July 31, 2023 • 32 mins
Ritual is the heart and soul of Freemasonry as Masonic Degrees are performed and conferred to candidates. Bro. Jason Short returns to discuss how the performance of ritual shapes the experience and acts as a catalyst to bring deeper meaning to the words of degree work.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
Welcome to the Craftsman Online Podcast,the only five star rated Masonic podcast endorsed
by the Grand Lodge in New York. Any opinions, thoughts, or viewpoints
shared during this program are that ofthe individual and do not reflect the official
position of any Grand Lodge appendant orconcordinate body from which that member may hail.
I'm your host, brother Michael Arsay, co founder of Craftsman Online dot
com. A quick reminder, youcan now listen early and add free with
(00:37):
our new subscriber offer. Just clickon the link in this show's bio to
start your free trial today. You'vejoined us for an episode this week on
the arts of performing ritual, aswe welcome back one of our favorite returning
guests, Brother Jason Short. Welcomeback, Brother Jason. Thank you very
much. It's pleasure to be here. Yeah, we've had you talk about
a lot of the esoteric aspects ofthe craft. You've shared your research into
(01:00):
some of our degree work and ritual, and with tonight's episode, I really
feel like we're going to get intothe grist of it, which is the
performance of ritual, which that's reallythe whole experience there. Before we get
into talking about that I want toreflect a little bit on your background.
Can you comment on what you doprofessionally and how that applies to your work
(01:23):
in the craft? Sure well.I'm an independent producer and craftsman with the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees andStudio Mechanics Union Local fifty two. I've
been involved with the theatrical arts andentertainment since nineteen ninety five, landing my
first professional role in nineteen ninety seven, and then spent the entirety of my
(01:49):
youth employed and involved in the regionaland community theaters in Northern Colorado. I
got a scholarship to move to NewYork in two thousand and eight to attend
the New York Conservatory for Dramatic ArtsSchool of Film, Television and Theater and
did their two year conservatory program.After graduated, I started to focus a
(02:12):
little bit more on film and televisionproduction and more behind the scenes than in
front of the camera, and eventuallytook the course through the Hollywood Film Institute
to study producing and directing and foundmyself also enjoying building scenery and so for
(02:38):
financial and emotional stability, joined theLocal fifty two as a craftsman I didn't
know all of that about you.I knew that you when we had first
met, you had mentioned that,oh yeah, I'm a craftsman, and
I'm like, like a real craftsman, like a craftsman online craftsman like and
no, no, I work inthe theater district and I, you know,
helped build sets. I think howyou described it. I had no
(03:00):
idea you had this whole other educationand background and experience. It's so awesome.
It's been a trip. I rememberit was really funny at one point
in my life thinking, Wow,I've spent like half of my life in
performance. How cool. And nowI look back and it's been twenty seven
years, almost twenty eight years.I feel like we have the perfect guest
(03:22):
because you're, in my opinion,like an expert on performance and production.
And that's what we're going to getinto on this episode, is talking about
the performance of ritual. And Ijust want to say this one at the
bat. I mean, we'd sayin the disclaimer it's our own viewpoints,
our own opinions, but the purposeof this episode is not to scold brethren,
but rather to provide some tips onhow to enhance the degree experience for
(03:45):
everybody that's involved, not just thecandidate, but sometimes the other brothers that
are around before we get into theactual ritual part. I'm just curious because
I also had a theater and performancebackground as a kid performing in my local
community theater. When you first witnessedritual and this would be, you know,
(04:08):
in your first degree, after acertain point of the degree, you
are aware you can see everything that'shappening in the room. When did you
kind of make a connection that,Okay, this is not from They're not
speaking from the heart per se.They're repeating lines that come from a script
somewhere, you know. I wasreally fortunate for my first degree to have
(04:32):
coincided with the end of the pandemic, and so the brothers who were presenting
it had done a really great jobof preparing. It was really well memorized
and then presented like through and throughand so understanding that what was going on
(04:55):
had to be ritual, like weknew that going and that this was a
presentation of such. But it wasso seamlessly done. Um where after the
fact, it left me with asense of inspiration to to continue to do
that. Like I wanted to participatein doing that, um, and you
(05:21):
know it's it's funny and you kindof touched on this before. How um,
you know, some degree work happensand it's not that great and um,
those experiences you can tell when peopleare stumbling over lines and other people
are feeding them lines, that you'rein the middle of this kind of performance
(05:44):
and it breaks breaks the fourth wallis kind of like a performance terminology,
and that you're you're all of asudden um making the audience aware of of
the gag, you know. Andso for me, for my first experience
(06:09):
with it to have been so polishedin Pristine was a blessing. I can
only imagine what brothers feel like afterwitnessing a degree for the first time that
is just stumbling all over the place. I don't know, because well you're
talking about that. I was alsopart of a lodge that we had a
(06:30):
first degree that we conferred and peoplewould refer to them as the COVID degrees,
which means absolutely nothing. The ritual, as you had said, if
anything, was better because we havean exemplar going through the role of the
candidates, so that takes a lotof stress off of certain parts of the
performance of the ritual to where there'sjust unknown factor because we don't know what
(06:53):
this other person who hasn't rehearsed orisn't aware of the script is going to
do or say at certain parts.So we have more of a fixed outcome.
But in my experience, I wasamazing before COVID, and I just
remember being super nervous myself with everythingthat goes to preparing for that first degree.
