Special thanks to George Helmer FPS

MASONIC TRADITION AND THE ROYAL ARCH

Part 2 of 2

E. A. WAITE

But after nearly five hundred years - I am speaking still within
the hypothesis of the symbolism - there rose up the Grand or
Royal Lodge, which was in the day of restoration and the
day when things are reborn, or made anew, when
Zerubbabel, the prince of the people, with their prophet and
priest, led back Israel out of exile. It came about that, having
made a great discovery within the precincts of the First
Temple, they held their Lodge at Jerusalem, and proclaimed
the glad tidings, which are called the climax of Freemasonry
- at least within the measures and under the obedience of
the Old Law. And the original of that which we term the
ROYAL ARCH is the Grand or Royal Lodge. In the sense of
this symbolism, notwithstanding all disparities occasioned by
things that are left at a loose end and all temporal lacunae, it
may be said that the Holy Order does, within its own degree,
complete the Masonic circle - though only within measures
of the Craft - in virtue of that mystical recovery which made
the glory of the Third Grand Lodge even as the glory of the
first, and Jerusalem in the days of Zerubbabel as Horeb in
those of Moses, who first promulgated the beneficent Law of
Masonry.

The ROYAL ARCH may be defined briefly as the Grade of
the Word attained; but while a certain expectation is
intimated on the part of those who ruled, there is nothing to
show that the Brethren who made the discovery were
qualified by antecedent knowledge or were themselves
dedicated to the work of quest. It was the providence of an
accidental happening which brought about the event, and as
such - on the surface - it does little honour to the important
subject in hand. The discovery itself is unintelligible, as the
story stands, since there is nothing leading up thereto -
either in the Craft or Arch. But in Masonic Grades external to
both the preliminary steps are found and the motive at work
throughout. In view of this fact, as explained already, it would
look as though the ROYAL ARCH had been lifted out of
some Ritual series and utilized as an epilogue to the Craft,
not a little to its own detriment, because it was never
intended originally to stand alone. In Masonic history we
hear of the bare title and of some undescribed symbol
belonging thereto being carried in a Masonic procession,
tempus 1743, while a year later there is an allusion to the
Grade itself, but under circumstances which suggest that
more than one version was about. The preliminary sidesteps
or intermediates to which I have alluded and which throw
light on the subject are not in distinct evidence till a later
period. If I may put forward a personal opinion, purely at its
hypothetical value, it seems to me that as the ROYAL ARCH
originated in these islands, certainly and beyond question,
so also there were other Grades, side-steps or preliminaries
connected therewith and essential thereunto. It is impossible
to speculate about their original form, in the absence of all
evidence, or on how far they have departed from it in the
Degrees now extant: if we may judge by the vicious editing
of the Arch Degree itself, they have suffered drastic change.
The Grades in question are called respectively ROYAL and
SELECT MASTER. But before offering a brief description of
their scope and motive I must refer to the year 1754, when
several important items were grouped together under the
auspices of a French Rite, as if they had been manufactured
suddenly or suddenly collected together. I refer to the
COUNCIL OF EMPERORS OF THE EAST AND WEST,
otherwise the RITE OF HEREDOM or RITE OF
PERFECTION, working twenty-two Grades superposed on
those of the Craft. In virtue of certain sub-titles attached to
some of them on the authority of rare MSS. now in my
hands, it would appear that not all of them were of French
Origin, though it is impossible to have any assurance on
such a debateable point. The examples include ENGLISH
MASTER, as alter native to INTIMATE SECRETARY, and
ILLUSTRIOUS IRISH MASTER, as substitute for PROVOST
AND JUDGE. However this may be, we are concerned more
especially with the thirteenth Grade of the Rite, called
ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH, or - in early examples - Knight
of the ROYAL ARCH. As there are two titles, so also there
are two forms and that which is the more important is, I think,
perhaps the later: it is incorporated at the present day into
the long series of the SCOTTISH RITE. It goes very near to
the root-hypothesis of the Secret Tradition and delineates
the circumstances under which the Sacred Word was placed
in the hiddenness, long prior to the Three Prototypical Grand
Lodges. In this form, I believe, it to be of foreign invention as
well as redaction: its importance for our purpose is that it
places a Masonic complexion on an early epoch of the
Tradition. In the alternative and possibly earlier form there is
no question that it is of English origin as to its root-matter or
that it derives from the ROYAL and SELECT MASTER
GRADES, but from the former more especially, and at a time
when both were in a state corresponding more nearly to the
mode in which they were communicated, not so many years
ago, under the auspices of the EARLY GRAND Scottish
Rite, rather than that of the CRYPTIC. The latter bears
marks of editing by persons who had no acquaintance with
the Secret Tradition. As regards all recensions, the time is
that of Solomon, the Temple is still uncompleted, but the
mythical history in each case is subsequent to the Hiramic
myth, which is still left at its original loose end. The Grades
in their several forms throw light on the central point of the
Royal Arch, because they shew how a place of concealment
was planned for the Secret Mysteries and how these were
hidden therein until time or circumstances should render
their restoration essential. The implicit throughout is that in
such case the providence protecting what is understood as
Masonry would intervene in favour of the Art, as it did ex
hypothesi at the epoch of the Second Temple.

