05/13/2026
Dear Brethren, Friends, and Readers of the Scottish Rite Journal,
May is upon us, and with spring comes a new issue of the Scottish Rite Journal. The spirit of travel is in the air, as we venture to “Fabulous Las Vegas,” the setting for our visit to Leadership Conferences as well as the latest destination of the Masonic Traveler. Here we read there is much more to Las Vegas than entertainment shows and casinos as we experience stunning Italianate architecture, a new Masonic library, and a dramatic “Rite on the Road” Scottish Rite Fourth Degree that can be set up anywhere, in this case, in a Vegas hotel!
Travel, perhaps in anticipation of the trips many of us take in summer, is also the theme of the second installment of a look at the Masonic degrees in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as writer James Wade D’Acosta, 32º, traverses the Northern and Southern Masonic Jurisdictions. Richard A. Kratochvil, 32º, then explains how the Scottish Rite degrees and philosophy enable us to travel out of our comfort zones in order to see the world through multiple cultural lenses.
We then wend our way to the California Scottish Rite to learn about its public service award, followed by the anticipation of our late-May “Return Home to Charleston,” birthplace of our Southern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite. For those who dream of a European excursion, the Masonic Puzzle features Westminster Abbey, Salisbury Cathedral, and other “Cathedrals and Churches.”
In the From the Pages of Amicus Illuminismi series, we travel vicariously “to make friends with people of a distant past,” that is, the authors of classic books. More literary travels and adventures await as we explore the four Cardinal Virtues in Rudyard Kipling and the sublime notion of awen, or breath, in medieval Welsh literature and culture. With so much talk of books, including two book reviews, it comes as little surprise when Ill. James D. Cole, 33º, devotes his Grand Commander’s Message to “A Bookmark,” a “useful device to mark a special place in a book,” and by extension, our current “location on life’s journey.”
As testimony to the variety of topics found in each Scottish Rite Journal, Chips from the Quarry features “Pioneers in Technology”—Freemasons who “turned the theoretical ideas of others into revolutionary technological developments that have shaped our modern world.”
As readers make their own summer travel plans, perhaps they will be inspired to travel to new places and explore new vistas after reading the current Scottish Rite Journal!
Sincerely and fraternally,
Dr. Mark Dreisonstok, 33°
Managing Editor
The Scottish Rite Journal
HomeEducation & MediaScottish Rite JournalCurrent Issue/Overview Current Issue/Overview Latest Journal March/April 2026 READ ISSUE In this magazine: Articles— S. Karuna, “Light: To See and to Know” M. Lucas, “Jungian Light in the Shadow of the North” N. Rose, “Piercing the Veil and Findi...
