Me too! Especially just after coming back from Convention and being reminded of all our ritual. :)

Wouldn't it be interesting if there was someone out there with particular skill in writing rituals that had already placed high quality fake ritual manuals on the internet?

;)
wptw

Hrm.. that could be a lovely side business! ;)

Now here's a question, our convention is this weekend and it got me wondering, how do you do the massive rituals with everyone there without anyone seeing/hearing? like the caterers and hotel staff and stuff like that? do they check you in or something? or do they just shut the doors and hope no one's listening?

When I went to District Leadership Conference this year, we were in a hotel meeting room with lockable doors. We also had members outside guarding the doors.

I would like to throw my hat into that arena. While I do not have the experience or vast library certain others have, I do have a certain amount of knowledge on this subject. I'd be willing to do it at a discount. My company could be "Initially Inexpensive Initiations" or Tri-I!;)

Double-D, I meant as subterfuge, not for profit.

;)
wptw

But if you're making a few bucks while thwarting ritual hounds, all the better, no?

hmm....
:confused:


:confused:


:confused:


:eek:

Gotta go!

Oh the morality! Where will it end?;)


$10 word of the day:
subterfuge \SUB-tur-fyooj\, noun:
A deceptive device or stratagem.

When you work with NPC groups or NIC groups for awhile, you're bound to learn some secrets. I was at a Panhel meeting in one sorority's chapter room and when the roll was called, the 2 members there from that sorority answered with what was obviously their group's response to the roll--then the second one smacked the first and yelled, "Muff, you made me do that!"(They were pretty upset.)

On the same campus, we caught members of one sorority listening to another's initiation by putting drinking glasses on their shared wall. (I never knew that really worked.) What they learned was all over campus within a few days.

When the meaning behind my sorority's letters was revealed to me, I wondered how it was possible that every Greek organization couldn't just figure out others meanings just by doing a little research in linguistics, but then I heard that each individual letter can have many different meanings and then when put together, they take on even new different meanings. So that's kind of comforting!

But to the topic of the thread, my roommate was an active of her sorority for 2 years, and when she quit, she was not at all shy about telling me EVERYTHING from how meeting was run to ritual to other secret things. Of course, I immediately shared some of that info with some of my sisters (which, looking back, I sort of regret..that wasnt really the classiest thing to do) But its sad to know that secret information is leaked soo so easily. I wonder how many people out there know the meaning of my letters who just dont care like I do!!!

I can almost understand the listening in, if you are that curious and the opportunity presents itself, but spreading it all over campus. That is just plain mean.:(

Bumping because I saw someone reading this thread just now...and I couldn't help but smirk after seeing the GC usernames of people busted as 'perps. I remember this being such a fascinating thread back then, and I'm curious to see what the recently-joined GCers think about this topic.

I wonder whatever happened to wptw? He was cool.

He's never posted often (a seach shows 301 posts since he joined in 2001), but he still shows up occasionally. His last post was in October.

And he is one of the coolest GC posters ever.

OTW, obviously we're all curious, but to actually put in the time and energy into researching other GLO's ritual info is a bit of a stretch, even for my nosey nature! What about spouses though - is it common practice (or even allowed) to share info if you're both Greek...?

No.

I'm not saying I would or have done this - I've just heard of couples that have, as if somehow they're a part of each other's org now by virtue of being married...

Considering my Hubby was a GDI, he doesn't get the concept of being Greek even after all these years of living with me. Not that I'd ever tell him, but I know he wouldn't give a flip about our ritual even if he did know. :)

I remember either my fresh or soph year hanging out at one of the fraternity houses in their TV room with some girlfriends. All the brothers left for class and we were still there. Someone left their ritual book on the coffee table. I knew it was disrespectful, but of course we read it. Heck, we were 18/19 year olds! What else would you expect when someone leaves secret things lying in the open? If it's any consolation, 20+ years later and I barely remember anything.

No. I was married to the president of a local that was being initiated into Sigma Chi. All of the ritual material was stored at my house, and some actives said "What if she (meaning me) looks at it?" I assured them that I had my own ritual, and I wouldn't think of trying to learn theirs. And I meant it. I have picked up one or two things just by virtue of being around so much of the colonization stuff and Sigma Chis - but I'd never tell anyone. It doesn't mean anything out of the entire context of the ritual, anyway.

I agree with SrthnZeta... its a little weird and stalkerish to be researching secret info. I personally know a lot about Delt stuff (like the non-secret-pre-initiation ritual of the former fraternity they absorbed at one point) because I dated one pretty seriously back in college. I'd have to say though, that I doubt any of the stuff he told me verges on secret because my ex-BF took all the vows very seriously. He would have died before "pinning" me or anything, although it wasn't like that was really done on our campus anyway

Anyway, there was also a girl in our chapter who claimed to know about the DG initiation because her mom was one, but thankfully (at least to my knowledge) she didn't share this knowledge to any greater extent than "I know something you don't know." I'm pretty thankful about it because it really isn't something I want to know. I think I'd feel guilty just having that kind of knowledge about any other group -- especially another NPC sorority.

It can be, but it doesn't have to be. There are quite a few people (wptw would be one) who's interest has little if anything to do with "knowing secrets" and everything to do with what could be described as an academic interest -- an interest in GLOs and their history in general and ritual development as a part of that history.

