My immediate potential weird is the "embraced by all part" but if we are letting Candidates set their comfort level (hug or handshake or whatever) that helps with it.
Yeah, good point: all of this needs to be adapted to the comfort and needs of the people involved.
I also really really like the framing of being "a ritualist".
It's actually a semi-official job in Freemasonry -- not quite the same thing as a Director on stage, but basically the person whose job is to understand the ritual deeply, and teach/coach others in how to do it well.
(Masonic ritual is Very Very Reified. It varies a bit based on jurisdiction, but is still at least similar to the way it got codified 300 years ago. Making that both compelling and clear is an artform that most members don't know much about.)
Having been Master of my Lodge once, and having kind of hated it, I made a deal with the Lodge that I would be Ritualist in perpetuity, in exchange for not having to step into the East again. I enjoy doing that a lot, to the point where I many years ago wrote a much-reprinted short article on the subject -- basically teaching the rudiments of acting for Freemasons.
I've largely drifted out of Masonry, semi-deliberately (there are aspects of it that just don't work for me any more), but I do miss the ritual side of things quite a bit -- it's an itch that I need to find new ways to scratch...
no subject
Yeah, good point: all of this needs to be adapted to the comfort and needs of the people involved.
It's actually a semi-official job in Freemasonry -- not quite the same thing as a Director on stage, but basically the person whose job is to understand the ritual deeply, and teach/coach others in how to do it well.
(Masonic ritual is Very Very Reified. It varies a bit based on jurisdiction, but is still at least similar to the way it got codified 300 years ago. Making that both compelling and clear is an artform that most members don't know much about.)
Having been Master of my Lodge once, and having kind of hated it, I made a deal with the Lodge that I would be Ritualist in perpetuity, in exchange for not having to step into the East again. I enjoy doing that a lot, to the point where I many years ago wrote a much-reprinted short article on the subject -- basically teaching the rudiments of acting for Freemasons.
I've largely drifted out of Masonry, semi-deliberately (there are aspects of it that just don't work for me any more), but I do miss the ritual side of things quite a bit -- it's an itch that I need to find new ways to scratch...