Chapter of Rose Croix

The Chapter of Rose Croix is the second body of the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction and confers the 15th to 18th degrees. Where the Lodge of Perfection dealt with the building of Solomon’s Temple, the Chapter moves on to the Second Temple and then to the “New Law” of love, ending with the 18th degree, Knight Rose Croix. This page introduces the Chapter as a whole and then looks at its first degree, the 15th: Knight of the East, of the Sword, or of the Eagle.

The Chapter of Rose Croix

Although it has only four degrees, the Chapter is known as one of the most demanding parts of the Rite. Rex Hutchens describes its degrees in A Bridge to Light as “at once religious, historical, moral and philosophical”. Albert Pike drew on Hebrew history, the Kabbalah, the number symbolism of Pythagoras, comparisons between Christianity and the older religions of the ancient world, and the Book of Revelation. Hutchens comments that Pike believed “that which is easily learned is little appreciated”. Members are encouraged to study the matching chapters of Morals and Dogma and Pike’s other writings, and a real understanding can take years.

Historically, the four degrees cover a span of nearly seven centuries, from the destruction of Solomon’s Temple to the writing of the Book of Revelation:

• 15th, Knight of the East, of the Sword, or of the Eagle: the return from captivity in Babylon and the start of work on the Second Temple;
• 16th, Prince of Jerusalem: the continuing work of rebuilding Jerusalem and its Temple;
• 17th, Knight of the East and West: the expectation of a Messiah and an introduction to the Book of Revelation;
• 18th, Knight Rose Croix: the doctrine of love, completing the lesson of the Chapter.

Pike’s revision also links these degrees to architecture. In the 12th degree’s scheme of the five orders, the 15th and 16th are the Ionic or “Second Temple” degrees, and the 17th and 18th are the Corinthian or “New Law” degrees.

The arrangement differs between jurisdictions. In the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the USA, the 15th and 16th degrees are conferred by a separate Council of Princes of Jerusalem, and its Chapter of Rose Croix works only the 17th and 18th. In England and Wales, and in Australia, the whole Rite is commonly known simply as “Rose Croix”. In England and Wales its Chapters confer the degrees up to the 18th, and the higher degrees are conferred by the Supreme Council.

The degree at a glance

• Body: Chapter of Rose Croix (15th to 18th degrees), Southern Jurisdiction, USA
• Degree: 15th, Knight of the East, of the Sword, or of the Eagle
• Other jurisdictions: the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction calls it Knight of the East and confers it in its Council of Princes of Jerusalem; elsewhere it appears as Knight of the East or Sword, or Knight of the Sword
• Setting: three rooms, the Hall of the West (the Hebrew camp among the ruins of Jerusalem), the Hall of the East (the council chamber of King Cyrus in Babylon) and Cyrus’s treasure chamber, with a bridge between the first two
• Pike’s lecture: Morals and Dogma, chapter XV, “Knight of the East or of the Sword”

This is one of the oldest and most widespread of the high degrees. Albert Mackey says the Knight of the East “has been extensively diffused through the most important Rites”, because its legend commemorates the Masons who built the Second Temple. He adds that a version of the same story appears in every rite that deals with the Second Temple, including the Order of the Red Cross worked in the American York Rite. Its alternative names refer to the story. “Knight of the Sword” comes from the account in Nehemiah (4:17–18) of builders working with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other, and “Knight of the Eagle” comes from the eagle, which in this degree stands for liberty.

The lesson

The story opens a new allegory, that of the Second Temple. The people of Israel, who had followed Solomon’s later turn to other gods, have lost their Temple and spent seventy years in captivity in Babylon. Zerubbabel, a prince of Judah and, in Hutchens’s phrase, “a type of the Perfect Elu”, sets out to win their freedom and permission to rebuild.

