The Scottish Rite – An Overview
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is, like York Rite Masonry, one of two sets of appendant bodies a Mason can join after receiving the three degrees of the Craft Lodge. Here the candidate will find a full set of 32 degrees including the three he has heretofore gone through. These degrees are dramatically performed and full of rich history and Masonic symbolism.
The Scottish Rite, despite its name, did not originate in Scotland, but rather came to us from France where the earliest records called the rite Ecossais (pronounced ay-coss-ay). This French word of course means Scottish and it is believed that ex-patriot Scots in France at the time set up a Scottish Lodge in Bordeaux.
The name Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite first appeared in an 1804 agreement between the Supreme Council of France and the Grand Orient of France. Beginning with the administration of Grand Commander Albert Pike in 1859, it came into general use in the Southern Jurisdiction and elsewhere. Unlike many Masonic bodies, the Scottish Rite makes no official claim to an earlier lineage than 1804.
