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Originally posted by TgSoe
Hey I got my first degree Teusday, I stand before you a whole whopping Entered Aprentice.
Originally posted by TgSoe
I didn't look to hard for any rituals on the web so as not to ruin the experience Axeman. My buddy built it up to be like fear factor or something worse but it was none of those things. It was definitely different though and I'm sure it gets better as you go. I met a lot of really nice people and look foward to getting my masters degree.
Originally posted by davidg
He was a Confederate general in the civil war on the Confederate side so even though he was a brother we have to recognize he had an axe to grind.
You'll notice the nasty comments on the York Rite. Unless I'm mistaken the York Rite was the more popular of the Concordant bodies in his era, and it was only later (partly due to his influence) that the Scottish Rite grew in popularity.
His writing style (as you have found I'm sure) is difficult by modern standards.
It is flamboyant but at the same time (I found it) tedious. I found his rhetoric to be terrific but with no evidence of research or footnotes or bibliographies I'd hardly consider it anything but his own personal philosophy.
Originally posted by Masonic Light
I'm not quite sure what you meant by this. My great-great grandfather was a Confederate officer, and I am a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. What sort of "axe to grind" do you believe that Pike had? Pike says nothing in his book explicitly concerning the War Between The States except on p. 298:
Originally posted by The Axeman
Masonic Light, is there a book that has the York Rite lectures that can be purchased by outsiders? If so I would like to get my hands on a copy.
Originally posted by The Axeman
Good grief my "to read" list is growing exponentially... I'll have my nose in books for years on end at this rate. Not saying that's a bad thing!
Originally posted by davidg
My feeling, and its just that, is that he was anti-north.
I also have a tendency to distrust books without footnotes and bibliographies, but thats my "axe to grind"
What do you think that Pike would have thought about the SR as they are done now? Big classes, getting the 32nd after a weekend class? I think he might be apalled.
Originally posted by Masonic Light
Pike himself went from the 4? to the 32? in about 5 minutes while sitting in Albert Mackey's study. Mackey simply had him take one cover obligation, and declared him a 32?. At that time, this was how it was almost always done, and the actual rituals existed on paper only.
When Pike revised them, he intended that each should be conferred separately, but this never really happened. Even under the Pike administration, practically everyone made it to the 32? fairly quickly.
[edit on 18-1-2005 by Masonic Light]
Originally posted by davidg
I HAVE read A Bridge to Light by Rex Richard Hutchens, and found it FAR more readable that M&D.