(07:14):
There's that excitement that's inside of you, that hey, this thing that
I really wanted to do, thatI visited this lodge, I kind of
hung out with some of these guys, Like now they know my name,
they are excited for me to dothis thing. And now I'm putting on
this weird outfit and I'm sitting inthis room with other people and it's dark
and they're telling me what to doand I have no idea. And then
this door opens up and then allthese things start happening to me, and
(07:39):
I can't see anything because I havea bo So at that point I wasn't
really paying attention to any of theritual. And because we're both New York
Masons, we also come from theNew York ritual, which is steeped in
old English. So I'm sitting heresaying, did he just say whence came?
You? Like, what are theytalking about? So it really he
(08:00):
didn't dawn on me until much laterin the degree. And those who have
gone through are gonna know the pointthat I'm talking about. When I say
the presentation of the working tools,that's when the brother that was doing that
was stumbling, and it was thefirst time that there was a pause.
And then I didn't know who thebrother was, but those are in the
(08:22):
know, it was the secretary thatwould prompt the next line, and then
he kind of picked up when afew more words had this like you could
tell he was having a mental block, and the secretary was prompting, and
the poor guy was sweating and nervousand just kind of rushed through it and
finished. And then after the degree, as we were getting redressed in our
(08:43):
suit and tie, he came intothe preparation room and said, look,
I'm really sorry, I got nervous. Can I just do my part so
that you can hear this because thisis very important? And I was actually
kind of moved by that. Onthe flip side, I have seen guys
that have performed ritual in front ofme, and I'll say his name,
(09:05):
Matthew Brockbank from my mother Lodge,Saint John's Number six in Schenectady. He's
amazing. He can do the historicallecture all by himself, flawlessly, and
he walks around the lodge and it'sthe definition of playing with a snowball.
I had no idea that he wasdoing something from memory until he started getting
(09:31):
to certain parts in the historical lecturethat have the old English, and I
realized, oh my gosh, thisguy didn't write these words. He's repeating
them, but he knows them sowell that it feels like he's communicating them
to me. And that to mewas just super yeah, super magical.
I'll never forget that. The firstimpression that we really get coming in the
(09:54):
room is engaging with ritual, thatfirst performance that's given to us, and
it has such a profound impact.And since since my first degree, I've
been able to participate in in degreesour lodge. Actually, that initial class
of entered apprentices, they were like, welcome to the craft. By the
(10:16):
way, here's a script. Nextmonth, you guys are going to confer
the first degree for the guys behindyou, which is a really powerful kind
of trial by fire hose experience.But put a lot of press your own
brothers, because again, in mymind, performance has a very important place
(10:43):
and understanding. If you mess thatup, like hey, the show must
go on. You know, yougot to get through it. But this
has the power to really impact thetrajectory of a brother's life going forward.
You really have this, this onechance to to really inculcate the way that
(11:07):
hand be the profound nature of thesedegrees to somebody. And let's let's be
honest, is that's not always goingto happen. I think it's really beautiful
when we do see brothers. We'rereally fortunate to have so many brothers in
the craft who are so passionate aboutit that they make the work their own.
(11:31):
And you can hear like a MiddleChamber lecture or historical lecture or you
know, even a charge or thewise and wherefores even there's some brothers out
there that they take these sections ofthe ritual that are are kind of difficult
to present, especially in New Yorkwith the Old English, and do so
(11:52):
in a way that humanizes it.Yeah, it really becomes in a right
spot on as they really become performing, and if you're just a sideliner watching
that night, you're not going throughit yourself. You start to recall your
experience, and now you can reallyhear the words, like you're not just
listening to them, you're hearing thewords. You're understanding that message that's underneath
(12:13):
it because that brother has done suchan awesome job of performing it when it
got to your night, for degrees, how much did you know about that
was coming? Because I was theguy that when they said, don't read
this chapter and the dummies Guide toFreemasonry or Freemasonry for idiots, I'm like,
what chapter you said? Six?Was it seven? Let me get
right to that. I'm flipping right. I want to know what's happening.
(12:35):
I had to make a conscious effortnot to ruin the surprise for myself.
I wanted some sort of profound effects. Of course, I dabbled into YouTube,
and of course we dabbled into whatwas available on Amazon or Netflix at
the time. And during during thepandemic, the some of the mentors from
(13:01):
our lodge had even had this thisSunday roundtable series going and they would send
out like a little snippet like alittle appetizer of Masonic education that really made
me want to dig deeper. ButI'm glad I didn't because going through the
(13:22):
door, I had no idea whatto expect. And without giving too much
away, again, those who knowwill know how we are received. You
know, you walk into the lodgeroom and then how you are received.
Was was a moment that I waslike, Oh, this this is real,
(13:43):
this is gonna be real. Hey, it's brother Michael RC, co
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(14:05):
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listening experience to the next level.I know that each lodge has its own
(15:13):
way of how they prepare for adegree. I've seen some really scary ones
where it's like, hey, guys, we have a you know, a
new brother that's gonna be coming in. We gotta get ready for the EA
degree. It's going to be nextmonth, it's going to be here,
and who wants to do what?Or other lodges where they'll assign a officer
to kind of be the director orthe herdsman for lack of a better term,
(15:37):
to bring everybody together, assign theparts, get everything set up,
really kind of direct and produce thedegree for that evening. How does your
lodge do it or what's a successfulway that you've seen it done. Our
lodge has a ritual director who workslike the agl in making sure people are
(15:58):
rehearsed, know their part, etc. They also typically oversee the assignment of
roles. However, my lodge alsohas had a history back before the pandemic,
and I think, and just aside note, I think across the
(16:18):
nation, lodge attendance is still prettydown. So traditionally, having the officers
of the lodge perform the roles thatthey are assigned when they are installed is
the way to do it. Andthen what we would do in our lodge
(16:40):
is our junior warden then confers thefirst degree, and the Worshipful Master sits
in and the junior warden spot,or you have a past master sit in
in the junior warden spot, thesenior warden doing the second degree, and
then of course the Worshipful Master conferringthe third degree. They break up some
of the word ful Master's work,which I've seen in New York is one
(17:03):
of the common things we do well, We'll have a different brother do the
working tools. We have a brotherdo the apron presentation. Personally, I
would love to be able to bein the east and do all of those
parts, because when we get tothe wise and wherefores and the questions and
answers, there are parts that indicatethat the Worshipful Master has conferred certain things
(17:26):
upon us. And I guess there'sa bit of a traditionalist in me that
that would love to see that happen. However, that's the way that my
lodge does it. I think thatto really successfully do it, it's a
matter of a understanding what's going towork for your lodge based on your membership,
(17:51):
who's who's actually attending, and thenbe having a culture when you get
to assigning officer positions and when youget to assigning the chairs that every brother
is stepping into a leadership role understandsthat they will be conferring that work.
