Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Masonry's Most Secret Degree

I find it interesting that Masonry's best kept secret might be the "Royal Arch Widow's Degree", a humorous side-degree unofficially worked by some Royal Arch Chapters.

A couple of well-crafted Google searches can land the full text of nearly any Masonic degree, exposed somewhere online, perhaps not in the format worked today or in a jurisdiction near you, but usually at least something shows up. This is not the case for the Royal Arch Widow's Degree. I don't know if this is good, bad, or weird. Of all the secrets Masonry has, this one seems the least apt to be a real secret, and the Brethren who perform it aren't under any obligation to keep it so. Maybe its insignificance keeps it from being of any interest to the Anti-Masonic crowd? But, this really all doesn't matter... I guess what really intrigues me about this is that the Internet doesn't have everything on it. We tend to think we have all information at our fingertips, but it really isn't the case. Maybe there are a whole slew of other degrees, perhaps authentic, serious ones, that are not available at all online? So, I guess the mysteries offered by the world's various fraternal orders cannot be fully penetrated by the Internet after all, and the only way to gain what they have to offer is to be initiated.