Day 87 out of 100 to Learn Masonic Ritual and that means it’s exactly two weeks until your Installation. It’s getting close, and no doubt you are also having a rehearsal or Lodge of Instruction coming up too. If nerves are getting to you feel free to have more revision on the Installation, though don’t panic too much just yet because we’ve allocated plenty of time in the next two weeks.
Yesterday we started our third run through the Raising Ceremony, and this has now moved onto the Revision Stage. So yesterday we opened the Lodge to the Second Degree, asked the questions, opened to the Third and continued the Raising Ceremony, and today we are up to
Revising Masonic Ritual, Day 87 of 100: Third Degree Obligation
The Third Degree Obligation spans two and a half pages (pages 176-178 in my book of Emulation Ritual). If you recall when we went through the Third Degree Obligation we broke it down into sections to aid memorisation. These were:
- 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.
As this is the revision stage try remembering each sentence or section first before checking it against the book, making an effort to learn the correction – or bits that escaped your memory completely!