Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priests
Degree of Knight of the South


1997/2015

Compiler's Note: This Degree may only be worked as a continuation of the Degree of Knight of the North, either at the same Meeting or subsequent to the conferral of the KoN. The Officers are identical to those of the previous ceremony with the exception that the Knight Master of the South is now the senior Knight. The regalia remains the same with the addition of a black ribbon behind the rose. The Altar is removed but a kneeling cushion should be placed near the pedestal of the KMS and a sword, unsheathed, is laid across his pedestal. As before, the passages are read from prepared scrolls and are delivered standing for the "Writings" and seated for the ''philosophical" parts.
The small rods are again used for giving the knocks. The Novice is seated at the readings.
 

Opening

KMS: ****.
KMN: ***.
KMW: **.
KME: *.
KMS: Knights, we are again well met and I now declare the Second Chamber of Enlightenment duly opened. *. All take up their seats. Knight Commander of Novices, you will now retire to instruct, pledge and then present any Knights of the South who may seek to be received into this Order. KCN stands, gives the Sign of a KoS and retires. Outside he advises the candidate( s) that the lessons portrayed in the KoN will now be continued and further passages of the ancient writings and new philosophy will be imparted to him/them, but before he can allow him/them to enter the Chamber the following vow must be taken, spoken by the KCN and repeated by the Novice(s). He/they then kneel on both knees.
KCN: I, …, a Knight of the North, do hereby promise to carefully observe the Proceedings of this Order; to Guard its Secrets and profane them not. I further promise ever to exalt the Blessed Jesus Christ and to Him, remain ever true. Amen and Amen.
KCN: Arise. This is the only sign of a Knight of the South. Extend both arms before you, palms of the hands upward turned and say, Lord, I come. We will now enter the Second Chamber of Enlightenment. KCN conducts the Novice into the Chamber and standing within the entrance proclaims.
Knights of the South, I now present to you Knight Companion …, a true Knight of the North who now seeks to be received as a Knight of this Order.
KME: Has he been properly instructed?
KCN: He has and in proof thereof- KCN instructs Nov. to give Sign and exclamation.
KME: Then let him be admitted and instructed accordingly. KCN conducts the Nov. around the Chamber and halts at the pedestal of the KME, where he is caused to give the Sign and exclamation.
KME: Knight Companion, what is your expectation?
NOV, prompted by KCN: I expect nothing but come prepared for Light. Nov. is seated.
KME: Then listen well. After these things Pilate went to the Temple of the Jews and called together all the Rulers and Scribes and Doctors of the Law and went with them into a chamber within the Temple and commanded that all the gates and doors be closed that they may not be disturbed and said unto them, I have heard that ye have a certain large book in this Temple, and I command therefore that it be brought before me.
And when the great book, carried by four acolytes of the Temple, and all adorned with gold and precious stones, was brought before him, Pilate said to them all, I adjure you in the name of the God of your Fathers, who desired and commanded that this Temple be built, that ye conceal not the truth from me. Ye know all of things which are written in this book, tell me therefore now, if in these Scriptures ye have found anything of that Jesus whom ye have crucified, and at what time of the world he ought to have come; show it me now.
Then having sworn Ananias and Caiaphas, who then commanded that all others of the Jews must go out of the chamber and after they had departed and had again shut the doors of the chamber and the gates of the Temple, they said unto Pilate. Thou hast made us to swear, O Judge, by the building of this Temple, to declare to thee that which is true and right. After we had crucified Jesus, not knowing that he was the Son of God, but supposing that he wrought his miracles by some magical arts, we summoned a large assembly into this Temple. And when we were deliberating amongst ourselves about these miracles which Jesus had wrought, we found many witnesses among our own tribes and countrymen who swore that they had seen Jesus alive after his death and that they heard him discoursing with his disciples and saw him ascending unto the height of the heavens, and entering into them. And we heard two witnesses whose bodies Jesus had raised from the dead and who told us of the many strange things Jesus did among the dead, of which we now have a written account in our hands. And it is our custom at the beginning of each year to open this holy book before an assembly and to search therein for the counsel of God.
