Scottish Rite

The Scottish Rite is one of several appendant bodies of Freemasonry offering a system of 33 degrees (4th through 33rd) beyond the three “Blue Lodge” Craft degrees. Its degree work constitutes an elaborate initiatory curriculum spanning philosophy, religion, ethics, and Kabbalistic symbolism. Key degrees include the 18th (Rose Croix — death and resurrection), the 30th (Knight Kadosh — the templar vengeance drama), and the 32nd (Master of the Royal Secret — the synthesis of all preceding degrees).

The Scottish Rite’s degree structure parallels the graded ascent of the chakras, the Sefirotic Tree_of_Life, and the seven grades of Mithraism. See also York Rite for an alternative Masonic degree system.

See Also

• Freemasonry — the parent fraternal order
• York Rite — the alternative Masonic degree system
• Rose Croix — the 18th degree of the Scottish Rite
• Kabbalah — the mystical system underlying many Scottish Rite degrees
• Esoteric_Initiation — the Scottish Rite as graded initiatory transformation
• Tree_of_Life — the Kabbalistic glyph mapped onto the degree structure