What is the significance of the Royal Arch in Freemasonry?

Serving as the cope-stone and fulfillment of the Third Degree, the Royal Arch completes the core legend of Craft Masonry 12. Dr. W. J. Chetwode Crawley observed that the Order is not an entirely separate entity, but a constituent present within the compound body of Masonic tradition, without which the symbolic structure remains incomplete 2.

Symbolically, the Royal Arch carries the process of revival and death depicted in the Third Degree forward into exaltation 1. Walter Leslie Wilmshurst interprets the ceremony as depicting the final stage of spiritual regeneration, allegorizing the journey of the exiled soul escaping captivity in Babylon to reach Jerusalem 1. In Wilmshurst's philosophical reading, while the preliminary Craft degrees require the discipline, purification, and renunciation of the natural self, the Royal Arch portrays the ultimate elevation of human consciousness into harmony with the Divine 1. The officers, sojourners, and principals of the Chapter represent the various triads of the human personality, astral medium, and divine spirit aligned in union 1.