Long ago, our ritual was only admitted to be transmitted from mouth to ear. We didn’t have ciphered versions of our Standard Work. If we wanted to learn it, we had to do it with a coach or mentor, repeating it over and over until it was remembered.
That’s the romantic notion of it anyway.
In reality, there were exposures. Books printed in violation of our Masonic law, generally by those who were seeking to harm Freemasonry, that contained our Standard Work, word for word. I’ve read one of those old exposures that is virtually identical to Washington’s work today. It seems that a great many Masons bought these books as their own memory aids.
Eventually we printed our ritual, in cypher form.
In Washington, we also print our ritual in plain text, but we limit the copies of it to our District Deputies, Elected Grand Lodge Officers, and the Grand Lecturer.
Some Jurisdictions go further. Some provide the plain text of their ritual to their membership in general.
This year, the Grand Lodge of Washington is considering keeping the ciphered form, but providing it electronically, so that a Washington Mason can use it on his computer or his phone.
What do we think? How should our ritual be distributed to our members. Should we hold so tightly to the plain text, given that it can be downloaded off the internet anyway? Should we stick with ciphered versions? What about electronic versions? Cyphered or not? How do we best store electronic versions?
Let’s chat about it…
As you’ve no doubt noticed, Emeth has gone purple today. Just a fun little change for my birthday, I’ll put it back to normal tomorrow. I promise.
Having done my memorization the old fashioned way, you didn't receive a cipher until you were raised. There was a standard work held by the Secretary of the Lodge for ritual and Degree practice, as District Deputys were not able to be everywhere, everytime. I am for having a plain text Standard Work to be locked and held by either the Secretary or Master of the Lodge . Just saying....
I did receive the ciphered Standard Work right away, but it took a bit of work with my mentor to figure out what the words were.
I do remember that as I was the first person in my Lodge to be asked to do the Posting Lectures in quite a long time, there was one line towards the end of the EA Lecture that no one in the Lodge seemed able to figure out. That resulted in a group trip to go see our DDGM, who was able to fill everyone in.
The trip was actually kind of cool, there were two of us candidates, and a few guys from the Lodge, so I remember it was a little convoy of cars heading there. Plus, we got to see a different Lodge, and of course as an EA, it was great to see one of the Purple Guys.
Since that particular DDGM then rose to GM in short order, I've always been happy with the memory that he helped me out in my very first days as a Mason. It is good to know that this man who has become a good friend, has been with me, every step of the way.
Given that the standard work is already available online. Acting like we're hiding it from our membership is just silly. I'm in favor of requiring memorization of the posting lectures for advancement and all rituals in lodge should also be done by memory to show dedication, but I see no harm in publishing plain text for assistance with clarity and consistency through the years to avoid the telephone effect and also to assist brethren in learning the ritual well for performance in lodge. An actor who has to read his lines fron the script on stage is a poor actor, but nobody expects him to learn those lines orally or by Cypher only, and we aren't hiding anything that isn't already available.
I do find the plain text to be helpful. Not for large errors, but for very small ones. Such as if a word is supposed to be singular or plural. Those mistakes can be jarring, and it is often difficult if not impossible to know the right way via the cipher.
I don’t think making the standard work in cypher available to download is a bad thing. I do think publishing the standard work in plain text is a bad idea. Certainly anyone can go out on the Internet and find the ritual, but it’s not about that. Although it’s no longer “secret”, there should still remain some mystery. I also think providing the ritual in plain text is a crutch. I feel learning the cypher is almost as important as learning the ritual. A couple years before I became a Mason, the story in my lodge goes that the WM came into possession of a copy of the plain text. A fight nearly broke out when the DDGM went to the East on night to relieve the Master of the plain text version he had. I think the Fraternity needs to stop making decisions, or consider making decisions based on the lowest common denominator. Freemasonry is about challenging a man’s thinking and it starts with learning the cypher.
The EA Degree was a complete surprise to me, and I'll admit, I was nervous before it.
The FC Degree must have been a surprise to me as well, because I remember that I didn't realize that the 'Lecture' portion of it was actually the 'Lecture.' I just thought that one of the brothers was telling me stuff that he found interesting about Masonry. Of course that was helped by the fact that he is one of the very best ritualists I have ever encountered in Masonry.
I don't remember the MM Degree being much of a surprise to me, so it must not have been. I don't recall reading ahead, but I may have, or I may have just picked up bits from conversation along the way.
But I agree with you, it is best by far if the Degrees are all surprising.
I think a copy of the plain text in the hands of each Lodge is a good idea, as I have seen the ritual drift in lodges and think a copy of plain text would help with that, it would also help with memorization, as it could be used in classes and mentoring. I do think memory work is something we need to maintain. Its part of our tradition, and it's good for us as a mental exercise. Having the cypher available electronically is an inevitable next step, we can do it now or we can do it later, but its coming. We can also go ahead and accept that once we have a commonly available electronic cypher it will get shared publicly. My Department of Energy security files got hacked, so I am pretty sure our cypher will be.
