Boring?
 

Does anyone else think their ritual is boring? I went through my pledge period waiting for something exciting to happen, and I was ever nervous before my initiation. Afterwards, I was like WTF? Thats IT? I have been through initiation multiple times, as a pledge and as a member, and I think the same thing every time. I am a member of an NPC sorority, and I have talked to friends that are in other sororities, and we have realized that our rituals are very similiar. And very dull in the same ways. I wont say anything further, since I know many people respect and honor these rituals, but they seem quite dull to me. I was pretty let down.

I think I smell something foul.

Why Foul???

I know what My Ritual is and am Still getting Hair raisings everytime I see it. It is that stirring and important. Of course, It is a LXA Ritual!:cool:

Would be interesting to find out whose it is!:p

I'm sorry that you find yours to be dull. Perhaps it is in the way your chapter is going about the presentation? How someone carries themselves during a ritual, and how much emotion/passion they put into the words they speak can dramatically change a ritual from year to year.

I enjoy ours. :)

Re: Boring?
 

"cynical" "0123" "Posts:1"

The number of time we've seen these types of posts...it's getting a little old...BORING...

I mean, if you really wanted to stir some shit, come up with something better. I could use the entertainment.

Boring is the last word that comes to mind when I think of our ritual.

Ours are always short, sweet, and to the point. Our initiation takes a while, but it's always hillarious commentary after each girl is initated. There's always the "dropped a candle and burned the carpet" girl, "singed hair" girl, and " lit the ritual book on fire" girl.

I can see what you mean about how people carry themselves and perform the rituals. Many people who lead them are reading off notecards or don't care. But I mean, the general ideas are kind of generic...when I was told that "secrets" would be revealed to me, I guess I was expecting something a little more exciting. Dont know quite what...???

Haha...its somewhat tempting to tell you what organization I am with. But...I won't stir up unnecessary drama. :D

At first glance, maybe the secrets of the chapter are somewhat generic. At first glance, I guess ours could be said to be rather generic, too.

BUT-- it's all how you internalize and give importance to the ritual and the secrets given to you. They might seem mundane to you at first glance-- the key is to internalize the ritual and the symbols/secrets given to you in your life.

Maybe you were expecting some earth-shattering ritual secrets, or perhaps you had an overblown ideal of what a sorority ritual is? *shrug*

It is, after all, what you make of it.

:)

Re: Re: Boring?
 

EXACTLY why I smelled something foul.


Maybe because I was a Rainbow Girl I had more of an idea of what to kinda expect from Phi Sig ritual. I woudln't say it's "entertaining" but I wouldn't call it boring either.

I'm sorry if you all were bored by my post...and I didn't mean to make anyone angry. I just hear all of these people talking about their love and admiration for their ritual, and I was just curious if I was in the minority for feeling the way that I do. And I probably did build it up to be something different, but that's kind of the way I feel about a lot of things related to my experience in my organization. Oh well...

You know what? I'll bite.

Yeah, the first time, I was lost...I didn't know what to look or listen for, but that is when it came time to do some "independent study" afterwards. The more I go through it, each time I find something else to appreciate.

What were you expecting? Sacrifice? Fireworks?

Ditto to what Measi said as well. It's all about internalizing it and making it mean something in your own life.

You're really tragic, you know that?

S-O-R-O-R-I-T-Y....but at this point spelling's the least of your worries. :rolleyes:

Is English your second language?

Even though Formal Ritual Initaion takes place for everyone on a certain date, Internal Initiation has three opprotunities for occurance. Before the Formal Ritual: This means you already live the Ritual, meaing the basic values it teaches, so finding out the extra secert stuff is like an added bonus. Probablly why Cyncial Post Starter felt as she did/does. The second type is during the act. This is extremely rare, even more so than the first type, which is rare as well. This is when everything makes sense as to why you were pledging/colonizing and its worth it. Hopefully doesn't happen while some one is saying something important. Also..........third type is after the formal ritual. Some people need some time to digest all of that. This is the most common type.

It really is an independent study thing. The first time I went through the rituals were overwhelming in the sense that I was a pledge and had no idea what was going on.

The second time, I was more of an observer because I was now seeing it from the other side.

After that, I started re-reading the ritual and considering the things within it that struck me immediately as either interesting or important.

Perhaps it's the Pagan faith in me-- I find rituals to be soothing and comforting by nature. It's just the traditional-ness of it all.

~ Mel.

:confused: What?

What the hell was that post all about?

Please So allow me to stick my fingure down my throat and Puke!:eek:


DigitalAngel126, Not aimed at you but that moroonic post you quoted!:eek:

THIS POST IS ADDRESSED TO THE STARTER OF THIS THREAD
 

My advice to you is run/ get appointed to Chaplain/Ritual Chair/whichever office the duties thereof are to oversee the Initiation of New Members. You can make changes if you try. I faced some simular situations and attitudes when I took office so I know what you're going through/I know through what you are going. If you want to make improvements to your chapter in a very profound way then you would be a good Chaplain. Afterall, you noticed it. Your chapter should be glad to have you, since if most people didn't care about their part in ritual, then probably most people getting initatied wanted to get it over with. Hopefully you can get their help when/if you are Chaplain.

