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The Masonic Roundtable - 0567 - Build-A-Body · The Masonic Roundtable - Freemasonry Today for Today's Freemasons

• 0:09
  Speaker: Hello and welcome back to the Masonic Roundtable, a weekly
• 0:12
  Speaker: program where Masons from around the world get together to talk
• 0:15
  Speaker: about Masonic news and opinions in a friendly and social manner.
• 0:18
  Speaker: As a reminder, the thoughts and opinions expressed here are
• 0:21
  Speaker: solely the opinions of the participants and do not
• 0:24
  Speaker: represent any Grand Lodge statements or positions.
• 0:26
  Speaker: Make sure you keep your conversations open for the
• 0:28
  Speaker: public and on the level to interact with us.
• 0:30
  Speaker: We love seeing you live every
• 0:32
  Speaker: Thursday night on Facebook and
• 0:33
  Speaker: YouTube.
• 0:34
  Speaker: Hello and good evening.
• 0:35
  Speaker: And remember, your chats may
• 0:37
  Speaker: show up in the show and if you
• 0:38
  Speaker: can't catch us live, we'd love
• 0:40
  Speaker: to have you come back to the
• 0:42
  Speaker: replay or in your favorite
• 0:44
  Speaker: podcast app.
• 0:45
  Speaker: So you know me, John Ruark, past
• 0:47
  Speaker: master of the Patriot Lodge
• 0:48
  Speaker: number nineteen fifty seven in
• 0:50
  Speaker: Fairfax, Virginia.
• 0:52
  Speaker: Next up with a an awesome t shirt.
• 0:57
  Speaker: Talking about that in the green room is Jimothy Martinez.
• 1:02
  Speaker: I'm on mute.
• 1:02
  Speaker: Hello?
• 1:03
  Speaker: Hello, Jimothy.
• 1:05
  Speaker: Martinez.
• 1:05
  Speaker: Uh, Pisces.
• 1:07
  Speaker: Let's see what else.
• 1:08
  Speaker: Oh, yeah.
• 1:09
  Speaker: Past master Manasseh, lot number
• 1:11
  Speaker: one, eighty two things and
• 1:13
  Speaker: stuff.
• 1:13
  Speaker: And, uh, always good to be here.
• 1:15
  Speaker: Hello, John.
• 1:17
  Speaker: John.
• 1:17
  Speaker: Glad to have you.
• 1:18
  Speaker: Hello, John.
• 1:19
  Speaker: Hello, hello, hello.
• 1:23
  Speaker: Next up, Jason Michael Richards.
• 1:26
  Speaker: Hello and good evening.
• 1:27
  Speaker: Oh, hello.
• 1:28
  Speaker: Government name Jason Richards,
• 1:30
  Speaker: past master of Acacia Lodge,
• 1:32
  Speaker: number sixteen in Clifton,
• 1:33
  Speaker: Virginia.
• 1:34
  Speaker: And glad to be here.
• 1:36
  Speaker: Yep.
• 1:37
  Speaker: We only use middle names.
• 1:39
  Speaker: Like when your mom's mad at you.
• 1:41
  Speaker: Or. Or in lodge, right?
• 1:44
  Speaker: Yes.
• 1:45
  Speaker: So, yeah.
• 1:47
  Speaker: That's it.
• 1:47
  Speaker: Government names.
• 1:48
  Speaker: All right.
• 1:49
  Speaker: Um, Roberts on his way.
• 1:52
  Speaker: And we'll see you soon.
• 1:54
  Speaker: That's what he says.
• 1:55
  Speaker: That's what he said.
• 1:58
  Speaker: Well, we love him anyway, just like we love our patrons who
• 2:01
  Speaker: support the show.
• 2:02
  Speaker: Head over to patreon dot com
• 2:03
  Speaker: slash the Masonic Roundtable if
• 2:05
  Speaker: you want to support the free
• 2:06
  Speaker: Masonic education for many years
• 2:07
  Speaker: to come.
• 2:08
  Speaker: So, um.
• 2:09
  Speaker: That's amazing.
• 2:11
  Speaker: We love you guys.
• 2:13
  Speaker: What was that?
• 2:15
  Speaker: What's that?
• 2:16
  Speaker: Uh, that would be a Robert Johnson.
• 2:22
  Speaker: Oh, there it is.
• 2:23
  Speaker: There he is.
• 2:26
  Speaker: Sorry I'm late.
• 2:27
  Speaker: It was.
• 2:28
  Speaker: It was pizza time.
• 2:30
  Speaker: Uh, age.
• 2:32
  Speaker: Sex.
• 2:32
  Speaker: Location.
