Bakersfield Scottish Rite Bodies 7th Degree

Allegiance The Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, sitting in the Valley of Bakersfield, Orient of California, acknowledge the authority of and yield allegiance to The Supreme Council (Mother Council of the World) of Inspectors General Knights Commanders of the House of the Temple of Solomon of the Thirty-Third and Last Degree, of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction, of the United States of America.

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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.

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The Scottish Rite Creed

The cause of human progress our cause, the enfranchisement of human thought is our supreme wish, the freedom of human conscience is our mission, and the guarantee of equal rights to all people everywhere, the end of our contention.

Deus Meumque Jus - GOD AND MY RIGHT. Fiat Lux - LET THERE BE LIGHT. In Deo Fiducia Nostra - OUR TRUST IS IN GOD Lux a Tenebris - LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. Spes mea in Deo est. - MY HOPE IS IN GOD. Virtus junxit, mors non separabit - WHOM VIRTUE HAS UNITED, DEATH SHALL NOT SEPARATE.

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