2011 Reprint of 1906 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Fully describes the first three degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Pike is best known for his major work, "Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry," originally published in 1871. "Morals and Dogma' was traditionally given to the candidate upon his receipt of the 14th degree of the Scottish Rite. This practice was stopped in 1974. "Morals and Dogma" has not been given to candidates since 1974. A classic work on the subject.

THIS 66 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Magnum Opus or the Great Work, by Albert Pike. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564592456.

THIS 44 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Lectures of the Arya, by Albert Pike. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564591824.

In 1879 Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA, prepared and authorized for sale a collection of books "for general distribution." Among these was also a collection of rituals, virtually unknown today. These included: 1) Degree of Master Mark Mason, being the work of the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem of South Carolina, and the oldest work extent anywhere; 2) The Wigan Ritual, of the Early Grand Encampment. 3) Grade, Mark Mason, Passed Master, and Royal Arch, Rite Ancient Maconnerie D'York. Were originally translated from English into French, and used in the French West Indies in 1795.]; 4) Knights Templar, former English Ritual. 5) Grand Maitre Ecossais or Scottish Elder Master and Knight of St. Andrew, being the Fourth Degree of Ramsey. 6) Old Ceremony of Royal Arch Exaltation. This new book includes ALL of the above rituals in one volume. These rituals have become some of the scarcest items ever printed by the Supreme Council. Original copies now sell for between US $60 and US $100 each. All of these rituals are extremely important, each for unique reasons. The Master Mark Mason and Wigan Rituals are, for example, early, little-known versions of these degrees; the former lacking much of the Christian symbolism present today, and the latter (supplied by John Yarker), differing significantly from the current ritual. The MaConnerie D'Yorke rituals were obtained in New Orleans, and contain a wealth of historical information relative to their use, including references to Joseph Cerneau, who had long troubled the Southern Jurisdiction by his irregular branch the Scottish Rite. The "former" English Knights Templar ritual appears to be the authorized revision of 1851, upon which the current ritual is based. The Grand Maitre Ecossais degree is an Hermetic degree which contends that the essential "secret" of Freemasonry is the Alchemical transmutation of the initiate. It is rumored to be used by the American C.B.C.S. (Knights Beneficent of the Holy City), an elite Masonic body. The Old Ceremony of Royal Arch Exaltation is the ritual upon which the current English ritual is based. It includes references to the mysterious word "J.B.O.," which has since been expunged from English Masonry.

Pike knew that our language, philosophy, religions, are traceable to the Aryans, Indo and Irano, and he has presented to our view, through the Lectures, the emigration and last division of the race, their country, character and manners, their language, their deities, and legends. "Of the work, Pike himself said: 'Oldest literary monuments and records of human thought in the world and as the source and origin of the great philosophical doctrines of the world, but also, and far more, because they make known to us a sublime theosophy and purely philosophic faith believed in and understood by men of our own blood and lineage at a very remote period when they dwelt near the cradle of the race.

1835. In 1835, General Pike published this essay as a serial in the columns of his paper, "The Arkansas Advocate." In this work, General Pike relates a journey into the "great American desert" ranging somewhere near the edge of Arkansas to the west edge of the Rocky Mountains. The story he tells is perfectly the truth, and nothing is exaggerated or extenuated in the narrative.

THIS 64 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Lectures on Masonic Symbolism and A Second Lecture on Symbolism or the Omkara and other Ineffable Words, by Albert Pike. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 156459162X.