• 2:33
  Speaker: Go!
• 2:34
  Speaker: Uh, forty five.
• 2:38
  Speaker: Male.
• 2:39
  Speaker: Um, that's so nineteen ninety five.
• 2:43
  Speaker: A s a s a. Okay.
• 2:49
  Speaker: Awesome.
• 2:50
  Speaker: Well, let's transition to the next segment of the show, which
• 2:54
  Speaker: everyone knows about.
• 3:09
  Speaker: Smooth as butter.
• 3:10
  Speaker: Tonight.
• 3:11
  Speaker: Special tarot deck.
• 3:13
  Speaker: It is in honor of RJ.
• 3:17
  Speaker: The cosmic tarot.
• 3:20
  Speaker: Oh, that's only half the words.
• 3:24
  Speaker: Oh.
• 3:25
  Speaker: Oh. Is it?
• 3:26
  Speaker: I don't want us to get demonetized.
• 3:28
  Speaker: I was just gonna say, uh.
• 3:30
  Speaker: That deck is not nearly as dirty
• 3:32
  Speaker: as I wanted it to be, but it's
• 3:34
  Speaker: still fun.
• 3:35
  Speaker: It is still fun.
• 3:36
  Speaker: It's like, uh, when I was growing up, I was over at my,
• 3:39
  Speaker: uh, friends at my neighbor's house, and his, uh, father was
• 3:46
  Speaker: doing some carpentry in the garage and hit his hit the
• 3:49
  Speaker: hammer on his thumb.
• 3:50
  Speaker: And then that's when I learned
• 3:51
  Speaker: that mother was only half of a
• 3:53
  Speaker: word.
• 3:58
  Speaker: So I drew a card.
• 4:00
  Speaker: I didn't think it was dirty enough, so I drew another card.
• 4:04
  Speaker: My guy.
• 4:04
  Speaker: My guy.
• 4:05
  Speaker: You need clarification.
• 4:07
  Speaker: They're very, very appropriate, I think.
• 4:09
  Speaker: So we have the, um, we have the king of specimens.
• 4:14
  Speaker: Um.
• 4:17
  Speaker: Cups.
• 4:19
  Speaker: And then.
• 4:22
  Speaker: The devil.
• 4:24
  Speaker: The devil.
• 4:26
  Speaker: Nice.
• 4:28
  Speaker: Are these aliens?
• 4:28
  Speaker: What are they?
• 4:29
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:30
  Speaker: Uh, they are alien slugs.
• 4:32
  Speaker: Alien slugs?
• 4:33
  Speaker: Like Slurm.
• 4:34
  Speaker: Like Slurm.
• 4:35
  Speaker: Mackenzie?
• 4:36
  Speaker: Yes.
• 4:37
  Speaker: Look like my bulldogs.
• 4:39
  Speaker: Nice.
• 4:41
  Speaker: So whether we're going.
• 4:42
  Speaker: King of cups, king of specimens, the emotionally stable father or
• 4:47
  Speaker: the devil, that's, um, constraining your relationships.
• 4:53
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 4:53
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 4:55
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 4:55
  Speaker: The devil you know.
• 4:58
  Speaker: I was hoping to get a card with dicks on it, but, alas.
• 5:03
  Speaker: All right.
• 5:05
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker: You're all the way at the bottom of the deck.
• 5:08
  Speaker: Oh, well.
• 5:10
  Speaker: Well, we will see how that, uh,
• 5:12
  Speaker: can tie in or not to tonight's
• 5:14
  Speaker: episode.
• 5:15
  Speaker: So this will be fun.
• 5:17
  Speaker: Um, tonight's episode was
• 5:19
  Speaker: suggested by, uh, TMR fan Adam,
• 5:23
  Speaker: who's amazing.
• 5:24
  Speaker: And he's my idea guy.
• 5:25
  Speaker: Now he just comes up with all the things.
• 5:28
  Speaker: Um, and so this one was a good one.
• 5:30
  Speaker: I got excited when he, when he pitched the idea where each of
• 5:35
  Speaker: us independently and actually secretly, because I haven't seen
• 5:39
  Speaker: any of these other guys ideas come up with.
• 5:42
  Speaker: If you could create a brand new
• 5:44
  Speaker: Masonic body, what would it be
• 5:47
  Speaker: like?
• 5:48
  Speaker: Right.
• 5:49
  Speaker: What would the theme be?
• 5:50
  Speaker: What would the regalia be?
• 5:52
  Speaker: some of the moral lessons, those kind of things.
• 5:54
  Speaker: So it'll be fun to hear, um, what we come up with as a thing.
