To Improve Your Ritual...

Since I jumped in with both feet into yet another fraternal organization, I am again having to build up my memorization mind muscle. And since I have really been thinking of ways to memorize my new Odd Fellows work, I wanted to give a tip to all those brothers and sisters who are learning ritual. 

I start by using a method of listen and repeat; here's how it works. I begin this process by recording a very short part of the line. Then I go further in a very special way, I add a space between those short portions of the same length as the proceeding one. I continue through this process until I have completed the portion that I am attempting to memorize. If the lines are a part of a dialogue, I repeat the other portion in full and then leave a space for when I am to come in. It can be tedious to set this up but once it has, the real process begins.

I start the process from the very beginning. I then add a portion, bit by bit, until I am able to repeat that portion without the tape. I continue to do this until I have the entirety of the dialogue completed. It's the idea of chunking, building in those cues into the mind until they become second nature. And that's where the magic occurs. Once you have lines down, you can add the most important thing that most ritual I've seen is missing in just about every fraternal ritual I've seen, drama. We have such beautiful drama but without the actual drama, it's hollow.

I know this seems silly and I'm sure my readers with acting experience are probably already aware but for so many brothers and sisters, we are not trained dramatists. I truly want us to do whatever we can do to make our Art an art form!