Province of Cumberland and Westmorland

Royal Arch
Exaltation explained

given the task of clearing the ground on the site where King
Solomons Temple formerly stood. You were given the implements
of labour and withdrew from the Chapter. In the course of your
labours you discovered the crown of a vaulted chamber into which
one of you was lowered and discovered the scroll, but for the want of
light was unable to read its contents. Your colleague was drawn up
and discovered that the scroll was part of the long lost volume of the
sacred law. After widening the opening he was again lowered into
the vault where he found a pedestal with its top covered by a veil.
On raising the veil he saw a plate of gold engraved with the sacred
and mystical name of the true and living God most high. The
Sojourner was then drawn up, the vault was sealed and all three of
you returned to the Grand Sanhedrim to report your findings. You
were then rewarded for your discovery of the genuine secrets of a
Master Mason which were lost in the Third Degree by the sudden
and tragic death of Hiram Abiff.
You were informed in the Third Degree that King Solomon stated, at
the adoption of the substituted secrets of a Master Mason that they
should designate all Master Masons throughout the Universe until
time or circumstances should restore the genuine.
The genuine secrets of a Master Mason were restored by the
rediscovery you made in the Royal Arch Exaltation Ceremony: a
lesson that truly humble workmen, though engaged on unskilled and
uninteresting work, may nevertheless find in it great reward entitling
them to a place among the wisest of men in the council of rulers.

The Exaltation Ceremony:

Exaltation explained?

As a Candidate for exaltation you entered the Chapter blindfolded

and clothed as a Master Mason, representing one of the exiles
returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. You were led round the
Chapter to the West where you advanced by seven steps to what you
were told was the crown of a vaulted chamber. After removing the
arch stones you were figuratively lowered into the vault where you
found something like a scroll or parchment but for the want of light
were unable to discover its contents. You were again lowered into the
vault and agreed to take a solemn obligation never to divulge the
secrets or mysteries of this Supreme Degree. The blindfold was
removed and you were able to view perhaps the most spectacular
sight in Freemasonry you had symbolically discovered a sacred
vault and could see before you an arch with its keystones which you
had removed earlier in the ceremony.
There were six staves down each side of the carpet representing the
six other arches of a subterranean passage. The staves carried
ensigns representing the twelve tribes of Israel. There was a white
pedestal with its top face covered by a veil and on the front were
some initials and certain Hebrew characters which you later learned
were the initials of the three Grand Masters who built the First or
Solomons Temple who, from the Craft story, were Solomon, King of
Israel, Hiram king of Tyre and Hiram Abiff. Under these initials was
the Triple Tau, one of our Royal Arch symbols, which is explained in
the Mystical Lecture. The scroll you found in the vault was part of the
long lost volume of the sacred law, lost to the Hebrews during the
days of their idolatry. Behind the pedestal you saw three characters,
dressed in Crimson, Purple and Light Blue Robes, each carrying a
Sceptre. They are the three Principals who rule over a Royal Arch
Chapter Zerubbabel, Haggai and Joshua. There were no Wardens
or Deacons as in a Craft Lodge, instead you found yourself with three
other companions, called Sojourners or journeymen workmen, who
sat in the West of the Chapter.
You then took part in a more detailed account of what took place at
the discovery of the vault. You retired from the Chapter and were
readmitted as one of the three Sojourners, members of the royal tribe
of Judah who, having returned to Jerusalem from their captivity in
Babylon, offered their services in rebuilding the Temple and were

The Historical background:

It has to be appreciated that there is a gap of several hundred years
between the building of the first Temple by King Solomon, as
portrayed in the three Degrees of Craft, its destruction and its
eventual replacement under Zerubbabel, as is dramatised in the
Royal Arch exaltation ceremony. In such time the area was occupied
and re-occupied (as it still is to this day) by a number of neighbouring
warring nations.
It is recorded that the existence of the magnificent and costly Temple
built and furnished by King Solomon was fairly short-lived. Solomon
was surrounded by many pagan peoples, and even the Hebrews
themselves tended from time to time to fall into idolatry. After
Solomons death, ten tribes under the leadership of Jeroboam broke
away to form the independent kingdom of Israel and made the city of
Samaria its capital. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained
faithful to the line of David and held onto the mountain stronghold of
Jerusalem which overlooked the vital, important and lucrative traderoute between two warring countries - Syria and Egypt. For a period
of four hundred years Palestine was ravaged from many different
points. In the fifth year of Rehoboams reign, Shishak, King of Egypt,
plundered Jerusalem and its Temple and carried away all its gold
furnishings.
In 722 B.C. the independent kingdom of Samaria became an
Assyrian province and the ten tribes (the Samaritans) were taken into
captivity. However, in Jerusalem Hezekiah secured peace by paying
tribute to his conquerors and to some extent restored the Temple
worship. Eighty years later Josiah repaired the Temple and
refurnished it with gold vessels. It was at this time that Hilkiah found
the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord which forms the basis
of the Irish Royal Arch Ritual. Theirs is one of repair as opposed to
our re-building.
What appeared to be the end of Jerusalem and its magnificent
Temple came in 586 B.C. when both were plundered by
Nebuzaradan, Captain of the guard to Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon. The Temple treasures were stolen and the two faithful

