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Exemplifying ritual in lodge can give you a great sense of confidence and enjoyment.
Learning shorter parts of ritual can be done easily by attending practice sections and interacting with others. Learning lectures and longer parts is much more difficult. The first thing is to listen to others giving lectures, obligations, and other longer sections. Your mind will pick up more than realize. Your reaction to the ritual while listening is important. For example, if you are watching King Solomon, you need to imagine what reactions you would have as a king. If you are watching the Third Ruffian, you need to understand the many mixed emotions he would have at rubbish of temple after murdering Hiram Abif while waiting for the other ruffians to appear at midnight. If you are watching the First Fellowcraft resting at the grave, you need realize he is about to be executed for a crime he did not commit. The procession near the end of the Second Section of the Third Degree is an example of ritual that all brothers must understand, this is discussed more below.
Learning lectures are a challenge. There are several things you must realize:
I attended Grand Lodge in Nova Scotia a several years ago. Those attending Grand Lodge marched several blocks from where they were holding Grand Lodge to a Church. The brethren formed lines at the entrance to the Church. The Grand Master passed through the lines to enter the Church first. The brethren at the end of the lines followed through the lines until all were in the Church. This transition of the Grand Master following during the procession to being the first to enter the Church first was very impressive. In some cases, if we have a lot of room at a cemetery, we might use the procession to form brothers around a grave for a graveside service. Every Master Mason in a lodge must be proficient in participating in the procession like how every Master Mason must be proficient in giving the Ancient Master’s Word. Thus, because few brothers show up at practices and because the procession can be a part of a public ceremony, the procession and should be practiced from time to time at a stated meeting.
Remember practices are for learning floorwork and presentation of ritual, they are not for learning the words of ritual.
Frank
Reference: (1) Precession, The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/procession, retrieved 11/15/2020
Learning shorter parts of ritual can be done easily by attending practice sections and interacting with others. Learning lectures and longer parts is much more difficult. The first thing is to listen to others giving lectures, obligations, and other longer sections. Your mind will pick up more than realize. Your reaction to the ritual while listening is important. For example, if you are watching King Solomon, you need to imagine what reactions you would have as a king. If you are watching the Third Ruffian, you need to understand the many mixed emotions he would have at rubbish of temple after murdering Hiram Abif while waiting for the other ruffians to appear at midnight. If you are watching the First Fellowcraft resting at the grave, you need realize he is about to be executed for a crime he did not commit. The procession near the end of the Second Section of the Third Degree is an example of ritual that all brothers must understand, this is discussed more below.
Learning lectures are a challenge. There are several things you must realize:
- We are all busy, we do not have the time to sit down and learn a lecture in a single sitting. We just have too much going on.
- A short study session between other activities during a day works good for me.
- Reading a lecture all the way through to understand how each section affects your emotions and responses are import. This is an import key to learning and presenting a lecture.
- Learning how your short-term and long-term memory interact is valuable, you might have to work on a section many times before it makes its way into your long-term memory.
- Frequently review the whole lecture again and again at various study sessions to remind yourself of your emotions and responses.
- You will find that as you learn a lecture, the first sections will be slow, later sections will be faster because you have frequently reviewed them.
- Working with others on a lecture might work well for you. One person might work on the first half of a lecture and a second might work on the section half. One brother I know believes that learning the second half of a lecture first is better.
I attended Grand Lodge in Nova Scotia a several years ago. Those attending Grand Lodge marched several blocks from where they were holding Grand Lodge to a Church. The brethren formed lines at the entrance to the Church. The Grand Master passed through the lines to enter the Church first. The brethren at the end of the lines followed through the lines until all were in the Church. This transition of the Grand Master following during the procession to being the first to enter the Church first was very impressive. In some cases, if we have a lot of room at a cemetery, we might use the procession to form brothers around a grave for a graveside service. Every Master Mason in a lodge must be proficient in participating in the procession like how every Master Mason must be proficient in giving the Ancient Master’s Word. Thus, because few brothers show up at practices and because the procession can be a part of a public ceremony, the procession and should be practiced from time to time at a stated meeting.
Remember practices are for learning floorwork and presentation of ritual, they are not for learning the words of ritual.
Frank
Reference: (1) Precession, The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/procession, retrieved 11/15/2020