I too find the memorization of ritual to be a good mental exercise. I might remind my wife from time to time, when she decides that I'm nuts, that as long as I can still pull up long snippets of ritual, the mind is proven to still be working as intended.
Since the internet already has opened the flood gates to the Cowens out there, they can already read most rituals and degree work in plain text. Maintain the few secrets we have in the grips, passes, and words. But the Cypher is a little antiquated and even other jurisdictions in the US have done away with them.
I believe proficiency is still required from memory and that Ritual should be committed to memory. But one thing I've learned is that memorization of ritual from Cypher without a Brother's aid is extremely hard. And this last year made it more difficult without being able to meet to practice. Limitations with electronic communications may have slowed down memorization and refreshers.
>>"And this last year made it more difficult without being able to meet to practice."
I am very concerned that when we open up to do Degrees, if we aren't careful, we may end up doing a lot of poor Degrees.
Before even contemplating the converral of a Degree, we need to do a lot of practice to get things back up to pre-pandemic levels.
I've mentioned it before, I'll use myself as an example, when I went to open a Lodge, in person, a few months back, I was shocked at how poorly I did it after going a year without using or hearing our ritual. It was embarrassingly bad, and I'm glad that there were only the principals officers in the room to see it. It wasn't so much a matter of not having the words as not having the flow, or ability to put the words where they need to be, when they needed to be there.
I was taught the ritual by my Father mouth to ear and the memory of those sessions still resides with me today. That is the part that we miss today, that personal connection between candidate and mentor; the time well spent together.
After I passed all of my in Lodge proficiencies, he handed me a series of books that belonged to my Grandfather. The King Solomon version of the Washington work dated 1926. And we worked through that book. Then he handed me the then current version of the work, those three little books and the Monitor; and we worked through that. So after about two years of study, reading and reciting; Dad told me I was ready. That was how he was taught and that was how he taught me.
Times have changed but we must remember that it is the experience, the relationships and not just the words of our ritual that are important. We must take the time to investigate, to build, to educate and to have fun during our life-long journey of discovery.
>>"I was taught the ritual by my Father mouth to ear and the memory of those sessions still >>resides with me today. That is the part that we miss today, that personal connection >>between candidate and mentor; the time well spent together."
Thank you for this.
To my mind, it is the most important thing in every new Mason's journey, and unfortunately too often forgotten about today.
I don't know if my mentor was particularly good at teaching the ritual or not, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the hours he and I spent together, in his living room, in the car, in bad restaurants. He was teaching me, but he was teaching me a lot more than the ritual, he was also teaching me the true meaning of Masonic Brotherhood. It was the greatest introduction to Freemasonry that anyone could ever have.
When I talk with men who have truly excelled in Freemasonry, it seems to me that in the majority of cases, they too had excellent committed mentors that spent a great deal of time with them.
I've got to believe that our retention of quality men would be greatly increased if Lodges made a deeper commitment towards the mentoring of new initiates.
I think the Secretary or a Master of Ritual should have a plain text of the Standard Work, so that "telephone" errors don't creep into the performance of ritual. I first learned my Posting Lectures (in California) from a Mentor, mouth-to-ear. When I was Raised, he gave me a copy of the California Standard Work cypher. It was all in symbolic code! He taught me how to read it, and that's how I maintained proficiency.
When I came to Washington, my sponsor lent me his copy of the Washington Standard Work, and I couldn't read a word, until he showed me several keys to unlocking the secrets.
After all, you have to actually *know* the work before you can *read* the work. The cypher is simply an "*aide memoire*" -- an aid to the memory.
I've always been afraid that if I ever had to move to a place with different work, I'd never be able to get the Washington version out of my head, and it would always creep back in without me realizing it.
While never an active member of the Grange, I have been a Grange member all my life. One Lodge that I visit fairly often elected a very active member of the Grange to the East. Once in awhile, without him even realizing it, Grange ritual sort of just took over.
I know what you mean. I was in the Junior Grange in the mid 1980's and went through the chairs. It took the Brothers of Tenino Lodge a year to assist me in breaking me of the way I held the Deacon rod, as I was used to holding it in the Grange manner.
I visit that Lodge you mention, and when that Brother tosses in Grange Ritual, it really throws me off, as I want to pick up where he left off! But that being said, I have NO regrets joining the Junior Grange. It really helped me pick things up and take them further when I joined the Masonic Lodge 10 years later.
While I've never been an active member of the Grange, I too have been pleased to be a member of it. I like the work it does, and what it stands for. Not to mention, the insurance is great.
Dear jurisdiction of Washington. Time to claw your way to the 21st century. I’ve had TSW on my iPad since I was raised. Unfortunately, it’s a little out of date. It would make all of us younger masons who aren’t afraid of technology have the ability to keep current with changes to the cipher. It would also reduce costs for printing. Why this hasn’t been done decades ago is beyond me.
