Originally posted by Saurus
Although Pike is not an authority on masonry...

Why is Pike not an authority on Masonry?

If Pike, who spent many, many years studying Freemasonry in depth, is not an authority, who is?

In my opinion, Pike's authority is limited to the Scottish Rite, not to craft masonry.

I thought "normal" freemasonry don't even studied Christ or The Holy Trinity.

And yet you are friends of rosicrucians.

Why the incongruency?

Being from Scotland and being realistic i may never reach 33 degrees in a lifetime.

I don't even think anyone from my lodge has reached 33, people from provincial Grand Lodge and Grand lodge have a few degrees but i'm not even sure if any of them have 33.

I think but i could be wrong that only a select few have 33 degrees at any given time but i'm not 100 percent sure.

It not like the USA where someone posted that you can go through so many degrees in a couple of days, as i said i could be wrong.

In South Africa, we have Rose Croix (18th) degree, and then The Consistory is a seperate order which confers 19°-32°.

Consistory is by invitation only, and you only get invited after attending the 18th degree for a few years without missing a meeting, as well as active general involvement in Freemasonry.

Originally posted by infobrazil
I thought "normal" freemasonry don't even studied Christ or The Holy Trinity.

And yet you are friends of rosicrucians.

Why the incongruency?

just because we don't 'study' the same thing doesn't mean we can't be friends.

All masons understand and believe in a higher power, how they choose to pursue and further that is their business, and if they would like to pursue a deepr search with like minded Masons- than by all means start a group based in Masonic brotherhood and philosophy- hopefully this furthers to make good men better

Any mason will tell you that a man is never more a mason than when he is raised to the 3rd degree.

IMO, Pike is an authority on Scottish Rite Masonry and Blue Lodge, but moreso the former.

Here in Arizona, 6 men are chosen every 2 years to receive the invitation to become 33rd degree masons.

after one recieves his 3rd degree all other orders of masonry simply break down all the information given in these first 3 degrees no extra knowledge, they simply give a better understanding of those first 3 degrees

That’s a fallacy Saurus:

It is not the same chemistry you are taught in high school vs. university; it is much more complex, differentiated and theoretical. (High School presumable teach you facts, you learn when you get to university; that these fact can be disputed etc.)

I was taught in high school that the oldest civilization is the Egyptians, and its dated 5000 BC, we know today that this isn’t true, yet we teach this to our children still.
Same with freemasonry, and everything else, the more you explore; the deeper you find the rabbit hole goes.

Again lets return to my dispute; If it (the other degrees of masonry (33 in the Scottish rite, 12 or so in the York etc)) was just a deeper study of the first 3 levels of blue lodge masonry, then there would be no need for the esoterically and Gnostic study. Secondly, in the Danish freemasonry, there aren’t any blue lodge degrees, and I am assuming that not all Masonic groups have the first 3 degrees you speak of.

We can agree to disagree; I would find it meaningless first of to assume that everything esoteric and Gnostic can be taught so fast to an individual, and secondly that any individual would stay through the other 30 degrees, if it was just repetition of already learned knowledge.