One of the cool things was pointedout to me that our lodge used to
(18:12):
do was the junior deacon would conferthe historical lecture in the first degree.
Senior deacon obviously does the middle chamberlecture and the tyler would be the senior
deacon on deck and while they're outsideof the lodge would be studying the middle
(18:34):
Chamber lecture for the following year.It's interesting to hear how each lodge has
their own way of organizing a degree, and I think one of the key
components who talked about is the ritualdirector. I think that that is super
important because this person really works asan aide for the worshipful Master when it
(18:55):
comes to Okay, the lodge hasjust balloted, we've accepted this brother.
Now we've got to go through thedegrees. We're not going to have this
freak out because if we have agreat worshipful Master who's put together a trustle
board, he's already kind of alreadyplanned for this and can be a little
flexible to move things around. Butthe ritual director takes a lot of the
work off of the master's plate andsaying, all right, the pillar officers
(19:15):
are going to do their parts,just as you know, Jason, you
were saying, and then everyone that'selected to a chair they should be doing
their role for that evening. Ifthey're not able to, then we need
to find film ins and where dowe have holes and gaps. Okay,
and then here's the next key thing. How are we going to set up
a practice schedule? Where are wegoing to have rehearsals? Who needs to
(19:37):
be there? And I'll never forgetthis because initially it used to drive me
crazy. But my mother lodge inSchenectady, we would have our degree rehearsals
on Sunday nights, I want tosay, like around seven, six or
seven, which was painful for mebecause I think it was the only guy
that watched football that was like,oh man, I missed the end of
(20:00):
the late game. And I rememberlike almost getting into a heated argument with
the ritual director at the time becauseI was a senior steward so I had
zero speaking part. I really neededto be there for the floor work,
which a candidate doesn't see. Bythe way, I'm the only so I'm
and I remember saying to him,this is a volunteer organization. Why do
(20:23):
I need to be coming to this. I could be spending But I saw
the value in it. Years later, when I did have a speaking part,
when I was the senior deacon andI knew the floor work of how
to lead a candida around the lodge, I could have done it if I
was blindfold instead of the candidate thatwas during the degree. So I think
that those are the kind of thekey components there. We've had to get
(20:45):
creative with my lodge here in DCbecause we only meet once a month,
so and we don't own the buildingthat we meet, and that's the other
caveat there. So I've actually hadoutside degree work in my backyard. I
set up an outdoor symbolic lawn chairdegree and we sit in those chairs and
(21:07):
do our parts. And my yard'sbig enough the neighbors nobody can hear anything,
and my wife just will occasionally likelook outside to see what we're doing.
And that's it. But I thinkthe getting together and doing it in
person, that's important not just forthe brotherhood of the craft, but also
for the fellowship in between the memberson the team, because you know where
(21:27):
you're just like a team, orif we were throwing a ball to each
other, you know where this guy'sgonna maybe have some tough parts, and
there's ways you can slow down yourdelivery to give him time so that he
can be ready for his next line. It is kind of like this is
our sporting event, you know,you wouldn't. You wouldn't just go out
and play a game of ball andnever have practiced or never scrimmaged. You
(21:51):
do terrible all the time. Youwould never win. And ritual is our
opportunity as a lodge, not justto make a lasting impression on the candidate
or or the brother, UM,but to also show off as a lodge.
You know, this is the presentationthat we do most um outwardly for
(22:12):
brothers to come and intend, youknow, so so having the respect for
the floor work, having respect forthe presentation, UM, that level of
prestige, like that's that's your lodgessignature, you know. And I think
I think part part of UM,some of the issue, and a lot
(22:33):
of it comes down to I thinkattendance. Like when you have more people
who are showing up to a lodge, UM, you'll get the guys who
really want to do ritual work.And whether they're the seated officer or whether
they're a dedicated degree team, whichI know some lodges and districts have,
UM, you get people who reallyunderstand that prestige. Garibaldi Lodge in New
(22:56):
York is a great example. Here'sa lodge that has dispensation to confer um
their degree in italian um and alsoin UH. I believe it's the only
Scottish right UH degree that's that's conferredin New York. For the Blue Lodge
system, man, people come fromall over the world to see them perform
(23:21):
their ritual and having that culture orhaving that that drive to when you get
your officers together and when you whenyou go for this rehearsal where everybody's on
board that this is like we're aboutto play ball here, like we're we're
about to go in and and um, you know, we could lose,
(23:42):
but let's win. That's a greatsaying. Actually, like somehow just try
to inspire the teamwork element. That'sone thing that I bring to to all
of the projects that I've heard.That's one of the things that I really
loved about theater is the ensemble atmosphereyou're in. This is a team's sport.
