America

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.