Originally posted by SeaBass
batman,
Thakns for the link but I've run across that one before. Not much truth to it, just what you can grab from a Norman Shield which is public
knowledge. Thanks again for the effort.
SeaBass
I looked at this site, and I am fairly confident that the stuff he lists is legit (or at least some accurate snipets, as most rituals are quite
lengthy and these seem to be short). I know there are some people that posted in the guestbook that said it wasn't even close to their ritual, but
what do you expect them to say?
The guy running that site has either seen their ritual or has written a very elaborate fabrication. Either way, what he has posted is very similar to
several fraternities' rituals. It's close enough to what actually goes on that it should give you a good idea of how innocuous college fraternities
are.
The only thing that you don't have is a copy of the actual ritual book, which is next to impossible to get. Even individual fraternity brothers
aren't allowed to own one. The chapter owns a set number of copies. They can't get a new copy unless they send in an old one. At least that's how
my fraternity works.
Oh, and I can assure you that the secret grip and passwords are not listed in the Normal Shield, and neither is the layout of the ritual equipment.
The Normal Shield is a guidebook given to pledges to acquaint them with the history and traditions of the fraternity. There is no way that the
brothers would knowingly give all the fraternity secrets to the pledges. Trust me on this. My fraternity has a similar book, called the Teke Guide.
You might also be interested to know that most college fraternity ritual books are in the Library of Congress. They were all forced to submit their
rituals during the height of McCarthyism, since any secret organization was considered to be a possible source of Communism. A few presidents since
then have removed their fraternity's book from the Library, but most of them are still there. As far as I know, Sigma Chi's book is still there.
[Edited on 17-7-2003 by UnusualSuspect]