The degree pages that follow draw on one book above all others: A Bridge to Light by Dr. Rex R. Hutchens. Published by the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, it is the standard companion to the Scottish Rite degrees and the source of the descriptions of aprons, cordons and jewels shown on these pages. This page introduces the book, explains how it is used here, and lists the works of Albert Pike that stand behind it.
About the book
- Title: A Bridge to Light: The Revised Standard Pike Ritual
- Author: Dr. Rex R. Hutchens, 33°, Grand Cross, K.Y.G.C.H., Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Arizona
- Editor: Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, Grand Cross, Grand Archivist and Grand Historian of the Supreme Council, who edited, revised and introduced the current edition
- Foreword: Ronald A. Seale, 33°, then Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction
- Publisher: The Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, Washington, D.C.
- Editions: first published in 1988, with revised editions in 1995, 2006 and 2010. The fourth edition (2010) follows the Revised Standard Pike Ritual and is the one used on this site.
- Illustrations: colour plates of the aprons, cordons and jewels of each degree by Great Scott Design and Kerry Hannon Stratford
What the book is for
Hutchens wrote A Bridge to Light to solve a real problem. For generations, Southern Jurisdiction candidates received a copy of Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma (1871), a huge and demanding book of lectures on the degrees. Few read it all, and after 1974 it was no longer handed out. Hutchens set out to build, as his title says, a bridge: a readable guide that links what a member sees performed in each degree with what Pike wrote about it. In his own words, the book “was designed to act as a bridge between the ceremony of the degrees and their lectures in Morals and Dogma“.
The book has a chapter for each degree from the 4th to the 32nd. Each chapter describes the regalia, sets out the duties and lessons of the degree, offers a question for reflection and lists its important symbols, then reviews the ceremony “to such an extent as is proper” and explains Pike’s lecture. Historical notes are added where they help. The current edition was revised by Arturo de Hoyos to match the Revised Standard Pike Ritual adopted by the Supreme Council after 1995, and in his introduction he describes the book as a succinct handbook of Scottish Rite philosophy, as useful to non-Masons as to members.
Rex Hutchens himself was born in Oregon in 1942, studied anthropology and Oriental studies, and earned a doctorate in 1984. He became a Mason in Arizona in 1982 and devoted himself to research on the history and ritual of the Scottish Rite, receiving the 33rd degree in 1989 and the Grand Cross in 1995.
How this site uses it
The degree pages in this section are written in our own words, using A Bridge to Light as their main reference for each degree’s duties, lessons, symbols and regalia, and for the outline of its legend. Short passages are quoted only where the exact wording matters, and are always credited to Hutchens or to Pike. The regalia descriptions follow the book’s colour plates, which reflect the practice of the Southern Jurisdiction; where the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction uses a different name or story for a degree, the page says so.
Two things these pages deliberately leave out. The first is anything a degree reserves for its members, such as its words, signs and obligations, even where a printed source mentions them. The second is a substitute for the real thing: as Hutchens himself stresses, no summary replaces seeing a degree performed. Readers who want the full picture of the symbolism should read the book itself, published by the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction.
Albert Pike’s works
Behind A Bridge to Light stand the writings of Albert Pike (1809–1891), Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction from 1859 until his death, who rewrote the rituals of the 4th to the 32nd degrees. Explanations and short extracts from his books also appear on the degree pages. The best known are shown below:
- Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871): Pike’s lectures on each degree, the book A Bridge to Light was written to explain.
- The Legenda and Readings: shorter companion readings that Pike wrote to accompany the degrees.
- Magnum Opus: Pike’s first complete revision of the rituals of the 4th to the 32nd degrees, finished in 1857. It was never officially adopted, but it became the basis of his later revisions.
- Albert Pike’s Esoterika: The Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry: Pike’s study of the symbolism of the first three degrees, edited by Arturo de Hoyos for the Scottish Rite Research Society (2005).
- The Book of the Words: another of Pike’s scholarly works on the rituals, available in an annotated edition.
The next page begins the degrees themselves, starting with the Lodge of Perfection and the 4° Secret Master.
Sources:
– Rex R. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light: The Revised Standard Pike Ritual, 4th edition, edited by Arturo de Hoyos (Washington, D.C.: The Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., 2010): title page and copyright page, Foreword by Ronald A. Seale, “Introduction to the Revised Edition”, Preface, “Introduction” and “About the Author”
– Wikipedia, “Scottish Rite” (section “Albert Pike”) and “Albert Pike”