(24:07):
I want to talk to a pointyou made. It's a big phrase
in the corporate world. Right peopleright roles or best people in the best
roles or the best outcome. ButI think for Lodges and you had mentioned,
you know, I'd like to bethe master that can confer all the
parts of the Master. And Ithink really only those who have gone through
the experience and now not only knowthat, but also themselves have studied the
(24:33):
ritual, know what the real partsof the Master are presenting the apron,
the working tools. Sometimes we quoteunquote farm those out to other brothers,
or we have other brothers. Ifyou have a great lodge, like you
said, they want to be apart of the degree. You're like,
oh, cool, you can handlethis. You do the charge, You
do a fantastic job with that.I've seen a brotherho gives the charge that
(24:53):
it sounds like your dad is givingyou a lecture, and no, you
can hear people breathe. Well,he is doing his part, like he
is very stern and very focused,and you really feel like you're being charged
yourself. It's not just something that'sbeing read to you. I like to
see all stars that can come inand kind of help with that. I
(25:15):
was curious your thoughts if you havea brother, because I've come across a
few that ritual is really not theirthing. They struggled with the Catechism memorizing
their part. Maybe they're not agreat public speaker. They just get nervous,
they don't feel whatever the situation maybe, how do you feel about
them if especially if they're sitting ina chair or they have an important position
(25:38):
in the lodge taking a sideline rolefor that evening. I think it's really
important for a lodge to have anunderstanding and a respect for what it is
that they do. And part ofthat is, I think being realistic.
You know, not every brother iscut out or doing ritual work, and
(26:00):
that's okay. That's why we openand close the lodge, you know,
that's why we conduct business and givebrothers who who want to be an officer
position the opportunity to participate. Withthat being said, if you have a
brother that has could be a pastmaster, it could be a newly initiated
(26:21):
brother who gets into the craft andis really really on point, and you
know that that's going to make animpression on a hoodwinked brother coming through the
door. Embrace that part of beingpart of a team is understanding our individual
limitations, but understanding also what we'recapable of doing together. And if that
(26:45):
means you got to maybe have adesignated degree team who's going to make a
really, really profound impact on peopleand they take pride in doing that.
Then lay into it. Where youwos brothers is when you force the ritual
down their throat, when you forcethem into a position where they're not prepared
(27:07):
or they're not really wanting to engageor put themselves out there, because that's
embarrassing for them, and ultimately that'llbe embarrassing for the lodge, especially if
you're trying to make an impression onbrothers coming through the door. At the
end of the day, our esotericand our esoteric balance and kind of our
(27:33):
internal and external balance comes down toour presentation and what our culture is.
Yeah, I can tell you comefrom a good lodge and you can pick
that up from Brothers when they talkabout the degree being an experience not just
for the candidate, but to kindof lift everybody in the room. And
here's how you know. One ofmy how do you know if you had
(27:53):
a great degree night is that afterthe degree, there's an instant conversation that
starts somewhere or something that happened.There's questions that are being asked a not
so great degree. As we godownstairs, we have our cake and coffee,
we break for the evening, everybodyhas their cars and we meet up
again at the next meeting. Oneof my favorite degrees was a third degree
(28:14):
we did recently here where we gotinto a conversation immediately with the brothers that
we had just raised that evening aboutthe role of the Ruffians and why they
accosted to him a biff and whatthe significance of that was, and all
these questions that they were asking.And I was down there with them for
sorry, upstairs with them for probablya good hour afterwards, and just really
(28:38):
engaged and connected in this conversation andstarted seeing other seasoned or veteran brothers,
you know, coming in and leaningin and offering their input. And really,
this is what freemasonry is about,like the performance of good ritual.
When we go to a good playor dinner theater or any kind of performing
art, you're like, Wow,that's talent, that's beautiful. But it's
(29:02):
the how it inspires you, andthat's the art of it that takes it
to the next level. That tome, that's the high five that happens
when I know I've been a partof a good degree team. It's that
lasting effect that I think we reallyare all in search of because we want
to be inspired. You know,people people watch a movie because you want
(29:22):
to feel an effect. You goto see a play because you want to
be affected. That's that's kind ofthe beauty of it. Um, you
know, in the tradition of storytellingis to affect the audience. Yeah,
illustrious brother Stenric Adams was saying,brought up this quote by Maya Angelo recently,
(29:48):
and it's that I've learned that peoplewill forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, butpeople will never forget how you may them
feel. And walking away from thefirst degree ritual, you're either going to
have be very excited and have amillion questions I want to know more or
(30:14):
the third degree, especially like doesthis have what's the philosophical significance? What's
allegorical? Is this some cosmic drama? What's going on? You know,
you want that effect, but theydon't necessarily know exactly the words or or
exactly who did what, especially ifthey're hoodwinked until they themselves have a cathartic
(30:37):
moment and re examine the degree work. I was talking to a brother the
other night. We had we hadseen one of the Scottish rite degrees and
coming back from it, it's justlike, I don't know if I'm the
only person who does this, butafter seeing a degree, trying to imagine
like what this would have been likein the nineteenth century in a really really
(31:02):
populated lodge, Like what was thattone back when memorization like it was a
prerequisite for being able to get upthere, back when like the threat of
the obligation actually seemed like, man, I could walk out of here and
that that could happen to me tonight, there's like just a certain profound appreciation
(31:22):
for the presentation of the degrees,for the presentation of that moment that I
think comes with again having the respectfor the culture of your lodge, giving
yourself the permission to have fun withthe degree, and while throughout understanding that
(31:45):
you're there to inculcate this knowledge onan audience. If you do great degree
work, you're going to make amazingMasons and that cycle is going to continue,
right. Yeah, Yeah, that'sI mean, that's the gold again,
one of my favorite guests to haveon. We're going to bring him
back as soon as we can.Brother Jason Short, thank you so much
(32:07):
for being a part of us again. Thank you, Brother Arci. A
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(32:31):
time. Let peace and harmony prevailed.
