Stoanism

STOANIST CEREMONIES

Stoanism quite deliberately uses ritual, ceremony, pomp and a little mystique which you might associate with other organisations such as Freemasonry and the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, and the purpose of this is to benignly help members explore and visualise a core “curriculum” of topics in a way that stimulates the senses and thereby makes those explorations more memorable and “real”. For example the notion of “accepting things one cannot change” enshrined in Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” is introduced to new members verbally and reinforced by pouring cold water over their hands as a vivid sensory enactment of something that could and should be easily accepted, then moving their hands away from a lit candle as an equally memorable but contrasting experience of not accepting things they shouldn’t. The “ritual” associated with this is like a lesson plan or lecture notes for the group, and is intentionally performed with other members present, both as a memory-jogger for common concepts and language everyone can relate to and explore further outside of the Ceremony, and as a shared experience to deepen the sense of connection and trust between those involved.

Typically a Ceremony will be scheduled following an informal discussion between new members and more experienced members. If a member shows an interest in a particular topic or Ceremony such as The Serenity Prayer for example, they can request it through their “lodge” and ask for another member to lead the proceedings.

Members are free to devise their own Ceremonies based on topics, ideas, philosophies or even theology with a view to including them in the official “canon” of Stoanism, but generally the approved Ceremonies are intended as a kind of “starter list” to initiate conversations and exploration between members in a structured way that also provides a common baseline and consistent experience for those choosing to undertake each Ceremony.

Some Ceremonies have success criteria beyond simply attending and following along, and some Ceremonies have different levels (“degrees”). Each Ceremony must be led by someone who has successfully completed the Ceremony in question at the relevant level themselves, but can be attended by anyone who has attended the full Ceremony at the relevant level previously (even if they didn’t complete it successfully), as well as the new member requesting the Ceremony of course. If a Ceremony has different levels, the levels cannot be skipped.

Each “Lodge” is responsible for keeping its own membership register including a record of who has successfully completed each Ceremony/Level, who led the Ceremony and when. There is a general expectation that a member will remain affiliated with the same single Lodge and undertake all Ceremonies at that Lodge for as long as they are resident in that catchment area.