Lodge
of Perfection Degree Descriptions
The Degree
description below is reprinted with the permission of the
Scottish Rite Journal.
Seventh Degree
Provost and Judge
Jim
Tresner, 33°, Grand Cross
Guthrie,
Oklahoma
Photo: Oil
painting by Bro. Robert H. White, 32°
The white of innocence and the red of
guiltless blood, wrongly spilled, are the colors of the apron and
cordon of the Seventh Degree. The blood is that of the Master Architect
who died rather than betray a trust. The white represents not only the
purity of his life, but the purity of act and motive to which every
Scottish Rite Mason should aspire.
But then we have a gold key, an ebony box, a
balance (or scales), and, in the center of the white lambskin apron, a
red-trimmed pocket with a red and white rosette just below its opening.
The key is to a box of ebony, seen in the
Degree, which represents symbolically the human heart where, to quote
Mackey, “are deposited the secret designs and motives of our
conduct by which we propose to erect the spiritual temple of our
lives.”
The pocket, legend tells us, holds the
records of Solomon’s tribunal along with the plans of the
Temple. Embroidered on the flap of the apron is a hand of justice
holding a balance or scales. Here, as throughout the Scottish Rite, the
balance serves as a symbol for two important themes, equilibrium and
justice.
The Degree reminds us that we should never
judge the motives of others quickly, and we should avoid judging them
at all if that is possible. The simplest reason is that we cannot truly
know the motives of another; they are locked away in his heart. But the
other reason is that we are very inclined to apply different
standards to others than to ourselves. We excuse our own actions on the
basis that our motives are good (our heart is in the right place), but
with others, we often say “It doesn’t make any
difference why he did it, it was wrong.”
The gold key, ebony box, and balance or
scales combine to remind us of the great lesson of the Seventh Degree:
each thought, each action, each dream, each virtue, and each vice
become a part of the plan for our own Temple, our own life, no matter
how tightly we may lock them in our heart.
The Scottish Rite Journal
- June 1997
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.
