Our lodge is described everywhere as Lodge Al Ameen No. 1412 SC, the only Scottish Constitution lodge in Bengaluru. Visitors ask what that means and enquirers sometimes assume it means something it does not. This page is an attempt to answer both plainly.
Start with the thing it is not
It does not mean the Scottish Rite.
This is the single most common confusion and it is worth clearing first. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is a separate order with a series of further degrees, which a man may join after he is already a Master Mason. It is not what we are.
Scottish Constitution means something much simpler. It means our lodge holds its charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. It is a question of who we answer to, not of what degrees we work.
It also does not mean our members are Scottish. Almost none of us are.
What a constitution is
A lodge cannot make itself. It has to be chartered by a Grand Lodge. That Grand Lodge sets its law, keeps its roll and holds it to account.
India is unusual in having four in operation at once. The Grand Lodge of India, formed in 1961, is the largest. Alongside it work lodges chartered from England, Ireland and Scotland, whose members chose at the time not to transfer and whose lodges have continued ever since.
We are one of the Scottish ones. Our charter is dated 7 February 1946 and was issued by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. We report to the District Grand Lodge of India – Scottish Constitution, which administers the Scottish lodges across the whole country and reports to the Grand Lodge of Scotland. It is a different body from the Grand Lodge of India, an Indian Grand Lodge that works under its own constitution.
The words on our masthead
The header of this site reads “Antient Free and Accepted Masons”. That is not an affectation and the spelling is not a mistake.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland was constituted in 1736 and its full style is the Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland. We carry the words because they are the words on our charter.
What a visitor will actually notice
If you have been raised under another constitution and you visit us, the differences are real but small. The ones you will notice first:
- The Master is the Right Worshipful Master. Under England he is the Worshipful Master. It catches English visitors out at the door.
- We have a Depute Master and a Substitute Master. These offices do not exist in the English structure and their duties will be unfamiliar.
- The ritual will not be the one you know. The Grand Lodge of Scotland does not impose a single prescribed working. Lodges have latitude, so Scottish lodges differ from each other as well as from English ones. If you are following along and something is not where you expect it, that is why.
- The Mark. Scotland treats the Mark as belonging within Craft masonry in a way the English system does not, where it is a separate order under its own Grand Lodge. This surprises visitors more than anything else on this list.
None of this affects whether you are welcome. A Master Mason in good standing under a recognised constitution is a Master Mason here.
If you are not a Freemason at all
Then most of the above is administrative detail and you can safely ignore it.
What matters to you is the part that is the same everywhere. We meet, we work, we hold ourselves to a standard of conduct we have agreed in public. We require of a candidate that he be a man of good character with a belief in a Supreme Being. Which constitution chartered the lodge changes the paperwork, the titles and some of the ceremonial. It does not change what is being asked of the man.
If you want to know more, the Membership page explains how to make contact.
If any brother spots an error here, particularly in the section on visitors, please write to the Secretary and it will be corrected.