And we found in the first of the seventy books, where Michael the Archangel is speaking to the third son of Adam the first man, an account that, after five thousand five hundred years, Christ the most beloved Son of God was come on Earth and we further considered that he might have been the very God of Israel who spoke thus to Moses: Thou shalt make the Ark of the testament, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof; and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof and a cubit and a half the height thereof. By these, giving a total of five and a half cubits for the building of the Ark of the Old Testament, we perceived and held it true that in five and one half thousand years, Jesus Christ was to appear in an Ark or tabernacle of a human body, and so our Scriptures testify that he is the Son of God, and the Lord and King of Israel.
And because after his suffering, our chief priests were surprised at the signs which were wrought by his actions, we again opened that book to search all the generations even to that of Joseph and Mary the father and mother of Jesus, supposing him to be of the seed of David; and we found the account of the Creation and at what time God made the Heaven and the Earth and the first man Adam and from thence to the Flood, were two thousand two hundred and twelve years.
And because after his suffering, our chief priests were surprised at the signs which were wrought by his actions, we again opened that book to search all the generations even to that of Joseph and Mary the father and mother of Jesus, supposing him to be of the seed of David; and we found the account of the Creation and at what time God made the Heaven and the Earth and the first man Adam and from thence to the Flood, were two thousand two hundred and twelve years. And from the Flood to Abraham, nine hundred and twelve years, and from Abraham to Moses, four hundred and thirty years and from Moses to David the King, five hundred and ten years. And from David to the Babylonish captivity, five hundred years and from thence to the incarnation of Christ, four hundred years. The sum of all of which gives the total of five and one half thousand years. It therefore appeals that Jesus whom we crucified, is Jesus Christ the Son of God, the True and Almighty God. Knight Companion. Journey now to the East.
KMN escorts the Novice before the pedestal of the KME. where he is instructed to give the Sign and exclamation.
KME: Knight Companion, what is your desire?
NOV, prompted: I desire nothing but I am prepared for Light. Nov. is seated.
KME: Then the Price of Hell castigated Satan and with great indignation said to him. O thou Prince of Destruction, author of Beelzebub's defeat and banishment, the scorn of God's Angels and loathed by all righteous persons, what inclined thee to act thus? Thou wouldst crucify the King of Glory, and by his destruction hast made us promises of great advantages but as a fool thou were ignorant of what you were about. For behold, now that Jesus of Nazareth, with the brightness of his glorious divinity, puts to flight all the evil powers of darkness and death. He has destroyed our prisons completely, liberated all the captives, released all who were bound and all who formerly groaned under the weight of their torments, have now insulted us and we are likely to be defeated by their prayers. Our impious dominions are now subdued and no part of Mankind is now left in our subjection, but on the other hand, they all boldly defy us. Before, they would never behave themselves insolently towards us, nor, being our prisoners, could ever on any occasion, be merry.
O Satan, thou Prince of All Wickedness, Father of the Impious and Abandoned, why did you even attempt this exploit, in that hitherto our prisoners were always without the least hope of salvation and life? But now there is not one of them who is caused to groan, nor is there the merest appearance of a single tear of forlorn expectation in any eye. O Prince Satan, thou Great Keeper of the Infernal Regions, all the advantages you accrued from the Forbidden Tree and the loss of the Paradise of Man, have now been forever lost by the rough finished wood of the Cross. And thy happiness did even expire when you did crucify Jesus Christ the King of Glory.
Thou have acted against thine own interest, and mine, as you will certainly perceive from those great torments and infinite punishments which you are about to suffer. O Satan, Prince of all Evil, Author of Death and Source of all Pride, thou should have first inquired into those supposed evil crimes of Jesus of Nazareth and thou would have found that he was guilty of no fault worthy of death. Why did thou venture, without either reason or justice, to crucify him and thereby has brought down to our regions, a person innocent and righteous, and so doing has lost to us all the sinners, all the impious and all the unrighteous persons in the whole world?
While the Prince of all Hell was thus speaking to Satan, the King of Glory said to Beelzebub, the Lord of Heil, Satan the Prince, shall be subject to thy dominion forever, in the Room of Adam and his righteous sons, who me mine.
Knight Companion, journey now to the North.
KCN conducts the Novice to the pedestal of the KMN, where he is caused to give the sign and make the exclamation.
KMN: Knight Companion, what is thy wish?
NOV, prompted: I wish for naught but I am prepared for Light. Nov. is seated.
