ROSE CROIX - THE ORDER
The Supreme Council 33o of The Ancient and Accepted Rite for India, is more usually called the 'Rose Croix' and was established at Mumbai on 29th September 2005.
It was warranted by Supreme Council 33o of The Ancient & Accepted Rite for England and Wales and its Districts and Chapters Overseas (A&AR), which was established in 1801, and is head quartered at Duke Street, London.
Originally , it was mandatory to profess the Trinitarian Christian Faith, but in India it is fully universal.
The Order comprises 33o which amplify the teachings of Craft Masonry.
Candidates must have been a Master Mason for at least one full year and be in good standing with the Craft under the Grand Lodge of India or any other Grand Lodge or Constitution in amity with it.
Of the 33o, only five - 18o, 30o, 31o, 32o and 33o - are conferred in full on candidates with the latter four being reserved for those Princes (the word for 18o masons) who have served the Order with distinction.
The first three degrees of the Rite are considered to be equal to those of Craft masonry and so prior to being 'perfected' in the 18o, the 'Intermediate Degrees' from 4o to 17o are conferred on candidates by name; the same happening with the 19o - 29o before receiving the overtly Knight Kadosh 30o.
Of all the many orders and degrees outside the Craft and the Royal Arch, there is no doubt that for many the pinnacle of their Freemasonry is membership of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
HISTORY AND ORIGIN
The History of the Rose Croix and its antecedents is complex and this is but a very brief summary of the essentials.
The Rite was constituted by Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia in 1762. It was for the better part of the 18th and 19th century often referred to as 'Ne Plus Ultra' ('nothing higher').
Our first record of what is now known as the Rose Croix Degree (18th) dates from 1765. In its early years the degree had a chequered history and eventually became one of twenty five degrees in what was known as the Rite of Perfection.
In 1786, a group of eminent members of the Rite under the titular direction of Fredrick the Great of Prussia published the Grand Constitutions of 1786.
Under these Constitutions the Rite of Perfection was renamed the "Ancient and Accepted Rite" and extended to thirty three degrees of which the Rose Croix degree became the Eighteenth.
The Grand Constitutions of 1786 provide for a procedure whereby a Supreme Council in one country can move to establish a Supreme Council in another country where a Supreme Council does not already exist.
Under this procedure, a Patent to establish a Supreme Council for England and Wales was sought from the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction U.S.A. and was granted in 1845. A patent to establish a Supreme Council for Scotland was granted by the Supreme Council for France in 1846.
The Supreme Council 33o of The Ancient and Accepted Rite for India was warranted by the Supreme Council 33o of The Ancient & Accepted Rite for England and Wales and its Districts and Chapters Overseas and consecrated on 29th September, 2005.
