What is holy royal arch

The Holy Royal Arch is considered the completion of Craft Masonry and the climax of the traditional Masonic journey 13. W. J. Chetwode Crawley described the degree as the cope-stone of the Masonic legend, without which the structure remains incomplete 3. Historically, William James Hughan placed its origin approximately twenty years after the 1717 revival in England, developing as an amplification of the latter part of the Third Degree 4. While historically restricted in many jurisdictions to Past Masters or those who underwent a preliminary ceremony of Passing the Chair, current practice under bodies such as the Grand Lodge of India permits a Master Mason to seek exaltation four weeks after being raised.

Allegorically set around the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian exile, the Order's narrative portrays the journey of the soul returning from captivity to spiritual liberation 1. Walter Leslie Wilmshurst argued that the ceremony sacramentally exhibits human regeneration, wherein the candidate's faculties become integrated into a higher quality of spiritual life 1.

A Royal Arch Chapter is ruled conjointly by three Principals—with the First Principal as first among equals—and its members are designated as Companions. Wilmshurst interpreted these three presiding officers, personified by Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Joshua, as representing the monadic Spirit's attributes of Holiness, Royal Supremacy, and Functional Power working in essential unity 1. Institutional affinity between the Craft and the Royal Arch remains close; the Grand Lodge of India notes that its Grand Master automatically serves as First Grand Principal of its Supreme Grand Chapter.

Historically, administrative structures varied across regions. In North America, Capitular Masonry established independent governance through the General Grand Chapter formed at the end of the eighteenth century, often incorporating preparatory degrees such as the Mark Master and Past Master 23.