Brothers,
First, if I am way off base and misunderstanding this post, please forgive me. It appears that the thread pertains to the practice of initiating/passing/raising in a one-day seminar. If I perceive this incorrectly, then delete this at your leisure.
To Darren (in Melbourne),
You are right to perceive that things appear different from the outside looking in. They are different than they appear. You just need to understand what you are doing, and hopefully experiences from my short time will help.
First, I have seen men go through the degrees too quickly. If you go through this too quickly, you have a high probability of being gone before your yearly dues card expires. If you even bother to renew it once, I would doubt that you will renew it twice. The reason for this is that anything that comes easy and cheap (a few hours plus some degree fees) is easily discarded when testing comes. And I can promise you that one way or the other, tests will come. If anyone thinks this untrue, please think again, because I have already witnessed the system in action. When a man sticks around and puts substance into his degree work, he lasts. When a man does not, he is scarce around the lodge. Worse, I know of one man, a good one by all observations, had his three events (degrees) within a couple of months and hit the road after the 3[SUP]rd [/SUP]was conferred. I haven’t seen him since.
Secondly, if you blaze through the degrees without active participation, you will miss the point of it. If all you do is watch, that’s even worse. If you do not even bother to learn the catechism, the important questions and ideas will not even occur to you. And again, no investment = no value, and you’re gone. You may as well join Rotary because you will probably get more for your money out of that.
Third, if you allow this to happen to you, you will succeed only in robbing yourself of the Masonic experience. There are things in the degrees that you have to experience, then witness, and then contemplate. Some of those things will profoundly affect you, but only if you are positioned to await the time with patience.
We live in a world that conditions us to seek instant gratification. You pay your fee, take your class, and get your card. The Lodge gets an income stream from the degree fees and dues cards. The problem is Masonry is not like that. It’s work. Work every time you have to address one of your bad habits, work every time you have to extend grace to your neighbor, work every time you shut your mouth when you would rather argue, and work every time you have to measure right and wrong so that you truly act as you Mason should. The secrets of Masonry are therefore, not contained within the emblems or the words, but in the work.
Think really hard before you decide what to do. Then, if any of this makes sense, experience one degree at a time, get acquainted with the idea of “traditional observanceâ€, and take your time. You are only an entered apprentice once.
