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Entered Apprentice!

hfmm97

Premium Member
Last night, July 31, 2018, I was awarded the Entered Apprentice Degree! It was a truly beautiful and moving experience!

Congratulations Bro Mark: you were able to meet all the challenges to become a Freemason-this is great news! Best of luck in your Masonic journey-keep us informed of your progress


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Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
Congratulations Brother! I just know that you had a great time. Keep us informed of your progress through the next two degrees.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Now I have to figure out the work for the EA degree. Do any brothers on here have any tips?

When you practice your lines, say them audibly. This engages muscle memory as well as other types of memory. It makes a big difference. If you can figure out a chant or a song for it, even better. In the car during the commute to and from work is a good place to speak like this.

Many men start out thinking they can't memorize. This is a self imposed internal limitation. One of the claims of Masonry is that we make good men better. One way we do that is by smashing self imposed internal limitations. Expect your mind to be blown by your previously unknown ability. At some point later in life you will encounter a situation you will think you can't handle. Then you will remember not believing you could memorize.

Go over what the words mean. Go over the story line of events of the degree. Understanding is not mandatory to memorize - Anyone who has memorized a song in a foreign language has experienced that. But knowing the story line is an additional memory technique called "the Roman room method".
 

hfmm97

Premium Member
Don’t rush - learn the work one small piece at a time - if you are assigned an instructor, ask him for advice. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll learn the work.


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JohnXRV

Registered User
Last night, July 31, 2018, I was awarded the Entered Apprentice Degree! It was a truly beautiful and moving experience!

As a recently (June) third degree I can say it only gets better!

I practised for my second by having the questions and answers printed out so I could practice them whenever on my own - at home, in the car - with my kids testing me as to whether I got the answers totally correct. As my second degree ceremony got closer I began practising in front of a mirror.

It must have worked as I did pretty well and was complemented by my lodge for not requiring any prompting

Good luck Mark

John
 

Benjamin Baxter

Moderator
Premium Member
Congrats and for me it was frequent practice. Daily or every other day!


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Keith C

Registered User
The degree questions/answers are supposed to be learned by the candidates orally, without recourse to writing anything down, at least in Texas and several other states
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In PA we do not have any extensive memorization requirement between degrees. We do have education sessions and make sure the candidates understand what took place and have memorized the portion of ritual they need to know for the next degree. Parts of our ritual are in print in a ritual manual and some are in cipher. In our EA obligation it is quite clearly stated that putting any part of ritual down in any understandable fashion is a really bad idea. And sharing that content with anyone other than a Brother of the given Degree is an even worse idea.
 

hfmm97

Premium Member
Bro Keith C - Pennsylvania is unique in so many ways regarding Masonry absolutely up there with Massachusetts lodges having no numbers and GL of SC being AFM and DC being FAAM- a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge!


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Mark Petro

Registered User
The degree questions/answers are supposed to be learned by the candidates orally, without recourse to writing anything down, at least in Texas and several other states


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That's the way it is at my Lodge. It is all done orally. I just think that writing anything down is a violation of the oath I took.
 

hfmm97

Premium Member
Mark, are you being assigned a specific instructor? If so, work very closely with him: in my case he was not just a brother but also a very good friend and life mentor. He also was a World War II veteran and served in Gen Patton's forces in North Africa.
Mine passed away back in the summer of 1999 and I miss him still. I'm convinced that Texas is so traditional with Masonry that it is one of the most difficult states in which to become a Master Mason.


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hfmm97

Premium Member
I was thinking in terms of the memory work-some states have ciphers, some have a very small amount of memory work, and some had one-day classes (which might be legitimate, IMHO, if you are soon to be deployed to overseas military service) which I doubt that Texas ever had those (even during WW II). Just my humble opinion...


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