Revised Curriculum of the Page Issued

The Warden of Studies announces that the fourth revision of the curriculum of the First Degree has been approved by the Grand Council and issued to the Preceptors of the Commanderies. It takes effect for all Pages received after the Convocation of 2026. Pages already in the degree may complete it under the third revision or transfer to the fourth at the discretion of their Preceptor.

The revision follows three years of consultation with the Preceptors and with the Warden Emeritus, Caspar Lindqvist, who designed the original curriculum in 1988 and has taken part in each revision since. The structure of the degree is unchanged: the Page studies the Hermetic foundations of the work through the Emerald Tablet and its commentary, the four elements, the seven principles and the ascent of the soul, keeps the daily examination and the notebook of correspondences, and undertakes a first work of service.

The principal changes are three. First, the commentary on the Emerald Tablet has been expanded with a new section on the discipline of attention, prepared by the Grand Prior, in response to the common experience of Preceptors that the daily practice is harder to establish than it was a generation ago. Second, the readings on the four elements have been reordered so that the Page begins with the element of Earth and the body, rather than with Fire and the will, which the Preceptors reported to be a gentler and more fruitful beginning. Third, the notebook of correspondences, formerly submitted at the end of the degree, is now reviewed with the Preceptor at quarterly intervals.

The Warden of Studies wishes to record the Order's thanks to the Preceptors, whose patient observation of what helps and what hinders the Pages in their charge is the foundation of every revision, and to the Warden Emeritus, whose original design has now served four generations of Pages and remains, in all essentials, what it was.

The curriculum of the First Degree is a private document of the Order and is not published. Its public outline may be read on the page on Degrees and Curriculum.

Sir Anselm Dyer
Warden of Studies