The Performance: The Masonic Ritual Takes Center Stage

The Masonic Ritual is the heart of Freemasonry. And at the center of the ritual is drama. it's no wonder Masons go to such lengths to put on an unforgettable show.

By Tony Gilbert

Tucked inside a shopping center in Tarzana, hidden in plain sight amid the signposts on Ventura Boulevard, there’s something powerful and profound going on inside Hollywood Lodge № 355. But virtually no one around here will ever get to see it.

It’s a play with an audience of one—and that one person is also the star of the show. There is high drama, powerful poetry, and profound life lessons. People who have seen it will, years later, look back and call it one of the most memorable of their lives. When the players leave the darkened room, blinking in the bright Southern California sun, they’ll say they feel transformed. And they’ll mean it.

This is the power of the Masonic ritual. And herein lies the rub: This performance is something the performers can hardly talk about. They’ll study for months or years to make it perfect, but it will never see the light of day. In the most elemental way, this private show is Freemasonry; it’s the what and the why and the how of the entire enterprise. It’s where all the symbols and allegory and ritual traditions are shared. The whole unbroken chain of brotherhood connecting Mozart and Bolívar and Churchill is contained within the performance of the Masonic ritual. To the fraternity, its importance cannot be overstated. But the outside world can never—and will never—get to experience it.

And so Masons continue to mount this centuries-old play for one person at a time. And they do it, month after month, degree after degree, ad infinitum, with an amazing level of focus and personal attention. Because if you’re putting on a show that promises all that, you’d better get it right.

Mind Games: The Masonic Ritual

The Masonic ritual performance is something like a cousin to the ancient morality play, similar to those once staged by medieval guilds. In spite of its anachronistic form—or maybe because of it—Masons still rave about how powerful these staged narratives can feel.

First, for the uninitiated: The Masonic ritual is not quite a play, not quite a lecture. A candidate is led into the lodge room, where he is asked a series of questions and then delivered a charge which explains the rules and symbols of Freemasonry. The officers of the lodge adopt the personas of characters from the biblical story of the building of King Solomon’s temple.

As the candidate progresses through the three degrees, they learn more about their rights and obligations as a brother Mason. The candidate is then tested on his proficiency by reciting back a lecture delivered to him after the degree conferral.

If that sounds a bit dry, it’s because the real magic is in the details. Beyond the words and the choreography, there’s the lighting, the atmosphere, the anticipation on the part of the candidate, the master, and the other Masons in the room. “It’s transformative,” says Jonathan Wong. Wong is a member of several lodges, including Santa Rosa Luther Burbank № 57, and in 2018 won the fraternity’s Ritual Award for his region. “You see empowerment in the charge,” he says. “It’s guiding us from a state of well-being to something even better.”

One thing the ritual performance isn’t is short. Or easy.

The lectures, which are delivered by several officers and which the master of the lodge must prove his proficiency in before he is installed, run to 30 minutes or more. There are over 20,000 words to memorize in each of the three ritual degrees, plus other charges, lectures, and processions to commit to memory. Put all that together, including the floorwork that must be choreographed and rehearsed, and the scope of the performance starts to come into focus. “It really drains you mentally and emotionally,” says Joshua Cusing, of Burlingame № 400. Like Wong, Cusing is a devoted ritualist, having competed in the statewide competition three times, and winning it in 2023. “For me, the way I memorize, I try to understand what I am memorizing,” he says. “I need to know the meaning of what I’m saying. I do a lot better when it’s a story than when it’s just rote.”

The lodge room where this performance takes place is an important part of the production, for both the candidate and the officers. Cues abound throughout the space in the symbols, wall art, and furniture. As Masons practice their charges, a ritual coach often instructs them to think about where in the room a passage takes place, rather than when. Much like a theatrical stage, the lodge room—with its many references to King Solomon’s Temple—helps to set the scene.

Above: Engraving of degree chart printed on cotton cloth, circa 1817.

A Question of Memory in the Masonic Ritual

Why do Masons memorize the Masonic ritual at all? After all, memorization of the degree lectures is one of the most significant barriers to becoming a lodge officer, including the need to reprove their proficiency year after year. Why not simply read from a script—as Masons in many other jurisdictions around the world currently do?

That’s a question that has come up many times. In the 1990s, California adopted an optional “short-form” proficiency, meaning that candidates for the first two degrees only needed to memorize the obligation contained within those degrees, rather than the full lecture—a move intended to help candidates move through the degrees more seamlessly.

Indeed, many Masons advocate for officers to be able to read the lengthy lectures from a written script, while others prefer the commitment to close reading necessitated by memorization. “I greatly admire brothers who are able to memorize, but I think nothing less of those who can’t,” John Gebhart, a past master from Mercer Island, Wash., was quoted saying on the Masonic podcast Whence Came You? “They’re still good men that we should all be proud to call brothers. I think a better way to prepare for the ritual is to learn what it means and then really think about it. Read it silently and then read it aloud. Consider making index cards that can be read—and read well.”

Either way, the message contained within those lectures remains the same. And for candidates, it is a powerful—and memorable—experience.

“There’s a magic to it,” Brian Saldivar explains. Saldivar is a member of Three Great Lights № 323 and has also competed for the state’s ritual award. “It’s all energy. In some lodges, you’re in the same space and saying the same words and following the same steps as brothers did in the 1800s. We’re locking into that energy and that mind space and those emotions.

“If you were to just watch it on a screen, you’d fall asleep,” he continues. “But if you’re there, in that space, you’re really experiencing it.”

For the Masonic Ritual, Practice Makes Perfect

The Masonic ritual lives on through the generations solely by the mouth-to-ear transmission of words and cloistered choreography. That’s an ancient and powerful tradition. And so Masons pay special attention to the details.

The California Ritual Awards were launched in 2005 to encourage and recognize Masons that best exemplified these performances. Since then, the contest has grown to involve entire lodges, whose officers are tested on various lectures, charges, and choreography from a predetermined degree, like the “Staircase Lecture” from the Fellow Craft degree. District inspectors judge entries, with the winners of those regional competitions advancing to a statewide final, which is reviewed by the grand lecturer.

“When I went into the competition, it was really just to test my own ability to perform,” says Wong, who represented his region in 2018. “I wanted to learn and I wanted to improve on the ritual to provide for future brothers. So while a competition means competing against others, you’re also competing against yourself.”

It’s there, in those closed-off and darkened lodge rooms, with Masons walking through the paces and reciting words that were passed down to them, that the tradition lives on. “The great lessons of the fraternity are found in and between the spoken words that we deliver during our ceremonies,” said Grand Master Melvyn Stein in 2007 while presenting that year’s ritual-competition awards. But it’s also in the practicing. In the study and the rehearsal and the repetition, there’s ample opportunity to reflect on the stories and the wisdom they convey.

So, Masons say, it’s worth perfecting, as much as possible. It is, after all, the performance of a lifetime.