The grand principles on which Masonry is founded are brotherly love, relief and truth. The three degrees of Craft Masonry – Initiation, Passing and Raising – focus primarily on the first two, with a hint of truth in the third degree. However, it leaves the Master Mason halfway as it mentions secrets of Masonry having been lost, and ends with the hope that time and circumstances would restore the genuine. Meanwhile, the Master Mason has perforce to be content with “substituted secrets” which are imparted to him in the third degree. In this sense, the third degree of Craft Masonry is incomplete.

The third degree gives a hint of the truth aspect of Masonry in the charge after Raising, which urges man to guide his reflections “to that most interesting of all human studies, the knowledge of your self.” This very profound statement alone is a clear indication that there is a spiritual aspect to our lives, which is necessary to make our lives complete. And it is this spiritual aspect that Royal Arch Masonry helps to bring to our realization. 

Craft Masonry concentrates primarily on man’s relationship with man. Royal Arch Masonry takes us a step further by focusing on man’s relationship with God – the Supreme Being, by whatever name you know Him. And it is this relationship which is Royal Arch Masonry’s essence. Royal Arch Masonry conveys to us that our lives are much more than merely an earthly existence from birth to death. The knowledge of one’s self can only be gained in the light of our relationship with the Supreme Being, with whom, the Royal Arch teaches us, one is more closely bound than one is conscious of. 

Royal Arch Masonry is not a degree in its own right. It is, rather, an Order which brings about the expansion and completion of the third degree of Craft Masonry. It is an Order because, despite its close relation to Craft Masonry, it differs greatly from it at a mundane level. It has its own set of rituals, its own temple layout, its own terminology, its own organization, and its own symbolism. 

The three degree degrees of Craft Masonry and the Royal Arch form a progressive group offering us a philosophy of the spiritual life of man by proclaiming the fact that there exists a higher and more sacred path of life than that which we normally tread. The underlying idea is that we should inculcate the moral principles embodied in the three degrees and attain the perfection and divination aimed at in the Royal Arch Order.

The Royal Arch is considered a Supreme Order because it moves on a supremely higher level and leads the Mason through a self-imposed period of purification and mental discipline, the climax of which is reached in the final merging of Being in the Deity itself, the condition referred to as “life eternal”.

From the unreal, lead me to the real!
From the darkness lead me to the light!
From the mortal, bring me to immortality.