Dear Sir,

Curiosity has led you to ask me about the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

I have understood that what guides you is not bad curiosity, that of the keyholes, driven by an unhealthy desire to discover some "secrets" (obviously pendulous!), but the healthy curiosity to be interested in a subject without preconceived ideas, to ask questions objectively and to look for answers "at the source" and not in hearsay, fantasies or gossip.

Let me first tell you what the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is not: it is neither a sect, nor a substitute religion, nor a political party, nor a pressure group.

Like all regular Freemasonry, in which it is part, the Rite even forbids any discussion of political, societal or religious issues.

On the contrary, it aims to be a universal alliance of free men of good morals; it seeks to bring together, beyond their diversity of origin, belief, philosophy or social status, all those who seek to improve themselves morally and spiritually, who do not find satisfactory answers to the oldest questions of mankind: who am I? what am I doing here? what is my place in the universe?

The Rite will not provide you with the answers to these questions; it will not impose any absolute "truth" on you, but will provide you with the means and tools to find these answers within yourself. It will help you to feel in harmony with yourself, with others, with the world.

How will he do this? By offering you a particular method that combines analogical thinking and symbolism through mythical stories drawn more particularly from the Old and New Testaments in a scalar journey from degree to degree (the Rite has thirty-three).

He will do this in a specific place: a Lodge or Workshop, whose members are united by a real and solid fraternity, where no one judges anyone and where, on the contrary, each one is there to accompany and help the others in their spiritual journey.

What unites these men, and beyond that, the nearly three million regular Freemasons in the world, is, in addition to their same desire for accomplishment, the belief in God whom we call the Great Architect of the Universe to avoid any denominational quarrel.

The first three of these thirty-three degrees are practised within a symbolic Lodge, degrees which are under the obedience of a Grand Lodge - in France, the Grande Loge Nationale Française - while the thirty others are managed by a Jurisdiction called the Supreme Council, independent of the G.L.N.F., where the teachings of the first three degrees are completed and deepened.

If you wish to know more, before joining us, you can visit the website of the Grande Loge Nationale Française www.glnf.fr .

Very cordially and, I hope, one day soon very fraternally.

Ch. Hervé, 33°

Sovereign Grand Commander