Scottish Rite - Valley of St. Louis

The degrees of the Council of Kadosh are chivalric and philosophical, but also contain mystical material.  The Council confers the 19° through the 30°. The word "Kadosh" is a Hebrew word meaning "Holy".  The complexity of these degrees cannot be overstated and is exemplified by the number of pages attributed to them in Morals and Dogma.  The twenty-eighth degree alone is over a quarter of the 1000+ page tome.

These degrees teach LIBERTY, FRATERNITY, and EQUALITY applied to our everyday life. The world will judge us by our acts and Masonry will be judged by the character of its members. Be modest and humble, speaking only of the good in mankind and forgetting the evil. Respect labor itself and have sympathy for the laboring classes. Practice Charity and scorn the base and selfish. Truth and Honor are more to be cultivated than the gathering of wealth and power. Combat arbitrary and unscrupulous power and all influence which would keep people in ignorance. In ancient times our brethren met to redress wrong and defend the helpless. Masonry today has that same great mission.

THE DEGREES

19º - GRAND PONTIFF

This is the first Degree of the Council of Kadosh. In it the fact of the influence of the past upon present and future is forcibly exemplified. All good men hope to live after death through the work they have done.

20° - MASTER OF THE SYMBOLIC LODGE

This Degree teaches that as Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, it is your special duty to aid in restoring Masonry to its primitive purity. You have become an instructor and as such it is your duty to instruct your Brethren of the many constant lessons to be learned, teaching the lofty qualifications which are required of those who claim them; remembering always, that real Masonry requires of no man anything to which a Knight and Gentleman cannot honorably and without feeling outraged or humiliated, submit.

21° - NOACHITE OR PRUSSIAN KNIGHT

In this Degree we are admonished to be modest and humble, speaking only of the good in mankind and forgetting the evil. Slander is the exact opposite of mercy, for "Mercy blesseth him that gives and him that speaks it, and to say the least, does no good to the other."

22° - KNIGHT OF THE ROYAL AXE or PRINCE OF LEBANON

The lessons of this Degree have made the working man and his associates the heroes of her principle legend and himself the companion of kings. Labor is man’s great function, his peculiar distinction and his privilege. He pours his own thought into the molds of nature, fashioning them into forms of grace and fabrics of convenience, and converting them to the purpose of improvement and happiness, but greater than these, every man has a work to do in himself, upon his own should establish intellect, and attain the highest nobleness and grandeur known on earth or in Heaven.

23º - CHIEF OF THE TABERNACLE

This Degree calls upon you to make a formal declaration that you will be obedient to your superiors, you will keep your body pure, govern your tongue, and observe a passive obedience in receiving the doctrines and traditions of the Order. The moral lesson being a devotion to the service of God, an interested zeal and a constant endeavor for the welfare of men.

24º - PRINCE OF THE TABERNACLE

Many who think themselves Freemasons know not the meaning of the ceremonies. They do not even comprehend the symbolic charts, nor understand the hieroglyphical signs with which the walls and ceilings of their lodges are ornamented. Observe the four words of the Magus, written in four symbolic forms of the Sphinx; an intellect enlightened by study, an audacity which nothing checks, a will that nothing can conquer and a discretion that nothing can corrupt or intoxicate. Every Freemason is a priest and in this Degree you are consecrated as a priest of trust, of toleration, of philosophy, of rational liberty, to the service of God and to that of men, as ruler, teacher and benefactor.

25° - KNIGHT OF THE BRAZEN SERPENT

In this Degree, we find the moral lessons of some of the older religions taught with vigor, especially that of the mystical death which symbolized the descent of the soul into the infernal regions and afterwards its rise to the stage of light, truth and perfection.

26° - PRINCE OF MERCY

The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us: to develop, to their fullest extent, the capacities of every kind with which God who made us has endowed us.

27° - KNIGHT OF THE SUN or PRINCE ADEPT

The study of the ancient religions is of vast proportion. The worship of the sun and its planets was the most prevalent, although originally the planets as well as fire, light and heat, were but symbols, or rather the outward manifestations of the Supreme Being, or Intellect. This Degree especially was the real belief of our first brethren who lived long before the Pyramids of Egypt of the first Babylon

28° - KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE TEMPLE

Practical charity, knightly attributes of Character and a scorn for the base and selfish are but a few of the lessons taught in this Degree. Truth and honor are more to be cultivated than the gathering of wealth and power. Let us ever remember our duties to the poor and helpless, the weak and unhappy.

29° - SCOTTISH KNIGHT OF ST. ANDREW

The cross of St. Andrew has always been the emblem of humility, patience and self-denial, and even more than these, that of charity and forbearance for the weak, the poor and the helpless. The knights of old held virtue, truth, and honor to be the most essential qualities of character.

30° - KNIGHT KADOSH

Of all the Degrees of the Scottish Rite, we should consider this as one of the most important. If in death there is life, then the great martyrs of History live indeed in the hearts of the followers after truth. This Degree particularly teaches the great necessity of combating arbitrary and unscrupulous power and all influences which would keep the people in ignorance.