KMN: Then Jesus stretched forth his right hand and said, Come to me all my Saints, who were created in my image and who were condemned by the fruit of the Forbidden Tree and by the Devil and Death. Live now by the wood of my Cross for the Devil, the Prince of this World is overcome and Death is conquered.
Then presently all the Saints were assembled together under the hand of the Most High God. And the Lord Jesus laid hold on the right hand of Adam and said unto him, Peace be on Thee, and also on all thy righteous posterity, which is mine. Then Adam cast himself at the feet of Jesus and addressed him in humble language with a calm voice and said, I will extol Thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and has not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord, thou has brought up my soul from the realm of the dead, out of the grave. Thou has kept me alive, that I should not descend to the stinking pit. Sing ye, unto the Lord, all ye who are his Saints, and give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness. His anger endureth for but a moment, yet his favour is life.
In a like manner all the Saints then laid themselves prostrate at the feet of Jesus and said with one voice, Thou have come, O Redeemer of the World and have accomplished all manner of things which thou foretold by the Law and through the Holy Prophets. Thou hast redeemed the living by thy Cross and have come down to us so that by thy death on the Cross, Thou hast delivered us from Heil, and by thy power, hast averted our death. O Lord, as Thou hast put the ensigns of thy glory in Heaven and set up the sign of thy redemption, even thy Cross upon this Faith, so Lord, set the sign of the victory of thy Cross in Hell, that Death may have dominion no more.
Then the Lord stretched forth his hand and made the Sign of the Cross over Adam and over all his Saints and taking hold of the right hand of Adam, he ascended from Hell and all the Saints of God followed him. The Royal Prophet David boldly exclaimed and said, O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done many marvellous things, his light hand and his holy aim have won him the victory. The Lord hath made known his salvation and his righteousness he has imposed in the sight of the Heathen. And the whole multitude of Saints answered saying, Such honour have all his Saints, Amen, Praise ye the Lord. Then the Prophet Habbakuk cried out, saying, Thou went forth for the salvation of thy people, and all the Saints said, Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord, for the Lord has enlightened us. This is om God for ever and ever and he shall reign over us to the everlasting ages, Amen. In a like manner, all the Prophets acknowledged the sacred covenants of his praise and followed the Lord.
Knight Companion, journey now to the South.
The KCN escorts the Novice before the pedestal of the KMS. where he is made to give the sign and the exclamation.
KMS: Knight Companion, what is your wish?
NOV, prompted: I wish for naught but l am prepared for Light. Nov. is seated.
KMS: Then the Lord holding Adam by the right hand, delivered him to Michael the Archangel, who led all the Saints into a Paradise, filled with mercy and glory. And two very ancient men met the Saints who asked of them, Who are you and why do ye not dwell in Paradise. And the first answered saying, I am Enoch who was translated by the Word of God and my companion is Elijah the Tishbitc who was translated in a fiery chariot. Here we have been out with the gates of Paradise, awaiting our challenge and yet have not tasted death but we are now about to return for the coming of the Anti-Christ, and being armed with divine signs and miracles, to engage him in battle, and to be slain by him at Jerusalem, and to then be taken up alive again into the clouds, after three and one half days.
And while the holy Enoch and Elijah were relating this, behold, there approached another man, of miserable appearance, carrying a cross upon his shoulders. And when all the Saints saw him, they said unto him, Who are you? For your countenance has the look of one who steals and why do you carry that cross upon your shoulders? To which the man answered saying, You have spoken truly for I was a thief and committed all kinds of wickedness upon the earth and because of this, the Jews crucified me along with Jesus.
However, I observed the wondrous things which occurred while Jesus was hung upon his cross, and because of what I saw, I now believe him to be the creator of all things and the Almighty King. I prayed to him saying, Lord remember me when thou arrive in thy kingdom. He presently acknowledged my supplication and said unto me, Verily, I say unto thee, this day thou shall be with me in Paradise and he gave me this cross saying, Carry this and journey to Paradise and if the Angel who is the guardian of Paradise will not at first admit thee, then show unto him the cross that you bear and say to him, Jesus Christ who is now crucified, hath sent me hither. So thus I came to the gates of Paradise and said these things unto the guardian Angel and on hearing what I said, he presently opened the gates and beckoned me in and thereafter introduced me and bade me sojourn in the right side of that place. Then the Angel said, wait here for a little time until Adam, the Father of All Mankind shall enter in with all his sons who are the holy and righteous servants of him who was crucified.
