Understand that Masonic degrees usually can be divided into a ritual portion and a lecture portion elaborating on the ideas found in the ceremonial. Morals and

Understand that Masonic degrees usually can be divided into a ritual portion and a lecture portion elaborating on the ideas found in the ceremonial. Morals and Dogma contains extra written lectures for an obsolete series of degrees Pike revised in the 1870s. Sure, there's a lot you can take away from the extra lectures, but you're missing a lot of context without knowing the contents of the degrees. The lectures in Morals and Dogma were deemed to be not secret, but the ceremonials were. As a result, a lot more people outside of Masonry are familiar with Morals and Dogma than the ceremonials. These days, you can occasionally find the rituals for sale, but they're rather uncommon. The Supreme Council now publishes Magnum Opus, the first draft of the degrees that would eventually go along with Morals and Dogma. There is no contemporary evidence that Pike was a member of the KKK, only one person making that claim 20 years after he was dead.