I found that QUITE amusing.

hehehehe

I find it quite amusing that she called you sugar pops... and spelled it correctly. :p

I've always believed a couple things in regards to my ritual.
[*]First, one saying we have in Beta Theta Pi is "Once a Beta, Always a Beta, Everywhere a Beta" As a pledge, this was explained to me as that I've always believed in the principles and ideals of Beta Theta Pi, and I've lived my life accordingly, even while in HS and before - I just had never known it the wording of the fraternity. If I hadn't been living up to those ideal to some extent already, well I probably wouldn't have fit into the fraternity and not found my place there. If you believe the same thing about your chapter, then the "secrets" should not be life-altering in a sense that they are not completely new concepts.
[*]Second, if the chapter is doing its job, then your pledges/new members should know what your organization stands for - again not necessarily in the wording of the organization or in regards to what your actual letters mean, but the whole thing should not be bringing them new concepts. Members should be tryign to live up to those ideals and hopefully conspicuously succeeding in doing so.

Finally more than several members of a number of organizations I have talked to have commented on how just how much of their ideals are presented in readily available material, like promotional brochures, open constitutions, creeds, websites, and pledge education materials. On more than one occasion people have agreed with me that careful study of their organizations publications would reveal what their organization held most dear - what was the basis for their secrets. Given that, after hearing/reading this information multiple times during a pledge period, would probably cause one to feel like the secrets werent' very exciting.

All in all, the combination of these things, probably meant that the secrets weren't brand new, and I think that's a good thing. Obviously, a person is going to fit in best with a place that's already in line with their goals, a chapter that is living up to their ideals is going to be doing things that reflect those ideals, and the fraternity movement was greatly helped by opening up to the public and being honest with the goals of the organizations - without this transperancy who knows if our organizations would be as prevalent and strong.

I don't think that anybody's trying to stir isht up with this post -- this is a pretty normal reaction, IMO. After I went through initiation, I can't say that I expected something better, but I definitely expected something different. After studying our rituals more in-depth, I've been impressed by them not only from an emotional standpoint, but from a technical one. Our ritual is not very "showy," but the minutiae of it is pretty amazing -- every time I look through the ritual book again, I'm struck by a new thing that I hadn't noticed or realized before.

And yes, you do get out of it what you put into it. This is why I think it's hard for a lot of fraternity and sorority members to take ritual seriously, because if you're not raised in a church background, we have very little of it in our culture. Many Greeks don't internalize the ritual at all or find ways to apply it to their own lives, which makes it pretty boring and irrelevant to them. Ritual is kind of like religion in that sense.

We sacrifice virgins and goats.

yeah, i agree its a normal reaction. My friend is an AOPi and said she felt the same way and so did i. I was so nervous about initiation because humans are naturally scared of the unknown. But it was fine. And when the secrets were revealed it was kind of like "Oh...that's it?" But really its kind of cool to know things other people don't and can't know.

This thread is treading on dangerous territory. Any discussion about your ritual should be with members of your chapter, or other sister, that you know IN REAL LIFE and not online.

How could our ritual be called boring when we wear our turquoise and steel gray catsuits and circle each other's fat? IT'S GOOD FUN!!!

OMG, we wear red and white catsuits while standing on our heads playing musical instruments!



(the girls who play piano have it really rough)

Eh, you haven't seen fun until you've seen ours, where we all wear the ritual thong...and we're coed! :D

WE only sacrifice virgin goats.

Amateur.

I have to agree. I can't exactly say I was bored...it was more like, "Whew! That wasn't bad at all!"

I think the more times you participate in your ritual, the more you can appreciate it. You can't really pay attention to anything your first time around because you're so nervous! At least, I was. :p

Betarulz!'s post
 

Just want to say that Betarulz!'s post was one of the smarter, more eloquent things I have seen posted lately. It really speaks to how I feel about my own ritual and what I think most of our founders intended for our groups.

HA HA! I WAS "singed hair" girl at my initiation! I swear, I missed half of what went on b/c I was so embarrassed about having set my hair on fire and stinking up the room!

Re: Boring?
 

Any ritual is boring if you're indifferent to its values. If you are determined to continue exploring your sorority's values, then you will begin to finding it meaningful and special.

And that's why most house corporations ban house/dorm suite residents from keeping candles, and why a lot of rituals have been amended to include lightbulb tapers instead of lit candles. :)

In all honesty, yes, ritual can be a let-down after 4-8 weeks of a new member period where you are showered with gifts and attention, where initiates will be talking and ominously stop, smile and say patronizingly, "Oh I can't tell you the rest of the story until after initiation," etc., and you have a build-up and an expectation of the unknown.

It is the responsibility of the chapter to prepare new members to receive the ritual, and to help initiated members understand and live the ritual in their daily lives.

So I don't blame anyone for feeling bored-- but speak up. Maybe it is time for a chapter ritual workshop. The better you understand it, the more you will feel it and the more special it will seem the next time you perform it.

Damn. I'm impressed! :p


Of course, the red catsuit image is burning in my eyesockets. I suppose we need to go with white and blue ones, then, to keep up with our fellow music sisters!

I expected more than just catching and riding that silly goat. I would have loved some "revealing of secrets"

i know when i went through my first initiation, i was so wrapped up in it that i didn't take in a lot of information. the second time around i had to fill in for our new member educator, so i was too worried about my roll to pay attention. but the third time, i really listened to the words and everything else and it really struck me as beautiful. i think if you just take the time to really listen and understand, you may feel the same way.

You have a BIG mouth, gosh!

At least you didn't tell them that it's blue with gold sequins. THAT would have been way too much info.