And each lodge secretary should maintain a plain text version. Why this wasn’t passed as a resolution before leaves me gobsmacked.
>>"Why this wasn’t passed as a resolution before leaves me gobsmacked."
Many of the resolutions that we collectively choose to pass or not pass leave me, to use your word, gobsmacked.
A quick example:
When we Initiate a man as an Entered Apprentice, we tell him that he is now a Freemason, for life.
But then we passed a resolution saying that Lodges can drop EA's who don't advance in awhile from their rolls.
I wonder what happens to a guy, like we have in our Lodge, who went 25 years or so between his EA and FC Degree, because work got in the way. Once he was able to return to Lodge, he did so with a vengeance, and has been one of our most loyal and supportive members for decades.
I wonder what happens to a guy who is dropped for failure to advance in the Lodge records due to an error. In other words, he didn't fail to advance, and he moved away for a lot of years, so the Lodge dropped him by accident. Well, I know what happens to a guy in that position, because a guy in exactly that position reached out to me. Luckily in his case evidence of his being made a MM was able to be found at the Grand Lodge level, because let me tell ya, his Lodge Secretary was sure as heck gonna stand by his erroneous record no matter what the Brother in question had to say.
As voters, when we attend the Annual Communication we must vote with great care.
As the Brother who helped shoot down the resolution that would have allowed the Lodge Secretaries to have a plain text of the Standard Work, I’ll explain why.
Right now, the Grand Secretary is the custodian of the Standard Work, with the Master Copy of the plain text in his possession, and he is also in charge of the 50 copies of the Plain Text. According to Sections 4 and 6 of the WMC, those who are entrusted a copy of the plain text have to maintain a strict responsibility for it. That Brother cannot allow that Plain Text to leave his possession, and he cannot loan it to anyone. I have found it to be a challenge to account for the 50 copies, although our Deputies and Grand Lodge officers have been quite diligent in keeping track of the items they have in their possession. If the Resolution had passed, the 50 would have become around 200, which would be impossible to keep track of. I can guarantee that at least a few Lodge secretaries would be loaning it out or letting it out of his sight. You might think, “So what?” but I’d have to refer you back to those sections of the WMC. If the resolution had included provisions to eliminate those restrictions, it’d be more likely the resolution would pass, but then you know copies of the plain text would be getting lost on a regular basis. It’s just how things work. We’re human. Again, you might ask, “So what?”
Which brings us back to the original question: Why are we so concerned about letting the Profane know of our ritual? Like what’s been mentioned repeatedly here: it’s out there! It’s been out there for over a century, if you really get down to it. So why should we even be restricting the plain text to the Secretaries? Why not give it to every Master Mason?
Or here’s another question: Why did we make it in cypher to begin with? If you look at earlier proceedings, the Cypher was considered just like the plain text is today. An innovation that was HIGHLY resisted. There were many that said mouth-to-ear was the only way to learn the work, and in many jurisdictions (I think ours was one of them) it was actually a Masonic Offense to be caught with one of those “King Solomon and his Followers” in your possession, which could earn you Expulsion!
I think we need to look back in the proceedings and our History, not only in our Jurisdiction, but in the Fraternity as a whole, to really find out why we didn’t publish the Standard Work to begin with over 200 years ago. It takes an effort to publish this work in cypher. We could have published plain texts from the very beginning with less effort. Why didn’t we do that all those years ago?
I put out more questions than answers on this post. But that’s what we really need to do. The idea of not publishing the plain text for the secretaries, or all Master Masons, being outdated doesn’t really hold water, unless we look back and try to understand where it all started. Why was it so concealed to begin with? Why Exposes held so much power and supposedly had to be squashed, even with consequences that tarnished the reputation of the Fraternity.
This is an excellent subject, and I think it deserves more debate in depth.
We're going to start looking into audio visual equipment. This is so that we can continue as a Lodge to include the Brothers that aren't living around in the area.
I think that is a superb idea! I've found it quite wonderful when we have been able to welcome men who have moved away back into our Lodges. Not to mention men who can't make it to Lodge due to health or other difficulties.
The explanation given here seems to assume that secretaries are not responsible adults, and can’t be trusted to follow the code. Yet we trust them with all other manner of things of much greater value with no problems.
And the rest of your response is pretty much “because that’s how we’ve always done it”. Sorry, brother, with all due respect, I disagree.
We can’t always rely on the district deputy to be present at every single meeting, stated or special, to provide assistance, especially during degrees. Having the plain text work during the lecture for the designated prompter assures a quality degree. That benefit alone is worth the perceived risks of misplacing a binder. It’s not the nuclear launch codes.
I think I read Clayton's response a little different than you.
I think what he is saying is that he's not against making it more widely available, but he is against making it more widely available while maintaining the same levels of tracking and control over each copy. I think he is saying, for example, that he could go for providing one to each of the Secretaries, if we also changed the Code to no longer make the Grand Secretary account for each of those copies.
