Cypher books or mouth to ear?

Great memory is beSt. You want to carry the degrees with you at all times.


Prince Saif Shallah

Been working with my son, I have only looked at his cypher to see how it is written. Sun I was correcting him when he left out questions, has been 100% mouth to ear and the hardest part has been my hearing him. I am nearly deaf and must concentrate hard to get it, but it is coming and I would not want to learn any other way. This has brought my son and I closer than we have been in years and we were already VERY close. I plan on getting my certificates so I can pass this on to more brothers. Leave the books out of it unless it is to refresh.

My Freemasonry HD

Mouth to ear at first, then cipher book for brush up after years have passed. Thats how i have seen it.

" SEMPER ANTICUS "

In Ohio, we are allowed to have the cypher book for the rituals. The lodge provides one for each chair, but you can purchase your own from the Grand Lodge if you want to pay $50.

But, it still requires someone to teach you by mouth to ear to read it. Once you are taught to read it, the cypher is just to brush up. When in the lodge room it's all from memory. Open, close, degree work, everything from memory.


My Freemasonry HD

I just starting instructing and I'm doing it mouth to ear but with me using the cipher for reference. I don't let the " student" see it but just use it to check my work and his. Any thoughts from the brothers?


My Freemasonry HD

At the annual GL meeting this year California rejected having one brother with an open cipher book as a prompter at opened meetings.

I prefer mouth to ear. It is how I learned, and, as Albert Einstein once said, "Why would I memorize something I can find in a book?" Inevitably knowledge is more secure and better retained when it must be memorized and cannot be made readily available via a book or other source.

Besides the practical purpose, I am a man of tradition, and I hold most practices which have stood the test of time to be superior to most of those that have not. Not all long-standing traditions are better, but in this instance, I feel the traditional method is superior.

Cypher book memorization still requires mouth to ear instruction. The advantage it offers is that the candidate can study quietly alone several times per day as necessary and check/confirm his word choice against the book. IMO the book is worthless without instruction.