Why do we bother?

Why do we bother?

A short talk for Lodges of Instruction by W. Bro. Huw Shooter LGR

Those of us whose Masonic speciality is ritual are often faced with Brethren who say (and here I quote someone who recently said exactly this!) “My problem with the word perfect ritualist is, does he understand the meaning of the words and phrases or does he just recite the words?”

Now, this question, or a similar one, is usually posed by those who themselves are not word perfect ritualists, and unfortunately often seems to be advanced as an excuse for not making the effort to learn the work. In the particular case of the Brother whom I quoted, I’ve no idea how well he knows the work, but evidently he doesn’t count himself among the word perfect ritualists even if, perhaps, others might think that he comes close.

None of us can ever claim to have a perfect understanding of everything the ritual could mean to everyone, that'd be an impossible task; indeed that impossibility, that imperfectibility of man, is itself one of the important lessons, teaching us that humility is necessary not only for correct relationships between ourselves and with God, but also for sanity itself. However, encouraging each Brother to strive to expand his understanding of the meanings of the ritual is the fundamental teaching method of Freemasonry. This is why our system is "veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols". This is also why we each think and speak of the Craft as being a journey or a process of discovery.

Certainly you can have a word perfect ritualist who doesn't (yet) have much understanding of the meanings therein contained, but that merely means that he's got more work to do, and he's fallen into serious error if he thinks he's finished.

Why become a word perfect ritualist? Well, most start by seeing it merely as a challenge to themselves to see if they can do it, without at first considering its relevance to their overall masonic development, and indeed their human development. Nevertheless, once caught up in the process of learning it, it becomes quite difficult for an intelligent and enquiring mind to avoid contemplating what the words mean and why certain words are chosen rather than others. Those who aren't focussed on learning it thoroughly can (and usually do!) easily skip over or dismiss certain parts without really thinking about them. To that extent, therefore, the rote learning process is automatically helpful to the wider contemplation of what it's all about.

I've often put it this way: if you know what the ritual is, then you may know what it means, but if you don't know what the ritual is, then you can't know what it means.

Once you've memorised the ritual, you're enabled to contemplate the work without having to distract yourself by consulting the book every other minute, which makes it easier to contemplate in odd moments and also (rather importantly) makes it much easier to stand back and try to see the picture as a whole, to see the wood without being blinded by the trees.

So, does being a word perfect ritualist make a Brother a better Mason? Not in itself, although it's pretty unlikely to make him a worse Mason. However, does the process of trying to become a word perfect ritualist make a Brother a better Mason? Almost invariably yes, because it's a learning path which was intentionally built into the Craft's teaching methodology. Is it then the only way of trying to improve yourself as a Mason? No, of course not, but it's certainly one valid way and often turns out to be a more direct path than others. I'm even tempted to say that it's usually a more direct path than others, although I realise that that might be contentious.

But now let's pause for a moment, and consider what we mean when we talk of a word perfect ritualist. I've met and heard of a surprisingly large number of Brethren who either (somewhat immodestly) claim to be such or (much more frequently) are claimed by others to be such. On a closer examination, it's very rarely the literal truth. Most who have been called such (or even think themselves such!) are actually merely pretty fluent and moderately accurate, rather than spot on - and when I say "moderately accurate", I mean able to perform the Master's work with fewer than a hundred mistakes. Yes, a hundred sounds a lot, but I mean what I say - most casual observers simply don't notice most of the smaller errors. I once watched a Brother who was reputed within his own Lodge to be “word perfect” deliver the Explanation of the Second Degree Tracing Board fluently and meaningfully, a fine performance in fact, and he retained his local reputation for being “word perfect”. Actually, however, he had made sixty-three technical errors in the delivery, although hardly any of those present had noticed any of them. Bear in mind, therefore, that “word perfect” means very different things to different Brethren.

Why is it relevant to consider what we mean by "word perfect ritualist"? Because most of the real benefit of learning the ritual exactly comes in the lengthy and strenuous process of eliminating the last few mistakes, which takes at least as long as the entire process of learning up to that point. It is this latter part of the process in which you have to think more carefully about what you're saying and in which the development of understanding more often begins to flower.

Those who are casually called word perfect in most Lodges are, unfortunately, usually those who've given up half-way or less, and so don't necessarily have much more understanding of what they're saying than a parrot. Nevertheless, many such Brethren turn out to have more grasp of it than they're sometimes given credit for having. Unfortunately, there's a quite noticeable tendency on the part of some mentally-lazy Brethren to run down those who take the trouble to learn the ritual, apparently because the self-esteem of the critics feels threatened by those who have made a superior effort, so they try to claim superior innate understanding for themselves as a substitute for having to match the hard mental training undertaken by those who've learnt the work.

Consider now those Brethren who can more genuinely be called word perfect in the ritual. Now here we're talking about a very restricted number of Brethren, at most a few dozen in the whole English jurisdiction. They've put a lot of effort into it, to the extent that if you haven't tried this path yourself you'd find it difficult to believe just how much work it takes. Even so, however, there are those who've got this far by the aid of a remarkable memory and so haven't had to put in quite as much work as others have had to do (although still a heck of a lot!), and thereby haven't (yet) gained as much understanding along the way as others would have (but at least they're in a distinctly advantageous position for their future development). Most of those who have persisted with this path, and I speak as a witness who knows many of them personally, have a conspicuously good appreciation of what the ritual teaches, are more changed by it than most of those who haven't put in a comparable effort, and endeavour to practice it in their daily lives.

So, finally to answer the original question ("... does he understand the meaning of the words and phrases ...?"), the answer (if he's really as accurate as he's alleged to be) is generally "yes, never perfectly but probably much better than some people might want to have to believe".

Whilst it’s obviously unrealistic to expect that most Brethren can have either the time or the inclination to go the whole way and learn all the work perfectly, that’s not really the objective. The purpose of the unique teaching system of Freemasonry is that Brethren should be trying to do so even if they expect in advance that they won’t ever quite get there. The benefit to the individual Brother lies in the process of making a serious and continuing effort, not in the final achievement which may or may not ever be attained.

Even so, regardless of how much individual benefit accrues to the Brother who tries to learn the work, there’s a secondary benefit to the other Brethren of his Lodge. This latter isn’t the real purpose of the Masonic system of teaching, but nevertheless it’s a very real gain, and of course this advantage is that the Ceremonies will run smoothly for other Officers and comprehensibly for Candidates. Not only does putting on a good show help to retain members by looking so much more impressive and engendering more pride in one’s membership, but even the purely “knife-and-fork” Mason gains from his Brethren having made the effort, since competent Ceremonies run faster than when every other word has to be prompted!

So there you have it, Brethren: learn the work. Thoroughly!

Article reprinted with permission of the author.

Copyright (c) 2007 by W.Bro Huw Shooter. All rights reserved.