That's my take on what he posted, but I could be wrong. Perhaps he will be able to clarify for us?
Cameron made my point better than I articulated it. It was merely a procedural situation that caused me to vote against the resolution. I do think that if your Lodge introduced the resolution in a manner that changed the method of keeping track of the plain texts, it very well could gain support. I can think of some examples of how that can be done, but I shall leave that up to the Lodges.
As for your take that I am trying to maintain the Status Quo, I can see how you disagree, if my stance was, "This is what I think, and I dare you to challenge me." But it wasn't my intent. I was looking to open a discussion as to why we're so worried about letting all this ritual out to begin with. Why the Lodges haven't had a copy of the Plain Text a long time ago. Why the Grand Masters of the 1920's and 1930's were so adamant about suspending and expelling Brothers who had the work written out, or were caught with aftermarket cyphers in their possession.
There are many, if not a sizable proportion of our membership that agree with you that our cyphered text isn't the nuclear launch codes. But history shows that there were many Brethren 100 years ago that sure thought so! That's what I'm curious about, and that's what I was hoping to learn more about from Brethren here who might be able to shed light on this subject.
The Grand Lodge of Maine has their cipher available to anyone who visits their website. Yes, I downloaded a copy. Plain text of the Fraternity's "secret" work has been available to the public since at least 1723. According to some researchers, exposures were even adopted by a few Lodges as their ritual.
For me, it is the meaning hidden behind the words, symbols & written explanations of the symbols that hold our secrets not the order of the words themselves. It is only through our Masonic labors that we can approach the true secrets.
We should make our cipher available electronically.
>>"For me, it is the meaning hidden behind the words, symbols & written explanations of the >>symbols that hold our secrets not the order of the words themselves. It is only through our >>Masonic labors that we can approach the true secrets."
I think that this is exactly correct. These are the secrets of Masonry, and just as the definition of Masonry explains, they are 'veiled.'
This is, I think, the most misunderstood facet of Masonry, by Masons.
I believe the current method of the plain text availability should stay as is. The cypher is earned as the new Mason progresses on his journey, stop and think about it, it fits in the pocket as easy as the iPod/cell phone. I have the ones my dad used and I am proud to carry one of them almost every time I attend a lodge. Must be old fashion. There is nothing wrong with black, green,of blue. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
I would put forward this - its not about the format of the text of our ritual, its about the format of the learning, experiencing, practicing and teaching our ritual that is important for all of us now and those in the future. This is what makes us different. This is what sets us apart from other fraternal organizations. This is what makes us special.
As the author of the original resolution it was not my intent to replace the printed copies. It was not to provide the written text to anyone, it was simply to provide a copy as printed to be read in an electronic device. I love the cipher because it forces my brain to determine the words, not just read them. It forces me to ask questions of a brother if I don't understand. It was not about making it available on the internet. Or code today, as I read it, doesn't say you CAN'T have an electronic version, yet I was told no, you need a resolution for that. So here we are, typing on my phone to an electronic blog, while searching for my printed standard work to refresh my ritual memory, but I can't remember where the hell I put my book...
>>"Or code today, as I read it, doesn't say you CAN'T have an electronic version, yet I was told >>no, you need a resolution for that."
The Washington Masonic Code contains provisions that conflict with other, higher divisions of Masonic Law (for example, conflict with our ritual.) As such, of course, those provisions are invalid.
This is no different than with the Government. The Revised Code of Washington contains provisions that conflict with the Washington State Constitution. So, the Supreme Court invalidates those provisions.
The trouble of course when it comes to the Masonic Code is that those who understand this are at a definite advantage over those who do not.
I have a childhood memory that is perhaps a bit strange, but that might be helpful for those who seek to bring change to Masonry:
It was fairly late at night, and I was sitting in the Senate Gallery with my grandmother. A Senator indicated that he wanted to speak next.
My grandmother leaned over and whispered something along the lines of: "Watch this, he will get them to do whatever he wants."
I asked her why.
She replied, "Because he knows the rules better than all of the others. If you know the rules better than everyone else, you'll always win."
I've not forgotten that, and in my experience, it seems to hold true for Masonry as well. I've developed the opinion that if someone wants to tell me that the Code prohibits something so I can't do it, they had better be able to prove that, and whatever evidence they are using had better not be in conflict with any higher forms of Masonic Law. (Ritual, Obligations, Landmarks, &c.)
I can only speak for NC. However its a masonic offence here to give a cypher or any written form of the ritual or "catechism"/ return to the candidate or EA or Fellowcraft. Every thing has to be mouth to ear here. Something stressful but at the end a mountain worth climbing.
I don't doubt that I could have learned it mouth to ear, but I imagine it would have resulted in a lot more work for my Mentor.
As it was, I was provided with a ciphered version of the work, and he taught me what the words in the cipher were. There were a couple that he didn't know, so for those we had to ask the DDGM.
