Do you know other GLOs' secret info?

[Tom Earp]

Diamond Delta, Kuddos to you and WPTW.

I am sure it is an interesting study.

I am also sure that there are many similarities amongts many Greek Orgaizations, each has its own little twist to it.

All one has to do is look at Badges or Coats Of Arms and see some of the same symbols.

Beta Chi. My Fraternity Local had its Badge and Coat of Arms.

Clasped Hands, Swords, Sun Rise, Bible Opened, and Judicial Scales.

If one does a study, they will find this on many.

[seraphimsprite]

Originally posted by Diamond Delta
I am a ritual collector and have read three sororities initiations and have viewed information about several others. I too have also had the encounter with a drunken or "ex" member that spilled the beans. So I know the handshake of a few that I've never seen their ritual, but they told me about it. I have read only one fraternity ritual that was not an open ritual.

I'm curious about this. I don't know if you can say, but how do you collect ritual? Do you find the ritual books for sale somewhere or is it from talking to members or something else?

ETA: I know with research you can usually figure out some parts, but I'm curious how you were actually able to read initiation ceremonies. (And please don't interpret this as any sort of attack - I'm fascinated by all things ritual and I really am just curious.)

[IvySpice]

Yes, a former member of an NPC group who had a very bad experience and quit after one semester told me about various ritual information. This was a person with no interest whatsoever in lying to protect the group; she basically considered it a giant waste of time and money and told me these things to back up how silly she thought the secrecy was.

Also, my father (whose fraternity has now merged with ZBT) told me all about his initiation in the context of a long talk about his college days.

[lyrica9]

this is just reminding me of when i was shopping for christmas gifts for my grandparents. i got my grandmother a bunch of cutesy a-phi stuff, but i couldn't really find any pike stuff i thought my grandfather would enjoy.
i kept finding these ties with seven stripes or something on online pike stores, so i asked him what the deal with the ties was and he replied
"well katherine, next you'll be asking me what the handshake and password are"
and left it at that.
i think it's the only time i've witnessed my grandfather showing respect for something, and i had just been initiated, so it was kind of reaffirming in a way.

[Sahara27]

Originally posted by IvySpice
Yes, a former member of an NPC group who had a very bad experience and quit after one semester told me about various ritual information. This was a person with no interest whatsoever in lying to protect the group; she basically considered it a giant waste of time and money and told me these things to back up how silly she thought the secrecy was.

I had the same experience with a friend of mine. She left the group in such a bad way, she wanted to tell anyone who would listen the secrets of the organization. Although I'm fasinated that we all have different rituals, the differences are for a reason, and I tell her not to reveal anything to me whenever the topic comes up. I wouldn't want anyone to know what happens during our ritual, why would I want that to happen to another org?

[33girl]

Originally posted by Sahara27
I had the same experience with a friend of mine. She left the group in such a bad way, she wanted to tell anyone who would listen the secrets of the organization.

this actually makes more sense to me than people getting drunk and spilling the beans. I don't know about anyone else, but our ruby-studded genie costume was the last thing I was thinking of after I had a few drinks.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by 33girl
this actually makes more sense to me than people getting drunk and spilling the beans. I don't know about anyone else, but our ruby-studded genie costume was the last thing I was thinking of after I had a few drinks.

That's how I feel about our azure blue catsuits. Although, the mass dieting that goes on prior to initiation is probably a dead give-away!

I do know bits of two other sorority rituals, but I wouldn't repeat them. Just because the people who told me were silly enough to tell me, doesn't mean that I'm indiscreet enough to reveal anything.

Although, one of our traveling secretaries & I were chatting once, and she confirmed the information on the one sorority. Seems that there had been a lawsuit on her campus, and a lot of ritual was revealed.

[CASIGKAP]

I have a cousin who's an Alpha Phi & for some reason, family members think that we have the exact same secrets & rituals. They don't get that Alpha Phi & Sigma Kappa don't have anything in common (as far as I know) b/c we have NEVER shared anything. We talk about common things we know but never ritual.
I will admit that I've been curious about the letters on their badge but it's not my business to know b/c I chose to go elsewhere.

