The LOS ANGELES Consistory

The final portion of the Scottish Rite System of degrees is called The Consistory. This series of degrees includes the 31st° and 32nd° Degrees.

31° INSPECTOR INQUISITOR

The title of this Degree conveys the thoughts of self-examination. Every man, and more especially every Mason, should meditate prayerfully and soberly on his thoughts and acts of the day. The wrongs of today must not be repeated on the morrow, for each day should add some light and truth for our guidance for the next, and then as time goes by, our characters should be so far above reproach, so filled with the love of our fellowman, that the world would instinctively say: “There is a good man, for he is a Mason.” To correct the faults of others, to admonish with love and forbearance, is a duty we owe each other, but never to judge, for that is a divine prerogative alone. 

32° Prince of the Tabernacle

In this degree the crowning point is reached by those who have studied and thought. The Royal Secret, like the occult science of the ancients, is concealed even here – but remember, “Faith begins where Reason sinks exhausted.” Magic, contrary to the belief of many, is but the absolute science of nature and its laws, hence the Star of Hope shines for us as truly as it did for the Wise Men of the East two thousand years ago. Today, as in the first days of the creation, the universal equilibrium still retains its predominant position in the eternal plan of the Omnipotent. Good and evil, right and wrong, justice and mercy, attraction and repulsion balance each other to teach us to remember ourselves as immortal souls, retaining for each other respect and charity and remembering always that each is slowly climbing to that state of perfection, the final goal of all.

“Be sovereign over yourself, be neither intoxicated by success nor depressed by defeat. You must not usurp in order to be enabled to punish usurpation nor must you hate error so much as not to love mankind.”