Learning and memorizing the ritual by worshipful brother Mark wa brought to you by Masonic audiobook Library thank you for watching if you’re interested in learning more about Freemasonry I highly recommend subscribing to the Masonic audiobook library with a vast collection of lectures on Masonic history philosophy and symbolism you’ll have
Access to a wealth of knowledge that will deepen your understanding of this ancient and mysterious fraternity and as a special bonus if you watch this video Until the End you’ll have a chance to win a one-of-a-kind book on esoteric Freemasonry Secrets details on how to
Win will be revealed at the end of the video so make sure to watch until the very end don’t forget to subscribe to the Masonic audiobook library and thank you for your support one of the problems that most often plagues masonry is poor ritual by this I don’t just mean getting the words
Wrong I mean ritual that is drab and uninspiring which fails to actually teach a candidate ritual is often mediocre and it doesn’t have to be anyone can do ritual well provided he knows a little about acting it isn’t hard actually it’s mostly a matter of
Knowing how to do it plus a lot of practice this article is intended to impart some guidelines on how to do good ritual it doesn’t demand a lot of time or any particular Talent just a little drive to do well read it and play with it with some practice you should be able
To use these techniques to good effect in your Lodge the course is specifically aimed at dealing with the longer speeches but much of it is also relevant to Shorter pieces I commend it to Junior officers this is adapted from a lecture that I worked up for my own Lodge having
Done that I figured I should try to spread these tips around for the common wheel of The Craft caveat I do assume that you have some kind of cipher book with encoded ritual if your jurisdiction doesn’t use this you’ll have to adapt these lessons S one figure out the
Words the first step of learning any ritual is to know what you’re saying this should be obvious but is often overlooked because Brethren are afraid to admit that they don’t already know the right words don’t be afraid to admit your own limits I’ve never met anyone who gets every single word right every
Time start out by listening to someone say the speech preferably several times you should be doing this the entire previous year listening to your predecessor listen carefully and make sure you understand what’s being said ask questions if you don’t after Lodge of course next go through your Cipher or
Code book carefully and see how much you can read Mark words that you can’t figure out or that you’re unsure of this is the point to catch any mistakes you may be making then call or get together with a ritualist or a reliable past master and talk through it reading out
Of the book slowly have him correct any mistakes and fill in the the words you don’t know take notes preferably somewhere other than in the book because you will forget the corrections as soon as you’re on your own two understand the speech this step gets overlooked even more often than the
Previous one read through the ritual a couple of times and make sure you really grasp it don’t just know the words know what it’s talking about find out who the characters being talked about are again ask questions now start trying to understand the speech structurally any ritual is made up of components separate
Pieces that are linked together for example a section may be talking about symbols with three paragraphs per symbol concrete meaning abstract meaning and purpose figure out what these pieces are you’ll use them later the next step is especially useful for long speeches visualize the speech any speech can be
Thought of in terms of movements places rooms stuff like that words are hard to remember in order places are easy the canonical example is the Middle Chamber Lecture which walks through King Solomon’s Temple that’s no accident that path is easily visualized and makes a good example of how to learn ritual
Which is probably why it is the first major speech an officer learns this is why we use symbols in the first place because they are easy to learn and internalize use them 3A smallscale memorization this is never anyone favorite part anyone can do it but no one finds it simple it’s considerably
Easier if you do it right though start out by reading the speech over and over don’t move on to the next step until you can read it from the cipher quickly without breaks or hesitation read it out loud when you get the chance this step is particularly important and skipped
More often than any other don’t skip it this is how you get your brain and mouth trained to the words it may sound silly but it really matters the mental Pathways used to talk are distinct from those used to read now start trying to learn sentences just sentences read the
First word or two of the sentence then try to fill in the remainder from memory don’t fret if you can’t do it immediately it will probably take at least five or 10 times through before you’re getting most of the sentences you’ll find some that are hard Hammer
Those ones over and over but don’t totally neglect the rest while you do so again get to the point where you’re doing reasonably well on this before Going On To The Next Step 3B large scale memorization once you’ve got most of the sentences try to move on to paragraphs
Again some will be easy and some hard try to understand exactly why this sentence follows that one in most cases the ritual does make sense an individual paragraph is almost always trying to express a single coherent thought end pieces figure out what that thought is and why all the pieces are necessary