The advantage of mouth to ear, as I imagine it, having never gone through it, would be the very close connection that must occur between the two men as one teaches it to another.
Having done my memorization the old fashioned way, you didn't receive a cipher until you were raised. There was a standard work held by the Secretary of the Lodge for ritual and Degree practice, as District Deputys were not able to be everywhere, everytime. I am for having a plain text Standard Work to be locked and held by either the Secretary or Master of the Lodge . Just saying....
I did receive the ciphered Standard Work right away, but it took a bit of work with my mentor to figure out what the words were.
I do remember that as I was the first person in my Lodge to be asked to do the Posting Lectures in quite a long time, there was one line towards the end of the EA Lecture that no one in the Lodge seemed able to figure out. That resulted in a group trip to go see our DDGM, who was able to fill everyone in.
The trip was actually kind of cool, there were two of us candidates, and a few guys from the Lodge, so I remember it was a little convoy of cars heading there. Plus, we got to see a different Lodge, and of course as an EA, it was great to see one of the Purple Guys.
Since that particular DDGM then rose to GM in short order, I've always been happy with the memory that he helped me out in my very first days as a Mason. It is good to know that this man who has become a good friend, has been with me, every step of the way.
Given that the standard work is already available online. Acting like we're hiding it from our membership is just silly. I'm in favor of requiring memorization of the posting lectures for advancement and all rituals in lodge should also be done by memory to show dedication, but I see no harm in publishing plain text for assistance with clarity and consistency through the years to avoid the telephone effect and also to assist brethren in learning the ritual well for performance in lodge. An actor who has to read his lines fron the script on stage is a poor actor, but nobody expects him to learn those lines orally or by Cypher only, and we aren't hiding anything that isn't already available.
I do find the plain text to be helpful. Not for large errors, but for very small ones. Such as if a word is supposed to be singular or plural. Those mistakes can be jarring, and it is often difficult if not impossible to know the right way via the cipher.
Th... This that their theirs these or those. A common one.
Happy birthday!
Thank you Brother! I appreciate it!
I don’t think making the standard work in cypher available to download is a bad thing. I do think publishing the standard work in plain text is a bad idea. Certainly anyone can go out on the Internet and find the ritual, but it’s not about that. Although it’s no longer “secret”, there should still remain some mystery. I also think providing the ritual in plain text is a crutch. I feel learning the cypher is almost as important as learning the ritual. A couple years before I became a Mason, the story in my lodge goes that the WM came into possession of a copy of the plain text. A fight nearly broke out when the DDGM went to the East on night to relieve the Master of the plain text version he had. I think the Fraternity needs to stop making decisions, or consider making decisions based on the lowest common denominator. Freemasonry is about challenging a man’s thinking and it starts with learning the cypher.
>>"I think the Fraternity needs to stop making decisions, or consider making decisions based >>on the lowest common denominator."
I think that this point is exceptionally well taken, across all the issues that face our Fraternity. Thank you for making it.
I knew the secrets were available with a bit of digging. I didn’t dig.
EA, FC and MM - each was a surprise and a delight.
What an impact it had on me that so many Masons from near and far would come together- just for me!
One of the smartest things we can tell candidates is - don’t spoil Christmas morning.
The EA Degree was a complete surprise to me, and I'll admit, I was nervous before it.
The FC Degree must have been a surprise to me as well, because I remember that I didn't realize that the 'Lecture' portion of it was actually the 'Lecture.' I just thought that one of the brothers was telling me stuff that he found interesting about Masonry. Of course that was helped by the fact that he is one of the very best ritualists I have ever encountered in Masonry.
I don't remember the MM Degree being much of a surprise to me, so it must not have been. I don't recall reading ahead, but I may have, or I may have just picked up bits from conversation along the way.
But I agree with you, it is best by far if the Degrees are all surprising.
I think a copy of the plain text in the hands of each Lodge is a good idea, as I have seen the ritual drift in lodges and think a copy of plain text would help with that, it would also help with memorization, as it could be used in classes and mentoring. I do think memory work is something we need to maintain. Its part of our tradition, and it's good for us as a mental exercise. Having the cypher available electronically is an inevitable next step, we can do it now or we can do it later, but its coming. We can also go ahead and accept that once we have a commonly available electronic cypher it will get shared publicly. My Department of Energy security files got hacked, so I am pretty sure our cypher will be.
I too find the memorization of ritual to be a good mental exercise. I might remind my wife from time to time, when she decides that I'm nuts, that as long as I can still pull up long snippets of ritual, the mind is proven to still be working as intended.
Since the internet already has opened the flood gates to the Cowens out there, they can already read most rituals and degree work in plain text. Maintain the few secrets we have in the grips, passes, and words. But the Cypher is a little antiquated and even other jurisdictions in the US have done away with them.
