Editing Scottish Rite (section)

===The Craft Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite===
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is a full Masonic Rite and has its own distinctive versions of the Craft or Blue Lodge rituals which includes the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason degrees. It is the most practiced Rite in the world thus most Master Masons are made thought the Scottish Rite system with the exception of the [[United States|United States of America]] where most Lodges do not work the first three degrees in the Scottish Rite but rather join after the attainment of the third degree in their own systems.

However, some U.S. Lodges do practice the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite blue degrees, and, in recent years, they have grown in number.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvMLKrNp6gk | title=How do I Charter a Scottish Rite Craft Lodge? | website=[[YouTube]]| date=13 February 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://californiafreemason.org/2023/06/13/spanish-for-brotherhood/ | title=In Long Beach, a New Bilingual Masonic Lodge | date=13 June 2023}}</ref><ref name="Some Lodges Are Different"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archimedes.freemason.org/|title=Archimedes Lodge}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://library.la-mason.com/PastProceedings/2020/2022.pdf | title=Proceedings of the grand lodge of the state of Louisiana | website=library.la-mason.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title=Proceedings of the grand lodge of the state of Louisiana | url=https://la-mason.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-proceedings.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703233619/https://la-mason.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-proceedings.pdf | archive-date=2022-07-03}}</ref> There are 11 lodges in [[New Orleans]] (Historically all located in the district 16 they recently approved a new one district 20),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ladistrict16.azurewebsites.net/|title=16th Masonic District of Louisiana - Scottish Rite Craft Lodges|website=ladistrict16.azurewebsites.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://grandview.la-mason.com/public_lodges/lodge/15007 | title=Grand Lodge Masonic Membership Manager}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.germania46.org/|title=Digital Blog – Wellness, life-style and Digital Blog for the Modern Reader}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060502032455/http://www.germania46.org/ Germania Lodge ASR Degrees] "''The Lodge works in the Scottish Rite Symbolic ritual'' – one of only ten Lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana which work in this historic ritual. The ten Scottish Rite Lodges comprise the 16th District of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana."</ref> 16 in [[New York City]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=TENTH MANHATTAN |url=https://district-26-ny.ourlodgepage.com/ |website=district-26-ny.ourlodgepage.com}}</ref> as well as Washington DC, Hawaii<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.honoluluscottishritebodies.org/|title=The Official Website of the Honolulu Scottish Rite &#124; Hawaii Freemasonry}}</ref> and California,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://la-mason.com/|title=Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana|website=la-mason.com}}</ref> that work in the Scottish Rite Craft degrees. Nonetheless, they might not be utilizing the Rituals of either the [[Supreme Council, Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, USA)|Southern]] or [[Supreme Council, Scottish Rite, Northern Jurisdiction, USA|Northern]] jurisdictions, as they might have their own distinctive Scottish Rite Rituals.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite blue degrees are more common in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin-American jurisdictions. All lodges in the International Order of Freemasonry for Men & Women, [[Le Droit Humain]], work "seamlessly from the first to the thirty-third degree and practice only the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. These two characteristics define it as an Order and not as an Obedience".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Rites, Lodges and Obediences |newspaper=Ordre Maçonnique Mixte International le Droit Humain |url=https://ledroithumain.international/contact-us-2/?lang=en |access-date=2022-03-02}}</ref> Most lodges under the jurisdiction of the [[Grande Loge de France]] use these degrees,<ref>{{cite web |title=Grande Loge de France |url=http://www.gldf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050211202122/http://www.gldf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=29 |archive-date=2005-02-11}}</ref> as do a few of the lodges under the jurisdiction of the [[Grande Loge Nationale Française]]. It is also a dominant ritual, out of the other rituals in use, in the [[Grand Lodge of Spain]]. There are two Lodges in Australia that practice the AASR Craft degrees, The Zetland Lodge of Australia No. 9 and Lodge France 1021, both of which are under the [[United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory]].<ref>[https://www.freemasonsaustralia.org/masonic-orders/scottish-rite Unknown]{{Dead link|date=March 2022 | fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

An hypothesis from Masonic historian [[Alain Bernheim]], Belgian Masonic scholar Pierre Noël hypothesized in a 2002 paper that the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Craft degrees might be derived from a French translation of the Masonic exposé ''Three Distinct Knocks'', issued in London in 1760. But this theory is heavily debated among Masonic Scholars.
<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bernheim |first1=Alain |author-link=Alain Bernheim |date=4 October 2003 |title=MASONIC AUTHORS – The bad, the good and the ugly |url=http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/bernheim13.html |access-date=19 June 2018 |website=Pietre-Stones Review of Freemasonry}}</ref>