Thoughts on the Most Excellent Master Degree

The sixth degree of the Royal Arch Rite as practiced in chapters belonging to the General Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons Int. is the Most Excellent Master Degree.  As with previous degrees, the candidate is required to circumambulate about the lodge an equal number of times as the degree represented (depending on jurisdiction, of course).

In the Jurisdiction of Utah, as with many others, this path begins in the Northwest corner of the lodge.  The candidate then travels to the East, South, and West, following the path of the sun.  He travels through the North as well, a place of darkness, a representation of night?  In this context, I would argue that it is the case.  Each circumambulation represents a day, an epoch, and age.  The Most Excellent Master occurs during the sixth epoch, age, or day.   For the sake of brevity we'll use day.

On the sixth day the Temple of Solomon was completed and dedicated to the Ever-Living God.  Craftsmen placed the keystone at the head of the arch, they placed the sacred vessels and ornaments in the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant was seat in the Holy of Holies.  Solomon offered up a dedicatory prayer, which was found favorable before God and His Spirit descended and rested in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
The Most Excellent Master Degree represents these events and it is a degree that stands apart in the Royal Arch Rite, more so than the Past Master Degree.  The craftsmen are never presented with working tools, the work is complete.  According to the ritual, the craftsmen remove their aprons and no longer need them.  The work is done, the Temple is complete and has been accepted by the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Ask yourself, what else was completed on another sixth day?  Man!  On the sixth day of creation, God created Adam and Eve, man and woman, in His image.  From the clay sprung forth the apex of God's creation, the keystone of the Genesis.  And to complete this work, God gave the breath of life to man, he accepted the work of His own hand and the work was finished.

Work, from this connection, what you will.  But, I tend to remember the admonition of Paul, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"  I'm going to let you in on a little secret, you're quest as a Royal Arch Candidate is to find the lost Master's Word.  I want to get you excited for the Royal Arch Degree, you shall find the Lost Master's Word.  It will be work, you will dig, you will stoop low, and if you are lucky you may discover that Lost Word.  But as the degrees of Freemasonry, and specifically that of the Royal Arch, are symbols of your journey through life, I must admonish you to look inward.  Complete your temple that you may realize what you have found while digging through the rubbish of a Temple that has fallen by the hands of time.

The Secrets of the Past Master's Degree

To be exalted to the Most Sublime Degree of the Royal Arch a candidate must first have governed a Craft Lodge and be a Past Master.  This regulation was in practice until 1823, for almost eighty years a Companion of the Royal Arch had to be an actual Past Master.  In 1823, it was decided and implemented that those wishing to be exalted could pass through a chair degree and become Virtual Past Masters, tonight we witnessed this degree as conferred by Royal Arch Chapter in North America.  

The charge given to our new Past Masters emphasize that the degree is short, in fact, if you were to time the degree from beginning to end it would take no longer than 10 minutes, give or take a couple.  However, the lessons conveyed are of great importance.  This is true but it takes a little digging to uncover those lessons and why they are essentially necessary before a candidate can be exalted.  Because it is not just the title that is necessary to be exalted, if it was then the regulation that a companion must be an actual Past Master would never have changed.  

First, Masonry is concerned with circular work, even though your entire craft experience has been square work.  But there are hints of that truth when we look at the Great Lights of Freemasonry, eventually the Compasses move above the Square, even though in a Lodge of Master Masons we still talk about square work, the ashlars are still furniture within the lodge, we never see an arch-the physical representation of circular work.  In your Mark Master degree the arch was alluded to, but again, never seen.  In the Past Master Degree you’re still concerned with square work, even the word of the Past Master is an allusion to the work a Past Master does.  However, tonight, you have been given the reason that circular work has been kept from you.

Before you can experience circular work, you must first learn how to square your work.  The lessons conveyed during this degree are reminiscent of the lessons you were taught as an Entered Apprentice: square your work by the square of virtue, keep your passions and prejudices within due bounds, etc.  We are working on material concerns, square concerns.  Remember that the badge of a Past Master is a Square, learn to use that tool.  Think about the overseers in your Mark Degree; how they used the square to measure your work, they allowed the square stone to pass by but they were eventually unwilling to allow the keystone to pass inspection.  These brethren were interested in squarework and squarework only, the keystone and the architecture of the arch were beyond the scope of their ability.
Eventually, these brethren were invested with the secret belonging to the Arch and ordered to find the keystone for the completion of that arch.  Upon retrieval of the keystone though, you never beheld the Arch, that is still to come.  All I can do at this point is reiterate that to unlock the secrets of the Royal Arch you must master yourself, self-a craftsman, yet a ruler of the craft.  If the Royal Arch is an extension of the Master’s Degree, the Mark Master one of the Fellow Craft, then look upon the Past Master’s Degree as the fulfillment of your Entered Apprentice Degree.  If you learn only one thing this evening, remember that the work of the Apprentice is never finished during this mortal coil.  Once you have completed this work you may, if found worthy, be exalted a Companion of the Royal Arch.