Welcome to the Craftsman Online Podcast,the only five star rated Masonic podcast endorsed
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I'm your host, brother Michael Arsay, co founder of Craftsman Online dot
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(00:37):
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start your free trial today. You'vejoined us for an episode this week on
the arts of performing ritual, aswe welcome back one of our favorite returning
guests, Brother Jason Short. Welcomeback, Brother Jason. Thank you very
much. It's pleasure to be here. Yeah, we've had you talk about
a lot of the esoteric aspects ofthe craft. You've shared your research into
(01:00):
some of our degree work and ritual, and with tonight's episode, I really
feel like we're going to get intothe grist of it, which is the
performance of ritual, which that's reallythe whole experience there. Before we get
into talking about that I want toreflect a little bit on your background.
Can you comment on what you doprofessionally and how that applies to your work
(01:23):
in the craft? Sure well.I'm an independent producer and craftsman with the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees andStudio Mechanics Union Local fifty two. I've
been involved with the theatrical arts andentertainment since nineteen ninety five, landing my
first professional role in nineteen ninety seven, and then spent the entirety of my
(01:49):
youth employed and involved in the regionaland community theaters in Northern Colorado. I
got a scholarship to move to NewYork in two thousand and eight to attend
the New York Conservatory for Dramatic ArtsSchool of Film, Television and Theater and
did their two year conservatory program.After graduated, I started to focus a
(02:12):
little bit more on film and televisionproduction and more behind the scenes than in
front of the camera, and eventuallytook the course through the Hollywood Film Institute
to study producing and directing and foundmyself also enjoying building scenery and so for
(02:38):
financial and emotional stability, joined theLocal fifty two as a craftsman I didn't
know all of that about you.I knew that you when we had first
met, you had mentioned that,oh yeah, I'm a craftsman, and
I'm like, like a real craftsman, like a craftsman online craftsman like and
no, no, I work inthe theater district and I, you know,
helped build sets. I think howyou described it. I had no
(03:00):
idea you had this whole other educationand background and experience. It's so awesome.
It's been a trip. I rememberit was really funny at one point
in my life thinking, Wow,I've spent like half of my life in
performance. How cool. And nowI look back and it's been twenty seven
years, almost twenty eight years.I feel like we have the perfect guest
(03:22):
because you're, in my opinion,like an expert on performance and production.
And that's what we're going to getinto on this episode, is talking about
the performance of ritual. And Ijust want to say this one at the
bat. I mean, we'd sayin the disclaimer it's our own viewpoints,
our own opinions, but the purposeof this episode is not to scold brethren,
but rather to provide some tips onhow to enhance the degree experience for
(03:45):
everybody that's involved, not just thecandidate, but sometimes the other brothers that
are around before we get into theactual ritual part. I'm just curious because
I also had a theater and performancebackground as a kid performing in my local
community theater. When you first witnessedritual and this would be, you know,
(04:08):
in your first degree, after acertain point of the degree, you
are aware you can see everything that'shappening in the room. When did you
kind of make a connection that,Okay, this is not from They're not
speaking from the heart per se.They're repeating lines that come from a script
somewhere, you know. I wasreally fortunate for my first degree to have
(04:32):
coincided with the end of the pandemic, and so the brothers who were presenting
it had done a really great jobof preparing. It was really well memorized
and then presented like through and throughand so understanding that what was going on
(04:55):
had to be ritual, like weknew that going and that this was a
presentation of such. But it wasso seamlessly done. Um where after the
fact, it left me with asense of inspiration to to continue to do
that. Like I wanted to participatein doing that, um, and you
(05:21):
know it's it's funny and you kindof touched on this before. How um,
you know, some degree work happensand it's not that great and um,
those experiences you can tell when peopleare stumbling over lines and other people
are feeding them lines, that you'rein the middle of this kind of performance
(05:44):
and it breaks breaks the fourth wallis kind of like a performance terminology,
and that you're you're all of asudden um making the audience aware of of
the gag, you know. Andso for me, for my first experience
(06:09):
with it to have been so polishedin Pristine was a blessing. I can
only imagine what brothers feel like afterwitnessing a degree for the first time that
is just stumbling all over the place. I don't know, because well you're
talking about that. I was alsopart of a lodge that we had a
(06:30):
first degree that we conferred and peoplewould refer to them as the COVID degrees,
which means absolutely nothing. The ritual, as you had said, if
anything, was better because we havean exemplar going through the role of the
candidates, so that takes a lotof stress off of certain parts of the
performance of the ritual to where there'sjust unknown factor because we don't know what
(06:53):
this other person who hasn't rehearsed orisn't aware of the script is going to
do or say at certain parts.So we have more of a fixed outcome.
But in my experience, I wasamazing before COVID, and I just
remember being super nervous myself with everythingthat goes to preparing for that first degree.
(07:14):
There's that excitement that's inside of you, that hey, this thing that
I really wanted to do, thatI visited this lodge, I kind of
hung out with some of these guys, Like now they know my name,
they are excited for me to dothis thing. And now I'm putting on
this weird outfit and I'm sitting inthis room with other people and it's dark
and they're telling me what to doand I have no idea. And then
this door opens up and then allthese things start happening to me, and
(07:39):
I can't see anything because I havea bo So at that point I wasn't
really paying attention to any of theritual. And because we're both New York
Masons, we also come from theNew York ritual, which is steeped in
old English. So I'm sitting heresaying, did he just say whence came?