• 5:59
  Speaker: And, you know, this is not a new thing because I remember way
• 6:03
  Speaker: back in the day, Nick Johnson, I know at for at least three
• 6:08
  Speaker: different degrees had written like Masonic fan fiction.
• 6:11
  Speaker: He had come up with his own
• 6:12
  Speaker: degrees, had the whole rituals
• 6:14
  Speaker: written out.
• 6:14
  Speaker: I didn't get that far, um, tonight, but still, I think it's
• 6:18
  Speaker: it's just funny that, um, multiple brothers I've talked to
• 6:21
  Speaker: over the years have said, you know, it's really fun if we did
• 6:24
  Speaker: this kind of degree and this, that kind of degree.
• 6:26
  Speaker: Um, and yeah, because the good
• 6:30
  Speaker: news is there are no additional
• 6:31
  Speaker: degrees that come up because
• 6:32
  Speaker: there are no innovations in
• 6:33
  Speaker: Freemasonry.
• 6:34
  Speaker: But we can imagine that there
• 6:37
  Speaker: might have been innovations in
• 6:38
  Speaker: masonry over the past three
• 6:39
  Speaker: hundred years.
• 6:40
  Speaker: Right?
• 6:40
  Speaker: Right.
• 6:41
  Speaker: Because there's a Scottish rite
• 6:43
  Speaker: and a New York rite, and they
• 6:45
  Speaker: don't exist.
• 6:46
  Speaker: And the Shriners.
• 6:47
  Speaker: And yeah, there isn't
• 6:49
  Speaker: innovations in masonry until
• 6:50
  Speaker: there is.
• 6:51
  Speaker: Yes.
• 6:52
  Speaker: And then they've been there since time immemorial.
• 6:54
  Speaker: So Adam was Adam was a Scottish.
• 6:57
  Speaker: Right?
• 6:59
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 7:00
  Speaker: So tonight we'll, um, we'll compare and contrast, poke fun
• 7:03
  Speaker: and see how, how exciting, how willing the rest of the host
• 7:07
  Speaker: would be to join their, um, appendant body and bonus track
• 7:11
  Speaker: if you so choose to, since, you know, there's already too many
• 7:17
  Speaker: bodies in masonry.
• 7:18
  Speaker: What would you take out of the buffet that is masonry to
• 7:24
  Speaker: replace it with your new one?
• 7:25
  Speaker: So don't have to say it, but if you do, it would be fun, fun
• 7:29
  Speaker: thing to, uh, to see how it would fit in.
• 7:32
  Speaker: I have so much written down.
• 7:34
  Speaker: All right.
• 7:35
  Speaker: So who wants to go first?
• 7:36
  Speaker: I went nuts, but I didn't write ritual, so I, so yeah, I didn't,
• 7:40
  Speaker: I, I didn't prepare.
• 7:43
  Speaker: Perfect.
• 7:43
  Speaker: I'm going to do it on the fly.
• 7:45
  Speaker: Pure Jason I love it.
• 7:46
  Speaker: Let me let me just say I cheated
• 7:48
  Speaker: a little bit, but I did, but I
• 7:50
  Speaker: didn't cheat.
• 7:50
  Speaker: Um, I had ChatGPT go through all
• 7:55
  Speaker: of my commentary, all of my blog
• 7:57
  Speaker: posts, like anything I've
• 7:59
  Speaker: written.
• 7:59
  Speaker: Um, and I said, hey, if you were me, what kind of Masonic body
• 8:03
  Speaker: would you create and tell me why and all this stuff.
• 8:05
  Speaker: And then it just went forward from there.
• 8:07
  Speaker: It got really strict and a lot
• 8:09
  Speaker: more, a lot more Joe than Joe
• 8:12
  Speaker: would be.
• 8:12
  Speaker: So I'm super jazzed.
• 8:15
  Speaker: Yeah, it's like Joe Extra like Joe with with, uh, what's the
• 8:19
  Speaker: thing you drink cortado Joe after a cortado again tonight.
• 8:23
  Speaker: I love me some cortado.
• 8:24
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 8:25
  Speaker: Nice.
• 8:26
  Speaker: So I'm pumped.
• 8:29
  Speaker: All right, well, why don't you, uh, lead with your best foot
• 8:32
  Speaker: forward and take it away?
• 8:33
  Speaker: Joe.
• 8:34
  Speaker: Awesome.
• 8:34
  Speaker: Okay, so me and ChatGPT came up with.
• 8:37
  Speaker: Based on what it knows about me, it created an order known as the
• 8:41
  Speaker: order of the Hidden Temple.
