Promoting the Fraternity across the World
You are now an Entered Apprentice Freemason – the first step in your journey through what is known as The Craft Degrees. The word ‘apprentice’ means ‘learner’ or ‘beginner’ – one who is taking his first steps in mastering a trade or profession. The builders of the Middle Ages we call ‘Operative Masons’ because they … Read more
Of the many ‘extra-Craft’ degrees, those five controlled by the Grand Council of the Order of the Allied Masonic Degrees are probably the least known: one has to be a Mark Master and a Royal Arch Mason to be eligible and this double qualification will exclude many. There are also fewer private Allied Councils than there are lodges, or equivalent bodies, for the much larger orders of Mark and Royal Ark Mariners and even of smaller orders, such as the Royal and Select Masters.
During research I was doing into the Holy Royal Arch of Jerusalem I came across a book in the George Holden library at the Solent Masonic Centre at Freshwater, Isle of Wight called the Book of the Chapter and printed in the United States in 1856, the Author being the famous American Masonic historian Albert Mackey MD. The book had been part of the collection of the Bombay Masonic Library in the latter half of the 19th century.
