Day 80 out of 100 to Learn Masonic Ritual and that means it’s exactly just three weeks until your Installation. Ready? No? Don’t panic! 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…
Learning Masonic Ritual, Day 80 of 100: Third Degree Obligation
The Third Degree Obligation spans two and a half pages (pages 176-178 in my book of Emulation Ritual). Because of it’s length we spent two days (Day 66 and Day 68) going over during our first run through the Raising.
Although the format of the Third Degree Obligation follows the same standard format as the other two, we broke it down into five chunks to assist in learning it:
- 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 before, spend a couple of minutes on each paragraph before moving onto the next one. Then try having a run through the whole lot. Chances are what was almost word perfect a few minutes has now completely escaped your mind, and then when you look back at the book it seems obvious and you’re kicking yourself. This shows that it’s still in your short-term memory, but with repetition it’s slowly moving into your longer-term memory. It’s not an instant process, but time spent now will pay dividends later!