Veils in Royal Arch Masonry

By CABELL F. COBBS

The ceremony of “passing the veils” or the use of the veils in Royal Arch Ceremonies is as old as the Degree itself, and its origins are, with the degree, lost in the oral traditions of the past. Some say it symbolizes the difficulties encountered by the Jews on their returning journey from Babylon with the holy vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar; others that it involves the veils of the tabernacle of Moses or those of the Temple of Solomon. Other commentators note it as a reference to the rending of the veil of the last Temple upon the death of Jesus on the Cross.

The use of veils originated, with the Royal Arch in English Freemasonry and was well known, with some distinctions, in Ireland and Scotland. Originally, the work was with three veils, with the fourth being used in Ireland and, of course, here. In Scotland, the ceremony in fact forms the Excellent Master Degree. Much of the confusion in the symbolism comes from the Jewish historian Josephus, who declares: When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts, and allowed two of them to the priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and see, these being of general access to all; but he set apart the third division for God, because heaven is inaccessible to men…. The veils, too, which are composed of four things, they are declared the four elements; for the fine linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because the color is dyed by the blood of the sea shell fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire.