Is there a degree where one drinks wine from a skull?
There is no legitimate degree in Freemasonry where a candidate drinks wine from a real human skull. The practice of drinking from a skull is often misrepresented in popular culture, such as in Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol, and is actually based on a ritual from a 19th-century renegade Masonic group known as the Cerneau group, which is not part of the legitimate Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. In the Cerneau ritual, the candidate for the 33rd degree did take an oath while drinking wine from a human skull, but this was part of a specific and discredited ritual that was not recognized by the legitimate Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The legitimate Scottish Rite does not include such practices in its rituals.
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