The 4th degree of the system is designated Secret Master 1. It constitutes the first of the eleven Sublime Degrees, which span from the 4° through the 14° 1, and is governed within a Lodge of Perfection 1. In early nineteenth-century records, Frederick Dalcho noted that while the Sublime Degrees act as a continuation of the symbolic degrees, there is no jurisdictional interference between the governing bodies 1.
The symbolic jewel of the Secret Master is an ivory key, which bears the Hebrew letter zain (or Z) upon its wards 1.
In modern administrative practice under certain jurisdictions, the progression through the 4° takes an abbreviated form. Under the Supreme Council for England and Wales, the three Craft degrees are recognized as equivalent to the Rite's first three degrees, after which thirty additional degrees are offered from the 4° onward, as an article on the United Grand Lodge of England website notes. Within that jurisdiction, candidates enter the Order directly at the 18° (Rose Croix) and receive the intermediate degrees from the 4° to the 17° in abbreviated form, as the Supreme Council for England and Wales states on its website.
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