The Scottish lodge Is a Masonic organization that has existed for centuries. They are based on certain precepts that all belonging to the lodge must believe and strongly support. Where else it developed was in Mexico.
In the Scottish Lodge they believed that education should be exclusive to the higher social classes and the clergy. They included the clergy in education because they believed that they were the most apt to moralize people, and that is why they must have been educated.
The Scots had the support of the army to carry out its teachings, since they considered that an army was the fundamental base to have a successful government.
In one of the places where it had the most impact was in Mexico. The Scottish Lodge of Mexico was formed by aristocrats of conservative ideology, who supported the same idealisms that the Scots.
History of the Scottish Lodge
The first data of the Scottish Grand Lodge date from 1599, with the record of the meetings that they made in the Chapel of Mary's.
A connection can be established between the groups of masons of the stone and the new organizations of Freemasonry. All these records belong to the library of the Grand Lodge.
The Scottish Lodge has a unique character. For example, they do not have a Grand Master, but a Grand Master Mason. The lodges that are embodied in the Scottish constitution are sovereign of their own lodge with control of their affairs. Many lodges have the right to their traditions, procedures, rules and different rituals.
Having established the principle of independence of the ancient Lodges, it was impossible to deny them the same privileges to the most modern lodges created after 1736.
Of course they have rituals that maintain the essential points, but each lodge can, for example, choose the colors that represent it.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland has 32 Provincial Lodges within Scotland, and 26 other large Lodges throughout the world.
Main beliefs and precepts of the Scottish Lodge
There are characteristic features of the Lodge that affect all its subdivisions regardless of where the Lodge is located.
As indicated above, each of the Lodges adhering to the constitution of the Scottish Lodge has the right to establish its own customs and rules, but all must include the principal ones of the Grand Lodge, which are the following.
You must believe in the existence of the Great Architect of the Universe. This means that they believe in the existence of a higher entity that is in charge of realizing the world organization.
They consider that the presence of the Bible, the Square and the Compass is obligatory in all the rites and works that they realize in their Masonic Temples. The lodges have in their care the direction of the 4 symbolic degrees.
All lodges have the responsibility to initiate people who want to participate in their lodge and evolve. Within the lodge, political and religious debates are prohibited during the performance of their work.
All Lodges are required to comply with the Code of Masonic Lodges Reunited and Rectified of 1778. This agreement was approved in the Convent of Wilhelmsbad in 1782.
Old and Accepted Scottish Rite
The Scottish Rite which governs most of the world's lodges, corresponds to the oldest forms of Freemasonry, and these rites have been continued over time. Since they had not been codified until 1890, many of the Lodges had followed their own rituals.
This rite preserves the oldest parts of the Masonic rites that resemble those made in medieval times. Christian tradition and symbology are combined.
The Scottish rite maintained Christian symbolism in its traditions. This was due to the precepts that united Scottish Freemasons were common culture and traditions.
One of the main differences that distinguished them from the English masons was that the Scots followed the Catholic precepts, while the English used the Presbyterian precepts.
The current and rectified version of the Scottish rite dates back to 1969, and is the rule for most of the Lodges in the world.
Scottish Lodge in Mexico
Where more impact had the formation of the Scottish Lodge was in Mexico. It was the first of the Masonic Lodges that appeared in Mexico and its origins date back to 1813.
This Lodge was created with political precepts, and it gathered all the people of Creole nationality that looked for the independence of Spain.
In 1823, the organization of the Scottish Lodge of Mexico proposed to establish a Centralista Republic where it divided the territory in departments without political autonomy. They wanted to divide the public power into three parts; The executive, the legislative and the judicial.
They looked for a capitalist economic model through a protectionist state. This benefited the merchants, hacendados and industries of Mexican society. All these actions were giving rise to the Conservative Party of Mexico.
Scottish Masons of the rite defended the Spaniards who resided in Mexico, although they sought the independence of the peninsula. But on the other hand, the Masons of the York Lodge attacked them.
Those belonging to the Scottish lodge had a more hierarchical organization and supported the first emperor of Mexico, Agustín de Iturbide. The Scottish Lodge wanted to attract European culture to Mexico, as shown in the writings of the nineteenth century.
From the year 1820 in Mexico began to create the formal lodges. It was a form of opposition to the emperor and the masons who dominated the congress.
After these dates, the confrontation between the two sides of the nation, the liberals and the conservatives, would begin.
References
- GOULD, Robert Freke, et al. Gould's History of Freemasonry throughout the World . Scribner's sounds, 1936.
- LOADER, Catharine Mary. Cairngorm Adventure at Glenmore Lodge, Scottish Center of Outdoor Training. Written and Illustrated by CM Loader . William Brown, 1952.
- CALLANDER, J. Graham. Notice of a jet necklace found in a Bronze Age cemetery, discovered on Burgie Lodge Farm, Morayshire, with notes on Scottish prehistoric jet ornaments. Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland , 1916, vol. 50, p. 201-40.
- FOX, William L. Lodge of the Double-Headed Eagle: Two Centuries of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in America's Southern Jurisdiction . University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
- COHEN, Abner. The politics of ritual secrecy. Man , 1971, vol. 6, no. 3, p. 427-448.
- JEFFERY, Charlie, et al. Taking England Seriously: The New English Politics. Edinburgh: ESRC Scottish Center on Constitutional Change , 2014.
- MOORE, William D. From Lodge Room to Theater: Meeting Spaces of the Scottish Rite. Theater of the Fraternity: Staging the Ritual Space of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, 1896-1929 , P. 31-51.