The Scottish Rite Masonic Story

The Scottish Rite is a world wide Masonic Fraternity with a system of degrees which elaborate and supplement by ritual, drama and allegory the content of the first three degrees of Craft Masonry.
The whole of Canada constitutes a single Scottish Rite jurisdiction with some 27,000 members. In this country the term "Scottish Rite" is a short form for "The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of Canada".
There are several theories as to the origin of the Scottish Rite, but, as Masonry evolved in France in the second quarter of the 18th century numerous degrees were added to the two, and later three, degrees conferred in English Craft Masonry. Lodges in France conferring these additional degrees appear to have been frequented by gentlemen, mainly Scots, who were adherents of the Stuarts, and who were planning for their restoration to the throne of England. Hence these lodges became known as Ecossais or Scottish lodges.
Many of the new degrees soon passed into oblivion, but in time twenty-two were selected to compose, with the three Craft degrees a Rite of Perfection, governed by Grand Regulations issued in 1762. By the Grand Constitutions enacted in 1786 a further eight degrees were added to complete the present system of thirty-three degrees. It was the Grand Constitutions which brought "The Ancient and Acce3pted Scottish Rite" into formal existence.
Bodies of the Rite of Perfection had been established in the West Indies as early as 1762, and on the continent of North America at New Orleans in 1763. Then in 1901 a Supreme Council was opened in Charleston, South Carolina under the Grand Constitutions, absorbing the existing Rite of Perfection. This Supreme Council subsequently issued warrants for other Supreme Councils. All regular Supreme Councils of today are descended directly or indirectly from this Supreme Council now know as the Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction, United States of America.
In 1813 the Southern Jurisdiction established the Supreme Council for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, which comprises the fifteen northeastern states. In 1845 the Northern Masonic jurisdiction warranted a Supreme Council for England and Wales which, in turn, in 1874 authorized the formation of the Supreme Council of Canada.
In 1964 our Supreme Council caused to be incorporated The Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation of Canada, which funds research into the causes and hopefully eventual cure of intellectual disability, initially as it affects children and later, as well, as it affects persons of advanced years in the form of Alzheimer's Disease.
                                        prepared by PSGC, Ill.Bro. John Lawer