Why Thirty-Three?: Searching for Masonic Origins

The papers presented here represent over twenty-five years of publications by S. Brent Morris. They explore his many questions about Freemasonry, usually dealing with origins of the Craft. What “high degrees” were in the United States before 1830? What were the activities in the United States before 1801 of the Order of the Royal Secret, the precursor of the Scottish Rite? How did American grand lodges form as they broke away from England? Who were the Gormogons; how did they get started; what happened to them? Why does the Scottish Rite have thirty-three degrees?A complex organization with a lengthy pedigree like Freemasonry has many basic foundational questions waiting to be answered, and that’s what this book does: answers questions.S. Brent Morris, 33°, Grand Cross, is Managing Editor of the Scottish Rite Journal, the largest circulation Masonic magazine in the world. He retired after twenty-five years as a mathematician with the federal government and has taught at Duke, Johns Hopkins, and George Washington Universities. He is Past Master of Patmos Lodge No. 70, Ellicott City, Maryland, and Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London; a Fellow and Mackey Scholar of the Scottish Rite Research Society; a Fellow of the Philalethes Society; an honorary Fellow of the Phylaxis Society; founding Editor of Heredom, the transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society; indexer of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum; and Past Grand Abbot of the Society of Blue Friars. He is the author of Magic Tricks, Card Shuffling, and Dynamic Computer Memories; two U.S. patents; nine technical articles; and is author or editor of over forty books on Freemasonry including Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry and Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? (with Arturo de Hoyos). Read more