Learning & Memorizing Ritual

              Ritualist's Corner                          
                                                          
One of the problems that most often plagues Masonry is poor ritual. By
this, I don't just mean getting the words wrong -- I mean ritual that 
is drab and uninspiring, which fails to actually *teach* a candidate. 
Ritual is often mediocre, and it doesn't have to be; anyone can do    
ritual well, provided he knows a little about acting.                 
                                                          
It isn't hard, actually; it's mostly a matter of knowing how to do it,
plus a lot of practice. This article is intended to impart some        
guidelines on how to do Good Ritual. It doesn't demand a lot of time, 
or any particular talent, just a little drive to do well. Read it and 
play with it. With some practice, you should be able to use these     
techniques to good effect in your Lodge. The course is specifically   
aimed at dealing with the longer speeches, but much of it is also     
relevant to shorter pieces; I commend it to junior officers.          
                                                          
This is adapted from a lecture that I worked up for my own lodge;     
having done that, I figured I should try to spread these tips around  
for the common weal of the Craft. (Caveat: I do assume that you have  
some kind of cipher book, with encoded ritual. If your jurisdiction   
doesn't use this, you'll have to adapt these lessons.)                

            1: Figure out the Words                       
                                                          
The first step of learning any ritual is to know what you're saying!  
This should be obvious, but is often overlooked, because brethren are 
afraid to admit that they don't already know the right words. Don't be
afraid to admit your own limits -- I've never met *anyone* who gets   
every single word right every time.                                   
                                                          
Start out by listening to someone say the speech, preferably several  
times. (You should be doing this the entire previous year, listening  
to your predecessor.) Listen carefully, and make sure you understand  
what's being said; ask questions if you don't. (After Lodge, of       
course.)                                                              
                                                          
Next, go through your cipher or code book carefully, and see how much 
you can read. Mark words that you can't figure out, or that you're    
unsure of -- this is the point to catch any mistakes you may be       
making. Then call or get together with a Ritualist or a reliable Past 
Master, and talk through it, reading out of the book slowly. Have him 
correct any mistakes, and fill in the words you don't know. Take notes
(preferably somewhere other than in the book), because you will forget
the corrections as soon as you're on your own.                        

           2: Understand the Speech                       
                                                          
This step gets overlooked even more often than the previous one. Read 
through the ritual a couple of times, and make sure you really grasp  
it. Don't just know the words -- know what it's talking about. Find   
out who the characters being talked about are. Again, ask questions.  
                                                          
Now, start trying to understand the speech structurally. Any ritual is
made up of components, separate pieces that are linked together. For  
example, a section may be talking about symbols, with three paragraphs
per symbol: concrete meaning, abstract meaning, and purpose. Figure   
out what these pieces are -- you'll use them later.                   
                                                          
The next step is especially useful for long speeches -- visualize the 
speech. Any speech can be thought of in terms of movements, places,   
rooms, stuff like that. Words are hard to remember in order; places   
are easy. The canonical example is the Middle Chamber Lecture, which  
walks through King Solomon's Temple. That's no accident -- that path  
is easily visualized, and makes a good example of how to learn ritual,
which is probably why it is the first major speech an officer         
learns. This is why we use symbols in the first place: because they   
are easy to learn and internalize. Use them.                          

         3a: Small-Scale Memorization                     
                                                          
This is never anyone's favorite part; anyone can do it, but no-one    
finds it simple. It's considerably easier if you do it right, though. 
                                                          
Start out by reading the speech over and over. Don't move on to the   
next step until you can read it from the cipher quickly, without      
breaks or hesitation. Read it *out loud*, when you get the chance.    
This step is particularly important, and skipped more often than any  
other. Don't skip it -- this is how you get your brain and mouth      
trained to the words. It may sound silly, but it really matters -- the
mental pathways used to talk are distinct from those used to read.    
                                                          
Now, start trying to learn sentences. Just sentences. Read the first  
word or two of the sentence, then try to fill in the remainder from   
memory. Don't fret if you can't do it immediately; it will probably   
take at least 5 or 10 times through before you're getting most of the 
sentences. You'll find some that are hard -- hammer those ones over   
and over (but don't totally neglect the rest while you do so). Again, 
get to the point where you're doing reasonably well on this, before   
going on to the next step.                                            
                                                          

         3b: Large-Scale Memorization                     
                                                          
Once you've got most of the sentences, try to move on to paragraphs.  
Again, some will be easy and some hard. Try to understand exactly why 
this sentence follows that one -- in most cases, the ritual does make 
sense. An individual paragraph is almost always trying to express a   
single coherent thought, in pieces; figure out what that thought is,  
and why all the pieces are necessary. Keep at this until you're able  
to get most paragraphs by glancing at the first word or two, or by    
thinking, "Okay, this is the description of truth," or something like 
that.                                                                 
                                                          
