Day 68 out of 100 to Learn Masonic Ritual and yesterday we took a brief departure to put in a revision of the Installation Ceremony. Hopefully you are getting confident with it and didn’t mind our quick “pop quiz”. Back on Day 66 we went through the Third Degree Obligation and broke it down into it’s parts to get familiarity. Today it’s…
Learning Masonic Ritual, Day 68 of 100: Third Degree Obligation – Again!
The Third Degree Obligation is the longest of the three Obligations spanning two and a half pages (pages 176-178 in my book of Emulation Ritual). As we discussed the other day, there are similarities to the others.
We also broke it down into five paragraphs, and how it compared with the other Degree Obligations you’ve learnt:
- Similar to the start of the other Obligations, and includes the promise that the secrets imparted will not be disclosed to anyone who isn’t a Master Mason.
- This is a further pledge to uphold the principles and obey signs and summonses.
- Uphold the points of fellowship, personally I find this is a hard paragraph as it doesn’t have any parts that are familiar to the other Obligations. And it’s quite long too!
- Maintaining the principles of a Master Mason, and again this is a paragraph that isn’t similar to other Obligations.
- We finish the Third Degree Obligation back in familiar territory, though bear in mind the differences because of the Degree.
Spend about five minutes or so going through each paragraph. Read each sentence a couple of times and repeat it to yourself until you get used to it. Chances are after a couple of minutes you will forget the exact wording, but you are getting the familiarity with the ritual so you can build on it in the future.