The HRAM
Royal Arch is the second step in York Rite Freemasonry; the first step being Symbolic (a.k.a. “Blue Lodge” or “Craft Lodge”) Freemasonry. Here, within your chapter, you will receive the necessary instruction and information to fill in some of the missing pieces from the Masonic history taught in the symbolic lodge. The degrees of the chapter are referred to as “Capitular Freemasonry”, providing a companion the opportunity for further advancement within the brotherhood.
In the Royal Arch, the Lost Word of a Master Mason is rediscovered in a beautiful ceremony that takes the candidates through the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple, the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity, and the ultimate return to the Holy Land to aid and assist in the rebuilding of the Temple of the Most High. The Holy Royal Arch degree is a natural progression to reveal the “genuine” secrets following the granting of certain substituted ones. No other degrees are so intimately linked with the Blue Lodge or have so ancient and noble a history.
To become a companion of a chapter, you must first be a Master Mason, and then you may apply for a petition. Once accepted, a candidate will receive four degrees:
4° – Mark Master Mason
5° – Past Master (Virtual)
6° – Most Excellent Master
7° – Supreme Degree
No Rite of Freemasonry covers the world so much as does Royal Arch Freemasonry. In every free country of the earth; on every populated continent and on many isles of the sea, will be found Royal Arch chapters, eager and willing to receive their companions from other parts of the world into that full fellowship that characterizes Royal Arch Freemasonry. In Asia, in Africa, in Europe, in the Americas, and on the Continent of Australia are found hundreds of Royal Arch chapters into whose halls you will ever be a welcome visitor. In our own country, we find thousands of chapters counting hundreds of thousands of companions in our ranks. Upon your exaltation as a Holy Royal Arch Freemason, you will become a companion of one of the oldest and largest rites of Freemasonry.