Home
Welcome to the website for the Order of Royal and Select Masters in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
An introduction by the Right Illustrious District Grand Master
Dear Brethren and Companions, there is much interesting and useful information here and I trust you will enjoy looking through it.
If you have been Advanced into Mark Masonry then you have worked at the building of King Solomon’s Temple. If you have been Exalted into the Holy Royal Arch then you have discovered the completion of pure and antient Masonry. Between these great events there was a period of nearly 500 years which the four degrees of Royal and Select Masters embrace.
As both a Royal Arch Companion and a Mark Brother you are eligible to join this Order and become a Cryptic Mason. The name refers to the Secret Vault, or Crypt, which King Solomon caused to be built to safeguard the treasures of the Temple.
Those who join the Order take part in four dramatic ceremonies which provide a key link in the Solomonic legend. It is an inspiring and fascinating story which highlights various moral precepts and contains what many believe to be the finest passage of ritual in Freemasonry.
We have ten units, known as Councils, spread geographically across the three Provinces which form our District. Further information is available on this website.
Our Oxfordshire Councils meet at Banbury, Marsh Baldon near Oxford, and Thame.
Our Berkshire Councils meet at Wallingford, Wantage and Wokingham.
Our Buckinghamshire Councils meet at Beaconsfield, Slough and Winslow.
If you are qualified to join and would like to do so, please contact the District Recorder via the contact button on the Membership page. We should be delighted to welcome you.
With kind fraternal regards,
Phillip Purves, District Grand Master.
“….to the serious and understanding Masonic student, (the degrees of Royal and Select Masters) prove to be the essential link between the Degrees of Master Mason and Royal Arch Mason.”
Keith Jackson, in “Beyond the Craft”
“There can be little doubt as to the necessity incumbent in every Royal Arch Mason to receive (the degrees of Royal and Select Masters), as thereby alone can the overlooked Masonic knowledge be communicated.”
Ill. Comp. Charles Matier, Grand Recorder, 1906.
