Morals And Dogma Of The Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite Of Freemasonry

“MORALS AND DOGMA” comprises the extended Lectures for the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite under the Supreme Council of the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction, USA (as well as the Craft degrees of Freemasonry which are not worked by the Scottish Rite, it rather being a precondition of admittance that one is a Master Mason in good standing under a recognised Grand Lodge), as prepared in 1871 by Albert Pike, then its Grand Commander. These “lectures” amplify on the legendary settings of the Degree rituals, discuss the duties associated with the degrees, and generally take the contents of the rituals as texts for extended sermons. A substantial part of this material had been assembled by 1857, when Pike’s first revision of the Degrees 4°-32° (later titled Magnum Opus) was completed and privately printed. The extended political rants and jeremiads on the corruption of the age peppered through the lectures, though, were probably written after, and influenced by, the U.S. civil war, in which Pike fought on the losing side, and on the early years of the ensuing “reconstruction” As hinted in the Preface, significant parts of this work are not original. However none of Pike’s borrowings are cited properly, and most are not cited at all. The preparation of a critical text identifying sources would be a major work of Masonic scholarship, which possibly someone with a far greater dedication to the Scottish Rite than the present editor (whose sole connection therewith is that he once had the 4°-16° irregularly conferred on him by name) might one day undertake (or perhaps already has). The major source is believed to be the works of the prolific French writer on Magic, Eliphaz Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant), none of which had at the time been published in English translation.