A Scottish Rite Decalogue
- Kleber Siqueira
- Sep 14
- 5 min read
Freemasonry, according to Ill. Albert Pike, 33°, in his First Degree, "Entered Apprentice" lecture in Morals and Dogma, "neither usurps the place of, nor apes religion," but it is plainly religious in nature. In this spirit, Pike proposed a "Decalogue" meant to express not the tenets of one faith but a universal morality.
"The Decalogue"(or dekálogos, in Greek) most commonly refers the Ten Commandments, or ten maxims, of Moses, delivered, according to the Bible, by the God of Abraham to the Hebrew prophet Moses at Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt. Although the literal phrase "Ten Commandments" does not appear in Scripture (the Commandments are enumerated in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:4-21), it is generally accepted that these principles represent a cultural and liturgical touchstone for Jewish and Christian adherents.
They have endured to the present day, and there is something appealing about a short list of seemingly universal rules from which few in the Judeo-Christian tradition can dissent.
Why, then, did Pike propose his own "Decalogue" of moral principles in the very First Degree lecture of Morals and Dogma, and is it prudent to consider these maxims to be a rubric for Masonic students? (See the sidebar on p.12 for this list.) It is well known that Morals and Dogma is not intended to be viewed as an unchallengeable and authoritative text on the teachings of Freemasonry. The Supreme Council even stated as much in the preface to the first edition in 1871, which in part reads: "The teachings of these Readings are not sacramental, so far as they go beyond the realm of Morality into those of other domains of Thought and Truth [... ] Everyone is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound:
If we may be permitted to understand a "law" to be not only prescriptive and authoritative in itself, but also a mechanism for maintaining social identity and cultural cohesion, then the relationship between Pike's usage and the original Hebrew Decalogue begins to coalesce into a special meaning. The Masonic Decalogue is as much an identity marker as it is a charge to every Mason. Consider, for example, the first of Pike's commandments: "God is the Eternal, Omnipotent, Immutable WISDOM and Supreme INTELLIGENCE and Exhaustless LOVE. Thou shalt adore, revere, and love Him! Thou shalt honor Him by practicing the virtues!" This command has little to do, thematically or conceptually, with the first of the biblical commandments, which reads in part "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." (Exodus 20: 2)
In his quest for universality, Pike omits overt allusions to the God of the Hebrews; he, in fact, takes extra pains to include attributes of a universal and omnipotent God, although, of course, by implication Pike has integrated the conception of YHWH into his universalist assertion of Masonry's origins. Not insignificantly, the first commandment of Moses terminates with the command: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20: 3)
Pike's second commandment opens: "Thy religion shall be, to do good because it is a pleasure to thee, and not merely because it is a duty." Thematically, this bears a striking similarity to the New Testament idea of self-sufficiency being inadequate as a standard of "good." In fact, Pike later agrees with New Testament doctrine, that of James 1:27, which he quotes in the Fourteenth Degree, "Perfect Elu, Lecture of Morals and Dogma: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Exploring further, a central notion of the Scottish Rite 31st Degree, "Inspector Inquisitor," is that doing only as much for your fellows as the laws of man require and no more is sufficient for condemnation in the afterlife.
The commandments of Moses were a blueprint for the people of a specific time and place, but the Scottish Rite Decalogue offered by Albert Pike differs; it is built upon the supposition that Masonry itself is universal, transcending the exigencies of any one particular people, geography, religion, or creed; that it contains an assemblage of the best of man's effort to regulate his passions and liberate his mind; and that it is a scaffold erected for all good men to stand upon, together, to labor for the expansion of the Empire of Reason and the promise of a better world for everyone, everywhere.
While we have analyzed only two of Pike's commandments in this brief article, we recommend to the attention of the serious Masonic student the contemplation of the entire "Scottish Rite Decalogue" proposed in Morals and Dogma.
Masonry's Decalogue" Further Delineated
In Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike defines a Free mason's way of life with a proposed Decalogue, or "Ten Commandments;' of the Scottish Rite, a set of morals in which all Masons should strive to apply in their lives. The words do not allude to any religion, al though the commandments acknowledge the Eternal Omnipotent Being.
They read:
I. God is the Eternal, Omnipotent Immutable Wisdom, Supreme Intelligence and Exhaustless Love. Thou shalt adore, revere, and love Him! Thou shalt honor Him by practising the virtues!
II. Thy religion shall be, to do good because it is a pleasure to thee, and not merely because it is a duty. That thou mayest become the friend of the Wiseman, thou shalt obey his precepts! Thy soul is immortal! Thou shalt do nothing to degrade it!
III. Thou shall unceasingly war against vice! Thou shalt not do unto others that which thou wouldst not wish for them to do unto thee! Thou shalt be submissive to thy fortunes, and keep burning the light of wisdom!
IV. Thou shalt honor thy parents! Thou shalt pay respect and homage to the aged! Thou shalt instruct the young! Thou shalt protect and defend infancy and innocence!
V. Thou shalt cherish thy wife and thy children! Thou shalt love thy country, and obey its laws!
VI. Thy friend shall be to thee a second self. Misfortune shall not estrange thee from him! Thou shalt do for his memory whatever thou wouldst do for him, were he living!
VII. Thou shalt avoid and flee from insincere friendships! Thou shalt in everything refrain from excess! Thou shalt fear to be the cause of a stain on thy memory!
VIII. Thou shalt allow no passions to become thy master! Thou shalt make the passions of others profitable lessons to thyself! Thou shalt be indulgent to error!
IX. Thou shalt hear much; Thou shalt speak little; Thou shalt act well! Thou shalt not forget injuries! Thou shalt render good for evil! Thou shalt not misuse either thy strength or thy superiority!
X. Thou shalt study to know men, that thereby thou mayest learn to know thyself! Thou shalt ever seek after virtue! Thou shalt be just! Thou shalt avoid illness of thought and deed!
Yet Pike adds that Masonry's "greatest commandment" is that of Jesus, quoted in John 12: 34: ''A new commandment I give unto you: that ye love one another!" Pike expands on these words, placing them in Masonic parlance: "He that is in the light, and hateth his brother, remaineth still in the darkness:'
-Annette Harvison, with the assistance of Ill. Gabriel T. Churchwell, III, 33°
By Bro. Lucas Walsh, 32°, Valley of Spokane, Washington
Scottish Rite Journal - September/October 2025 Pages11-13
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