Full Moon ritual tomorrow...

[trystinn]

While I have completed my essays due tomorrow (well Saturday, actually), I haven't finished the memorization we were assigned. I am simply horrible at memorizing things, which is odd for someone like myself who seems to retain what they read pretty well - just not verbatim. Yet, ironicly, I still have poems from elementary school rattling around in my head, including the "Innkeeper's Tale" and way too much Shel Silverstein! Perhaps my head is full.

So far, I've been using the break down method, i.e. memorize it in blocks, while including the block above as you go onto the block below. This is painful, but the only way I know to memorize anything that works, other than making audio recordings to play and respond to - which worked wonders when memorizing CM rituals like the LBRP.

Anyone else deal with a student with these issues or themselves? Any suggestions, tricks of the trade, etc.?

Comments

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

other than a pensieve to store all that pesky out-of-date headstuff, sadly no.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

LMAO Now there's an idea!

[seastormwitch.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I got to get me one of those!

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

Now, who is going to open the store in Diagon Alley and sell them to the rest of us?

[owlsamantha.livejournal.com]

No new ideas, I pretty much go with the block method myself. Or sometimes if I can set something to music I'll remember it better, but that only works when something is ok to be sung rather than spoken.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I'll ask my HPs about setting them to music, but somehow I think she'll just spray ale all over the altar before laughing at me!

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I do the block method myself. Sometimes, if it doesn't have to be exactly word for word (festival shrine speeches, for instance, or in a different context, library research classes), I'll deliberately make alterations as I'm speaking so that I have to pay close attention to what I'm saying. If I remember what I'm trying to get across, it helps me to remember the actual text.

For songs, stories, and rituals, where there tends to be a lot of repetition, I'll make note of where the repetitive passages occur and use them as benchmarks. Folktales and the like tend to have repetitive passages for just this reason: it makes them easier to remember.

[jenett]

Memorise it backwards.

Say you have a 10 line thing:

Memorise line 10.
Memorise line 9 and add on 10.
Memorise 8, continue to 9 and 10.
Repeat until you're on line 1. Or break it into chunks and do it that way, and then break into different chunks so you don't get lousy transitions or that "Oh, what's the next bit"

So for a 20 line thing, I might do 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1, then 1-2, 3-8, 9-12, 13-17, 18-20. Run it different ways.

This is also a really handy method for things you don't want to recite in full much (like ritual texts). I was working on a Hecate invocation for Samhain, and did *not* want to actually run the energy involved while memorising it, so working backwards or in chunks made that easier.

I also work with spatial images quite a bit: that invocation had a bunch of generalised hand gestures (very small ones, I could do while driving and *not* do when I was in ritual) that reminded me that "Oh, yes, this is the bit where it goes "Come forward from the..."" or whatever other 'movement' related term made sense. (I am not a visual learner, but I do well with spatial stuff.)

[seastormwitch.livejournal.com]

Well, when I was learning the Charge I did the 'block' method and added a couple of sentences each night. I then said what I knew right before bed while I was laying there preparing myself for sleep. Nice meditation too. :)

I've also done the record and playback method. It actually works the best for me.

Wish I had some better insights! Good luck :)

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Hmn...I like the idea of a few a night before bed. Luckily, I'm working on smaller pieces than the Charge, which may help.

Now, unfortunately, the trick will be not confusing lines from the two pieces!

[seastormwitch.livejournal.com]

I would just repeat it over and over until I got drowsy.

Ick, learning two at a time can be a challenge. Good luck!

Block Method

[chyara.livejournal.com]

I am yet another Block user...

I've mananged to do it a few hours before a ritual.