Beyond the Craft

This small book is a must have for all those wishing to progress their Masonic journey ‘beyond the Craft’ and has been very well researched by the author.

How often has a Mason, whether of several years standing or even a newly initiated one, been stonewalled in their efforts to find out what steps can be taken to further their progress beyond MM in the ‘Blue’ Lodge?
All too often you hear enticing snippets about the ‘higher’ or ‘side’ Orders but on asking about them just get such frustrating replies as “Ah, you’ll have to wait until you’re Raised” or “Well, I can’t tell you that yet”, or “It’ll become clearer later when you know more…”.
Even with the plethora of information available on the web, many sites are closed to the uninitiated and so even this avenue of research can be very unenlightening…

Using simple language Jackson lists all the established Orders practised in England today, with clear and concise information about the entry requirements, requisite and optional offices, the history of the Order and even includes notes about the senior officers.
He also includes details of the regalia required for the different Orders so the prospective candidate can investigate the costs of joining a second, third or even fourth Order, which can be fairly considerable!

There is even a brief discussion of the degree giving a tantalising hint at the reason behind the creation of the Order and what the Order hopes to achieve by its existence.

The appendixes at the back detailing a comparison of the Orders is very useful as well in establishing rough rank equivalents.

He also includes contact details for the headquarters of the Orders to allow the candidate to direct any queries that he cannot get answered by his acquaintances to the relevant authority.

This little book, without giving away any of the secrets of the Orders allows you to plan your milestones along your personal journey and should be regarded as an essential roadmap for all those who wish to progress ‘beyond the Craft’.
If you don’t already have a copy of this little book and want to progress your journey beyond the first three steps, then I can’t suggest strongly enough, that this is THE book to buy.

This little book is a wealth of information for those interested in this topic and also for those who wish more than the brief “now you see it – now you don’t” that encompasses the exposure one often gets in the degree ceremonies.

The book includes illustrations of both personally created and ‘official’ Lodge boards from the degrees of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The author has spent much time researching his subject and the latest edition is both very insightful and has many beautiful illustrations.
He delves into the history of the boards with obvious great respect and enthusiasm for the subject and compares and contrasts the ‘official’ designers of the time.

He also leaves a rather intriguing set of questions to inspire the reader to further their own study for papers to be presented in Lodge.

My only complaint would be that the layout of the book makes it a bit awkward to read, as a whole section of plates appear in the middle of the book with a broken paragraph spanning this section causing the reader to have to jump back, re-read the start of the paragraph then jump forward again.