And by that same token, I would wager wptw has gotten the majority of his information from credible sources, not from Betty Bitter who got kicked out of her sorority for doing the whole Sci Fi & Fantasy club at once.

LOL, or from Deena Drunkhead who siddled up to him at a bar and said "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours."


I'm talking about grips, of course. ;)

My husband advises the local chapter of his fraternity. A few years ago he was having dinner with the traveling consultant and mentioned that I was in a sorority. Later in the conversation when discussing initiation and ritual, the consultant said, "I'm sure you and your wife have discussed the similarities and differences between the two rituals." He and the other members at the table spit their drinks in amazement. He went on to say that they may share their ritual with spouses.

I requested that he not do so. ;)

Those people are called "idiots." :) That includes people who leave their new member booklet and ritual information accessible to curious nonmembers regardless of who the nonmembers are.

There are organizations that give special consideration to spouses in some auxilliary membership fashion. But they are still not considered members and aren't granted the same info, rights, and privileges that members are given.

Can't you guess?
I'd be willing to bet that most GLOs have similar slogans, meanings, etc. :eek:
Really and truly, knowing them all would be pretty boring.:cool:
JMHO!:D

My husband is a TKE. We would never even dream about discussing ritual! There are so many other stories that we can talk about, why would we discuss something that is so sacred?
In addition, since we both have complete access to each other's belongings, we don't look at anything GLO related, unless we have permission.

I remember a lot of people gave wptw a hard time when he first started posting. A lot of people seemed to think that ritual collector = evil person.

There's a difference between collecting rituals just to piss off GLOs and collecting rituals because they really truly believe in the beauty in our Rituals. I have no problem with people who collect rituals for the latter reason. While I won't voluntarily hand em to just anybody, I won't go apeshit if I found out someone like wptw got a hold of it, either.

I know, from a loudmouth prospective member, of one local fraternity's secrets but (in Brittany Murphy's voice) "I'll never tell."

I really don't see the point in sharing that kind of information with my husband. But when you're dealing with young college couples that are perhaps less secure about things, information flows more freely --- in quite a few cases, girls have told me all about the activities of their significant others' fraternities that they should not have known and I really didn't care to know. ("I don't like Greek life because my boyfriend had to do this and this ..." "Greeks are weird because they do such and such ..." etc. etc.)

Hmm...I agree with a lot of what has been said here. I wouldn't actively seek out another organization's ritual, and I would feel wrong and awkward if someone wanted to tell it to me. I've heard a tiny bit of ritual from another org, but I'm not even sure it's true. Of course I'm curious! I think despite my curiosity, I would still feel SO wrong about knowing it.

I'm curious about the meaning of the letters, because I've seen these pictures (don't know what to call them) on E-bay that spell out the Greek meaning. I've seen them for several orgs and they usual include other symbols. Does anyone know what I mean? Don't you think anyone who spoke Greek could figure out their meaning from there?

I know many sorority and frat handshakes, rituals and "secrets." One thing I learned is that they are all very, very similar. Similar handshakes, similar meanings hint: they all have to do with love/friendship/loyalty/class.

The big thing with Greeks is the "secret" stuff. Fact is, it's all really tripe, and to me, a gimmick.

^You protest too much. :D

Many religious ceremonies are similar - but what makes them not "tripe" is the meaning to the participants. Wedding vows are often alike - are they just words? No - again,what makes it meaningful is taking what is symbolic and making it real. Wedding vows have power when they are truly felt and meant. Ritual (the secret stuff) has power when it binds the members in a common goal - a common cause. It joins them, in much the way wedding vows do, through the commitment those who go through it have to making those vows a reality. Some couples divorce - that doesn't mean the vows are the problem. Some people don't "get" being greek - that doesn't mean it is "tripe" or a "gimmick". I firmly believe some people are better off not married, just as some are better off not in a glo.

^^^ Thank you!

When I was in school, my sister had a boyfriend that would believe anything. He was such a sweetheart, so we never let on that we would joke about it behind his back.

One night, we agreed to share one of our "rituals" with him. We called it the "squirrel handshake". She and I got into a squatting position, facing each other. We then bent our elbows and took our half-open fists, wrapping our knuckles together. His eyes got so big as he discovered one of the Alpha Gamma Delta secrets.

After he left that night, we were laughing so hard. We figured he probably told all of his brothers and they were laughing about it too.

Boy am I glad you weren't one of our Founders! That would be a tough handshake to do as you got into your 40's and 50's! (Mental image of elderly women at Convention unable to get out of their squat) LOL

It's kind of ironic. I ended up knowing a lot of things about the fraternities that my two serious college boyfriends were in.. but they weren't the "nice ritual" things that I learned. It was the secret, awful, hazing things they did that I ended up hearing about in bits and pieces. Reading this thread, it dawned on me.. we hear about all the awful illegal stuff that our groups do, but we don't hear the truly inspirational, morals driven secrets that our groups see as their highest ideals. How much sense does that make? Not that I would ever tell a non-member anything, but I'm really proud of our ritual and the meanings behind everything. It almost seems silly that we don't shout these things out to the world, doesn't it?

Our Ritual's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

When I attended my first Convention in 2001, I remember the LC reciting her Ritual part was moved to tears. In 2004, I too, was moved to tears. I wish I could put into words how it felt like to experience that.

I wonder if our Founders even knew how much impact they'd have on all of us 100 years later?