"To preserve the reputation of the Fraternity unsullied must be your constant care."

BE A FREEMASON

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Scottish Rite Confers 33rd Degree in Boston


The Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction will confer the 33rd degree on 110 32nd degree Masons next week in Boston, during the annual meeting of the Supreme Council at the Hynes Convention Center. The 33rd Degree is awarded for outstanding achievement within the fraternity or for service to the Scottish Rite.

More than 2,000 33rd Degree Masons and their wives are expected to attend from the 15 northeastern and midwestern states comprising the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. After conferral of the 33rd Degree on Aug. 25, the names of those who have been selected to receive the degree next year in Philadelphia will be announced.

This is for those of you who believe the secret 33rd degree is only conferred in secret to a secret select list of secretly selected selectees.

5 comments:

  1. My girlfriend and I will be working one of the gift tables for the event. Will you be attending, Bro. Chris?

    ReplyDelete
  2. "This is for those of you who believe the secret 33rd degree is only conferred in secret to a secret select list of secretly selected selectees."

    - - - - -

    DAY--INT.--BOSTON HOTEL

    (We see the officiator conferring the 33rd degree on a group of 110 earnest Masons. From behind a CURTAIN we see one green eye peering out at the crowd.) CUT TO:

    (A MINOR DEMON now seen from behind the curtain.)

    (CUE creepy TRUMPET MUSIC from the John Williams soundtrack: Indiana Jones in hell.)

    (The MINOR DEMON slowly smiles and pushes a false BRICK in the wall behind him, opening up a secret stairway in the wall, down which he hops, humming the THEME from "Peer Gynt.") CUT TO:

    INT.--SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER

    (Done up in the symbolism of the Scottish Rite, the chamber is full of incense. We hear the sounds of WHIPS and the AGONIZED SCREAMS of the damned in the background. An inhumanly tall and massive FIGURE has his back to the camera, looking out through a portal onto what we can only imagine are the depths of hell.)

    (The MINOR DEMON enters from the bottom of the staircase and addresses the FIGURE.)

    MINOR DEMON: Master, the humans are conferring the public version of the 33rd degree. The real ceremony for the true initiates can begin at any time!

    (The FIGURE turns: It is ASMODEUS, horns and all, done up in full alternative-reality Scottish Rite regalia as the Dark Supreme Magus, wearing a black-and-purple SR cap with the symbol of the Eye in the Pyramid upon it. Camera CLOSES IN.)

    ASMODEUS: Oh, yes, Their little "33rd degree." If only they knew what the real thing was like! (Starts off chuckling, building up to a full-scale, building-shaking HA HA HA: Vincent Price as dark god.)

    - - - - -

    The sad thing is, some poor deluded souls actually believe this about us. Let's be ready when Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol brings this kind of idiocy out as nonfiction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark, that scene looks like it came out of a Jack Chick track!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Chris,

    I would attribute the lack of secrecy here to the fact that this is after all the NMJ or Northern Masonic Jurisdiction that you are talking about here. They are hardly in line with Scottish Rite tradition, and the so called "33rd degree" that they confer is some nonsense composed by a brother a few decades ago. They have long since abandoned the mystique of what generally composes the Scottish Rite elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I knew it all along. These are the "wrong" kind of 33rds.

    ReplyDelete

ATTENTION!
SIGN YOUR NAME OR OTHERWISE IDENTIFY YOURSELF IN YOUR COMMENT POSTS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT.
Your comments will not appear immediately because I am forced to laboriously screen every post. I'm constantly bombarded with spam. Depending on the comments being made, anonymous postings on Masonic topics may be regarded with the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers, as far as I am concerned. If you post with an unknown or anonymous account, do not automatically expect to see your comment appear.