I believe proficiency is still required from memory and that Ritual should be committed to memory. But one thing I've learned is that memorization of ritual from Cypher without a Brother's aid is extremely hard. And this last year made it more difficult without being able to meet to practice. Limitations with electronic communications may have slowed down memorization and refreshers.
>>"And this last year made it more difficult without being able to meet to practice."
I am very concerned that when we open up to do Degrees, if we aren't careful, we may end up doing a lot of poor Degrees.
Before even contemplating the converral of a Degree, we need to do a lot of practice to get things back up to pre-pandemic levels.
I've mentioned it before, I'll use myself as an example, when I went to open a Lodge, in person, a few months back, I was shocked at how poorly I did it after going a year without using or hearing our ritual. It was embarrassingly bad, and I'm glad that there were only the principals officers in the room to see it. It wasn't so much a matter of not having the words as not having the flow, or ability to put the words where they need to be, when they needed to be there.
I was taught the ritual by my Father mouth to ear and the memory of those sessions still resides with me today. That is the part that we miss today, that personal connection between candidate and mentor; the time well spent together.
After I passed all of my in Lodge proficiencies, he handed me a series of books that belonged to my Grandfather. The King Solomon version of the Washington work dated 1926. And we worked through that book. Then he handed me the then current version of the work, those three little books and the Monitor; and we worked through that. So after about two years of study, reading and reciting; Dad told me I was ready. That was how he was taught and that was how he taught me.
Times have changed but we must remember that it is the experience, the relationships and not just the words of our ritual that are important. We must take the time to investigate, to build, to educate and to have fun during our life-long journey of discovery.
>>"I was taught the ritual by my Father mouth to ear and the memory of those sessions still >>resides with me today. That is the part that we miss today, that personal connection >>between candidate and mentor; the time well spent together."
Thank you for this.
To my mind, it is the most important thing in every new Mason's journey, and unfortunately too often forgotten about today.
I don't know if my mentor was particularly good at teaching the ritual or not, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the hours he and I spent together, in his living room, in the car, in bad restaurants. He was teaching me, but he was teaching me a lot more than the ritual, he was also teaching me the true meaning of Masonic Brotherhood. It was the greatest introduction to Freemasonry that anyone could ever have.
When I talk with men who have truly excelled in Freemasonry, it seems to me that in the majority of cases, they too had excellent committed mentors that spent a great deal of time with them.
I've got to believe that our retention of quality men would be greatly increased if Lodges made a deeper commitment towards the mentoring of new initiates.
I think the Secretary or a Master of Ritual should have a plain text of the Standard Work, so that "telephone" errors don't creep into the performance of ritual. I first learned my Posting Lectures (in California) from a Mentor, mouth-to-ear. When I was Raised, he gave me a copy of the California Standard Work cypher. It was all in symbolic code! He taught me how to read it, and that's how I maintained proficiency.
When I came to Washington, my sponsor lent me his copy of the Washington Standard Work, and I couldn't read a word, until he showed me several keys to unlocking the secrets.
After all, you have to actually *know* the work before you can *read* the work. The cypher is simply an "*aide memoire*" -- an aid to the memory.
I've always been afraid that if I ever had to move to a place with different work, I'd never be able to get the Washington version out of my head, and it would always creep back in without me realizing it.
While never an active member of the Grange, I have been a Grange member all my life. One Lodge that I visit fairly often elected a very active member of the Grange to the East. Once in awhile, without him even realizing it, Grange ritual sort of just took over.
I know what you mean. I was in the Junior Grange in the mid 1980's and went through the chairs. It took the Brothers of Tenino Lodge a year to assist me in breaking me of the way I held the Deacon rod, as I was used to holding it in the Grange manner.
I visit that Lodge you mention, and when that Brother tosses in Grange Ritual, it really throws me off, as I want to pick up where he left off! But that being said, I have NO regrets joining the Junior Grange. It really helped me pick things up and take them further when I joined the Masonic Lodge 10 years later.
While I've never been an active member of the Grange, I too have been pleased to be a member of it. I like the work it does, and what it stands for. Not to mention, the insurance is great.
Dear jurisdiction of Washington. Time to claw your way to the 21st century. I’ve had TSW on my iPad since I was raised. Unfortunately, it’s a little out of date. It would make all of us younger masons who aren’t afraid of technology have the ability to keep current with changes to the cipher. It would also reduce costs for printing. Why this hasn’t been done decades ago is beyond me.
And each lodge secretary should maintain a plain text version. Why this wasn’t passed as a resolution before leaves me gobsmacked.
>>"Why this wasn’t passed as a resolution before leaves me gobsmacked."
Many of the resolutions that we collectively choose to pass or not pass leave me, to use your word, gobsmacked.
A quick example:
When we Initiate a man as an Entered Apprentice, we tell him that he is now a Freemason, for life.
But then we passed a resolution saying that Lodges can drop EA's who don't advance in awhile from their rolls.