You? Like, what are theytalking about? So it really he
(08:00):
didn't dawn on me until much laterin the degree. And those who have
gone through are gonna know the pointthat I'm talking about. When I say
the presentation of the working tools,that's when the brother that was doing that
was stumbling, and it was thefirst time that there was a pause.
And then I didn't know who thebrother was, but those are in the
(08:22):
know, it was the secretary thatwould prompt the next line, and then
he kind of picked up when afew more words had this like you could
tell he was having a mental block, and the secretary was prompting, and
the poor guy was sweating and nervousand just kind of rushed through it and
finished. And then after the degree, as we were getting redressed in our
(08:43):
suit and tie, he came intothe preparation room and said, look,
I'm really sorry, I got nervous. Can I just do my part so
that you can hear this because thisis very important? And I was actually
kind of moved by that. Onthe flip side, I have seen guys
that have performed ritual in front ofme, and I'll say his name,
(09:05):
Matthew Brockbank from my mother Lodge,Saint John's Number six in Schenectady. He's
amazing. He can do the historicallecture all by himself, flawlessly, and
he walks around the lodge and it'sthe definition of playing with a snowball.
I had no idea that he wasdoing something from memory until he started getting
(09:31):
to certain parts in the historical lecturethat have the old English, and I
realized, oh my gosh, thisguy didn't write these words. He's repeating
them, but he knows them sowell that it feels like he's communicating them
to me. And that to mewas just super yeah, super magical.
I'll never forget that. The firstimpression that we really get coming in the
(09:54):
room is engaging with ritual, thatfirst performance that's given to us, and
it has such a profound impact.And since since my first degree, I've
been able to participate in in degreesour lodge. Actually, that initial class
of entered apprentices, they were like, welcome to the craft. By the
(10:16):
way, here's a script. Nextmonth, you guys are going to confer
the first degree for the guys behindyou, which is a really powerful kind
of trial by fire hose experience.But put a lot of press your own
brothers, because again, in mymind, performance has a very important place
(10:43):
and understanding. If you mess thatup, like hey, the show must
go on. You know, yougot to get through it. But this
has the power to really impact thetrajectory of a brother's life going forward.
You really have this, this onechance to to really inculcate the way that
(11:07):
hand be the profound nature of thesedegrees to somebody. And let's let's be
honest, is that's not always goingto happen. I think it's really beautiful
when we do see brothers. We'rereally fortunate to have so many brothers in
the craft who are so passionate aboutit that they make the work their own.
(11:31):
And you can hear like a MiddleChamber lecture or historical lecture or you
know, even a charge or thewise and wherefores even there's some brothers out
there that they take these sections ofthe ritual that are are kind of difficult
to present, especially in New Yorkwith the Old English, and do so
(11:52):
in a way that humanizes it.Yeah, it really becomes in a right
spot on as they really become performing, and if you're just a sideliner watching
that night, you're not going throughit yourself. You start to recall your
experience, and now you can reallyhear the words, like you're not just
listening to them, you're hearing thewords. You're understanding that message that's underneath
(12:13):
it because that brother has done suchan awesome job of performing it when it
got to your night, for degrees, how much did you know about that
was coming? Because I was theguy that when they said, don't read
this chapter and the dummies Guide toFreemasonry or Freemasonry for idiots, I'm like,
what chapter you said? Six?Was it seven? Let me get
right to that. I'm flipping right. I want to know what's happening.
(12:35):
I had to make a conscious effortnot to ruin the surprise for myself.
I wanted some sort of profound effects. Of course, I dabbled into YouTube,
and of course we dabbled into whatwas available on Amazon or Netflix at
the time. And during during thepandemic, the some of the mentors from
(13:01):
our lodge had even had this thisSunday roundtable series going and they would send
out like a little snippet like alittle appetizer of Masonic education that really made
me want to dig deeper. ButI'm glad I didn't because going through the
(13:22):
door, I had no idea whatto expect. And without giving too much
away, again, those who knowwill know how we are received. You
know, you walk into the lodgeroom and then how you are received.
Was was a moment that I waslike, Oh, this this is real,
(13:43):
this is gonna be real. Hey, it's brother Michael RC, co
founder of Craftsman Online and hosts ofthe podcast. Though you're listening too now.
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(14:05):
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listening experience to the next level.I know that each lodge has its own
(15:13):
way of how they prepare for adegree. I've seen some really scary ones
where it's like, hey, guys, we have a you know, a
new brother that's gonna be coming in. We gotta get ready for the EA
degree. It's going to be nextmonth, it's going to be here,
and who wants to do what?Or other lodges where they'll assign a officer
to kind of be the director orthe herdsman for lack of a better term,
(15:37):
to bring everybody together, assign theparts, get everything set up,
really kind of direct and produce thedegree for that evening. How does your
lodge do it or what's a successfulway that you've seen it done. Our
lodge has a ritual director who workslike the agl in making sure people are
(15:58):
rehearsed, know their part, etc. They also typically oversee the assignment of
roles. However, my lodge alsohas had a history back before the pandemic,
and I think, and just aside note, I think across the
(16:18):
nation, lodge attendance is still prettydown. So traditionally, having the officers
of the lodge perform the roles thatthey are assigned when they are installed is
the way to do it. Andthen what we would do in our lodge
(16:40):
is our junior warden then confers thefirst degree, and the Worshipful Master sits
in and the junior warden spot,or you have a past master sit in
in the junior warden spot, thesenior warden doing the second degree, and
then of course the Worshipful Master conferringthe third degree. They break up some
of the word ful Master's work,which I've seen in New York is one
(17:03):
of the common things we do well, We'll have a different brother do the
working tools. We have a brotherdo the apron presentation. Personally, I
would love to be able to bein the east and do all of those
parts, because when we get tothe wise and wherefores and the questions and
answers, there are parts that indicatethat the Worshipful Master has conferred certain things
(17:26):
upon us. And I guess there'sa bit of a traditionalist in me that
that would love to see that happen. However, that's the way that my
lodge does it. I think thatto really successfully do it, it's a
matter of a understanding what's going towork for your lodge based on your membership,
(17:51):
who's who's actually attending, and thenbe having a culture when you get
to assigning officer positions and when youget to assigning the chairs that every brother
is stepping into a leadership role understandsthat they will be conferring that work.
