Universe

Here, in the Philippines, we DeMolays are responsible enough to do our own affairs. For us, allowing parents to watch our DeMolay Degree is INAPPROPRIATE and IMPROPER. Here, in the Philippines, parents cannot interfere with the private affairs (privacy) of their children. Only in the Philippines, brother!

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Originally posted by Veritas:
We had a 12 year old join who had no clue what half the phrases meant. Many of the other guys just learn the phrase without understanding the meaning behind them. Switching it into contemporary English would help with those problems greatly.

maybe the problem is the ritual was written for young men near too or graduated from High School, to expect younger men in Jr. High or even elementary school to comprehend is asking a tremendous amount of them.

IN MY JURISDICTION, WE DO NOT HAVE PROBLEM UNDERSTANDING THE RITUAL OR THE DeMOLAY DEGREE.

membershipman,
I am almost offended. i understand most of the ritual, and i am very young!

Hi I understand the main idea and I think thst the person is important because maybe the young men could understand most of the ritual than a Senior DeMolay.

Fraternally

The "understanding" of what is happening through the Ritual work is up to those who are giving the charges.If they do their job properly then the initiate will fully understand the system of allegory.

The object of this forum is to increase a greater understanding of DeMolay through sensible discouse.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Forums Moderator,

I may as well explain the "Freeze Frame" DeMolay Degree.

Basically, instead of having your Orator come out and give his speech, you bring in your Inquisitors, have them say their part, and then get Jacques and everyone else in the room.

Then when Jacques hits the ground, everyone freezes, and someone (Normally one of the non-speaking prisoners) stands and delivers the Orator's first section speech. Everything after that continues normally.

Yes, it does do something a WAY bit different, but it does make for an interesting degree, and makes a very dramatic impact if done properly.

S&F

Cody,
That is ONE method of doing the freeze (frieze). It get it's name from "freezing" the motion, or from the classical image of a frieze or tableau. No biggie either way. In my experience, the frieze you mention has been the least used. One consideration is that in most competitions it would violate the Direction and put Ritual out of order and might be severely penalized.

The Frieze I have seen used much more comes at the end of the 2nd Section. It is either used at the conclusion of the Section, or immediately prior to the final line of the LC. In terms of Competition, the former has only a minor Direction issue (which is often overlooked) while the latter reorders Ritual again, causing some problems. I am very partial to some variation of the former, where AT LEAST JD and GA are left in the room allowing a nod toward the optional 3rd Section. Lighting effects can suggest the burning. If you are out of doors and it is permissable you can REALLy do this up big. Any way you choose, it allows for nice creativity. Just be sure it maintains the integrity and flow at the core of the degree.

Yes, it can't really be used for competition, but it does make for a really cool effect when done properly.

I would also suggest a variation we used when our chapetr in South Carolina won five consecutive team titles in the DeMolay Degree...

After the Orator, with the lights almost completely out, we had a brother dressed in long tunic with a belt rope, with pillows stuffed in the top of his back like the Hunchback. While someone would play Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", he would crawl across the floor groaning and agonizing in pain, with a lit candle to the altar, where he would reverently light the candle during a pause in the music, blow his candle out, and crawl back out. The effects were surreal and staggering in light of what is about to happen.

After the degree, the Hunchback would return to the altar and extinguish the flame to total darkness, exemplifying the extinguishing of JD's life.

Of course, you have to have good work in the middle.

As far as interpretations go, as a state, Washington has done some great ones.
I remember the first one i ever saw done by the state was a moderinzed, 1940's era one. All the inquisitors and 'bad guys' had red arm bands with black insignias (oddly enough the boy scout logo). but obviously it was supposed to be a Nazi-ish theme, and it really made it seem alot more... relevant you could say.
I've seen alot of different versions. My chapter did one where key actors walked into a chapter room where there was an altar and 7 candle holders, moved slightly more east, and we carried candles in at cues, took our spots, performed, then marched back out with our candles. looked great. Our state also did the original 1928 Degree, which although longer and requiring more people, explains alot more of what happened and was just a nice refresher to the same degree year after year!

I know this is about interpretations and what not... but in Washington, the DeMolay Degree is a public ceremony. At our convention and Grand Master's Class, anyone is allowed to watch it. In our chapter, we have even performed it for our local teachers as part of our education night. This, unfortunately, has resulted in some boycotting of our events, but... it works. People love it and it explains to the people who we are trying to explain about DeMolay, why Louis Lower and the 8 other guys chose to name this fantastic organization after Jacques de Molay.

The 4th section, of course, is still a private ceremony.
Only the 1st through 3rd sections are public.

