

This degree teaches that difficulties and dangers, however great, should not deter the true and faithful from progressing onward to perfection. It teaches the great truth that the finest things in life come only as a result of constant and often painful effort.

This degree teaches liberty in our mind and our hearts, motivated by duty and honor. The apron is purple, bordered with white, and with the "Enochian delta" (hexagram with inscribed Tetragrammation) in the center. The jewel is a gold triangle with the Enochian delta on the reverse, and a scene showing two men lowering a third into a newly-discovered subterranean vault, on the obverse.

14° Grand Elect Mason

In the Scottish Rite, this degree is the summit of Ancient Craft Masonry. As the crowning degree of the Lodge of Perfection, its essence is the holiness of God and reverence for His Holy Name. God will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.

In the degree we learn to reflect and look into ourselves. We should strive to be true to ourselves and our God. The apron is white silk, bordered in gold, with the Ineffable Delta in the Center. The jewel is a quadrant (compass open to ninety degrees) topped by a crown, and with a nine-pointed star on the obverse, and a five-pointed blazing star (with the Tetragrammaton) on the reverse. The compass is opened on a segment of a circle, inscribed with the numbers 3, 5, 7, 9.