Finally, start putting it all together. This is where the structural  
analysis in Step 2 gets important. You visualized the speech, and     
figured out how it hooks together; use that visualization to connect  
the paragraphs. Make sure you have some clue why each paragraph       
follows the one before. In almost every case, the next paragraph is   
either a) continuing this thought, or b) moving on to a related       
thought. In both cases, you can make memorization much easier by      
understanding why it flows like that. Convince yourself that this     
paragraph obviously has to follow that one, and you'll never forget   
the order.                                                            

              4: Smoothing It Out                         
                                                          
You're now at the point where you've got pretty much all the sentences
down, and most of the paragraphs, and you're able to get through the  
whole thing only looking at the book a few times. Now, start *saying* 
it.                                                                   
                                                          
When you're driving in the car; when you're alone at home; pretty much
any time you have some privacy, try saying it all out loud, at full   
voice. Trust me, it sounds very different when you actually say it    
aloud. You'll find that you stumble more, and in different places.    
Some words turn out to be more difficult to pronounce than you        
expected. Try it a few times.                                         
                                                          
Start out by trying to do this frequently -- once, even twice every   
day. It'll be hard at first (and it's a real pain to pull out the     
cipher book while you're driving), but it'll gradually get easier.    
When you're starting to feel comfortable, slow down, but don't stop.  
Practice it every couple of days, then every week.  Don't slow down   
below once a week. If you feel up to it, see if you can speed up your 
recitation. (But do not ever speed-talk the ritual in open Lodge --   
that's for memorization and rehearsal only.)                          

                  5a: Mindset                             
                                                          
Last part. You're now at the point where you pretty much have the     
ritual memorized. Now, the trick is learning how to perform it well.  
Very nearly everyone has some amount of stage fright; us acting types 
often have it even worse than most. The trick to overcoming it is     
control of the nerves.                                                
                                                          
Now that you're comfortable reciting the ritual, observe how you do   
it. By now, you're not thinking about it so much; your mouth is doing 
almost all the work, with the conscious mind simply making a few      
connections between paragraphs. That is the right state to be in.     
Think about how that feels, and learn it.                             
                                                          
Before you go in to "perform", do some basic acting exercises. Take a 
few deep breaths; concentrate on not thinking. I think the ideal is a 
little light meditation, but it takes a fair bit of practice to be    
able to drop into that state on demand; for now, just worry about     
being calm. Being calm is far more important than anything else. If   
you're calm, you're unlikely to screw up too badly; if you're tense,  
you're far more likely to. Some people like to exercise the body a    
bit, to relax the mind; you should do what works for you.             

                  5b: Acting                              
                                                          
Now the final nuance, which separates merely competent ritual from the
really good stuff. Now that you're able to let your mouth do all the  
talking, start listening to yourself. Think about the ritual again,   
but don't think about the words, think about what it means. What are  
the important bits? Emphasize those. How could you use your body or   
hands to illustrate a point? Try talking *to* the person in front of  
you, not just *at* them -- look them in the eye and make them get the 
point. You are teaching important lessons here; try to capture a      
little of the emotional intensity of that importance.                 
                                                          
Think of your "performance" as a melding of two parts. Your mouth is  
providing the words, your mind and heart the emotion. Again, nothing  
beats practice. This is what rehearsal should really be for -- taking 
a dummy candidate in hand, and learning how to really get the point   
across. Don't fret if you find that you need to change "modes" now and
then -- here and there you will need to think about the words briefly,
when you change paragraphs or hit a hard sentence. That won't throw   
you, though, so long as you keep track of what you're saying; you've  
already figured out why each part leads into the next, and that will  
guide you when you stumble.                                           

                  Conclusion                              
                                                          
Don't expect to get all this down instantly; it takes most people a   
few years to really get good at it. Just try to advance yourself bit  
by bit. Learn the transitions and pieces first -- if you have that,   
you can get through the ritual. Next time, work on memorizing more    
thoroughly. The time after that, work on getting it really smooth.    
After a while, you can build up to the point where you have the luxury
to act. And at that point, you will find that you start doing the kind
of ritual that Masonry is meant to have -- both moving and            
interesting, enough so that the candidate (who is, remember, the whole
point) actually *learns* what you're saying, and what it actually     
means. And if you really do it well, you'll find that you come to     
understand the meaning of the ritual a good deal better yourself...