Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)If you are a Scottish Rite Mason and were impressed with the degree work through which you went, you will be amazed to find how far we are from our historical ritualistic roots.
If you are a Scottish Rite Mason of the Southern Jurisdiction, then you are doubtlessly aware of Albert Pike's revision of these rituals. After reading this, you may think he should have left them alone.
These rituals are not for the faint of heart. The 30th Degree as exposed in this book which made the hair stand up on my arms! I also enjoyed unapoligetic Christian nature of the 18th Degree, something made less obvious and/or purposely obscured by Pike in his revisions. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Pike fan, but these rituals are, in my opinion, in no way inferior to what he put forward and which are now the basis of ritual work in the Southern Jurisdiction.)
Highly recommended reading for those interested in the evolution of Masonic thought and practice...
Click Here to see more reviews about: Ordo ab Chao: The Original and Complete Rituals, 4th-33rd Degrees of the first Supreme Council, 33rd Degree at Charleston, South Carolina
The manuscripts are a veritable gold-mine of Masonic information, for they constitute, as far as we are aware, the most complete set of early Scottish Rite rituals in the United States.Each of the five books was copied from rituals belonging to Giles F. Yates, 33, a member of both the Northern and Southern Supreme Councils, who had most, if not all, of the manuscript rituals of Mr. Frederick Dalcho, one of the founders of the first Supreme Council. At one point the original Dalcho manuscripts were lost or sold, and when the collection was rediscovered in 1938, it had several rituals missing. Our collection, however, is complete, from the 4-33. Most of the rituals are dated 1801 and 1802, which we believe indicates they are copies of the Dalcho versions, although we have not had the opportunity to compare them with the originals in the archives of the Northern Jurisdiction.For some unknown reason, however, each is designated as belonging to either the 'first series" or 'second series," while some rituals have apparently been switched around in numerical order.For example, one ritual is labeled the '30th, 31st and 32nd Degree of the First Series (1802)...now 32nd, called Sovereign, or Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret;" although it seems to have become the 32 only after a '31 Tribunal of Grand Inquiring Commander" ritual appeared (dated 1804).Another revision is the '29 Grand Master Ecose...Knight of St. Andrew."Following the degreeis the outline of an apparent 1806 revision which radically departs from the earlier form, yet is similar to that found in Albert Pike's Magnum Opus (1857).Did Pike have this 1806 ritual?Possibly, yet, we know from Pike's writings that he didn't have all these rituals.Pike's revisions were done without the benefit of reading the original rituals contained in this set.One of the most interesting rituals is the '33 Sovereign Grand Inspector General."Not only is it the earliest form of this degree, but
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