Tonight is our second Entered Apprentice degree practice, and once again I will take up the mantle of the Junior Steward and learn as much as I can by following along. Tomorrow there was supposed to be a Master Mason degree conferred by Medford Lodge No. 103, but it has unfortunately been canceled. I was looking forward to seeing the degree as a spectator while my own experience was still fresh in my mind. But that will come soon enough, I'm sure!

Today I would like to share two web sites made by individuals, instead of lodges. The first is Steve M. Hudson's home page. Steve's petition was recently accepted, and he should soon be receiving his Entered Apprentice degree. His writings are very profound, and it looks like he will be a welcome and intelligent addition to the Craft. Congratulations, Steve! The Tracing Board by Bro. Jeff Peace is the second link I'd like to share. He has collected quite a few excellent articles and a great deal of material on his site, and I urge everybody to check it out.

Those of you who are American Masons and have gone through the three Blue Lodge degrees in a York or American Rite lodge might not be aware of some of the interesting differences that other rites use in their versions of the Blue Lodge degrees. For example, blue lodges practicing the Scottish Rite use a "Chamber of Reflection" in the Entered Apprentice degree. I'd heard it mentioned before, but luckily the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon has among its vast collection of material this very interesting article about the Chamber. If you are a petitioner in a Scottish Rite blue lodge (not to be confused with the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, which practices the 4th-32nd degrees), you might want to skip this link as it may be a bit of a "spoiler."