[TheEpitome1920]

I've had people tell me pieces of information about other organizations. Not really sure why. I've always felt that the information is useless unless you are a member.

[mommag2]

I was told by an EX-Friend all about her EX-SORORITY. I know why they wear black at pinning and why they wear white at activatio, why they have to dress up in black every Wednesday. What the religious references significances are and why certain scriptures are read during the pledge process.

She told me all the information because she is WAY BITTER about resigning from the sorority eventhough it was her choice.

Later on she wanted to join my sorority. Thank goodness she couldn't.

[Buttonz]

I know a drop about one frat's ritual, but only a drop. If I wanted to, I could find out stuff from one of the sororitieso n campus I am sure, but I don't care. I know most of the stuff from one of the locals, because I learnt it before I depledged from them.

I love my ritual, and while I can't see myself being upset that a non-sister knows it, I can't see myself being happy about it.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
But realistically, if you see a heart or some outward symbol of "love" on a crest of an organization that has a "Phi" in their name, you're going to be pretty sure that means philia, for love. I have pretty good guesses as to quite a few groups rituals based on studying their crests and a vocabulary of 300 Greek words from the NT.

Agreed.

If people really want to know what our letters mean, it wouldn't take much for them to make an educated guess. A little bit of Greek, some knowledge of heraldry and symbols, and a little study of the crests and open mottoes, and most people could make a decent guess for a lot of groups.

That said, I "know" some about a number of groups, and I could make guesses for a number more, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of what I know and a lot of what I would guess is wrong.

To me it's more interesting to know what things COULD stand for and what initiations COULD be like rather than what the truth is -- I think some of the fake initiation stuff I've heard is just as interesting as the real stuff.

[SGill4613]

A ritual is only as good as the people that live it. A handshake is nothing, the words for which our letters stand for are nothing unless we truly live our ritual.

A couple of years ago, some of my fraternity brothers stumbled across a ritual of anothe fraternity. I looked over it, and while I naturally compared it to the ritual I first experienced, it had good ideals. The only dissapointing thing is that few of the brothers from that fraternity seem to live their ritual in their life. There are always chapters that don't follow the higher standards to which the have been called, but to totally throw them out the window is sad.

If you don't try and live your ritual, its just words on paper.

[Tom Earp]

Sgill, that is so true. But many do not live by it as stress gets to them and forget as most do.

Most Rituals try to promote the finer inner person to attain higher things in life.

It seems that some forget it in the heat of battle among Chapters of different Greek Organizations at their schools.

But, that is common!

Nice to be the biggest on campus, but if there is no one else, what is the comparison to?

We as Greeks make our own destiny.

[navane]

If you are REALLY curious about what the ritual for a social GLO is like, here's a novel way to find out:

I'm a member of both Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Lambda Delta - both are national academic honor societies for freshmen. However, Phi Eta Sigma started out as a social fraternity at the University of Illinois in 1923. Similarly, Alpha Lambda Delta was founded as a social sorority at the University of Illinois in 1924. In the 30s they both went to an academic format. Finally, they went co-ed in the 70s due to the Title IX legislation. We had chapters both on my campus. When Title IX passed through, they went co-ed and "joined forces". In effect, at Long Beach State, we were "Phi Eta Sigma-Alpha Lambda Delta".

Our rituals are indeed open, parents and friends routinely attend our initiation ceremony and dinner. When I became President, one of my tasks was to organize the initiation of our new members. As I read through I documents, I realized that we performed a modified version of both rituals. That is, some years ago, the members of my chapter(s) decided not to conduct each ritual separately (to save time maybe?); but rather to do one modifed ritual which incorporates the "secrets" from each. As a result, my chapter had eliminated the use of the robes, candles and such from our version.

In my President's box I had both of the official ritual manuscripts from both HQs. It was really interesting to read each ritual in it's whole form and see how it's supposed to be done. Keep in mind that both Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Lambda Delta started out as social GLOs and the ritual only had minor modifications when the transition to an academic format was made. So, if ever I wanted to know what a social fraternity and social sorority ritual looked like, I only needed to read the ones I had sitting right in my house!

.....Kelly