Super Excellent Master Degree

 

All Royal and Select Masters are invited to attend a full-form, costumed performance of the Super Excellent Master Degree, hosted by Houston Council No. 1, at the Scottish Rite Center at 2401 West Bellfort, Houston, Texas, on August 29 at 1:30 p. m.

This Degree is a drama of five acts depicting the Biblical events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile.  Chronologically, the events of the Degree fall between those of Most Excellent Master (the completion of King Solomon's Temple) and the Royal Arch (the return of the exiles to Jerusalem).  

The degree of Super Excellent Master is not allied to the other two degrees of the Cryptic Rite, as far as its teachings and traditions are concerned.  It is required to be conferred in some jurisdictions, while in others (such as Texas) it is only an honorary degree.

In his book Manual of the Council (1897), Albert Mackey limits the American Rite to nine degrees, from the Entered Apprentice through Select Master.  He does not include the Super Excellent Master Degree, explaining that although it is not a recent invention, none of the traditional ritualists such as Cross and Webb include it in their collections.  He agrees that it should remain an honorary or detached degree.  Including it within the Rite would ruin the symmetry, a circle of nine degrees of masonic science, that begins and ends in the search for the TRUE WORD.  Mackey does, however, believe the Super Excellent Master is useful, in that it contains commentary on and exemplification of part of the Royal Arch Degree.

The Degree features biblical prophecy highlighting the destruction of the First Temple and the construction of the Second Temple.  In this Degree, it is found that catastrophe overtakes the unfaithful, whether he be prince or pauper, and that without fidelity, success is impossible.

All qualified candidates must first register to receive the Super Excellent Master Degree, and can do so here.