One of the cool things was pointedout to me that our lodge used to
(18:12):
do was the junior deacon would conferthe historical lecture in the first degree.
Senior deacon obviously does the middle chamberlecture and the tyler would be the senior
deacon on deck and while they're outsideof the lodge would be studying the middle
(18:34):
Chamber lecture for the following year.It's interesting to hear how each lodge has
their own way of organizing a degree, and I think one of the key
components who talked about is the ritualdirector. I think that that is super
important because this person really works asan aide for the worshipful Master when it
(18:55):
comes to Okay, the lodge hasjust balloted, we've accepted this brother.
Now we've got to go through thedegrees. We're not going to have this
freak out because if we have agreat worshipful Master who's put together a trustle
board, he's already kind of alreadyplanned for this and can be a little
flexible to move things around. Butthe ritual director takes a lot of the
work off of the master's plate andsaying, all right, the pillar officers
(19:15):
are going to do their parts,just as you know, Jason, you
were saying, and then everyone that'selected to a chair they should be doing
their role for that evening. Ifthey're not able to, then we need
to find film ins and where dowe have holes and gaps. Okay,
and then here's the next key thing. How are we going to set up
a practice schedule? Where are wegoing to have rehearsals? Who needs to
(19:37):
be there? And I'll never forgetthis because initially it used to drive me
crazy. But my mother lodge inSchenectady, we would have our degree rehearsals
on Sunday nights, I want tosay, like around seven, six or
seven, which was painful for mebecause I think it was the only guy
that watched football that was like,oh man, I missed the end of
(20:00):
the late game. And I rememberlike almost getting into a heated argument with
the ritual director at the time becauseI was a senior steward so I had
zero speaking part. I really neededto be there for the floor work,
which a candidate doesn't see. Bythe way, I'm the only so I'm
and I remember saying to him,this is a volunteer organization. Why do
(20:23):
I need to be coming to this. I could be spending But I saw
the value in it. Years later, when I did have a speaking part,
when I was the senior deacon andI knew the floor work of how
to lead a candida around the lodge, I could have done it if I
was blindfold instead of the candidate thatwas during the degree. So I think
that those are the kind of thekey components there. We've had to get
(20:45):
creative with my lodge here in DCbecause we only meet once a month,
so and we don't own the buildingthat we meet, and that's the other
caveat there. So I've actually hadoutside degree work in my backyard. I
set up an outdoor symbolic lawn chairdegree and we sit in those chairs and
(21:07):
do our parts. And my yard'sbig enough the neighbors nobody can hear anything,
and my wife just will occasionally likelook outside to see what we're doing.
And that's it. But I thinkthe getting together and doing it in
person, that's important not just forthe brotherhood of the craft, but also
for the fellowship in between the memberson the team, because you know where
(21:27):
you're just like a team, orif we were throwing a ball to each
other, you know where this guy'sgonna maybe have some tough parts, and
there's ways you can slow down yourdelivery to give him time so that he
can be ready for his next line. It is kind of like this is
our sporting event, you know,you wouldn't. You wouldn't just go out
and play a game of ball andnever have practiced or never scrimmaged. You
(21:51):
do terrible all the time. Youwould never win. And ritual is our
opportunity as a lodge, not justto make a lasting impression on the candidate
or or the brother, UM,but to also show off as a lodge.
You know, this is the presentationthat we do most um outwardly for
(22:12):
brothers to come and intend, youknow, so so having the respect for
the floor work, having respect forthe presentation, UM, that level of
prestige, like that's that's your lodgessignature, you know. And I think
I think part part of UM,some of the issue, and a lot
(22:33):
of it comes down to I thinkattendance. Like when you have more people
who are showing up to a lodge, UM, you'll get the guys who
really want to do ritual work.And whether they're the seated officer or whether
they're a dedicated degree team, whichI know some lodges and districts have,
UM, you get people who reallyunderstand that prestige. Garibaldi Lodge in New
(22:56):
York is a great example. Here'sa lodge that has dispensation to confer um
their degree in italian um and alsoin UH. I believe it's the only
Scottish right UH degree that's that's conferredin New York. For the Blue Lodge
system, man, people come fromall over the world to see them perform
(23:21):
their ritual and having that culture orhaving that that drive to when you get
your officers together and when you whenyou go for this rehearsal where everybody's on
board that this is like we're aboutto play ball here, like we're we're
about to go in and and um, you know, we could lose,
(23:42):
but let's win. That's a greatsaying. Actually, like somehow just try
to inspire the teamwork element. That'sone thing that I bring to to all
of the projects that I've heard.That's one of the things that I really
loved about theater is the ensemble atmosphereyou're in. This is a team's sport.
