The very mysterious masonic ring what does it actually mean and there’s a huge controversy with masonic ring so we’re going to talk about it right now welcome to the scottish rite of freemasonry channel everybody i’m maynard edwards 32nd degree kcch your host here on the channel i hope you’ll
Take a second and subscribe to the channel give us a thumbs up on the video if you like it and i hope you do and also please pass it on to some friends if you’re a brother master mason or a scottish ray mason drop a little message
In the comment below we always want to hear from you and if you’re curious about joining a masonic lodge or starting that masonic journey for yourself you can click that link above or the link in the description below for b of freemason.com which will help you connect with a lodge
In your area and in fact there’s a video right here on the channel that will explain to you exactly how to do that so do check that out we’ve got something important to talk about right now though and it’s something that’s really important and very personal to a lot of
Master masons and a lot of scottish ray masons for that matter as well and that is the masonic ring a lot of people believe that a lot of non-masons i say i should say believe that there’s some mystery surrounding the masonic ring and this comes from television and movies
Letting people think that we masons use rings as a way to secretly identify ourselves i say herms what is this number jungle the handshake and the ring watson are archaic rituals preserved by the 33rd degree members of the secret order of freemasons but the truth is the master mason ring is
Pretty much entirely ornamental and is it a way for master masons to identify one another well yes but as we’ve talked about in the channel before if we’re supposed to be a secret society wearing a big flashy piece of i mean this is a kind of a flashy ring and if
You look i had some of our scottish ray brothers send in pictures of their own rings this is not jewelry that’s meant to go under the radar this is flashy so if this is supposed to be some big secret we’re pretty well straight terrible at having a secret because again
Just like we have our meetings advertised in the newspaper and we’ve got big signs in front of all of our buildings these rings are meant to catch attention they’re meant to show to the world hey i’m a mason i’m a master mason or i’m a scottish right mason i am not a
Ring guy i very very rarely wear my master mason’s ring this was given to me and i’ll try and zoom in on it there but the camera might have a little trouble focusing so probably flash is still up here but this was given to me by a family
Member it was passed on to me and i treasure it for sure but i’m not a ring guy there’s no rule that says masons have to wear rings with like they’re not badges if you’re the police where are your badges we’re not the police it’s just a decoration it’s no
Different than me wearing this necklace or having a necktie with the square and compass or perhaps a double-headed eagle on it or i just had a hoodie on that i took off right before we shot this video that showed the square encompasso these are purely decorational is that a word decorational decorative decorative
Decorative they’re purely decorative i think decorational should be a word anyway they’re purely decorational it’s got to be a word right It’s entirely up to that brother whether or not he wants to wear a ring or have a ring at all i’m going to put a little asterisk on this when you join the scottish rite of freemasonry and you become a 14th degree scottish right mason you will receive
Your 14th degree ring this ring is a very simple golden band and it has the triangle with the yud the triangle is a very ancient and very sacred symbol symbolizes the number three which appears throughout freemasonry it’s one of the strongest symbols in nature and has been representative of various uh faiths and
Religions for centuries and the character yud inside is the first letter in the name of god in hebrew yadhi vahe so that’s the yud character and it’s in there and inside there’s latin inscribed and none of this is secret and the the latin which i cannot
Pronounce and i’m not going to dare try uh for fear of it showing up on a meme somewhere uh it basically says what virtue has united death cannot separate scottish right masons who are elected to receive the 33rd degree what we call inspector general’s honorary the 33rd degree scottish right mason they also
Receive a 33rd degree ring and it is meant to more or less replace their 14th degree ring both the 14th degree ring and the 33rd degree ring are specifically addressed in the statutes that is the rules of the scottish rite as as having a particular form so the 14th degree is this very
Plain band of gold with the triangle as i mentioned and the inscription on the inside and the good character the 33rd degree ring has the number 33 on it and it’s supposed to look like three bands of gold adorned i am not a 33rd degree scottish right
Mason so i don’t have one i can show you this picture and this is more or less what all of them look like there are some that are more ornamental that have some diamonds and things like that in them but generally speaking it’s supposed to be a little bit plain jane
Just like this one is and and of all the rings that i wear and i again i’m not a ring guy this is the one i wear the most often because it’s it’s it’s simple and it’s not that i don’t love this one that was handed down from a family member but
