After the agonizing effort of memorizing the work of his/her mother lodge, a Bro. may experience a shock when first visiting another lodge. There are differences, either small or great, depending on a number of factors like geography or grand jurisdiction. Some Grand Jurisdictions permit a degree of freedom in their Lodges, while others strictly enforce uniformity to the letter.
In speaking with a Bro. in UGLE, he told me that up north of England where he comes from, the working follows the Emulation ritual more or less but there were differences hallowed by local tradition. The bookstore near UGLE had a surprising collection of printed Blue Lodge rituals. I read somewhere that there are 40 extant workings that are approved/tolerated.
In the British LDH, I visited lodges using the Adyar working along side the Emulation, Scottish, Irish and a few others, all of them being permitted by the MPGC. In the USA there was a movement to permit only the Adyar ritual. We had two lodges using the earlier North American Ritual (NAR) and several others using either Italian or French workings. All of them are now dark, except one .
Of course there are advantages to both sides of the debate on uniformity. Today we have the result of individual lodges developing their own versions until the UGLE presented the Emulation working and pressed for conformity. Some versions derived from Emulation are permitted, as well as other local rituals with long traditions behind them.
... Uniformity kind of does away with the Free bit doesn't it.
Courses for horses is my motto. In LDH we have had European Brn join our Federation which works the Lauderdale Ritual and some have not been able to adapt. The French workings being more exoteric.
I think it wise to work a variety of rituals within a Federation, I would vote for working both (if we had the numbers). The Brn then choose which is most suitable for them.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
In past centuries there was a tradition of improvisation of ritual, similarly in composed music. These days there seems to be a lack of faith in the capacity of our ritual leaders to improvise and Grand Lodges like to approve the ritual of every lodge.
If uniformity is a desirable characteristic of the Craft, then innovation would be its enemy. However accidental innovations do appear in the long history of Freemasonry and have been incorporated into it, acquiring the patina of age.
I recall reading that after the appearance of the first exposé in England the lodges decided to switch the words of the first two degrees to prevent unlawful entry into it's meetings by non-Masons. As far as I know, they were never switched back. This is a sample of innovation becoming a tradition.
Indeed, the separate 3° is an early innovation that has become an essential part of the Craft. Some Brn believe the myth of HAB in that degree had replaced an earlier Biblical one involving the Noah story. In some jurisdictions the ruffians are named and in others they are not. The number of FCs in the search party may also vary.
A striking innovation found in LDH is that in the North American Ritual, probably the first LDH ritual in the States, the candidate in the 3rd deg is wrapped in a tarp and carried to various parts of the Lodge before he is brought to light. I suspect that the practice was brought here from France.
A faulty memory may be the reason why the time the Master HAB was missing varies so much. As pointed out by one writer, some estimations of the duration of time would have left him in a very putrid state. As it is, the expression “it proves a slip” reminds me of a story of my father who as a young man worked for an mortician. Without going into detail, “it proves a slip” would be applicable in one of his goriest job assignments.
Considering how the work is passed on from Bro. to Bro., it isn't surprising that small (or great) changes creep into the ritual. When it becomes standard another innovation is absorbed into in the Craft and becomes immutable until another innovation comes along.
Is innovation a “good thing?” Well, it seems to be inevitable, in the plan, so to speak. But with an openness to change we may loose some of the earliest characteristics of the Craft, perhaps secrets incorporated into rituals by our earliest innovators. Yet some innovations have proved to correct previous misguided innovations of the past. The explanations of the 3° word in many jurisdictions were plainly guesses. Brn trying to translate words by what they sounded like in English failed to see the original Hebrew source. In recent years some jurisdictions have changed the explanation to be more correct linguistically, creating another innovation.
If innovation is inevitable perhaps we should be more cautious in adding to and subtracting from the Lore we have received as tradition.
>candidate in the 3rd deg is wrapped in a tarp and carried to various parts of the Lodge before he is brought to light
A Scottish lodge I belong to, carries the candidate from the E door to the NE.
The HAB legend is peculiar in that the 3 GMs were so incompetent as to allow 12 atrocious candidates to be made EA and then passed to FC. What happened to the system of morality?
I suspect a story has been taken from elsewhere and adapted for use in Masonry. Traces may be visible in the password leading to the 3rd degree and its odd translation.
>Brn trying to translate words by what they sounded like in English failed to see the original Hebrew source.
Chris Knight gives ancient Egyptian origins for the phrases.
... Uniformity kind of does away with the Free bit doesn't it.