How do the teachings of the Craft degrees compare to those of the Royal Arch?

Early speculative ritual terminated at the Master Mason rank, leaving the symbolic scheme incomplete until the development of the Royal Arch, which expanded and completed the Third Degree 21. Under the English Constitution, pure Masonry is defined as comprising the three Craft degrees and the Holy Royal Arch, which together outline the full process of human regeneration 1.

In terms of symbolic instruction, Wilmshurst explains that the Craft degrees focus on preliminary purification, mental discipline, and the mortification of the lower, corporeal nature, culminating in the mystical death dramatized in the Third Degree 1. The Royal Arch, by contrast, acts as a rite of spiritual rebirth and divinization, dealing with the higher reaches of consciousness and the attainment of an incorruptible order of life 1. It presupposes that the candidate has already attained the rank of Master Mason, holding that spiritual rebirth cannot occur without first passing through symbolic death 1.

This progression is illustrated by the movement of central symbols across the degrees 1. In the Craft, the circular symbol of the Grand Geometrician shines high in the ceiling during the Second Degree, then moves towards the East in the Third Degree 1. In the Royal Arch, this symbol descends entirely to the floor at the centre of the Chapter, resting among lights to signify the divine principle becoming grafted into human nature 1. Furthermore, while a Craft Lodge is governed by seven officers, a Royal Arch Chapter consists of nine officers arranged in three triads around this central sacred symbol 1.