In Summary:
The 10th degree, “Elu of the fifteen,” is a degree of the Scottish Rite that teaches the importance of tolerance and respect for the opinions of others. It emphasizes the importance of freedom of political and spiritual ideologies being shared by all. The apron of the 10th degree is white, with a black flap, and features three arch-shaped gates, each with a head on a spike, as a symbol of the importance of tolerance and understanding. The jewel of this degree is a dagger, as in the 9th degree.

Initial Note:
[Masonry] is the Hercules, the Osiris, the Apollo, the Mithras, and the Ormazd, at everlasting and deadly feud with the demons of ignorance, brutality, baseness, falsehood, slavishness of soul, intolerance, superstition, tyranny, meanness, the insolence of wealth, and bigotry.

Regalia Notes:
The apron is white, lined, edged, and fringed with black; the flap also is black. In the center are painted or embroidered three gates, and over each gate is a rosette representing the three assassins of Hiram as well as those vices against which Masonry is particularly opposed: ignorance, tyranny, and fanaticism.

The cordon is a broad watered black ribbon, worn from right to left; on the front of which are embroidered three rosettes bearing the same symbolism as those on the apron.

The jewel is a dagger, its hilt gold, and its blade silver; it hangs from the end of the cordon.

Duties are:
• Be tolerant and liberal. War against fanaticism and persecution
with education and enlightenment.

For Reflection:
• Are you tolerant even of intolerance?

Lessons:
• Ambition creates tyranny and despotism.
Fanaticism creates intolerance and persecution.

Important Symbols:
• Fifteen candles of yellow wax, swords with points touching in a circle, the assassins.

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Additional Notes:
For those who have received their initial Masonic instruction in a symbolic lodge where the assassins are executed in the 3rd degree, the drama of the Elu of the Nine and Elu of the Fifteen may be confusing. The Scottish Rite degrees differ markedly from those of the York Rite Symbolic Lodge with respect to the portion of the allegory. The assassins are not apprehended in the Master’s Degree but in the 9th and 10th degrees. The word “Elu” which appears in this and the following degrees is a French word meaning “Elect” and refers to those chosen or elected to find and inflict punishment upon the three assassins. “Elect” was also a term used by the Gnostics. It defined someone who was in possession of the “Gnosis” or divine knowledge acquired by revelation.

Sources:
Purchase ‘A Bridge To Light‘ by Rex R. Hutchens
Purchase ‘Morals & Dogma‘ by Albert Pike.