Rectified Rite: Beneficent Knights of the Holy City, Ritual for the Novitiate

to secrecy, even if his reception could not be accomplished.

The Venerable will have no canopy; his armchair, backed against the curtain at the back, will be covered, as will the table and those of the Wardens, with a fabric of the same color as the curtain.

This curtain, as we have said, will form a suitable enclosure; this space will be draped in black, strewn with red crosses. It will be illuminated absolutely only by the essential lights necessary to read the inscriptions that will be mentioned. In the middle will be a triangular-shaped mausoleum, low in height, presenting one of its faces directly to the eye. It will be surmounted by an urn from which, at the moment the curtain is drawn, a flame of spirits of wine alcohol will rise quite strongly. On the western face of this mausoleum will be the following inscription in white characters on a black background, very easy to read, or in transparency.

This inscription will be covered by a blind or curtain which will be drawn only upon the order of the Commander. Around the mausoleum are 3 Knights, the order-hat on the head, sword at the side, dressed in their coats of arms with their pectoral cross; they will be chosen as much as possible from among those who have the most affinity with the candidate.

Against the back wall behind and higher than the mausoleum will be an inscription traced in the same manner as the first and veiled likewise, which will contain these words:

N.B. In the chapter which is presided over by the Prefect, all the knights wearing the order-hat on their heads have their sword at their side, are dressed in their white coat of arms bordered with red with the order's cross in the middle, and carry the pectoral cross suspended on the chest by a red ribbon worn over the shoulder. The novices have an order-hat, but without a plume; they do not have the plume on the head, they have the sword at their side, are dressed in a coat of arms bordered in red, but without a cross in the middle; they wear around the neck, hanging on the chest, the sword cord terminated by a cross formed like that of the order.

In the Regular Lodge, all the brothers are dressed in the Masonic attire of this class, and the Commander of the place where the candidate resides who is Venerable, if he is present; in his absence, the most senior [brother] present at the Ceremony; in the absence of that one, by the most senior of the Commanders present, one or [several] Dignitaries of the prefectural chapter; the Wardens are dignified and the prosecutor of the Commandery of the place where the Ceremony takes place or, in their absence, Knights.

Chamber of Preparation.

Reflections and questions which will be proposed to the aspirant to the novitiate and upon which he must be examined by the brother preparer. In the chamber of preparation, one must put before his eyes the instruction in the form of an explanation of the tableau of the 4th grade and the following reflections in writing, so that he can meditate on the content, and one will leave him the necessary time.

Reflections.

My Dear Aspirant, in the instruction of the 4th grade on the explanation of the 2nd tableau, it was said to you that this tableau is the first Masonic emblem that was offered to masons. You were warned that the principal subject that was presented to you must be viewed by all from different points of view, that where the relationships are multiplied, the one who gives himself to the examination of only one risks missing the goal of his researches.

Although you must hope to receive successively in the interior order the development of the Masonic symbols and emblems, this knowledge however will always be proportioned to the work that you yourself have done to attain it, from which it results that, wishing to be admitted to the Novitiate of this order, you must beforehand give proofs of your researches and of your penetration by giving an account of the ideas that you have conceived on the different kinds of explanations of which the four symbolic grades are susceptible, and it is in this view that one proposes to you the following questions.

Questions.

1. What are the moral and physical or historical relationships that you have been able to perceive between the temple of Jerusalem built by Solomon and the Masonic order?

2. What are the moral and physical relationships that you have discovered between the known revolutions of the temple of Jerusalem and those of the Masonic temple?

3. What are the moral, physical, or historical relationships that you perceive between the Venerable Hiram, chief and conductor of the temple of Jerusalem, and the chiefs and conductors of the current temple?

The aspirant will answer in good faith the 3 questions to his preparer; he will expose his ideas to him with frankness, so that the order can know the manner in which he has known how to appreciate the symbolic objects that have been presented to him in the grades.