Paul T. Million, Jr., 33°, S.G.I.G. in Oklahoma
Chairman, Ritual and Ceremonial Forms Committee
Scottish Rite Temple, PO Box 609, McAlester, Oklahoma 74502–0609

Brethren and Colleagues,* I am pleased to tell you that the long process of producing the Standard Revised Pike Degrees for the Scottish Rite is nearing its end. For many years, we have discussed the need for revision. When Albert Pike originally prepared the rituals, it was intended that the Degrees would be conferred on one candidate at a time, and that he would seldom receive more than one in a year. That was the pattern of European Masonry, and that was the pattern most men knew and accepted. During the year following the Degree, it was assumed the Brother would read and study, until he had mastered the material and was ready to advance.

And if a Degree took two or three hours to confer, who cared? After all, men were used to listening to spoken language. Going to hear the great speakers of the day was one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and an audience would have felt cheated if the speech lasted less than an hour and a half or two hours. I remind you that, at approximately the same time, Richard Wagner was writing his famous "Ring" operas, and a full production of all four operas can last more than 27 hours.

But times and circumstances changed. While Masonry was once one of the very few ways to pass an evening in most towns, radio and movies entered American life, and then television. People had many demands on their time. At the same time, the Scottish Rite was gaining enormously in popularity. It was no longer possible to confer the Degrees on one candidate at a time. Classes became commonplace, many of them with hundreds of candidates. Instead of taking one Degree a year, Brethren started to receive all 29 Degrees in a long weekend. As a matter of practical necessity, the Degrees had to be shortened.

Under the general principle of "you can cut, but don't add," Directors of the Work began to shorten the Degrees. Some were done skillfully, but in far too many cases it was simply done by eliminating long speeches or omitting characters and cutting their lines. Since one was not supposed to add material, generally nothing was written to transition around cut material. In many cases, the Degree ceased to make any sense at all. The logic, order, and structure Pike had so carefully built into the Degree was gone. The Degrees became, in some cases, as Shakespeare said, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" or, at best, very little.

At the same time, others ignored the "do not add" injunction. Speeches that some actor or director particularly liked, even if they came from a system of Masonry completely outside the Scottish Rite, were added to the Degrees. Some Valleys, under the impression that they were doing the Pike Degrees, were doing Degrees which Pike would never have recognized, although it should be added that some Valleys had been very careful to preserve the integrity of the Pike Degrees.

This, then, was the situation when the Supreme Council voted to produce revised scripts for the Degrees. We contracted with Dr. Rex R. Hutchens, 33°, Grand Cross, to produce the scripts. A very well-known Masonic scholar himself, Dr. Hutchens selected a Resource Team composed of some of the best-known scholars in the Rite to help and advise him. The Committee on Ritual and Ceremonial Forms was to oversee the project.

It has been a long and arduous process. For several years the Committee has met with Dr. Hutchens to go over the scripts line by line, word by word. All of us—the Committee, Dr. Hutchens, and the Resource Team—were determined to protect the integrity of the Degrees. The Scottish Rite is known as the "University of Freemasonry," and we were dedicated to not losing that distinction. While it was our goal to help clarity by eliminating unnecessary repetition in openings and closings and to avoid as far as possible language which was so obscure as to be unintelligible to the listener, we were not prepared to participate in nor to tolerate any "dumbing down" of the Degrees. The words spoken in the 32° are still true: "You are here to think if you can think, and to learn if you can learn." We have not sugarcoated the Degrees, nor have we made the intellectual work of the Scottish Rite any less demanding. The Rite was not and is not intended for those who refuse to use their minds.

Having said that, I will add that we have tried to remove unnecessary roadblocks to understanding. Pike often used quotations in Latin without translating them. After all, every child in Pike's day who went to high school knew Latin—it was a standard part of the curriculum. That is not so today. And so, while the Latin has been retained because in many cases it is essential to the symbolism of a Degree, we have made sure that it is also translated and said in English. A small thing, perhaps, but it greatly aids understanding when material is presented in a language you happen to speak.

Speaking of symbolism, I should tell you that it has been fully retained. It is impossible to separate the Scottish Rite from the symbols it uses to teach its lessons. To aid in that understanding, the 28° of the Standard Revised Pike Degrees, by far the most heavily rewritten, is focused on teaching the candidate how symbols work and how to use them in thinking.

So where are we in the process? The language has been agreed to. Now we are working on the peripheral matter of the Degrees. There will be introductory material in the scripts including the following:

• Notes to the actors, written by Bro. Thomas R. Hall, 32°, K.C.C.H., a professional actor himself, on how to give an effective performance of the Degree.
• A summary of the teachings and meanings of the Degree, written by Ill. Sean D. Graystone, 33°, so that the team members can clearly understand the message they are out to convey in the Degree.
• Costume notes and suggestions, prepared by Ill. Arturo deHoyos, 33°, Grand Archivist and Historian of the Supreme Council, with full notes and illustrations of all slides and transparencies as needed.
• Notes on adapting the Degree to the Valley's physical facilities. In addition, each script will show the blocking (the movement and position of actors) both for Temples which have a stage and those which use a Lodge room setting.
• And, in a recent development, I am happy to announce that the Supreme Council will fund the production of professional quality music for the Degrees, to be made available both on CD and on tape, as well as in the form of printed scores, so that those Valleys which do not have the services of an organist or choir or do not have a pipe organ will be able to have fully effective music with the Degrees, while those fortunate enough to have the services of "in house" musicians will be able to fill and round out the musical program as they wish. This project was the brainchild of Illustrious Earl K. Dille, 33°, S.G.I.G. in Missouri, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude.

I should add that Illustrious Brother Dille and the Supreme Council are following in the footsteps of Albert Pike in this project. When he had completed what we usually refer to as the Pike Rituals, Grand Commander Pike contacted Brother Matthew Cooke, Doctor of Music and one of America's outstanding musicologists of the 1800s. He asked Brother Cooke to select, arrange, and prepare music to be used with the Degrees. Brother Cooke did so, and the Supreme Council published his work in three large (11½" X 13½") beautifully bound books under the title (shortened) Music for the Ritual.

Finally, my own experience indicates it will take time to make the changes in your own Valley. This is not a program to be implemented overnight. Each stage and Lodge room in every Valley is different. It will require flexibility and adaptability to make the Standard Revised Pike Ritual work. But we have a product of which you can be proud. As the Chairman of the Ritual Committee, I assure you it has been done with great care.

Now it is up to you.