• 8:44
  Speaker: And it is an invitation only Masonic mystery school devoted
• 8:51
  Speaker: exclusively to the ancient initiatory traditions that we
• 8:56
  Speaker: find in the classical world.
• 8:59
  Speaker: And some big takeaways was it is not reconstructing ceremonies,
• 9:04
  Speaker: it's not putting out BS saying, oh, this ceremonies existed for,
• 9:07
  Speaker: you know, three thousand years.
• 9:09
  Speaker: And we uncovered it on a show on Gaia.
• 9:12
  Speaker: Um, you know, and like, no, no, no, no, no, he's throwing some
• 9:16
  Speaker: shade at Gaia right now.
• 9:17
  Speaker: I love Gaia, but you know, come
• 9:19
  Speaker: on, how many temple mysteries
• 9:21
  Speaker: are we going to find in one
• 9:22
  Speaker: week?
• 9:22
  Speaker: Like all of them.
• 9:24
  Speaker: Enough.
• 9:24
  Speaker: Enough.
• 9:25
  Speaker: Um, but it gets back to the purpose of initiation, right?
• 9:30
  Speaker: The three layers of a rite of passage, all that stuff.
• 9:33
  Speaker: Um, and, uh, I'll save the rest for later, but yeah, it came up
• 9:37
  Speaker: with a four degree system that is purely invitational.
• 9:41
  Speaker: Um, you cannot ask to join and there's no petitions.
• 9:45
  Speaker: Um, Um, yeah.
• 9:47
  Speaker: And, uh, yeah, I'm super excited to talk about it.
• 9:51
  Speaker: All right.
• 9:51
  Speaker: So do we want to dive deep and pull that thread or do you just
• 9:55
  Speaker: want to hear the, the intro?
• 9:57
  Speaker: Well, you're the boss.
• 9:57
  Speaker: That's what I was waiting for, for you to tell me to keep going
• 10:00
  Speaker: or I like it.
• 10:00
  Speaker: You know what?
• 10:01
  Speaker: Let's let's go around and do the intros and then we'll revisit.
• 10:05
  Speaker: I love it, so good call.
• 10:07
  Speaker: How about you, Robert?
• 10:08
  Speaker: What's your intro?
• 10:10
  Speaker: Uh, so I will caveat this by
• 10:13
  Speaker: saying I had to write a whole
• 10:15
  Speaker: new one.
• 10:15
  Speaker: I had already, um, written an entire three degree structure
• 10:22
  Speaker: based around Norse mythology.
• 10:25
  Speaker: Um, and I could not find the life of me for the life of me.
• 10:31
  Speaker: Find the files in Google Drive.
• 10:33
  Speaker: So I was like, dang.
• 10:35
  Speaker: So I had to write something totally new, but probably not a
• 10:39
  Speaker: bad idea considering not, you know, Norse mythology and
• 10:45
  Speaker: current political spectrum is probably not a great idea.
• 10:48
  Speaker: So I went with a second.
• 10:50
  Speaker: Uh, my second love leather work.
• 10:53
  Speaker: Uh, so this is a craft driven, uh, we did the order of the
• 10:58
  Speaker: diamond all, uh, and so in all is like a, you know, it's like a
• 11:02
  Speaker: little imagine like a, a large needle with a wooden handle, you
• 11:08
  Speaker: know, you could scratch with it.
• 11:09
  Speaker: You could poke holes and stuff.
• 11:11
  Speaker: Fun story.
• 11:11
  Speaker: John got me a couple of them.
• 11:13
  Speaker: I still use those.
• 11:14
  Speaker: Um, the, the mission statement
• 11:19
  Speaker: would be, uh, cultivating moral
• 11:23
  Speaker: resilience, true fellowship and
• 11:27
  Speaker: spiritual protection through an
• 11:30
  Speaker: allegorical art of working
• 11:32
  Speaker: leather.
• 11:33
  Speaker: So it's kind of a operative mix with speculative.
• 11:39
  Speaker: Um, I did.
• 11:43
  Speaker: Uh, so the all the order teaches masons to shape, bind, and seal
• 11:48
  Speaker: the inner self to withstand the trials of life and preserve
• 11:53
  Speaker: bonds of brotherhood.
• 11:55
  Speaker: And it's a four four system, uh,
• 11:59
  Speaker: degrees, four degrees in the
• 12:00
  Speaker: system.
• 12:02
  Speaker: Um, I went as far as the
• 12:07
  Speaker: degrees, the allegory of the
• 12:10
  Speaker: degrees, the working tools,
• 12:11
  Speaker: passwords, uh, which I also
• 12:16
  Speaker: captured etymology of those
• 12:17
  Speaker: passwords.
