Ceremonial is an important part of all Masonic meetings. Preparing for a ceremony involves reading the Ritual Book to learn where and when you move, deliver your lines, and on occasion explain the meaning of symbology of to others.
Some Lodges have a formal Lodges of Instruction where ceremony is enacted, and provides each participant an opportunity to perform their part. In addition, practices and rehearsals may be perform prior to meeting.
VLOI is a software tool designed to supplement that learning process through self-learning. in effect it is personal Virtual Lodge of Instruction. The main features are…
Practice Ceremony
VLOI does all of this visually through animation. Using a depiction of a lodge (See the images above) the room can be setup, the participants assigned starting locations.
The participants then perform the Ceremony by speaking, performing actions and moving around the lodge.
Learn Words
Traditionally, the words of a ritual are learned by pacing up and down, Ritual book in hand, much to the amusement of others.
VLOI supplements that by presenting the words on screen, scrolling like an autocue.
Using the Text to Speech function and having the words spoken back wil re-enforcing the learning experience
Explain Symbology
Most Ceremonies involve explaining the meaning of drawings, illustrations and artefacts found in the Lodge Room.
The same audio-visual feature as used in the Learn Ritual process is available to do that in terms of the explanation, however VLOI also displays an image of what is being explained, and as each object of interest is mentioned, a marker highlights it.
On the Windows Platform, VLOI uses the built-in Narrator, not all Narrator voices have been enabled for 3rd party applications such as VLOI. Depending on your version, a Male voice may not be available. To make the hidden Narrator Voices available requires some editing of the Registry, not all are skilled in that. We are therefore working on a tool to unlock the hidden voices.
Lastly, it is important to note that VLOI is not a substitute for these traditional methods of preparation and learning, nor is it a replacement for the Ritual Book, in fact as delivered VLOI contains no real ritual at all, only general examples. So ownership of the appropriate Ritual Book is essential to make best use of the tool.
 Quickstart Video |  VLOI User Manual |