tribes of Judah and Benjamin were carried off to Babylon leaving only
the peasants and others whose enforced duty was to till the land.
In Babylon the exiles lived in small colonies and, although they had
no temples, they were able to form worshipping congregations which
enabled them to keep their faith in their country and their God alive,
as is told in emotional language recorded in Psalm 137 By the
rivers of Babylon we sat down, yea we wept when we remembered
Zion etc.
However, the empire that Nebuchadnezzar had built had short shrift
when the Medes and Persians came against it. About seventy years
after the Jews had been taken into exile. Cyrus, the Persian King,
conquered Babylon and added it to his empire which covered a large
part of West Asia for the next two centuries. A few months after
reaching Babylon, Cyrus issued an edict allowing the Jewish exiles to
return to Palestine and inviting the two faithful tribes to rebuild the city
and its Temple. What his motives were in allowing them to return
are unknown but he gave the two tribes his protection, supplied them
with materials for the re-building and promised to restore the riches
carried off by the Babylonians some seventy years before.
The invitation to return to their own native land was not, at first,
warmly or widely accepted as most of the Jews had been born in
exile and had never seen Palestine. However, a small group availed
themselves of the permission, made the journey back to Jerusalem
under Sheshbazzar in 537 B.C. and started the work. Seventeen
years later a much stronger group led by Zerubbabel returned but
were mortified to find that they could only occupy the ruins and
immediate vicinity of Jerusalem as tribes of mixed blood had moved
into Judea during their years of exile.
Under Zerubbabel the Governor, Joshua the High Priest, and the
Prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the second Temple was built and
dedicated to the worship of God in 516 B.C. Priests among the
returned exiles regulated the ritual in the new Temple in accordance
with the Book of the Law discovered by Hilkiah more than a century
before. In the meantime Cyrus had been succeeded by Cambyses
who, influenced by the hostility of the tribes dwelling near Jerusalem,
stopped the work, and he in turn was succeeded by Darius
Hystaspes, who gave the Jews much-needed assistance, for all

through the period they were harassed by neighbouring tribes (the

Samaritans) in whom there was more than a tinge of Jewish blood.
The Samaritans, appealing to Darius, tried again to hinder the work,
which continued under the encouragement of Haggai the Prophet.
Darius permitted the stolen treasures to be returned to Jerusalem
under armed escort and it is this difficult and dangerous journey
which is thought by some writers to be symbolised by the ceremony
formerly known as the Passing of the Veils.
Haggai the Prophet deserves a great place in the narrative of the
returned exiles. He had been born in Babylon, and is believed to
have travelled to Judea with Zerubbabel. He took over the task of
exhorting his countrymen to finish rebuilding the Temple which had
been at a standstill due to the hostilities of the surrounding tribes. He
assured the Jews that the glory of this latter house shall be greater
than the former a difficult prophecy inasmuch as the Second
Temple could not compare with the richness and splendour of the
first one, but the prophecy was said to have been fulfilled when Christ
entered it many years later.
As the years passed, the Jewish Priests became careless and
corrupt and neglected the Temple services. Fifty-eight years after its
completion Ezra arrived in Jerusalem and immediately set about
reforming and purifying the priesthood. Fourteen years later
Artaxerxes of Persia allowed Nehemiah, his aristocratic Jewish
courtier and cup-bearer, to go to Jerusalem as its Governor. Under
Nehemiahs direction the walls of the city were rebuilt despite
continued attacks by the Samaritans. The valour of the Jewish
people is recorded in the Book of Nehemiah IV, 17-18. It is from this
text that the ritual records with trowel in hand and sword by their
side.
However, the rebuilt Temple had a tragic history. It was plundered,
desecrated and rededicated again in 165 B.C. by Judas Maccabeus,
again profaned, plundered and pulled down to the very foundations
by Herod the Great in order that he might rebuild it on a grander
scale as a memorial to himself !