Necessary keep at this until you’re able to get most paragraphs by glancing at the first word or two or by thinking okay this is the description of Truth or something like that finally start putting it all together this is where the structural analysis in step two gets important you visualize the speech and
Figured out how it hooks together use that visualization to connect the paragraphs make sure you have some clue why each paragraph follows the one before in almost every case the next paragraph is either a continuing this thought or B moving on to a related thought in both cases you can make
Memorization much easier by understanding why it flows like that convince yourself that this paragraph obviously has to follow that one and you’ll never forget the order four smoothing it out you’re now at the point where you’ve got pretty much all the sentences down and most of the paragraphs and you’re
Able to get through the whole thing only looking at at the book a few times now start saying it when you’re driving in the car when you’re alone at home pretty much anytime you have some privacy try saying it all out loud at full voice trust me it sounds very different when
You actually say it aloud you’ll find that you stumble more and in different places some words turn out to be more difficult to pronounce than you expected try it a few times start out by trying to do this frequently once even twice every day it’ll be hard at first and
It’s a real pain to pull out the cipher book while you’re driving but it’ll gradually get easier when you’re starting to feel comfortable slow down but don’t stop practice it every couple of days then every week don’t slow down below once a week if you feel up to it
See if you can speed up your recitation but do not ever speed talk the ritual in open Lodge that’s for memorization and rehearsal only 5A mindset last part you’re now at the point where you pretty much have the ritual memorized now the trick is learning how to perform
It well very nearly everyone has some amount of stage fright us acting types often have it even worse than most the trick to overcoming it is control of the nerves now that you’re comfortable reciting the ritual observe how you do it by now you’re not thinking about it
So much your mouth is doing almost all the work with the conscious mind simply making a few connections between paragraphs that is the right state to be in think about how that feels and learn it before you go into perform do some basic acting exercises take a few deep
Breaths concentrate on not thinking I think the ideal is a little light meditation but it takes a fair bit of practice to be able to drop into that state on demand for now just worry about being calm being calm is far more important than anything else if you’re
Calm you’re unlikely to screw up too too badly if you’re tense you’re far more likely to some people like to exercise the body a bit to relax the mind you should do what works for you 5B acting now the final Nuance which separates merely competent Ritual from the really
Good stuff now that you’re able to let your mouth do all the Talking start listening to yourself think about the ritual again but don’t think about the words think about what it means what are the important bits emphasize those how could you use your body or hands to
Illustrate a point try talking to the person in front of you not just at them look them in the eye and make them get the point you are teaching important lessons here try to capture a little of the emotional intensity of that importance think of your performance as
A melding of two parts your mouth is providing the words your mind and heart the emotion again nothing beats practice this is what rehearsal should really be for taking a dummy candidate at in hand and learning how to really get the point across don’t fret if you find that you
Need to change modes now and then here and there you will need to think about the words briefly when you change paragraphs or hit a hard sentence that won’t throw you though so long as you keep track of what you’re saying you’ve already figured out why each part leads
Into the next and that will guide you when you stumble conclusion don’t expect to get all this down instantly it takes most people a few years to really get good at it just try to advance yourself bit by bit learn the Transitions and pieces first if you
Have that you can get through the ritual next time work on memorizing more thoroughly the time after that work on getting it really smooth after a while you can build up to the point where you have the luxury to act and at that point you will find that you start doing the
Kind of ritual that masonry is meant to have both moving and interesting enough so that the candidate who is remember the whole point actually learns what your you’re saying and what it actually means and if you really do it well you’ll find that you come to understand
The meaning of the ritual a good deal better yourself an extra hint smile when you speak of Happiness feel happy and your voice will adjust itself to suit the same applies to other emotions if you get the expression right the rest follows welcome to the end of the video
I hope you enjoyed learning about the learning and memorizing the ritual techniques now it’s time for a chance to win a one-of-a-kind book on esoteric Freemasonry secrets to enter simply leave a comment below on what you learned in this video the comment with the most engagement will be selected as
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Only one thing a masonic lodge can give its members which they can get nowhere else in the world that one thing is masonry Carl H claudy
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