On hearing this account from the lips of the thief, the Patriarchs exclaimed with one voice, Blessed be Almighty God, the Father of everlasting goodness and the Father of mercies, who has shown such favours to those who were sinners against Him, and yet has brought them to the mercy of Paradise and has placed them with great and spiritual provisions, in a spiritual and holy life. Amen.
Thus, My dear Knight Companion, are concluded the writings of the Prophets of old. Hearken now to the Philosophy of the New Day and hear the word concerning Joy and Sorrow.
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked and the selfsame well from which your laughter arises, is oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the greater your capacity for joy. Is not the cup which holds your wine, the very cup which was glazed in the searing heat of the potter's oven? Is not the lyre which soothes your spirit, made from the very wood that was fashioned with the sharpest blades. When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow, that now brings out your joy. When you are sorrowful look again into your heart and you shall discover that, in truth, you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, Joy is greater than Sorrow, while others opine that Sorrow is the greater. But I say to you that they are inseparable. Together they exist and when but one sits alone with you at your table, you should always remember that the other lies asleep on your bed. Verily, you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. Only when you are empty, is your spirit at a standstill and balanced. When the Treasure Keeper calls upon you to weigh his gold and also his silver, needs must your joy or sorrow rise or fall.
Knight Companion you will pass on to the Knight Master of the North for his final instructions on the New Philosophy.
Novice is so conducted by the KCN but now no sign is given. The Nov. is seated.
KMN: Knight Companion, I would now have you listen intently concerning the Law. Man delights in laying down laws, yet he delights more in breaking them! Like children when playing by the ocean who build towers of sand with serious intent but then destroy them with laughter. But while man build his sand towers, the ocean brings more sand to the shore and when he destroys his towers the ocean laughs with him for the ocean always laughs with the innocent of the heart.
But what of those for whom Life is not an ocean and man-made laws are not sand towers but to whom life is a rock and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness? What of the lawmaker who deems the wild boar and the deer of the forest as stray and vagrant things? What of the old serpent who can no longer shed his skin therefore calls the others naked and shameless. And of him who comes early to the wedding feat and after having gorged his fill travels on his way crying that all feats are violations and that those who feast are surely lawbreakers?
What can I say of such as these save that they too stand in the sunlight with their backs to its radiance. They choose to see only their shadows and their shadows are their laws. And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows. And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth. But you who walk facing the sun, what images traced by the sun can hold you? You who travel with the wind, what weather vane shall direct your course? What man's laws shall bind you if you break your yoke against no man's prison door? What laws shall you fear if you dance merrily but stumble over no man's chains? And who is he that shall bring you to your judgment if you tear off your garment and leave it on no man's path?
You may muffle the drum and loosen the strings of the harp but can you command the sky lark not to sing?
Knight Companion, you will now pass on to the Knight Commander of the West for his final instructions.
As before, without the Sign. The Nov. is seated.
KMW: My Knight Companion, I would that you now listen intently concerning Crime and Punishment. It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind that you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and thereby, unto yourself. And for that wrong committed, so must you knock then wait awhile, unnoticed and unheeded, at the Gate of the Blessed. Like the ocean is your goodself for it remains forever undefiled, like the ether is your goodself for it lifts only the winged, like the sunlight is your goodself for it does not know the way of moles nor seeks them in the darkness of the holes of the serpents, therefore your goodself dwells not alone in your being. Much in your being is of man and yet there is also a part of you that is not of man. The latter is like a shapeless child that walks in the mist of sleep searching for its own awakening. It is of the man in you that I would now speak, not your goodself nor that child in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime.
Often have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you but a stranger who has come among you from afar, and intrudes upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in each of us. And as a single leaf turns yellow in the sure knowledge that the whole tree will so do, so the wrong doer cannot commit that wrong without the latent will of all of us. Like a procession you walk together towards your goodself. For you must see that not only are you the way but also the wayfarers and when one stumbles and falls, he falls down for all those who come behind, and is a caution against the stumbling stone. And truly, he also falls for those ahead of him, who being surer of step and faster of foot, have not paused to remove the stumbling stone from the path of others.
