What Do You Know About
The Past Thrice Illustrious Masters Emblem
for the Texas Cryptic Rite?
Cliff Cameron, D.D., KYCH
Past Thrice Illustrious Master
Jerusalem Council No.7
Navasota, Texas

Companions lets start by asking the question; “is there an emblem for a Past Thrice Illustrious Master in Texas?” Well Companions the answer is; yes of course there is, but however there is no single place listing the description of the emblem of a Texas Past Thrice Illustrious Master, under its own heading.

Let us begin our investigation in the Grand Council constitution itself, with Article 59A Apron. This article gives the description of the apron to be worn by Right Illustrious District Deputy Grand Masters, but as currently printed it contains some flaws for the purpose of answering our question.

In the first paragraph of Article 59A, it states that the design for the apron to be worn by the District Deputy Grand Masters was adopted in 1975 with a referral to see the report of Jurisprudence Committee. This is not correct and is due to a transposition of numerals, which should correctly read 1957/1958. Additionally, Companions it was also in 1957/1958 that the Grand Lodge of Texas adopted the description of the apron for its District Deputy Grand Masters as stated in the Grand Masters address.

In the second paragraph of Article 59A, it goes into a detailed description of the aprons material, its size, the type and color of the ribbon and further states the Council emblem is to be on the flap (note the Grand Council Emblem was not officially adopted until 1966), and then the wording; “with the Past Thrice Illustrious Master emblem with gold machine embroidered wreath on the body.” In past printings of the Constitution and Laws of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Texas there was an image of the District Deputy Grand Master’s apron and within it, the image of the emblem of Texas Past Thrice Illustrious Master, but recently it has been dropped.

The emblem of a Past Thrice Illustrious Master consists of the compasses extended over a rocker arm, as from a sextant, with the insertion of a trowel under the compasses and rocker from the right, with an effulgent sun over the center of the blade of the trowel, all within a broken equilateral triangle.

Texas is not the only jurisdiction to use this emblem for a Past Thrice or sometimes in other jurisdictions, a Past Illustrious Master. The emblem shown in Fig. 1 was obtained from a public source on the internet and to my knowledge has no restrictions on its use.

Companions, I opened with a question, so please allow me to close with this question; “with the emblem of a Past Thrice Illustrious Master so readily available and in prolific use on the aprons of Right Illustrious District Deputy Grand Masters for the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Texas, why then is there nothing for Past Thrice Illustrious Masters in Texas with that emblem printed on it, or used in a lapel pin, or anything else to signify that some one is a Texas Past Thrice Illustrious Master and that they are proud to have served in that capacity?”

Fig. 1

Cliff Cameron

2009-08-29