Royal Arch - Review

I had two objectives when writing this book; the first was to consider the role of the Royal Arch Degree in Freemasonry as the last of the Blue Degrees, and secondly to explain the ultimate spiritual exercise of Daoism, which closely aligns with the Third Degree. Because of its spiritual content, it was decided to separate it out from the explanation of the Third Degree in “Freemasonry: Quest for Immortality.

The book is divided into three sections. The first gives the history and importance of the Royal Arch Degree to not only the Blue Lodge, but also the Scottish and York Rites. It is shown how the ritual corresponds to the secrets of Trinitarianism. Also introduced are several “Chinese Masonic” rituals, and how they came to be. In the second section, the remaining Signposts that were not explained in “Freemasonry: Spiritual Alchemy” because of their spiritual nature, are explained together with the Arcana of the Third Degree. Another important subject is what Freemasons of the day would have understood about spirituality, especially given the watchful eye of the Church. What we find is that the Church itself was unable to explain many miracles that still occurred in the 1700s, and tried to hide the reality from believers. In the third section, a secret Daoist teaching is explained in detail and is shown to be remarkably similar to the ritual of the Third Degree. The newly perfected Master Mason has experienced his immortal self and learns that this is just the beginning of an astounding adventure, which was explained to a professor at the University of Oxford by a Chinese mandarin and candidate for ordination in 1687 as given in “Freemasonry: Initiation by Light.”

The four books of the Spiritual Freemasonry series show the objective of the early Grand Masters, they were not concerned with teaching morality, this is a Victorian idea, what they wanted to show was that

“Freemasonry at its core is a search for immortality.” The

First and Second Degree rituals are just preparatory work for the transformation that occurs in the Third Degree, but even more than this is the work that the Master Mason must do on his own. The Third

Degree is not the end, it gives the Mason the tools to achieve great things, if he has really understood the degrees. The ritual is both simple and profoundly deep, this is because of the steganography that was employed when it was written. In conclusion, I hope the Brethren will reevaluate the Degrees for the remarkable esoterica that they are!

Perhaps with Christmas approaching, one or all four books would be a great present!

Christopher J. Earnshaw PhD 33° is a British Citizen living in Tokyo and author of the “Spiritual Freemasonry” books. He is a Past Grand Historian, Grand Lodge of Japan, Past Master of the Research Lodge, Grand Lodge of Japan, Scottish Rite 33° IGH, Past-Chairman of Education Committee, recipient of the Order of Merit, Grand Lodge of Japan, for educational activities and a Past Master of Sinim Lodge, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

Social Media Links: Spiritual Freemasonry videos: http://youtube.com/c/spiritualfreemasonry Twitter: @AuthorEarnshaw: https://twitter.com/AuthorEarnshaw Podcasts: Freemasonry in 7 Minutes or Less: https://anchor.fm/earnshaw-christopher Website: http://chris-earnshaw.com