Special Mark Master & Past Master Conferral Petition
One of the exceptional things about being a Freemason is the heritage each of us claims that is so uniquely ours in fraternal association. Few organizations in America have been around longer. We are the oldest fraternal society in the world. No other organization can match the influence Freemasonry has had on the very development of civil society.
As members, we are fraternal heirs to millions of men spanning centuries of human thought and development. It almost seems magical to realize that when we took our obligations at the altar of Masonry, we entered into a shared covenant with untold generations of men who had the same aspirations of brotherhood; the same longing for self-improvement. In Masonry, we call this the mystic tie.
This mystic tie happens also to be one of the most important reasons why Master Masons choose to join the higher Bodies of Masonry. The many lessons of virtue, morality, ethics, religion, and spirituality taught in Masonry are vast and require many levels of instruction. Every degree, every lecture, every dramatic presentation, initiation, and ceremony are designed to assist the man in his personal efforts to become the best kind of man he can possibly be on his own life journey.
We want you to know the York Rite of Freemasonry is the oldest fraternal arm of Craft or Blue Lodge Masonry. It was established to continue certain traditions practiced by operative Masons before speculative Masonry ever came to be. It was created to enhance the importance of the Master’s Word in Masonry; and to expand the Master Mason’s understanding of the allegorical meaning of this extraordinary theme of our Blue degrees.
The role of the York Rite in the family of Freemasonry is to keep these valuable traditions alive and make them available to all generations of Masons. We sincerely believe that a Master Mason’s journey cannot be complete without experiencing the degrees and orders of the York Rite. We invite you to consider the York Rite the next thing you do to improve yourself in Masonry.
