What are the Degrees?
Lodge of Perfection • Chapter of Rose Croix • Council of Kadosh • The Consistory
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
It is one of several appendant groups of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry. Each Valley has up to four Scottish Rite bodies, and each body confers a set of degrees. In the Southern Jurisdiction these are the Lodge of Perfection (4° – 14°), Chapter of Rose Croix (15° – 18°), Council of Kadosh (19° – 30°), and the Consistory (31° – 32°). The Supreme Council confers the 33rd Degree of Sovereign Grand Inspector General.
The Scottish Rite is one of the two branches of Freemasonry in which a Master Mason may proceed after he has completed the three degrees of Symbolic or Blue Lodge Masonry. The other branch is known as the York Rite, consisting of Royal Arch Masons, Royal and Select Masters and the Knights Templar.
Albert Pike
Pike was a pioneer, a crusader for justice for Native Americans, a practical joker, a reformer, a journalist, a philosopher, a prominent Washington lawyer, and a Civil War general. Perhaps the main focus of his life was the fraternity of Freemasonry. He was the organizer and, for many years, the leader of the Scottish Rite, one of Masonry’s largest organizations.
from Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument
by Jim Tresner
The Scottish Rite Creed
Human progress is our cause,
liberty of thought our supreme wish,
freedom of conscience our mission,
and the guarantee of equal rights
to all people everywhere our ultimate goal.