I wonder what happens to a guy, like we have in our Lodge, who went 25 years or so between his EA and FC Degree, because work got in the way. Once he was able to return to Lodge, he did so with a vengeance, and has been one of our most loyal and supportive members for decades.
I wonder what happens to a guy who is dropped for failure to advance in the Lodge records due to an error. In other words, he didn't fail to advance, and he moved away for a lot of years, so the Lodge dropped him by accident. Well, I know what happens to a guy in that position, because a guy in exactly that position reached out to me. Luckily in his case evidence of his being made a MM was able to be found at the Grand Lodge level, because let me tell ya, his Lodge Secretary was sure as heck gonna stand by his erroneous record no matter what the Brother in question had to say.
As voters, when we attend the Annual Communication we must vote with great care.
As the Brother who helped shoot down the resolution that would have allowed the Lodge Secretaries to have a plain text of the Standard Work, I’ll explain why.
Right now, the Grand Secretary is the custodian of the Standard Work, with the Master Copy of the plain text in his possession, and he is also in charge of the 50 copies of the Plain Text. According to Sections 4 and 6 of the WMC, those who are entrusted a copy of the plain text have to maintain a strict responsibility for it. That Brother cannot allow that Plain Text to leave his possession, and he cannot loan it to anyone. I have found it to be a challenge to account for the 50 copies, although our Deputies and Grand Lodge officers have been quite diligent in keeping track of the items they have in their possession. If the Resolution had passed, the 50 would have become around 200, which would be impossible to keep track of. I can guarantee that at least a few Lodge secretaries would be loaning it out or letting it out of his sight. You might think, “So what?” but I’d have to refer you back to those sections of the WMC. If the resolution had included provisions to eliminate those restrictions, it’d be more likely the resolution would pass, but then you know copies of the plain text would be getting lost on a regular basis. It’s just how things work. We’re human. Again, you might ask, “So what?”
Which brings us back to the original question: Why are we so concerned about letting the Profane know of our ritual? Like what’s been mentioned repeatedly here: it’s out there! It’s been out there for over a century, if you really get down to it. So why should we even be restricting the plain text to the Secretaries? Why not give it to every Master Mason?
Or here’s another question: Why did we make it in cypher to begin with? If you look at earlier proceedings, the Cypher was considered just like the plain text is today. An innovation that was HIGHLY resisted. There were many that said mouth-to-ear was the only way to learn the work, and in many jurisdictions (I think ours was one of them) it was actually a Masonic Offense to be caught with one of those “King Solomon and his Followers” in your possession, which could earn you Expulsion!
I think we need to look back in the proceedings and our History, not only in our Jurisdiction, but in the Fraternity as a whole, to really find out why we didn’t publish the Standard Work to begin with over 200 years ago. It takes an effort to publish this work in cypher. We could have published plain texts from the very beginning with less effort. Why didn’t we do that all those years ago?
I put out more questions than answers on this post. But that’s what we really need to do. The idea of not publishing the plain text for the secretaries, or all Master Masons, being outdated doesn’t really hold water, unless we look back and try to understand where it all started. Why was it so concealed to begin with? Why Exposes held so much power and supposedly had to be squashed, even with consequences that tarnished the reputation of the Fraternity.
This is an excellent subject, and I think it deserves more debate in depth.
I read an article recently that around the beginning of photography that photos of Masonic symbols and items was taboo.
Maybe our evolution through innovation is just slower than the profane world.
I know that there are still many Masons who object to the idea of cameras in Lodge. I think we've stuck a pretty good balance though.
We're going to start looking into audio visual equipment. This is so that we can continue as a Lodge to include the Brothers that aren't living around in the area.
I think that is a superb idea! I've found it quite wonderful when we have been able to welcome men who have moved away back into our Lodges. Not to mention men who can't make it to Lodge due to health or other difficulties.
The explanation given here seems to assume that secretaries are not responsible adults, and can’t be trusted to follow the code. Yet we trust them with all other manner of things of much greater value with no problems.
And the rest of your response is pretty much “because that’s how we’ve always done it”. Sorry, brother, with all due respect, I disagree.
We can’t always rely on the district deputy to be present at every single meeting, stated or special, to provide assistance, especially during degrees. Having the plain text work during the lecture for the designated prompter assures a quality degree. That benefit alone is worth the perceived risks of misplacing a binder. It’s not the nuclear launch codes.
I think I read Clayton's response a little different than you.
I think what he is saying is that he's not against making it more widely available, but he is against making it more widely available while maintaining the same levels of tracking and control over each copy. I think he is saying, for example, that he could go for providing one to each of the Secretaries, if we also changed the Code to no longer make the Grand Secretary account for each of those copies.
That's my take on what he posted, but I could be wrong. Perhaps he will be able to clarify for us?
WB Glenn:
Cameron made my point better than I articulated it. It was merely a procedural situation that caused me to vote against the resolution. I do think that if your Lodge introduced the resolution in a manner that changed the method of keeping track of the plain texts, it very well could gain support. I can think of some examples of how that can be done, but I shall leave that up to the Lodges.