And hear this also, although the words may lie heavy upon your hearts. The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder and the robbed is not blameless for being robbed, the righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked, and those who wash their hands me not clean of the actions of the felon. Thus, the guilty is often the victim of the injured and still more often, the condemned is the burden bearer for the guiltless and unblamed. You cannot separate the just and the good from the wicked for they stand together in the light of the sun. Even as the black thread and the white dread are woven together, but when the black thread breaks, the weaver must also examine the white thread and the cloth and even the loom.
If any of you would bring to judgment the unfaithful wife, let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales and measure his soul with measurements. And can you lay blame at her feet yet not look for fault in him who took her? And further, let him who would lash the offender, look also unto the spirit of the offended. And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and take a felling axe to the evil tree. Let him seek first among the roots and surely he will find that the roots of the good and those of the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, are intertwined together in the silent heart of the earth. And you judges who would be just, what judgment pronounce you upon him who is honest in the flesh but is a thief in spirit. What judgment lay you upon he who kills in the flesh yet is himself slain by the spirit of conscience. And how will you punish him who is a deceiver and an oppressor but is himself also aggrieved and outraged?
And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater that the crime they have undertaken. Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would deem to serve? Yet, you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty. Unbidden shall it call you in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.
And you who would understand justice, how shall you do so unless you examine all the deeds in the fullness of the light? Only then shall you know that the elect and the fallen are but one person standing in the twilight between the night of his child self and the day of his goodself. And that die keystone of the Temple is not higher than the lowest stone of its foundations.
Knight Companion you will now pass to the Knight Master of the East for his final Instruction in the New Philosophy.
Done with no sign or exclamation. Nov. is seated.
KME: Knight Companion, I would now have you listen intently concerning Freedom. At the city gate and even at your own fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom. Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him although he slays them, and even in the grove of the Temple and in die shadow of its citadel I have seen the wholly free among you wear that freedom as a yoke and a manacle. And my heart bled within me for man can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment. You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound. And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights un less you break the chains which you, at the dawn of your understanding, have fastened around your noon hours? In truth, that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self that you would discard that you may become free. If it is an unjust law that you would abolish, remember that that law was written by your own hand upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning the books of the law nor by washing the foreheads of the judges, even though you have immersed them in the sea of purity.
And if you would dethrone a despot, ensure first that you destroy his throne which is part of you. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for the tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride? And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than it has been imposed upon you. And if it is fear that you would dispel, the seal of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily, all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape. These aspects move within you as lights and shadows, in pairs that ding, and when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that remains becomes a shadow to another greater light And thus, your freedom when it sheds its fetters, becomes itself the shackle of a greater freedom.
Go now my Knight Companion to the Knight Master of the South who rules this Second Chamber, for the final act of this ceremony.
The KCN conducts the Novice before the KMS. he then places the kneeling cushion about three paces in front of the KMS pedestal and causes the Novice to kneel on both knees. When the KMS rises, all others do likewise, when so instructed by the KMN. the KMS takes up the sword and approaches the Novice.
KMS: My Knight Companion, it is my happy privilege to dub you a Knight of the South on the head Triumphant on the right shoulder and Victorious on the left shoulder. May you ever bear with honour that title, as I am certain in my heart that you wilt so do.
Arise. Knight ..., and receive this parting dictum. The Knights sit without command. No man can reveal to you ought but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. The teacher who walks in the shadow of the Temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his love. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to threshold of your own mind. The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of the universe but he cannot give you his understanding. The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all compositions but he cannot give you the ear which senses that rhythm, nor the pitch of a single note nor the voice that echoes it. And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell you of the aspects of weight and measure, but he cannot manage your understanding of them. For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another and even as each one of us stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of us be alone in his knowledge of God and in His understanding of the earth.
Thus my Knight, we have shown you the Temple of Wisdom and Truth but it is your own duty to find your way through the halls thereof.
Before you take your place among the Knights, I would remind of the Vow you have taken, the Sign you have been given and ask you to note that we wear the black rosette behind the rose in memory of Him who was lost to us. You will now take your place among the body of Knights.
The newly dubbed Knight is conducted to a vacant place in the South by the KCN, who then returns to his own station.
 

Closing

KMS: Knights of the South, be upstanding. All do so. Knights, give the sign and the Exclamation. All do so.
KMS: ****.
KMN: ***.
KMW: **.
KME: *.
KMS: Knights of the South, you are dismissed.

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