Category Archives: Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite

Table

Combination of symbols sometimes as part of the 19th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Dutch), sometimes of the 21th (1894 Vermont).

Also the 22nd degree of the same Dutch book has this table with geometrical instruments. On a contemporary French 22nd degree tracing board there is just the table as in the image above.

The Book Of The Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite (1884) Charles McClenachan

Royal Axe

Emblem of the 22nd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the 1893 Vermont publication.

The degree of “Knights of the Royal Axe of the Grand Patriarchs, Princes of Libanon” in the Baylot collection of degrees, state that the L on the sword (above, the Hebrew “lamed”) stands for “Libanon”. The S (top right, “Shin”) for “Sidonian” and the N (“noun”) for “Noah”.

Also (some versions of) Memphis Misraim has a 22nd “Knight of the Royal Axe” degree with a plainer axe as emblem as the one above.

Cherubim

Cherubim with extended wings appeared first in the 1764 edition of Ahiman Rezon, the constitutions of the “Antients”. They returned in the seal of the “Antients” and later also in that of the Grand Lodge of Ireland (shown above).

Cherubim also appear in some ‘high degrees’ (Voss mentions the “degree of Royal Master”), where the meaning would be: “under the protection of Divine Power”.

On a 28th degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board (below) we can see seven Cherubim which: “represent the 7 delights of man – sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, rest and health.”

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Fighting Sitting

A somewhat odd French 9th degree “tableau” for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It appears that we are looking at nine masters who are sent out to look for the body of Hiram. One of them rushes forward (and thus stands up straight) and the other eight remain behind (and are thus sitting). Therefor, this image belongs to an “Elu”/”Elect”/vengeance degree.

18th century painting from Mons, Belgium. They are reproduced online and in print on several places. Facsimiles of the entire collection appear in Dix-Sept Tableaux Symboliques du XVIIIe Siecle (1992) by Maurice-Aurélien Arnould (1914-2001)

Impaled Skull

A sinister image from a French “tableau”. The description refers to two degrees from the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

There is a similar image in Kloss “Second Grade Elû”. The old ‘elect’ degrees have become the degrees of the AASR that are known as ‘vengeance’ degrees. One skull on a spike is most likely the remains of the first murderer of Hiram.


Top: 18th century painting from Mons, Belgium. They are reprinted online and in print on several places. Facsimiles of the entire collection appear in Dix-Sept Tableaux Symboliques du XVIIIe Siecle (1992) by Maurice-Aurélien Arnould (1914-2001)
Bottom: image in the collection (1844) of Georg Kloss (1787-1854) (Collection de 84 tableaux, Kl.MS:XXV.1)

Bible with Seals

In the Kloss / von Löwen collection there is a tracing board for the degree of “Philosophe Sublime, ou Cheval. de Occident”. You can see a Bible with seven seals. A Bible with seals of varying number appear in a number of degrees, “craft” or otherwise. The Bible with 7 seals appears to come from Revelation 5:1.

In Les Plus Secret Mysteres (1820) you can see a book with seven seals displayed on the Ark of the Covenant. It says:

The seven seals which belong to this book, signify the seven Degrees of Masonry; & the lamb laying down on it, which is the Shekhinah, shows us that, He alone is worthy to break the seals, it is only the true Rose Croix who enjoys the privilege of reading in the book that contains the complete doctrine of Masons, & of penetrating the most secret mysteries.

The 14th degree (‘Knight of the West’) of the Mirecourt collection explains every separate seal. Each has a symbol with a meaning.

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River of Sorrow

On this tracing board for the degree of “Chevalier de l’Orient” from the Kloss/von Löwen collection you see a river filled with bones and skulls.

The Masonic museum of Riga (Latvia) holds a French symbol chart which has some similarities to the one above. Here the river of sorrow is at the bottom. The left part says “star”, and the right part “bvsanaï”. More about that below. Because the gate at the bottom says “Babilone” like the example above, the river of sorrow and the arms with swords, there is a suggestion that these two French charts refer to the same or at least similar degrees.

Nowadays in the 15th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (“Knight of the Orient and Sword”, the name varies), you see a river with a bridge. On a French tracing board, however, the river contains skulls and bones like in the old examples.

As you may have guessed, the story here is that of the flee after the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. Apparently they were allowed to cross the bridge, because the letters L.D.P. that can sometimes be seen, mean “liberté de passage”, ‘freedom of passage’. Sometimes there are different letters on the bridge, such as “Y.H.” which would stand for Yaveron-Ha-mayim with the same meaning. Then they refer to the password of the degree, the word with which the Jews were allowed to cross the bridge and leave Babylon. The river is sometimes called “Euphrate”, sometimes “Starburzanai” (in the Bonseigneur collection (“Chevalier d’Orient ou de l’Epée”) “Star Bussaulier”), and there we have the explanation of a detail in the image below.
“Starbuzanai” according to the “Chevalier de l’Orient ou l’Epée” degree in the Baylot manuscript was the leader of the opponents who wanted to prevent the rebuilding of the Temple. The said Bonseigneur degree says: “Said river is covered with the skull of the enemies who were killed during the combat.” Those who were no killed where fettered in the triangular chains.

The story of the return from Babylon appears in some variations in other (historical) degrees as well.

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Dog

Below you see “First and second boards of the Elu of the Nine degree, featuring the dog. Boards from the collection of Baron von Löwen.” (1) (In the manuscript itself it says: “Elu de 9. Chevalier de C.”) This 9th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite appears to be a merge of the “Little Elu” (Petit Élu) and “Elu of Perignan” (Élu de Pérignan), also called “Elu of the Unknown” (Élu de l’Inconnu).” It is probably there where the dog came from.

The old ‘elect’ degrees have become the ‘vengeance’ degrees of the AASR. The dog alternally is the guard of the cave of the first found murderer of Hiram or the dog of the pilgrim (perignan) who led the masters to that very murderer. Sometimes the dog itself is referred to a Perignan (either or not with the letter “P”).

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