We may follow the Secret Tradition into strange places of
Masonry, and if the intimations are often at variance they are
in agreement on at least two points. The Tradition is always
concerned with the power and grace of a Word, usually a
Divine Name, and there is always an intention to show that a
hidden Knowledge concerning it goes on from age to age.
There is the Grade of KNIGHT OF THE EAST, which in one
of its versions belongs to the Maccabean period, and the
Candidate is in search of the Sacred Treasure after the
profanations of Andochus Epiphanus. There is the Grade of
TRUE SCOTTISH MASTER, which belongs to Adonhiramite
Masonry. It affirms that the Word of God was never lost in
reality, and that after the sacking of Herod's Temple, at the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a mysterious inscribed
plate was found beneath one of the Pillars. This fable is
recited in a kind of historical discourse, and although on the
surface we are still in the days of Solomon, we are already
on the threshold of Christian Masonry, for the Lodge of the
Grade is said to have been instituted by St. John the
Evangelist in succession to one which was held on the
banks of the Jordan by St. John the Baptist.

When we pass definitely into Christian Masonry the Tradition
is still with us, although under several mutations. It owes
something to Philostorgus and his ECCLESIASTICAL
HISTORY, written at the beginning of the 5th Century. In
connection with the baffled attempts to rebuild the Temple at
Jerusalem he tells us of certain workmen let down by means
of ropes into a deep well, at the bottom of which - emerging
above the water - there was found a small column, and on
the column, a book wrapped in a linen cloth. When
examined, it proved to be a copy of St. John's Gospel. For
the rest, according to Christian Masonry, the Keepers of the
Secret Tradition are represented as Knights of the Morning,
Knights of Palestine, Sons of the Valley, Thebaid Brethren, a
secret Brotherhood perpetuated from generation to
generation in the heart of Jewry, but unknown to Jewry at
large. They looked for a Master who was to come, the
Deliverer and Messiah. In the fullness of time they found the
Word in Christ, which is the message of the Christian
Grades.

I have been dealing with questions of fact in Ritual and with
the tradition out of which they arise. I do not intend on the
present occasion to dwell on the inferences to be drawn,
however legitimate. I have followed the Secret Tradition in its
development through several paths, within and outside of
Masonry. That there is a meaning behind the Tradition I am
entirely certain, for it is of symbolism or allegory after its own
manner and within its own measures, even as Masonry is.
The great BOOK OF THE ZOHAR contains the whole
doctrine of the Lost Word and of the circumstances under
which it shall be restored on the coming of Israel out of exile,
in the day of Messiah. But the ZOHAR is the book of the
Secret Tradition in Jewry under the Christian aegis. As
regards the Lost Word, it depends from a question of fact,
which of itself is of minor consequence, being the loss of the
mode in which the High Priest pronounced the Divine Name
when he entered the Holy of Holies once a year to make
atonement for the sins of the people. Over this the ZOHAR
allegorizes and in their fervid hearts the doctors of the
Greater Exile looked for magnalia Dei when it should be put
again into their mouths. But that which it meant in their
symbolism was the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth -
to the chosen people above all, but apparently by derivation
from these to all tongues and tribes and peoples and
nations. The Secret Tradition was taken over by zealous
scholars of Christendom during the 16th and 17th Centuries,
and they sought to convince Jewry that all which was
expected had come in Christ, that it was possessed by the
Gentiles and might be enjoyed by them if they would turn
their hearts to Him. This is the philosophy of the Tradition in
brief and crude summary. But in another form and aspect, it
is the philosophy of the Tradition in Masonry, which is
another story of a Word in loss or hiddenness, and this fact,
which might be one of coincidence, is linked up with the
Secret Tradition because it is represented - in variably and
only - by a Sacred Name, an omnific and ineffable message,
and the plenary grace of a mystery abiding in a Name of
God. Now the Tradition of the Name in Masonry was taken
over by other Zelatores, who, after all intimations of the
ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH, Arch of Zerubbabel and Arch of
Josiah the King, after all that was said to be inscribed on
sacred plates of gold, came forward in their later day and
founded the Christian Grades - the ORDER OF THE
TEMPLE, the ROSE CROIX, the RED CROSS OF
CONSTANTINE and KNIGHT OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
Like other makers of legend, they testified that the Word is
Christ. It follows that those rumours of a Secret Tradition
which are conveyed in the Royal Arch are not confined
thereto. In one or other form, they are in the body- general of
Masonry.

What does this fact signify, and where may it lead the Mason
who is willing to dwell on such things and, perhaps, pursue
them further? The answer to this question is my last word
and a kind of obiter dictum. It signifies that the Secret of
Masonry, that Word too often lost, is the Secret of Christ
realized in the heart of a Mason, and that from beginning to
end our "peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and
illustrated by symbols " has never had another object than to
direct us with eyes uplifted to the bright Morning Star, whose
rising brings peace and salvation to those who sit in
tribulation and in the shadow of death.
Masonry is an art, useful and extensive, which comprehends
within its circle every branch of useful knowledge and learning,
and stamps an indellible mark of preeminence on its genuine
professors, which neither chance, power, nor fortune can
bestow.  - PRESTON.

George Helmer FPS
PM Norwood #90 GRA
PZ Norwood #18 RAM
MBBFMN #362

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