The Cryptic Rite is the completion of your Masonic journey. It is a journey of preservation for the real word. Symbolic masonry alludes to the LOST WORD, the Royal Arch, Capitular masonry, talks about its DISCOVERY, and the Royal Select Master, Cryptic masonry, talks and teaches us about the preservation and trials in the journey of the completion of Ancient Craft Masonry. Those who have accepted the challenge and assumed the degree of a Royal & Select Master have now completed the journey in the search of the LOST WORD. Here we take another step in our Masonic education and Progress to the Council of Royal and Select Master Masons known as Cryptic Masonry or the Purple house. The Council Degrees are largely an elaboration and explanation of the Royal Arch degree and, to a lesser extent, the Master Mason Degree. The degrees of the Council of Royal and Select Master Masons are necessary to fully complete your education in Ancient Craft Masonry. The degrees of our Masonic system are not chronologically arranged and in the degrees of Royal and Select Master, believed to be the most beautiful and impressive of all, you learn of additional incidents in the building of the first temple.
During these degrees you represent the Master Builder, Hiram Abiff, and learn why the word was lost and the secret of its preservation and recovery. The Cryptic Rite was hidden underground beneath King Solomon's private apartment. The word Cryptic means HIDDEN. Hence the use of the word in this Royal Select Master degree. The Color purple stands for Royalty, so let us act accordingly.