One of my Lodges has three guys waiting for a First Degree. One of them fired off a note to me the other day asking:
“What can I do to prepare for the event (i.e. is there anything that I could research before attending)?”
“Is there anything else I should do to prepare?”
There are probably as many answers as there are Masons, as there tends to be on occasion. But the same thing was brought up by some of the younger guys in another of my Lodges. They raised it when meeting with one of the petitioners (who happily got his E.A. Degree the other night).
Their answer to the questions would be...
Nothing.
The J.W. explained he went on-line before he joined and found a whole pile of ritual and read it over and over. He said doing that kind of spoiled things for him when he took his degrees, though the Lodge’s ceremonies aren’t the same as some done in, say, the U.S. So he advised the petitioner to stay off-line and “wait with patience,” as I seem to recall a certain degree advises one knocking at the door.
There’s a philosophical answer, too, and that deals with another kind of preparation to becoming a Freemason.
The old catechism has the following exchange:
Q — Where were you first prepared to be made a Mason?
A — In my heart.
In this sense, preparation for the First Degree entails following the principles which the candidate will soon discover in the degrees themselves — being thoughtful to others, improving one’s knowledge, connecting with the Creator Above, remaining circumspect when it’s best to do so, and a host of other interrelated things.
After a degree the other night, one of the new brothers remarked that he feels he’s been living like a Freemason all his life. Which is kind of the idea. The fraternity isn’t supposed to bring in members who don’t believe in our noble principles and try, as best as they can, to live up to them.
It seems to me that’s a far better way to prepare than rushing to the internet to maybe find out what the guys do when the blindfold is on. So, prepare, yes. Reseach, no.
“What can I do to prepare for the event (i.e. is there anything that I could research before attending)?”
“Is there anything else I should do to prepare?”
There are probably as many answers as there are Masons, as there tends to be on occasion. But the same thing was brought up by some of the younger guys in another of my Lodges. They raised it when meeting with one of the petitioners (who happily got his E.A. Degree the other night).
Their answer to the questions would be...
Nothing.
The J.W. explained he went on-line before he joined and found a whole pile of ritual and read it over and over. He said doing that kind of spoiled things for him when he took his degrees, though the Lodge’s ceremonies aren’t the same as some done in, say, the U.S. So he advised the petitioner to stay off-line and “wait with patience,” as I seem to recall a certain degree advises one knocking at the door.
There’s a philosophical answer, too, and that deals with another kind of preparation to becoming a Freemason.
The old catechism has the following exchange:
Q — Where were you first prepared to be made a Mason?
A — In my heart.
In this sense, preparation for the First Degree entails following the principles which the candidate will soon discover in the degrees themselves — being thoughtful to others, improving one’s knowledge, connecting with the Creator Above, remaining circumspect when it’s best to do so, and a host of other interrelated things.
After a degree the other night, one of the new brothers remarked that he feels he’s been living like a Freemason all his life. Which is kind of the idea. The fraternity isn’t supposed to bring in members who don’t believe in our noble principles and try, as best as they can, to live up to them.
It seems to me that’s a far better way to prepare than rushing to the internet to maybe find out what the guys do when the blindfold is on. So, prepare, yes. Reseach, no.
