I have to wonder about that too. I remember back when I had just been initated into Delta Sigma Pi and was pledging a local sorority back at my old school, I was at a party and my ex-boyfriend asked me what our rituals were.. he flat out asked me! Sure I may have been drinking, but I'm not STUPID!!!

And that was coming from a guy in a fraternity... you would think he'd have a little more respect :rolleyes:

I've actually thought about that with regards to the ritual that Sarah Ida Shaw helped create for another sorority.

I was a Chi O at NCSU but I graduated last May. Out of respect for their ritual (although they did not seem to show any respect for it themselves) I do not want to say which group wore the robes.

Gee besides the azure blue cat suits of ADPi, and the ruby red outfit I thought I read for another group...

I was under the impression most groups used robes

I am under that impression too, but she asked in response to my first post:
A few years ago the theme for my chapter's big fall date function was Caesar's Palace so everyone wore togas or similar attire. There were several guys there from XYZ fraternity and they were all wearing these robe things. The rumor was that the robes were part of their ritual. We all thought it was very bizarre that they would do that, but I never heard anyone ask them if the robes really were a part of their ritual.


I guess she's more curious to know which group I was referring to rather than which group actually wears robes.

I don't know if you mean ASA....while she did serve as president, she never actually attended a convention till the one in 1930 where she was (for lack of a better word) deposed. Our ritual was put together by the delegates at the 1914 reorganizational convention. I've seen more similarities (in crests, creed etc) between other Farmville Four groups than I have between ASA & Tri-Delta.

Just being picky--it's actually Pi Phi and Kappa that are from Monmouth, not Theta. :)

I think it's okay to wonder, too. But it's the speculation and prying that create rumors.

Just to clarify, my question was aimed more at "Has someone inadvertantly told you something about their secrets", not "Have you pried someone's secrets out of them." I wouldn't expect that GC members would pry, I just figured (from experience) that a lot of times alums who aren't active, deactivated members, or drunk members slip out secrets accidently or purposely.

SGill...right on
 

I collected ritual books when I was in my 20s, and I knew the
grip of about a dozen..So what? I kinda figured that it was not
the ritual, per se, but the member...who would heed it.
TKE had a Sigma Chi ritualist look over ours a few years back, to
see if things were "correct." Some folks were horrified...but if you
look on E-Bay you can occasionally find one for sale...
The founders of our organizations were not as savvy as Emily or
that Sigma Chi, and they came up with some pretty esoteric items
BUT...in the whole scheme of things...like our ancestors, our rituals are not embraced before the fact.
Enjoy yours, it was intended to be a guide towards a better life.
And, realize, gentle reader, there are lots of paths leading to that
spot...and, finally, that Fraternity is for Life.

What Erik Said!:D

There are some GC members who collect Rituals. But they have The Idealism to not let them be given out to everyone.

Each and everyone of them have Respect for for Other Greek Organizations for what they have.

I would not even tell my then wife about mine and will never tell anyone for what I strived so hard to attain.

I and only I have strived to attain Brotherhood. I earned it did not you?

dude that is what it means

Oh S**T, im sorry man...Well, can't wait til the movie comes out about our man King Arthur...

I've heard random information over the years, and know bits and pieces of a couple other orgs' stuff. It's interesting from a standpoint of seeing similarities and differences, but nothing I would ever share with anyone else.

No, but I have had people come up and tell me they know secrets of Pi Phi's...they were wrong. But one time my great-great-grand-bigsis told me she was in a bar and a guy came up to her and did our handshake. So she punched him once in the arm for being so disrespectful to our fraternity and again in the other arm for whoever showed him the handshake. :)

I can honestly say no. Even if someone were to try and volunteer it, I'd change the subject b/c I'm not a member and I don't need to know. :)

No I don't know and don't care to know.

Imperial1

I do not know the secret information of any other GLO's than my own.

I dont want to know either. As we would tell PNM's coming through recruitment when they asked about our secret stuff, "that's a privilege for initiated members to know."

Having said that, unless some of the secrets causes someone physical/emotional harm or is an illegal practice of some kind(usually these kinds of things eventually come to light anyway by news media and court proceedings--in other words forms of hazing), I have no desires to know the secrets of any other GLO's than my own.

I was told what the secret letters a certain other National always sign on everything mean. Don't know if it's true or not, don't really care.

I have dated some frat boys in my past who blabbed a lot of their secret stuff to me. Some of it was quite outrageous I must say.

