Travis Simpkins: "Cryptic Masonry: A Manual of the Council" by Albert G. Mackey

Cryptic Masonry

A Manual of The Council

by Albert G. Mackey

Originally published in 1897

Notes by Travis Simpkins

Masonic Books related to the Cryptic Council Degrees of the York Rite are few and far between. Thankfully, Cryptic Masonry: A Manual for The Council by Albert Mackey exists and presents the groundwork for the degrees of Royal Master, Select Master and Super-Excellent Master. A section on various other ceremonies of the Order are included as well. The sections are set up in the same manner as Mackey's The Book of the Chapter which focused on the Royal Arch Degrees.

Some highlights of Albert Mackey's interpretations of the Cryptic Degrees:

Royal Master: The degree presents one great idea- the truly Masonic one- of the laborer seeking for his reward… Divine Truth- the knowledge of God- concealed in the old Cabalistic doctrine, under the symbol of his Ineffable Name, and typified in the Masonic systems under the mystical expression of the True Word, is the reward proposed to every mason who has faithfully wrought his task. It is, in short, the "Master's Wages." … but the temple that he has been building is the temple of this life… and in this first temple the truth cannot be found.

Select Master: Focuses on two virtues: Secrecy and Silence. Select Masters work in secrecy and silence that they may prepare and preserve the sacred deposits of truth until the time shall come for its full revelation. And so should all men do, working now, yet not for the present time alone, but that their labor may bring forth fruit in the future; laboring here amid the foundations of the first temple of this transient life, that when their hours of work are finished on earth, the deeds which they have done may be brought to light, and the reward be bestowed in the second temple of eternal life.

Super-Excellent Master: It's legend and ceremonies are intended to inculcate that important Masonic virtue, fidelity to vows… set forth in the lecture as a great moral lesson, whose object is to warn the recipient of the fatal effects that will ensue from a violation of his sacred obligations.