Societas Rosicruciana in Scotia
Seventh Grade - Adeptus Exemptus
This
ritual dates from the first half of the twentieth century
Ceremonial of Reception
This Grade is conferred
technically at Noon in the Vault of Adepts. A Blazing Sun is shown in the South;
a pastos lies on the floor, its head to the East; its foot at the centre of the
Vault.
At the commencement of the
ceremony the Vault is but dimly lit, and the Blazing Sun in the South is not
visible.
The Candidate, who wears the
Jewel of the Rosicrucian Society and Ribbon of an Adeptus Major is blindfolded
by the Acolite, and instructed to give the knocks of on Adeptus Major.
The Fratres upstanding.
Ind.: Very Worthy Fratres, I open this College of the Adepti by giving five and
three knocks, and by reciting the Mystic Words, Mors Janua Vitae.
Very Worthy Fratres, we are to-day assembled to
celebrate high noon by the admission of an Adeptus Major of our Order to the
full honours of Adeptship. Our Frater has been selected by the Supreme Magus to
receive this privilege on account of his assiduity, and the progress he has made
in the studies allotted to him.
Very Worthy Conductor, the Candidate must give us
the Secret Words of all grades from Zelator upwards; so you may admit him
blindfolded and place him before us.
Cond.: Right Worthy Inductor, I will admit our Frater, as you desire, and he
shall be examined by me to learn if he be worthy.
When the knocks given by the
Candidate are heard, the Conductor passing to the door of the Vault admits the
Candidate and leads him to the North side of the pastos. The Conductor stands on
the South side of the pastos, facing him.
Cond.: Frater Adept, in order to secure your advancement to the Grade of
Adeptus Exemptus it is necessary that you recite to the Fratres the Secret Words
of all the Grades through which you have already passed. Give me then the Secret
Word of the Grade of Zelator; of Theoricus; of Practicus; of Philosophus; of
Adeptus Minor; and lastly, of Adeptus Major.
When this has been done, the
Conductor places the Candidate at the foot of the pastos, but facing the
Expositor in the West.
Exp.: Very Worthy Adeptus Major, your progress to the highest grade of
Adeptship has been slow and gradual, but all the stages of your career have been
alike necessary and beneficial. Your Zelatorship was a period of compulsory
silence and probation. As a Theoricus you made an intellectual study of our
sciences. As a Practicus you gained by experiment a knowledge of the properties
of matter, and as a Philosophus your intuition was enlarged and deepened, and
you contemplated the Divine Power beyond you. In the two preliminary grades of
Adeptship you have been led to consider your own future; you have been made to
realise that you must one day stand face to face with Death; for Death alone is
the portal through which you must pass to attain to the Highest knowledge and
the fullest initiation.
The Conductor turns the Candidate
to the East, facing the pastos.
Ind.: You have come here symbolically to die; your face is even now shrouded
and veiled from the light of day; you stand on the very edge of the grave, Conductor
removes hoodwink
and when your allotted time has come may you sink into it in peace and honour.
No dweller on earth is in his person immortal; nothing in this world is eternal.
The Sun itself must die, and be dissolved into its elements; indeed to us men it
appears to die daily every passing day is its light eclipsed. As in regular
daily sequence it sinks from our gaze, and none can hinder it, so; my Frater,
must you sink your personality in the Valley of the Shadow of Death; your
present form is but a passing image which must be restored to the earth from
which its material elements were derived.
Your Real Self must be once more veiled from human
eyes by that dread mysterious change, which men call Death, but which to the
Initiate is but the Gate of Life; Mors Janua Vitae.
Ind.: These words, my Very Worthy Frater, are the Secret Words of this exalted
grade, and even as I reveal them to you, mark the Sun appearing in its noontide
splendour in the South.
At these words the Light in the
South is unveiled, and the Candidate is turned to face it.
Ind.: It is a type of the full knowledge which futurity will bring you, the
type also of the grade of Adeptus Exemptus, the fullest and brightest position
in our Second Order.