Well, i've been told by several people that a certain fraternity used to have a close association with us from the beginning of our founding and therefore our rituals are very similar and our grips are identical. another sister with a fiance in this frat confirmed it...

i remember hearing a story about a girl who was kicked out of her sorority right before rush. she was so pissed off that she came early in the morning to the house before one of the rounds and put up a bedsheet with the sorority's secret motto and what it meant spraypainted in HUGE letters across their porch! luckily, another sorority girl was doing her early morning jog, took it down and banged on their door to wake up the sisters and tell them. It was a huge scandal because this sorority was known for screaming their motto in cheers and signing everything with it, but they would NEVER reveal what it meant.

another time a non-greek guy friend who had zero respect for greeks came up to me and was all like "I know your secret handshake" and for a split-second i was horrified, but then he did the grip and all i could think of is "Thank God he's a moron!" because the handshake he did was like something out of Saved by the Bell. And he actually believed that he was right.

i have to admit though that i would definitely be curious about other rituals only because i like stories and secrets. i don't think that i would actively seek out people to tell me or spend $50 for a ritual book on ebay or anything...

We just recently had a member give up her letters and then exchange secrets with a fraternity guy. Well, ex-fraternity guy, I guess, because he's getting kicked out now also...

But as for myself... I don't know others' secrets and I don't care to, like the rest have said. The only ones that mean anything to me are my own, anyway. :)

i'd rather not post it because then if someone knows either of ours, they might be like "AHA! i knew it!" and i wouldn't want to piss anyone off that way :)

What's the big deal? It's public info. AXO was founded with the assistance of James Howe and James Campbell, who were Betas.

I see no special similarity between the 2 rituals.

People always wonder about similarities with the Farmville Four, the fraternity Triads, the Ida Shaw rituals, KS and XO, Beta and AXO, DKE and Sigma Chi, etc. Other than the usual similarities between GLO rituals, they're not much the same at all.

That's not surprising, for a lot of reasons...

If you're creative enough to be able to write a ritual, you're probably not just going to do an exact copy of the one you know over and over. Although it would have been funny if Ida Shaw had written exactly the same ritual for all the groups. It would be like in that movie Bring It On when they realize East Compton High is doing their same cheerleading routine.

If you're a fraternity guy trying to help a bunch of girls write a sorority ritual, you're probably not going to divulge any secrets of your own group. Because let's face it, these guys probably didn't take the girls seriously and were just trying to get a date.

If you're starting a new group, you're probably going to try to differentiate yourself from existing groups on the same campus, so your ritual will reflect that.

And if you're founded as a protest against an existing group, again you're going to have very different beliefs and ideals and therefore very different rituals.

wptw

That's what I would think - I can't imagine Kappa Sig Richardson sitting down with the Chi Omegas and saying "Well, this is what we do, so we'll tweak it a bit for you."

well thanks wptw for posting that even when i said that i didn't want to :p

but now my curiosity is fulfilled if what you say is true about the two not being very similar. i wondered to what extent that assistance carried over in ritual, but what you say makes sense, especially when you think about the individuality factor

I have to laugh when I hear people say that they don't want to know any secret information from other organizations. Personally, I think it would be fascinating to learn about the rituals of any organizations, but I don't really know how to do it.

Well, your reluctance to post it was based on the possibility that the 2 were similar and that if so, a member of one org could then intuit something about the other. But they're not similar, so I figured it was OK. Plus, it's right there in Baird's. ;)

I do wonder why the fraternity men were so eager to help the women organize their sororities. Perhaps fantastic stories of pillow fights and slumber parties had begun to circulate from other colleges, and the guys were staking their claim to a front row seat?

wptw

Either that, or the women nagged them so much that they had to acquiesce :D we're sneaky like that

I'm with you on that thought. I think it would be fascinating to know how something like the same letter was used in different was (ie. the delta in DZ vs the delta in Tri Delta) or symbols. Likewise, I would like to see how ritual varies(with regard to sororities) with men or women who wrote the rituals. Same with time.

Its more of a curiosity/respect thing than running around announcing "I KNOW YOUR RITUAL."

wptw, I think the above posters said it all!:D

Male wants to help the Female!

Women nagged so much that they decided to attempt to try and help!;)

No flaming required thank you!:D

What is funny, I have asked many Wives of Brothers of my Chapter what they thought of the Ritual! DAH, boy did I get the same answer, "Are You Kidding"!:cool:

I am sure that Our Each Ritual is Precious to all of us.

