The collar of the Degree is of narrow, violet-colored ribbon. From it hangs a larger gold Aleph, similar to the one which hangs from the belt. The cordon of the 24° is a broad, watered scarlet ribbon. Embroidered in gold on the cordon are a winged globe, a scarab beetle, and a butterfly.

The majority of the symbols of the regalia for this Degree speak of immortality. The winged globe symbolizes leaving this life and moving to a higher plane of being. The scarab is found everywhere in Egyptian art, especially in tomb paintings. It was a symbol of the sun and, therefore, of life, and carved scarabs were used as amulets against death, disease, and misfortune. The butterfly is a symbol of rebirth and immortality because a caterpillar, after weaving a cocoon, emerges from it as a new, more glorious being. The light green of the belt and apron border symbolizes spring with is reawakening to life. The Aleph, as the first letter of the alphabet, symbolizes beginning and rebirth.

The Aleph also alludes to the pentagram or five-pointed star. No matter how you turn a pentagram, you can read the letter A. Also, A is the initial of Adonai, one of the principal names of God (the Bible translates it as Lord). Since the pentagram is also a symbol of man, the Aleph in this Degree can be understood as symbolizing the interaction between Deity and humanity.

The lessons of this Degree can seem obvious, but when we think about them deeply and consider their implications, they rapidly become profound and can even be uncomfortable.

Lesson one: There is power in our faith in the Deity and His promises. Notice that we are not simply saying there is power in the Deity. We are saying there is also power in our faith, that there is power which resides in us.

Lesson two: The soul is immortal. That is something which presumably, we, as Masons, believe. But we often act as if we do not believe it. We may give more attention to pleasure than to the strengthening and cultivation of the spirit. That makes sense for someone who believes death is followed by annihilation, but for someone who believes in the immortality of the soul, it is like spending the entire year’s income in the first three months of the year. Or, as Brother Mark Twain sardonically observed, every man says he hopes he goes to Heaven, but few take the trouble to learn to play a harp.

Lesson three: There is one, true God, Who is absolute intellect and experience. The risk here is that we tend to assume our visualization of God is so correct and perfect that anyone who disagrees must be wrong. A belief in one God should not make us intolerant of the beliefs of others. Rather, we should be willing to see that they may simply have visualized a different part of God’s vastness, for He is far too vast and complex for any human mind to be able to say, “I understand God, I know who He is, and, therefore, I know that you are wrong.”

Indeed, an important teaching of this Degree is the universality of faith. The great Truths have been encoded into many myths and hidden in many allegories over time. Our task is to understand those myths and allegories and to discover the Truths beneath them. As Albert Pike wrote (Morals and Dogma, p. 434):

 The human mind still speculates upon the great mysteries of nature, and still finds its ideas anticipated by the ancients, whose profoundest thoughts are to be looked for, not in their philosophies, but in their symbols, by which they endeavored to express the great ideas that vainly struggled for utterance in words, as they viewed the great circle of phenomena, --- Birth, Life, Death, or Decomposition, and New Life out of Death and Rottenness, --- to them the greatest of mysteries.

Jim Tresner
is Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute and Editor of The Oklahoma Mason. A frequent contributor to the Scottish Rite Journal and its book review editor, Illustrious Brother Tresner is also a volunteer writer for The Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason and a video script consultant for the National Masonic Renewal Committee. He is the Director of the Thirty-third Degree Conferral Team and Director of Work at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as well as a life member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, author of the popular anecdotal biography Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument, and a member of the steering committee of the Masonic Information Center. Ill. Tresner was awarded the Grand Cross, the Scottish Rite's highest honor, during the Supreme Council's October 1997 Biennial Session. 

Stated Meeting

2ND TUESDAY MONTHLY

 6:15 Dinner 7:00 Stated Meeting

E-mail or call 323-5234 to RSVP dinner.