As for your take that I am trying to maintain the Status Quo, I can see how you disagree, if my stance was, "This is what I think, and I dare you to challenge me." But it wasn't my intent. I was looking to open a discussion as to why we're so worried about letting all this ritual out to begin with. Why the Lodges haven't had a copy of the Plain Text a long time ago. Why the Grand Masters of the 1920's and 1930's were so adamant about suspending and expelling Brothers who had the work written out, or were caught with aftermarket cyphers in their possession.
There are many, if not a sizable proportion of our membership that agree with you that our cyphered text isn't the nuclear launch codes. But history shows that there were many Brethren 100 years ago that sure thought so! That's what I'm curious about, and that's what I was hoping to learn more about from Brethren here who might be able to shed light on this subject.
I hope that clarifies things, Glenn.
The Grand Lodge of Maine has their cipher available to anyone who visits their website. Yes, I downloaded a copy. Plain text of the Fraternity's "secret" work has been available to the public since at least 1723. According to some researchers, exposures were even adopted by a few Lodges as their ritual.
For me, it is the meaning hidden behind the words, symbols & written explanations of the symbols that hold our secrets not the order of the words themselves. It is only through our Masonic labors that we can approach the true secrets.
We should make our cipher available electronically.
>>"For me, it is the meaning hidden behind the words, symbols & written explanations of the >>symbols that hold our secrets not the order of the words themselves. It is only through our >>Masonic labors that we can approach the true secrets."
I think that this is exactly correct. These are the secrets of Masonry, and just as the definition of Masonry explains, they are 'veiled.'
This is, I think, the most misunderstood facet of Masonry, by Masons.
I believe the current method of the plain text availability should stay as is. The cypher is earned as the new Mason progresses on his journey, stop and think about it, it fits in the pocket as easy as the iPod/cell phone. I have the ones my dad used and I am proud to carry one of them almost every time I attend a lodge. Must be old fashion. There is nothing wrong with black, green,of blue. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
>>"There is nothing wrong with black, green,of blue."
Except I'm so blind now that I can't read em! I had to get the version with the bigger type.
Thank you for the kind Birthday Wishes!
I would put forward this - its not about the format of the text of our ritual, its about the format of the learning, experiencing, practicing and teaching our ritual that is important for all of us now and those in the future. This is what makes us different. This is what sets us apart from other fraternal organizations. This is what makes us special.
As the author of the original resolution it was not my intent to replace the printed copies. It was not to provide the written text to anyone, it was simply to provide a copy as printed to be read in an electronic device. I love the cipher because it forces my brain to determine the words, not just read them. It forces me to ask questions of a brother if I don't understand. It was not about making it available on the internet. Or code today, as I read it, doesn't say you CAN'T have an electronic version, yet I was told no, you need a resolution for that. So here we are, typing on my phone to an electronic blog, while searching for my printed standard work to refresh my ritual memory, but I can't remember where the hell I put my book...
>>"Or code today, as I read it, doesn't say you CAN'T have an electronic version, yet I was told >>no, you need a resolution for that."
The Washington Masonic Code contains provisions that conflict with other, higher divisions of Masonic Law (for example, conflict with our ritual.) As such, of course, those provisions are invalid.
This is no different than with the Government. The Revised Code of Washington contains provisions that conflict with the Washington State Constitution. So, the Supreme Court invalidates those provisions.
The trouble of course when it comes to the Masonic Code is that those who understand this are at a definite advantage over those who do not.
I have a childhood memory that is perhaps a bit strange, but that might be helpful for those who seek to bring change to Masonry:
It was fairly late at night, and I was sitting in the Senate Gallery with my grandmother. A Senator indicated that he wanted to speak next.
My grandmother leaned over and whispered something along the lines of: "Watch this, he will get them to do whatever he wants."
I asked her why.
She replied, "Because he knows the rules better than all of the others. If you know the rules better than everyone else, you'll always win."
I've not forgotten that, and in my experience, it seems to hold true for Masonry as well. I've developed the opinion that if someone wants to tell me that the Code prohibits something so I can't do it, they had better be able to prove that, and whatever evidence they are using had better not be in conflict with any higher forms of Masonic Law. (Ritual, Obligations, Landmarks, &c.)
I can only speak for NC. However its a masonic offence here to give a cypher or any written form of the ritual or "catechism"/ return to the candidate or EA or Fellowcraft. Every thing has to be mouth to ear here. Something stressful but at the end a mountain worth climbing.
I don't doubt that I could have learned it mouth to ear, but I imagine it would have resulted in a lot more work for my Mentor.
As it was, I was provided with a ciphered version of the work, and he taught me what the words in the cipher were. There were a couple that he didn't know, so for those we had to ask the DDGM.
The advantage of mouth to ear, as I imagine it, having never gone through it, would be the very close connection that must occur between the two men as one teaches it to another.