In outline: Zerubbabel visits the discouraged exiles among the ruins of Jerusalem, then travels in chains to the court of Cyrus, King of Persia. Cyrus offers to grant his request if Zerubbabel will reveal the secrets of his Order. Zerubbabel refuses, saying he would rather the Temple stayed in ruins, and he himself remained a slave, than betray his trust. Even the sight of the Temple’s captured treasures does not move him. Cyrus, impressed by his faithfulness and warned by a dream interpreted by the prophet Daniel (an echo of Daniel chapter 4), frees him, makes him governor of Judea and sends him home with a mark of royal favour. On the road, Zerubbabel and his escort are attacked at a bridge and lose the collar Cyrus had given him. Back in Jerusalem he founds a new order and teaches its members that some honours are worth more than any gift from a king.

Hutchens draws three lessons from the story. First, Zerubbabel is the model leader: someone who perseveres, encourages the disheartened, rouses the idle and cannot be bought. Second, the crossing of the bridge stands for the long, hard passage of a people from slavery to freedom, from ignorance to enlightenment and from spiritual bondage to liberty, and it is a reminder that a virtuous life is a struggle rather than a rest. Third, the Temple is begun in this degree but not finished. Its rebuilding stands for the restoration of truth among people and for an orderly liberty in which peace and tolerance make the world fit to live in.

Duties of the degree

A Bridge to Light gives the Knight of the East one great duty: to rebuild the Masonic temple of liberty, equality and fraternity in the souls of individuals and of nations. Its lessons are:

• fidelity to trust, honour and duty;
• perseverance and constancy in the face of difficulty and discouragement.

Pike’s lecture is short, but it is a frank warning. He says Masonry’s greatest obstacles are not its enemies but “the apathy and faithlessness of her own selfish children”: members who doubt that people can improve and who applaud from the sidelines while others do the work.

Symbols and regalia

The cordon (shown as the collar) is a broad green watered ribbon, worn like a baldric from the left shoulder to the right hip, with no jewel. Green is the main colour of the degree and stands for the immortality of the soul and of Masonry itself.

The sash is broad white watered silk, edged above and fringed below with gold, and worn around the waist with the ends hanging on the left. It is embroidered with scenes from the fight at the bridge, and at one end an arched gold bridge carries the letters L.D.P. A small silver trowel hangs from the right side.

The letters L.D.P. have two readings, as Hutchens explains in A Bridge to Light. The older one, from the French rituals, is Liberté de Passer, “liberty of passage”, which suits the bridge it is written on. Pike added a second, Liberté de Penser, “liberty of thought”. Hutchens draws the two together: thought carefully weighed is what wins the freedom that knowledge brings, and that freedom is reached step by step, which is to say degree by degree.

The apron is crimson velvet. On the flap is a bleeding head above two crossed swords, and on the body are three gold triangles, one inside another, made of chain with triangular links. The chains stand for the three fetters on the human mind: tyranny, superstition and privilege. The velvet is a reminder that Masonic honours are worth more than the gifts of kings.

The jewel is three nested gold triangles enclosing two crossed swords with their points upward. The triangles stand for liberty, equality and fraternity, and also for law, order and subordination. The swords stand for truth and justice. The costume is completed by green kid gloves and a black broad-brimmed hat with a green plume.

The Hall of the East also has its own symbol: a painted scene of Cyrus’s dream showing a lion ready to spring, a blazing star, and an eagle carrying a ribbon with the words “Restore Liberty to the Captives”. In the Hall of the West, seventy candles recall the seventy years of exile.

Reflections

The reflection question for this degree is: is equality the basis of all freedom? Pike’s own advice to anyone tempted to judge a cause by its chances of success was clear:

“Work on, with the Sword in one hand, and the Trowel in the other!”

Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, 15th degree

He described Masonry as on a crusade against “ignorance, intolerance, fanaticism, superstition, uncharitableness, and error”, and admitted that it sails against contrary winds rather than with the trade winds. Zerubbabel’s example shows what that requires: keeping faith when it costs you something, and continuing to build when the work will not be finished in your own lifetime.