Very Worthy Frater, your years in this life may be
many, or they may be few, be you careful that they are well spent; relax not
your vigilance; cease not your exertions. Ever upward and onward should be your
watchword, for such is the pathway to Divine existence. Fail not to remember
that Mors Janua Vitae: Death is the Gate of Life.
Ind.: The Sign and Grip are those of Adeptship. The knocks are five and three.
Exp.: Live, my Very Worthy Frater, in the World, but be not of it. Protect the
Soul rather than the Body. Be pure in mind and zealous in good works. Cast away
all fear, and bear in your memory the advice I now give to you, Gnothi se authon,—Know
thyself. The voice of conscience, which is spiritual intuition, will never fail
to guide him aright who respects its shrine; but remember that every time you
reject the promptings of conscience you destroy some portion of its authority,
and you fall one step away from the attainment of moral perfection.
Ind.: The knowledge of yourself will lead you to the perception of Universal
Knowledge, the completion of which is Absolute Truth.
Exp.: For Man, the Microcosm, is analogous to the Macrocosm; that which is
below is similar to that which is above, but material and not spiritual.
Ind.: Yet even in this material form there dwells a Spark of the Divine which
is your Higher Self. Thus each human being contains the germ of infinite
improvement.
Exp.: But that improvement depends upon the freedom of your will; man came from
God, to God he may return if he doeth well.
Ind.: We have taught you how to know. Exp. You alone can will.
Cond.: You alone can dare.
Ind.: By these means only can your efforts be crowned with success.
Ind.: Be seated, my Very Worthy Frater, in this
Vault of the Adepti Exempti. May this occasion never be forgotten by you, may
you never fail to keep to the path of duty, and never neglect any opportunity to
achieve self-knowledge; so may you be able to assist others to climb the rugged
path, which alone leads to the longed-for goal of perfection.
Ind.: I now call upon the Expositor to deliver a Lecture.
Exp.: Right Worthy Magister Inductor, and Very Worthy Fratres Adepti.
The Grade of Adeptus Exemptus completes the Second
Order of the Rosicrucian Society, and in name of all the Adepti I congratulate
you, Frater …, on having attained to the Crown of Adeptship, but I also
entreat you to continue to pursue your studies and your duties with fervency and
zeal Never be weary of well-doing, always strive to excel yourself in all your
works, and so it may be that in due course of time you may receive from our Most
Worthy Supreme Magus the call to advance into the ruling order of our Society;
for the path to the Grade of Magister lies always open to the Frater who
possesses courage and endurance, if he will add to these virtues enthusiasm in
the performance of his work, and an orderly submission to the behests of the
Magi who govern our ancient and honourable Society Yes, my Frater, the Path is
always open, but it leads upward all the way, and it is still beset with
temptations to turn aside the pilgrim who is seeking the Infinite.
As an Adeptus Exemptus your special care is to
guide the studies of the Philosophi who are expected to consider not only the
Christian writings, and to follow the behests of Jesus Who was the Christ, but
also to search out and endeavour to comprehend the doctrines of the great
World-Religions which preceded Christianity, and still continue to supply a rule
of conduct to many millions of our fellow men. An attentive study of the Faiths
of the World will lead to the discovery that in all of them may be found high
moral teachings, although overlaid by many strange superstitions, much
superfluous oriental imagery, and errors due to the ignorance of the times in
which they were founded. The study of Comparative Religion will explain to a
large extent the differing characters of the worlds inhabitants as for example,
the tenets of Buddhism are exemplified in the manners of the mild Hindoo, while
the fanatic valour of the Arab and the Turk have been stimulated by the Faith of
Mohammed. Brahmin theology compels the use of endless ceremonials and ablutions,
while in China the teaching of Confucius leads to lives of passive endurance.
The Christian Religion of Western Europe for
fifteen hundred years required implicit obedience to the faith as crystallised
in the Church of Rome.
