Started my fellowcraft memory work

The night after I received my fellow craft degree there was another entered apprentice degree at my lodge. My coach and I met about an hour before the degree was supposed to start and started working on the stuff that I am supposed to know for my fellow craft proficiency. One thing that I have noticed is that it is much easier this time. There are some similarities between what I am learning now and what I did before. The hard part is memorizing it word for word.

One thing that I forgot to mention in talking about the EA memory work is that we must learn this "mouth to ear". By that I mean there is nothing written down in any form. In NC we are not allowed to use any form of aid in helping us memorize the work. There are no ciphers or recordings at allowed. There is a very small section of the work allowed to be reproduced from a specific manual dealing with the working tools and a few smaller parts, but that is a very minimal part of what we have to memorize. If I was to guess the entire EA catechism is at least 2000 words long and I have no clue about the fellow craft since I have only started work on it.

There are some jurisdictions that have an all day event where candidates receive all three degrees in a single day without having to memorize anything. I am glad that is not allowed in this state. I appreciate it more having to earn what I am after. It seems that to many people want everything handed to them without having to earn it. Most anything worth having is worth putting forth the effort of working for.

I missed working yesterday but met up with my coach again tonight for about an hour and made it through the obligation. It is no where near perfect, but it is coming much faster than the EA catechism did. I am not trying to rush things because I want to learn them instead of being a parrot that regurgitates a line. If things work out, I can see being raised sometime in January.

I am now caught up in real time with the blog. All future posts should be current to what is happening. I do hope that I can post some things that might actually help the fraternity.