Swedish Rite
Apr 26, 2016 0:14:43 GMT 9.5
Post by simon on Apr 26, 2016 0:14:43 GMT 9.5
From what I have understood there have been an increased interest in the English speaking masonic world – particularly in the US – of the Swedish Rite. There are a 5-10 decent resources out on the internet and a lot more with incomplete or inaccurate information. Most of what you will google up will be correct but the problem is that the cultural and ritual differences will be so vast that for a mason from for example Emulation Rite will have a hard time getting the correct picture.
The most obvious difference is that the Swedish Rite is both craft degrees AND high degrees. It is one integrated system that every brother is supposed to walk through. No one, and I mean no one stays at MM. Not because of peer pressure but it is common knowledge that lots of details from the higher degrees were put into the first three, and the higher degrees contains keys for unlocking the craft degrees. All the degrees are intimately connected and builds upon another. There are no separate lessons that could be taken in another order in this system. Even though the degrees have separate focus they are connected just like chapters in a book. You can’t leave one out or shuffle the chapters around without ruining the story.
Another difference is that there are no 1-day conferrals of degrees like some grand lodges do and you don’t skip over some degrees as you do in the Scottish Rite (from 18 to 30 etc). In the Swedish Rite you will progress slowly through the degrees. For most it takes 15-20 years to get to the last degree that everyone can get - the 10th (often written with roman numerals; X). There is no automatic progression through the offices in a lodge, most will never have an office or just one simple one for a few years. To become an officer in a S:t Johns lodge (where the first three degrees are worked) you have to have III degree for any office, except for junior and senior warden who have to have degree VII. WM have to have VIII. In other words, to be able to transmit the masonic light to a new candidate you have to have received the initiation of the Chapter degrees i.e. VII and VIII.
One thing that stands out is the pronounced esoteric material. Duke Charles who wrote the Swedish Rite was well versed in alchemy, kabbala and many other hermetic sciences and added a lot of occult threads into the initiation rituals. This means that some rituals are technically the same, but have very different meaning for the initiate, for example the Swedish version of the Royal Arch where the the main point of that initiation is the same, but in the Swedish Rite it is just the start of a journey that goes high up in the Chapter degrees, not the grand conclusion of the journey.
From what I understood the rites that are closest related are the Scottish Rectified Rite and The Modern (or French) Rite, for example are the junior and senior warden both in the west. The conversion table for visiting brothers in the Scottish Rite are roughly like this, although some GL have slight variations on the top.
18 <-> VI
30 <-> VII
32 <-> VIII
33 <-> X
Anyway, that’s the first things that comes to mind when I try to describe it for other masons who have not seen it. There are a lot more to it, so feel free to ask and I shall do my best to answer!
The most obvious difference is that the Swedish Rite is both craft degrees AND high degrees. It is one integrated system that every brother is supposed to walk through. No one, and I mean no one stays at MM. Not because of peer pressure but it is common knowledge that lots of details from the higher degrees were put into the first three, and the higher degrees contains keys for unlocking the craft degrees. All the degrees are intimately connected and builds upon another. There are no separate lessons that could be taken in another order in this system. Even though the degrees have separate focus they are connected just like chapters in a book. You can’t leave one out or shuffle the chapters around without ruining the story.
Another difference is that there are no 1-day conferrals of degrees like some grand lodges do and you don’t skip over some degrees as you do in the Scottish Rite (from 18 to 30 etc). In the Swedish Rite you will progress slowly through the degrees. For most it takes 15-20 years to get to the last degree that everyone can get - the 10th (often written with roman numerals; X). There is no automatic progression through the offices in a lodge, most will never have an office or just one simple one for a few years. To become an officer in a S:t Johns lodge (where the first three degrees are worked) you have to have III degree for any office, except for junior and senior warden who have to have degree VII. WM have to have VIII. In other words, to be able to transmit the masonic light to a new candidate you have to have received the initiation of the Chapter degrees i.e. VII and VIII.
One thing that stands out is the pronounced esoteric material. Duke Charles who wrote the Swedish Rite was well versed in alchemy, kabbala and many other hermetic sciences and added a lot of occult threads into the initiation rituals. This means that some rituals are technically the same, but have very different meaning for the initiate, for example the Swedish version of the Royal Arch where the the main point of that initiation is the same, but in the Swedish Rite it is just the start of a journey that goes high up in the Chapter degrees, not the grand conclusion of the journey.
From what I understood the rites that are closest related are the Scottish Rectified Rite and The Modern (or French) Rite, for example are the junior and senior warden both in the west. The conversion table for visiting brothers in the Scottish Rite are roughly like this, although some GL have slight variations on the top.
18 <-> VI
30 <-> VII
32 <-> VIII
33 <-> X
Anyway, that’s the first things that comes to mind when I try to describe it for other masons who have not seen it. There are a lot more to it, so feel free to ask and I shall do my best to answer!