This system prevailed at the time of the passing
away of our Founder Christian Rosenkreuz in 1484. One hundred and thirty years
later, when the “Fama” and “Confessio” which narrated the history of the
foundation of the Society of Rosicrucians, were first printed and published in
1614, the Reformation had been accomplished. Preachers of the Reformed Faith
taught the right and duty of all men to read the Bible for themselves, and to
guide their conduct by the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament.
The Fratres of the Rosicrucian Society have at all
times professed the Christian Faith, and in our Societas Rosicruciana in
Scotia of to-day we receive only Christian Masonic Brethren.
It should be borne in mind that Freemasonry, as a
Speculative Society, when it arose from the more purely Operative Guilds, was in
Scotland at first a Christian Fraternity. The basis of Scottish Freemasonry was
subsequently made Theistic. Its basis was thus widened to extend its
usefulness, not only in Scotland, but also to our Colonies, which were then
beginning to be numerous and important. Since that event some National Masonic
bodies have excluded all references to a Supreme Being— the “Grand Orient of
France” for example—and so the
Rosicrucian Society cannot admit Freemasons who hold Certificates from such
Masonic Jurisdictions.
The duty of an Adeptus Exemptus is not only to
assist in the teaching of the Philosophi, but also to supervise the Adepts of
the two lower grades, instructing them by converse and example how to rule and
govern their lives so as to live respected, and die full of honour and good
works.
You, my newly received Adeptus Exemptus, have so
lately passed through the Ceremony in which you stood beside the symbolic grave,
that your thoughts must turn quite naturally to the Hereafter, and you are
seeking to know the nature of the state or condition in which the disembodied
soul may awake, and to peer into the great darkness which overshadows our latter
end. As a Christian the teachings of other faiths seem less true than the
glimpses of futurity which our own Sacred Writings provide: as a Christian you
know that it is not given to man to understand ‘the mysteries of the Kingdom
of God.’ As St. Paul said—Now we see through a glass darkly but then Face to
face. To the faithful Christian our Divine Master said—In my Father’s house
are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you.
The condition of the human soul immediately after
death is hidden from our view, and so it is of no value to contrast the various
arguments in favour of Purgatory or of Reincarnation. So also it is equally
futile to discuss whether there will bean immediate judgment upon each one, or a
single final judgment for all.
Let us love God and act justly by all men, let us
study nature, let us teach as well as learn, let us be merciful as we hope for
mercy, and by so doing prepare to close our eyes in death when our life’s work
is done, calm in the dignity of our manhood, assured of the beneficence of God
our Father, and trusting in the promise of our Great Master, Jesus the Christ.
We are Fratres Rosæ et Crucis, so let us remember
the Rose as a symbol of the Divine Spirit within us, and the Cross as an emblem
of self-sacrifice and high endeavour.
Ind.: Very Worthy Fratres, we are about to close this Vault of the Adepti with
words of Thanksgiving. Let us not only use words of prayer and thanksgiving, but
let us also work.
Exp.: Laborare est orare; To labour is to pray; as our ancient Fratres have so
well said.
Ind.: May we leave this Vault with a firm
determination
to work out our Salvation with Will and Courage. So guided and supported, the
Adept who is faithful to the covenant he has so solemnly made in the presence of
his Fratres, will never fail to obtain a great reward.
Exp.: While we all thank God for our lives, for our health, and for our
progress in the Rosicrucian Society, let our newly exalted Frater be also thankful for the attainment of this
Crown of Adeptship.
Ind.: Be upstanding, Fratres. When, our work being done, Death closes our
lives, we are sustained by hope; so let us close this Vault of the Adepti by
reciting the Mystic Words of the Grade, for they give us promise of a glorious
future; Mors Janua Vitae.
Ind.: Mors, * * * * * * * *.
Exp.: Janua, * * * * * * * *.
Cond.: Vitae,
* * * * *
* * *.
Ind.: Benedictus
Dominus Deus Noster.
Gloria Patri, et Filio,
et Spiritui Sancto
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et
semper, et in secula seculorum.
Amen.
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