I apologise now, because Day 34 of our 100 Day Study Plan to learn the Masonic Ritual is a big one. To re-cap, yesterday we were looking at the First Degree Obligation. We are still in the learning stages, not revising or rehearsing, so don’t stress if you aren’t perfect at it at the moment, the main goal this week is to get to grips with it. Prompts and peaks are allowed! We cover A LOT of material today, it’s…
Revising Masonic Ritual, Day 34 of 100: First Degree Post Obligation, Lesser Lights, Entrusting and Investing with the Badge
This takes us from the end of the First Degree Obligation, up to the start of the Charge in the North East (pages 83 to 96 in my book of Emulation Ritual).
I’ll be honest, I started my session of learning today and had a couple of run throughs this morning and was pleased with my progress – no word perfect but by the end of the session I would say I was about 75% of the way there. Some bits bang on, some needed prompts to kick it off, other bits that were in the right vein, and just a few real problems areas. It was’t until I can to write this that I realised I had only done half the work allocation for today! Just to be clear, we are reading:
This covers 14 pages in my book of Emulation Ritual. Though there is a bit of work for the Junior Deacon and Wardens prior to Investing the Candidate with the badge, the majority of the work is done by the Master at the Pedestal. I did warn you there is a lot to cover.
Remember, you aren’t expected to be word perfect at all of this by the end of today, the point of this is to build up familiarity by repetition. Of course, do try and learn, don’t just skim read, but make a conscious effort to read aloud (or at least under you breath) and retain the words, repeating sentences and testing yourself. By the end of a twenty minute session (or perhaps half hour if you can add 10 minutes on now, or even later on today) you familiarity will have increased as it turns sinking into your long term memory.
We have plenty more opportunities to learn, revise and rehearse the First Degree so don’t panic, but congratulate yourself on how well you are doing.