You have just accessed the website of the Sovereign Supreme Council of Georgia of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
As such, We ensure that access to the various secrets of Freemasonry is done according to traditional forms. Certainly the secrets of Masonry are often divulged, but the ritual context in which they are transmitted, the order in which they are communicated with stages between the degrees, the verification that the teaching of each of these is assimilated before to confer the following, characterize the initiatory process of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Masonic teaching is delivered in Lodges, through the practice of rituals varying according to the degrees and the Rites. In Georgia, The Grand Lodge of Georgia mainly practices only one Rite – the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite . This Rite is the most practiced in the world.
The membership to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Georgia is open only to the Master Masons of only regular and sovereign Grand Lodge of Georgia. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite comprises thirty-three degrees, the Grand Lodge of Georgia manage the first three, the Supreme Council – the next thirty. The modus operandi of the Supreme Councils is specific to them and different from that of the Symbolic Obedience. The Grand Lodge of Georgia does not share its authority over the Symbolic degrees with any other masonic structure over the territory of Georgia.
All the regularly constituted Supreme Councils of the world are governed by the same texts, regulations and landmarks. They therefore have identical functioning and common characteristics. Thus – there can only be one Supreme Council per country. It is the first made. Any subsequent creation is a usurpation which is contrary to the Constitutional Principles of the Supreme Councils; – the creation of a Supreme Council is not done by granting a license, but from a single Sovereign Grand Inspector General 33rd, present on an unoccupied territory, who co-opts another 33rd, then between them a third until the number 9 is reached by successive co-optations, always at the unanimity. The Supreme Council is then constituted.
The 9 Sovereign Grand Inspectors General declared on May 3rd, 2023 the foundation of the first sovereign Supreme Council of Georgia, which was officially signed and issued the Founding Charter on May 6th, 2023. From this day and beyond, the Supreme Council of Georgia is only regular and legitimate sovereign Masonic Jurisdiction over the territory of Georgia (jurisdiction) and protector of the traditions of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The Supreme Council is a particular Atelier comprising a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 33 titular members of the 33rd degree. It can work, and raise Brothers, at all the degrees of the Rite. It concludes with the candidates for its Jurisdiction a “reciprocal contract” called “ obligation by which the Supreme Council undertakes to communicate the degrees, to make available the corresponding material and the necessary workshops, to control the initiatory progress of the Brothers, to verify the application and practice of the initiatory content dispensed in its workshops and to award Masonic titles acquired as the Brothers progress. In return, the candidate takes successive oaths, as his initiations progress, and undertakes to comply with the General Regulations, decrees and decisions of the Supreme Council.
The Supreme Council creates, according to the needs, workshops of different degrees in order to allow the Brothers to work ritually. In accordance with its customs, the Supreme Council installs and places under its jurisdictional authority:
- Lodges of Perfection from the 4th to the 14th
- Sovereign Chapters from the 15th to the 18th
- Sublime Areopagus from the 19th to the 30th
- Tribunal – 31st degree
- Consistories – 32nd degree
- Supreme Council 33rd degree
All the workshops are traditionally referred to as Jurisdiction. The Supreme Council decides on all matters concerning these Workshops.
The Supreme Council is composed of at least 9 and at most 33 active members chosen by unanimous co-optation among the Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the 33rd degree. They are co-opted for life, and cease to belong to the workshops of the Jurisdiction. It elects from among its members, for a renewable period of nine years, the College of Grand Officers, which includes at least nine members. The functioning of the Supreme Council is collegial, none of its members is allowed to individually exercise authority or to represent it, unless they have been delegated to do so. At its head is placed the Sovereign Grand Commander who chairs and permanently represents the Supreme Council, and if he is unable to attend, is replaced by the Lieutenant Grand Commander. It meets at least four times a year in plenary session. Certain decisions can only be taken by this plenary assembly sitting by qualified majorities.
By the decision of the members of the Supreme Council of Georgia the Very Illustrious Brother Irakli M∴ was elected as the first Grand Commander of the SCG on May 6th, 2023. The same day Supreme Council of Georgia adopted its Constitution and General Regulations (Statutes).
The Supreme Council raises to the higher degrees of the Rite the Masons, whom it deems worthy by their morals, their character, their behavior, their Masonic virtues and their aptitudes. A proposal for elevation to the 4th degree must be made by a member of a workshop of the Jurisdiction or, exceptionally by spontaneous application made by mail to the Grand Secretariat. To be admitted, one must:
- Be a Master Mason of a symbolic lodge of the Grand Lodge of Georgia or recognized as regular by the Supreme Council. Not belong to a symbolic workshop (worshipful Lodges) or higher degree of Rite of an unrecognized Jurisdiction;
- Having adhered to the Declaration of Universal Principles of the Supreme Councils meeting in Lausanne in 1875;
- Ask to be placed under the Jurisdiction of the Supreme Council , undertake to comply with the General Regulations, decrees and decisions of the Supreme Council and sign an obligation;
- Having been appointed to the degree by the Supreme Council.
The members (Master Masons) of the only regular and sovereign Grand Lodge of Georgia, were officially admitted to the higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite from 2017 and the first Lodge of Perfection on the Territory of Georgia was consecrated in March 2020, followed by the Sovereign Chapter of Rose and Cross (2022) and Sublime Areopagus (2023). To contact AASR in Georgia – info@scottishrite.ge