That’s just not me and there are lots of masons who that’s just not them now let’s talk about one of the biggest controversies in all of freemasonry and that is what is the proper way to wear your masonic ring is it proper to wear it with the points facing up like this
So that when you look at your own hand you can see that square encompass or is it proper to wear it with the points facing down so that when you make a fist the square and compass are displayed properly for someone looking at your hand
Is it meant to be viewed by you is it meant to be viewed by someone else and this is a huge heated controversy on facebook on reddit on all these different places guys are having these huge arguments about the proper way to wear the masonic ring
And i think i have a good answer to this question i’m sure some or many of you are going to argue with me in the comments below and that’s fine but here is my answer and i’ll tell you where it comes from my answer comes from the scottish rite statutes to a degree
And here’s what i mean by that the 14th degree ring and the 33rd degree ring the way they are to be worn is spelled out in the statutes and it’s spelled out like this it can be worn on either hand it can be worn on any finger on either hand
And it can face any direction that you choose so you basically can wear it any way you want the only caveat is that when you pass away the 14th and 33rd degree ring cannot be given to someone else to wear it should be given to specifically it says your
Oldest son or your closest friend and they can have it but they should never wear it because in the case of the 14th and 33rd degree rings these represent a covenant these represent a promise a promise that you’ve made to your brothers a promise that you have made to god and a promise
That you have made to yourself and so just as though it’s not all together proper that you wear someone else’s wedding ring because that represents a promise that they made you wouldn’t want to wear that 14th degree or 33rd degree that belonged to someone else for basically the same reason so
If a friend god forbid should pass and leave you his ring don’t wear it you know put it away put it someplace safe treasure it but not to be worn based on that information i think that when it comes to your masonic ring there’s no real hard fast rule about it however
Guys looking for something to argue about here’s the answer that i give when somebody asks me should i wear it with the points facing down or the points facing up so that it can be seen by me or by the outside world my answer is this who needs to know that
I’m a mason today because how i wear my ring could change from day to day or even from mood to mood and what do i mean by that well sometimes i want to show off to the rest of the world that i’m a master mason and i’m living by those masonic
Virtues but let’s say i’ve had a challenging day maybe was at the department of motor vehicles and i’m i’m really ready to you know lose it i might need to myself be reminded that i’m a good mason and so in that case i would flip this ring around so that i
Could see that square encompassed and be reminded oh yeah i promised to be you know kind of cool about things and and and handle things in a particular manner and not overreact and and not blow my top at the department of motor vehicles so that’s what i always tell a new guy
Coming in when they just get their ring and they ask what direction should i wear the square encompass in who needs to know you’re a mason right now are you trying to show the rest of the world hey i’m a mason or do you maybe today need
To be reminded that you’re a mason and i think that’s about as good an answer as anybody’s going to give you if you’ve got an answer to this question you can leave it in the comments below however i pretty well insist that you explain yourself you can’t just say well it’s
Points up and that’s because no no you need to have some reasoning behind it i’ve given you my reason as to why it can and should switch from time to time but i want to know what your reason is if you wear a masonic ring i also want
To thank all the brothers from the scottish rite of freemasonry members only page who sent me pictures of their rings to use in this video guys couldn’t do it without you so uh thank you very much so the masonic ring it’s just decorative decorative decorative is that what we figured out decorative decorational
It’s just for decoration it doesn’t actually mean anything other than to tell the world or sometimes tell yourself that you are in fact a master mason the 14th degree ring the 33rd degree ring have some other meanings as well so there is the mystery of the masonic ring boiled
Down for you thanks for watching everybody hope you leave a comment below subscribe to the channel it helps us make more videos share it with a friend and don’t forget to turn on those notifications i’m maynard edwards 32nd degree kcch scottish right freemason see you next time Hey if you’re watching this video and you want to learn how to become a freemason click this video right here and it’s going to give you a step-by-step process to follow on how to connect with a masonic lodge and if you’re already a master mason interested in joining the scottish rite click this
Link right here and it’s going to take you to the scottish rite website where you can sign up to become a scottish wright mason right now
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