1809 Albert Pike
1809 Albert Pike
Born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 29, 1809, Albert Pike is asserted within the Southern Jurisdiction as the man most responsible for the growth and success of the Scottish Rite from an obscure Masonic Rite in the mid-19th century to the international fraternity that it became. Pike received the 4th through the 32nd Degrees in March 1853 from Albert Mackey, in Charleston, South Carolina, and was appointed Deputy Inspector for Arkansas that same year.
In 1857 Pike completed his first revision of the 4°-32° ritual and printed 100 copies. This revision, which Mackey dubbed the "Magnum Opus", was never adopted by the Supreme Council. According to Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, the Scottish Rite's Grand Historian, the Magnum Opus became the basis for future ritual revisions.
In March 1858, Pike was elected a member of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and in January 1859 he became its Grand Commander. The American Civil War interrupted his work on the Scottish Rite rituals. Around 1870, he, and the Supreme Council, moved to Washington, DC. In 1884 his revision of the rituals was complete.
Scottish Rite Grand Archivist and Grand Historian de Hoyos[33] created the following chart of Pike's ritual revisions:
1–3° 1872
4–14° 1861, 1870, 1883
15–16° 1861, 1870, 1882
17–18° 1861, 1870
19–30° 1867, 1879, 1883
31–32° 1867, 1879, 1883
33° 1857, 1867, 1868, 1880
(manuscripts only)