It is mine, I worked for it.

You worked for yours, Mine is important to me and yours is important to you.

Only way to fly!

Well, when most of the NIC Fraternities and NPC Sororities were
founded, the founders seemed to draw a lot from secret societies like
Masonry and the Rosicrucians, and of course the literary and honor
societies that were the first true GLO's. Over the years there have
been confidential studies conducted by the NIC and NPC which confirm
what I just said.

What the founders didn't anticipate was the social aspect that came
along with advent of coeducation, the idea of "Greek Systems" and
social customs like pinnings, serenades, etc. I think if some of the
founders could get in a time machine and travel to a modern college
campus, they'd be pretty shocked at what happened to the rituals they
so carefully designed and passed on as something sacred. I mean, a
Fraternity pin, on a woman? You gotta be kidding, right?

Anyways the rituals aren't really what's important. It's all about
how you feel when you are going through it. The secrecy is there not
to protect the information, or even the organization, but to protect
you. There have been millions of initiates into GLO's over the past
two-hundred-plus years, but it's a fresh and new experience every time
it happens to an undergrad. The only real justification for secrecy
is to preserve the freshness of the experience for each new generation
of initiates. And GLO's like Delta Upsilon have shown that even that
isn't really necessary (I'm surprised no DY's have been in this thread
as far as I can tell).

So, blabbing something to your boyfriend or girlfriend, or even to a
close friend who happens to be in a different GLO isn't really all
that bad. I think we've all done stuff like that at least once or
twice. Just don't disrespect the ritual in front of a pledge. Shame
on anyone who does THAT.

OK I'm off the soapbox now...

Re: Having Rituals
 

With Darrin, Samantha and Aunt Clara, no doubt.

Re: Having Rituals
 

That last part -- it's the tie that binds... That essentially sums it up. I spent 3 years as a colonist, never having sat all the way through ritual, not even really knowing what my organization was about (but having some vague idea).

What Richard there says is absolutely on point. When I was initiated, it was a truly great experience. It all kind of "came together" and I felt that I was finally a full member of the organization.

Icon, it's not a religious experience -- although, there are certainly elements of Christianity in my ritual, it's first and foremost an excercise in brotherhood.

i think that people are overlooking the point here, yes i know a few others secrets, but they dont mean anything to me, I can know someone elses handshake, meaning of letters, but you dont really Know untill you experience everythign that they come with, you can know EVERYTHing in a Fraternaty/sorority's ritual but you dont understand the experiences that make those words moving and impact your life

i tried to not post on this thread but I'm going anyway.

No I dont know any GLOs secrets, privileged information (I like to call them mysteries, and yes I know that I’m a geek :D ) or the like.

But to be perfectly honest I'm curious (collective gasping). But not for the information that you might think.

What I'm curious about is the pagentry/theatrics used in these rituals..."production design" if you will. What are the specific components used...ie symbolic jouney, signing the chapter roll, etc. What type of music is used (not lyrics, just the music)

I actually wouldn't want to know the secret meaning of the letters, the grip, handshakes, but they would mean nothing to me because I'm not a member.

I don't know how other GLOs handled it, but at my chapter, we had a "fake" excuse for what our badge meant, our letters, etc. We even had a fake ritual book-that was stolen twice! It was really funny to read after you knew what the real deal was after initiation, but as pledges we had heard all the fake stuff from various people (often drunk) and we thought we knew what everything meant. BTW, did you know that the Kappa key represents the Key to the Kingdom of Heaven? ;-) ha ha ha....

Kappa2 --- that is great!! I would love to hear the other things your chapter came up with! (PM me sometime) I bet that ritual book is a hoot!!

I'd love to hear all about it as well! :)

The fraternity that was renting out our chapterhouse while our chapter was closed for the last 5 years didnt have all their stuff moved out when we did a walk-through of the structure to see the devestation left from their stay in the house...

There was an open crate in one of the rooms that contained all the items used in their rituals- skulls, spears, swords, bones, chalices, chains, and more.

I have no clue what the purpose of the items are but I know what all is used and I feel that's more than I care to know about that particular fraternity.

TrueBlue and IluvU-I'll have to PM you, as I am SURE that other people still believe the lies are real-if the book "pledged" is any indication! Actually, the fake ritual book looks in many ways like the authentic one, just with different things inside. I have seen one other kappa chapters' fake ritual book too, so it often makes me wonder when any GLO ritual book comes up on ebay and sells for thousands of dollars if someone just made a quick buck!