The Cryptic Degrees

The Cryptic Degrees, also known as the Royal and Select Masters, are some of the many higher degrees that narrate the Masonic legend of the Temple of Solomon. The Cryptic Degrees originated in America and now form the third part of the York Rite in both the United States and Canada. They then spread to England and Scotland independently of the York Rite. What is the origin of the Cryptic Degrees ? What legends do they tell us? And are the Cryptic Degrees related to other higher degrees of Freemasonry ? Let's set out to discover these degrees, which are relatively unknown in continental Europe.

Origin and History of the Cryptic Degrees 

The Cryptic Degrees did not take the form of a system of three degrees (Royal Master, Select Master and Super Excellent Master) until the 19th century, but two of them (the Royal Master and the Select Master) are rooted in the higher degrees that had spread to the New World following the adventure of Stephen Morin, which gave rise to the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. The third, the Super Excellent Master, seems to be of American origin (perhaps not before 1817) and has no equivalent in the ancient higher degrees. 

The Royal Master developed in New York around 1810 under the impetus of Thomas Lownds (1762-1825), a grocer and baker who had turned to charity (he became Superintendent of the New York City Alms House). The Select Master was cultivated in Baltimore, where a certain Philipp Eckel is said to have founded a Grand Council of Select Masters in 1792. And it was Jeremy Ladd Cross (1783-1860), a rather talented self-taught man who was sometimes described as a charlatan, who combined these two degrees into one system around 1817-1818, adding the degree of Super Excellent Master, which some believe he invented.

In 1871, the New York Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters granted a patent which led to the formation of the Grand Council for England and Wales in 1873. While the American branch was incorporated into the York Rite, the English branch was established as an independent order under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of Mark Masonry. To the three degrees from America, the English added a fourth, the Most Excellent Master, which is conferred in America and Scotland at the Chapter of the Royal Arch.

The system was established in Scotland in 1877, but is practised there in a way that differs from both the American and English versions: the Order of Royal and Select Masters of Scotland confers only the first two degrees, Select Master and Royal Master. And it reports to the Supreme Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch, not to Mark Masonry.

Although Councils of Royal and Select Masters can be found in many countries, there are traditionally only four jurisdictions (United States, Canada, England and Scotland) to which all the Councils in the world are attached. However, in 1999 a new independent jurisdiction was created in France, with the support of a Grand Council for England and Wales.

The themes of the Cryptic Degrees 

The Cryptic Degrees present a series of legendary and symbolic themes that complement the discoveries made during the reception of the Royal Arch. Chronologically, they take place before the death of Hiram or the destruction of the Temple, and it is curious to note that in the York Rite the Cryptic Degrees follow the Royal Arch, when logically they should precede it.

In the Royal Master degree, Hiram announces three times that after his death, the Master Mason Word will be hidden under the ninth arch, above the Ark of the Covenant.





The 9 arches of the Cryptic Degrees

The Select Master has a number of similarities with the 6th degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite (Master by Curiosity) and with the Tiler of Solomon, who appears in the Allied Masonic Degrees. The legend is based on the indiscretion of a Brother who overheard the words exchanged by Solomon, Hiram of Tyre and Hiram Abif in the Secret Vault, where they used to meet.

The Super Excellent Master is no longer linked to the Secret Vault, but takes place before Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple. 

This is the order in which the three degrees are conferred in the York Rite. In English practice, however, the Select Master is conferred before the Royal Master, and the Most Excellent Master is then added before the Super Excellent Master. The Most Excellent Master, found in the Chapter of the American and Scottish Royal Arch, commemorates the completion of the Temple, the setting of the Keystone and the placement of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. In some respects, it is reminiscent of various ancient French Masonic degrees that recall the completed Temple and its liturgical furnishings, especially the Ark of the Covenant.

The Cryptic Degrees have neither the patina nor the prestige of the ancient higher degrees. But, like degrees 4 to 12 of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, they have the advantage of filling in the gaps in the Masonic legend of the Temple between Hiram's death and Zerubbabel's rebuilding.