This collection takes a broad look at York Rite Freemasonry. The symbolic degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason, as conferred in the United States, are degrees of the York Rite. York Masonry is the oldest and best known of all Masonic Rites. It takes its name from York, England, where the earliest known record of Masonry exists, dating from about 923 CE. Masonry's first written record is centered around York, the seat of the Ancient York Grand Lodge. In 1813, this Grand Lodge merged with another group called the Modern Grand Lodge, to form the United Grand Lodge of England. This is the basis upon which the present system of Symbolic Lodge Masonry is built.

Legend has it that every man raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason received “substitute secrets”, as the “true secrets” were lost. It may prove a surprise to the average man, believing his work is completed, to be told that the secrets of the ceremony will not be given to him! However, the veil is lifted in the degree of the Royal Arch, and in that degree only. Hence, no man actually becomes a Master Mason until he is exalted to that order. The Grand Lodge of England was so emphatic regarding the necessity of the Royal Arch degree that it set forth this as Paragraph One of its Laws and Regulations:

“By the solemn act of the union between the two Grand Lodges of Freemasons of England in December, 1813, it was declared and pronounced that Pure Ancient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz: those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellowcraft, and the Master Mason, INCLUDING THE SUPREME ORDER OF THE HOLY ROYAL ARCH.” [block capitals added for emphasis.]

There are 17 books in this library. Some of the tomes are big - over 600 pages; some line drawings and engravings. For related material, please view the other libraries in the Masonic Repository series, and also the Rosicrucian, Theosophy and general occult libraries on offer here.

SAMPLE OF ONE BOOK:

Malcolm C. Duncan - Duncan's Ritual and Monitor - Complete Two Volumes in one tome
(Revised Edition)
Length: 292 Pages

This York Rite manual reviles an Antichrist / the Antichrist ("the false prophet of Kohrassan"), a fact which many people (including Anti-Masons) are unaware of, and which makes this book one of the most overlooked Masonic works written.

Duncan's Ritual and Monitor is a survey of the 10 York Rite degrees which take over after the Blue Degrees that are the necessary prelude to both York and Scotch Rites. The York Rite degrees are also known affectionately as the Knights Templar degrees, the degree of Knight Templar being the highest attainment of that system, equivalent to the 33rd Scotch Rite degree. Explained and written by Malcolm C. Duncan through copious notes and profuse original engravings (depicting the various grips, tracing boards, symbols, etc.), this book is a classic work which takes you through each degree.

Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor will be a cherished possession of any Mason who receives it.

An excerpt follows:

A terrible instance of the consequences which attended violation of this principle has been handed down to us in the story of Hipparchus, a Pythagorean, who, having out of spleen and resentment violated and broke through the several engagements of the society, was held in the utmost detestation, expelled from the school as a most infamous and abandoned person; and, as he was esteemed dead to the principles of virtue and philosophy, they had a tomb erected for him, according to their custom, as though he had been naturally dead. The shame and disgrace that justly attended so great a breach of truth and fidelity, drove the unhappy wretch to such despair that he proved his own executioner; and so abhorred was even his memory, that he was denied the rites and ceremonies of burial used to the dead in those times: instead of which his body was suffered to lie upon the sands of the seashore in the Isle of Samos, to be devoured by rapacious animals.

And another excerpt:

Here Lodges differ; some only pass candidate once around the room, and, as he passes the officers' stations, he gives the duegard and sign of an Entered Apprentice: while other Lodges require him to halt at the Wardens' stations, and pass through with the following ceremony, viz.: The Deacon takes candidate by the right arm, and passes around the altar to the Junior Warden's station in the south, stops, gives one rap with his rod on the floor, which is responded to by the Junior Warden with his gavel, once.

J. W.-Who comes here?
S. D.-An obligated Entered Apprentice.
J. W.-How shall I know him to be such?
S. D.-By signs and tokens.
J. W.-What are signs?
J. W.-What are tokens?
S. D.-Right angles, horizontals, and perpendiculars.
 

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Partial List of Contents: