The Royal Order of Scotland and Me

Me with the freakin' huge claymore

On Saturday, I was fortunate to be one of the candidates for the Royal Order of Scotland, an invitational body of Freemasonry. It's a high honor and one I am unsure to be completely worthy of. But I know the brothers have confidence in me so there is that.

To explain, the Royal Order of Scotland is a national body that meets on the national level. What this means is that the body travels to a few locations each year and confers the degrees after which a very nice dinner is served. The work is done stupendously and by some very top figures on the national Masonic scene.

The Royal Order of Scotland is one of the oldest of so-called high grade degrees. It was developed during the early era of degree creation.

From the website:

There are no reliable records tracing the history of the Order from its alleged revival in 1314 to the middle of the eighteenth century, when it appears to have flourished in France about the year 1735-40 under the adherents of the Jacobite Cause, who being refugees from Scotland practiced these Degrees no doubt for the purpose of maintaining a common bond of union among them in a foreign land. It is stated that in 1747 in a Charter which was in existence in 1840, granted by Prince Charles Edward Stuart to the Masonic Lodge at Arras, he described himself as Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of "Rose Croix de Herodim de Kilwinning".

I was impressed by everything I saw and I can't wait to get another chance to see the degrees again.