In my jurisdiction, we do not allow the public to watch the DeMolay Degree.

Well, the topic in this thread has been very tempting to participate in..

Here in our jurisdiction, its started to allowed only the DeMolays and Masons to watch the degree drama but eventually there are chapters who allowed the immediate family of the candidates to view the drama also.

We cant deny the fact that the days are becoming evil and fraternity is becoming one of the commodities that is hard to sell. Aside from the increasing occurrence of inter-fraternity wars and conflicts being broadcast in the media. Parents nowadays are becoming over protective to their youngs that they will really make it sure that their children are always in good company or activities.

I believe that the method of letting the parents of the candidates watch the degree drama is advisable and timely to clear out any possible negative impressions on our organization. Anyway, the degree drama offers no secrets relative to the Order and the life story of Jacques DeMolay is widely available in various books and even in the internet.

I would say that its been very effective since the parents are enlightened to the very origin of the Order and the principles behind its foundation. The parents become one of the strong supporters of our active members in performing every activity of the chapter.

Though a lot of variation was suggested to enhance the performance of the drama, we would rather remained in our old ways of performing the degree since its always been effective and we like to preserve what the members before us have done during their times.

Let us remember what the IO is saying during the installation: "While we have secret signs, words and modes of recognitions. We have no secrets from the world as far as our central purposes are concern."

very well put

Brothers,

I would just like to say a few words on here. In South Dakota there is but one chapter that puts on the whole initiation and thats the Chapter I am from in pierre. We do everthing in Tradition and thats actually how we like it. I just think its neet how creative some poeple are to the DeMolay degree. I play the part of DeMolay and I love that part every time it comes up at a meeting hey derek has to do DeMolay!!! Its fun to the chapter when your in that character and in chains and to just have fun. In South dakota we dont let Job's, now we have Rainbow they may not watch that. Although the parents and masons and eastern star come and watch all the time it just is a private thing. we do lots for our community and theres always peopel that dont like us but hey were just like everybody else except that the fact were demolay.

Bro D

For the brief explanation, the organizations purpose is pure, the ritual is very well furnished and the brotherhood far exceeds the applicants expectations but then again every body is looking for mistakes and every eye is a critic.. far more nobly than we say we are, indeed, the public expects secrecy in the brotherhood, giving them an audience in the one of our most sacred ceremonies and providing them with an enticing view of the Orders origins may enlighten those who has not been educated of the fraternity.. i fear ignorance can sometimes lead to misconception.. parents being aware of the beauty of the degree may encourage their sons to be DeMolays, with their full support knowing that their siblings are not part of a dark society that is percieved by those who has not been educated by the Order..

"Who are they to say anything against me when they haven't dipped a finger on my blood"

I still personally believe that the DeMolay Degree should never be shown to the public (even to parents of petitioners).

back when i received my initiatory and demolay degrees my father was the only one allowed from my family to watch because he himself is a senoir demolay.

i would like to also say that the public veiwing the second degree's first second and third part would do a lot of good publicity and is in no way a bad thing to bring up in teh chapter BUT!!!!!! i would say no that as in teh days of my father and grandfather's joining demolay i think that my vote would be no, on the basis of it being a time honored tradition and some people may say with the decline in many fraternities that we need to open up, but as all demolay's and master mason's know the only secrets we have are the ritual, words, and means of recognition and even those secrets are few in numbers. and i have even heard talk of no longer having to open on the demolay degree for buisness to let the initiates participate and again i say no, for only a second degree demolay is entitled to vote and hold office.

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Originally posted by tennesseebrother:
i would like to also say that the public veiwing the second degree's first second and third part would do a lot of good publicity and is in no way a bad thing to bring up in teh chapter BUT!!!!!! i would say no that as in teh days of my father and grandfather's joining demolay i think that my vote would be no, on the basis of it being a time honored tradition and some people may say with the decline in many fraternities that we need to open up, but as all demolay's and master mason's know the only secrets we have are the ritual, words, and means of recognition and even those secrets are few in numbers. and i have even heard talk of no longer having to open on the demolay degree for buisness to let the initiates participate and again i say no, for only a second degree demolay is entitled to vote and hold office.

As long as I have been a DeMolay, my home chapter has always conducted it's business on the Initiatory Degree, and in fact never opens on the DeMolay Degree unless we are actually conducting the degree or for proficiency examinations, and I believe we have a section about the process in our by-laws if I'm not mistaken.

The idea of the dramatic portion of the DeMolay Degree being a public ceremony is something we have done for quite a long time as well. It has actually been very popular, not only with our families, but also the extended Masonic Family, namely Job's Daughters and Rainbow, and has really helped us a lot with relations.