(24:07):
I want to talk to a pointyou made. It's a big phrase
in the corporate world. Right peopleright roles or best people in the best
roles or the best outcome. ButI think for Lodges and you had mentioned,
you know, I'd like to bethe master that can confer all the
parts of the Master. And Ithink really only those who have gone through
the experience and now not only knowthat, but also themselves have studied the
(24:33):
ritual, know what the real partsof the Master are presenting the apron,
the working tools. Sometimes we quoteunquote farm those out to other brothers,
or we have other brothers. Ifyou have a great lodge, like you
said, they want to be apart of the degree. You're like,
oh, cool, you can handlethis. You do the charge, You
do a fantastic job with that.I've seen a brotherho gives the charge that
(24:53):
it sounds like your dad is givingyou a lecture, and no, you
can hear people breathe. Well,he is doing his part, like he
is very stern and very focused,and you really feel like you're being charged
yourself. It's not just something that'sbeing read to you. I like to
see all stars that can come inand kind of help with that. I
(25:15):
was curious your thoughts if you havea brother, because I've come across a
few that ritual is really not theirthing. They struggled with the Catechism memorizing
their part. Maybe they're not agreat public speaker. They just get nervous,
they don't feel whatever the situation maybe, how do you feel about
them if especially if they're sitting ina chair or they have an important position
(25:38):
in the lodge taking a sideline rolefor that evening. I think it's really
important for a lodge to have anunderstanding and a respect for what it is
that they do. And part ofthat is, I think being realistic.
You know, not every brother iscut out or doing ritual work, and
(26:00):
that's okay. That's why we openand close the lodge, you know,
that's why we conduct business and givebrothers who who want to be an officer
position the opportunity to participate. Withthat being said, if you have a
brother that has could be a pastmaster, it could be a newly initiated
(26:21):
brother who gets into the craft andis really really on point, and you
know that that's going to make animpression on a hoodwinked brother coming through the
door. Embrace that part of beingpart of a team is understanding our individual
limitations, but understanding also what we'recapable of doing together. And if that
(26:45):
means you got to maybe have adesignated degree team who's going to make a
really, really profound impact on peopleand they take pride in doing that.
Then lay into it. Where youwos brothers is when you force the ritual
down their throat, when you forcethem into a position where they're not prepared
(27:07):
or they're not really wanting to engageor put themselves out there, because that's
embarrassing for them, and ultimately that'llbe embarrassing for the lodge, especially if
you're trying to make an impression onbrothers coming through the door. At the
end of the day, our esotericand our esoteric balance and kind of our
(27:33):
internal and external balance comes down toour presentation and what our culture is.
Yeah, I can tell you comefrom a good lodge and you can pick
that up from Brothers when they talkabout the degree being an experience not just
for the candidate, but to kindof lift everybody in the room. And
here's how you know. One ofmy how do you know if you had
(27:53):
a great degree night is that afterthe degree, there's an instant conversation that
starts somewhere or something that happened.There's questions that are being asked a not
so great degree. As we godownstairs, we have our cake and coffee,
we break for the evening, everybodyhas their cars and we meet up
again at the next meeting. Oneof my favorite degrees was a third degree
(28:14):
we did recently here where we gotinto a conversation immediately with the brothers that
we had just raised that evening aboutthe role of the Ruffians and why they
accosted to him a biff and whatthe significance of that was, and all
these questions that they were asking.And I was down there with them for
sorry, upstairs with them for probablya good hour afterwards, and just really
(28:38):
engaged and connected in this conversation andstarted seeing other seasoned or veteran brothers,
you know, coming in and leaningin and offering their input. And really,
this is what freemasonry is about,like the performance of good ritual.
When we go to a good playor dinner theater or any kind of performing
art, you're like, Wow,that's talent, that's beautiful. But it's
(29:02):
the how it inspires you, andthat's the art of it that takes it
to the next level. That tome, that's the high five that happens
when I know I've been a partof a good degree team. It's that
lasting effect that I think we reallyare all in search of because we want
to be inspired. You know,people people watch a movie because you want
(29:22):
to feel an effect. You goto see a play because you want to
be affected. That's that's kind ofthe beauty of it. Um, you
know, in the tradition of storytellingis to affect the audience. Yeah,
illustrious brother Stenric Adams was saying,brought up this quote by Maya Angelo recently,
(29:48):
and it's that I've learned that peoplewill forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, butpeople will never forget how you may them
feel. And walking away from thefirst degree ritual, you're either going to
have be very excited and have amillion questions I want to know more or
(30:14):
the third degree, especially like doesthis have what's the philosophical significance? What's
allegorical? Is this some cosmic drama? What's going on? You know,
you want that effect, but theydon't necessarily know exactly the words or or
exactly who did what, especially ifthey're hoodwinked until they themselves have a cathartic
(30:37):
moment and re examine the degree work. I was talking to a brother the
other night. We had we hadseen one of the Scottish rite degrees and
coming back from it, it's justlike, I don't know if I'm the
only person who does this, butafter seeing a degree, trying to imagine
like what this would have been likein the nineteenth century in a really really
(31:02):
populated lodge, Like what was thattone back when memorization like it was a
prerequisite for being able to get upthere, back when like the threat of
the obligation actually seemed like, man, I could walk out of here and
that that could happen to me tonight, there's like just a certain profound appreciation
(31:22):
for the presentation of the degrees,for the presentation of that moment that I
think comes with again having the respectfor the culture of your lodge, giving
yourself the permission to have fun withthe degree, and while throughout understanding that
(31:45):
you're there to inculcate this knowledge onan audience. If you do great degree
work, you're going to make amazingMasons and that cycle is going to continue,
right. Yeah, Yeah, that'sI mean, that's the gold again,
one of my favorite guests to haveon. We're going to bring him
back as soon as we can.Brother Jason Short, thank you so much
(32:07):
for being a part of us again. Thank you, Brother Arci. A
reminder you can listen to future episodesearly and add free with our subscriber offer.
Get the link to start your sevenday free trial in the show notes
for this episode. And if you'veenjoyed this episode and you want to hear
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We're available on all streaming platforms withnew episodes every Monday morning until next
(32:31):
time. Let peace and harmony prevailed.
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