• 12:18
  Speaker: Well, I started with like, what means this, right?
• 12:21
  Speaker: Uh, and I went to Hebrew and
• 12:22
  Speaker: Aramaic stuff because I figured
• 12:24
  Speaker: I might as well keep it sort of
• 12:26
  Speaker: in the Abrahamic tradition is,
• 12:29
  Speaker: you know, it's similar to
• 12:30
  Speaker: masonry.
• 12:31
  Speaker: Um, and then also, let's see.
• 12:36
  Speaker: Oh yeah, we did, um, the regalia and the membership criteria.
• 12:44
  Speaker: So Joe's was invitational only.
• 12:47
  Speaker: Um, mine.
• 12:49
  Speaker: The requirements are that you
• 12:50
  Speaker: have to be a master mason in
• 12:52
  Speaker: good standing within a
• 12:53
  Speaker: recognized lodge, um, to
• 12:56
  Speaker: petition instead of just signing
• 12:58
  Speaker: a piece of paper, um, and paying
• 13:00
  Speaker: a fee.
• 13:01
  Speaker: The candidate has to submit a
• 13:02
  Speaker: handcrafted leather item or a
• 13:05
  Speaker: rawhide that they have
• 13:06
  Speaker: personally cuffed, oiled and
• 13:08
  Speaker: tooled, uh, to the committee on
• 13:11
  Speaker: what we will call hides and
• 13:13
  Speaker: charters.
• 13:14
  Speaker: Nice.
• 13:15
  Speaker: Awesome.
• 13:15
  Speaker: Um, all right, well, why don't I hold you there?
• 13:19
  Speaker: Yeah, because this is this is really good, and I, I want to
• 13:22
  Speaker: get more to it, but I want to I want to tell you, my, my, um, so
• 13:30
  Speaker: I started to go down the esoteric path and I said, ah,
• 13:32
  Speaker: it's kind of kind of been done.
• 13:33
  Speaker: It's kind of hidden in different places.
• 13:35
  Speaker: I didn't want to repeat anything
• 13:37
  Speaker: and I kicked around some other
• 13:39
  Speaker: ideas.
• 13:41
  Speaker: Uh, very kind of.
• 13:42
  Speaker: It's business time ish, right?
• 13:44
  Speaker: Very much a business philosophy and best practices in lean and
• 13:47
  Speaker: all that fun stuff.
• 13:48
  Speaker: I said, nah, it's not jiving.
• 13:50
  Speaker: And I ended up with an extension
• 13:53
  Speaker: of what we learned in the
• 13:54
  Speaker: entered apprentice degree, which
• 13:57
  Speaker: is called the order of the Stoa
• 14:00
  Speaker: and Citadel.
• 14:02
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 14:03
  Speaker: A stoic themed appendant body with, you guessed it, four
• 14:07
  Speaker: degrees that that dive deeper into the four cardinal virtues
• 14:14
  Speaker: and, um, leaving it open.
• 14:17
  Speaker: You know, it was, it is one that
• 14:19
  Speaker: you could join because, hey, all
• 14:20
  Speaker: apprentices are supposed to have
• 14:22
  Speaker: known and studied the four
• 14:24
  Speaker: cardinal virtues.
• 14:25
  Speaker: And so this would take each degree to go a little deeper.
• 14:29
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 14:31
  Speaker: So there's your bumper.
• 14:32
  Speaker: How about you, Jason?
• 14:35
  Speaker: So I came up with the ancient
• 14:39
  Speaker: and sublime order of the sheer
• 14:42
  Speaker: line because I'm into amateur
• 14:47
  Speaker: lock picking.
• 14:48
  Speaker: Ah!
• 14:51
  Speaker: And so.
• 14:54
  Speaker: You have three degrees.
• 14:56
  Speaker: You have the apprentice of the ward, and the initiate learns
• 15:00
  Speaker: that the wards look formidable, but only bar is.
• 15:08
  Speaker: They only bar the untrained key.
• 15:11
  Speaker: There's the fellow of the tension, which in which you're
• 15:15
  Speaker: instructed in the paradox that you have to apply pressure to
• 15:20
  Speaker: open the lock.
• 15:21
  Speaker: But too much pressure seals it shut.
• 15:25
  Speaker: And then the master of the sheer line, which is, you know, where
• 15:32
  Speaker: the candidate is brought symbolically to the sheer line,
• 15:35
  Speaker: the hidden threshold.
• 15:39
  Speaker: And I don't just like it, I love it.
• 15:43
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 15:43
  Speaker: And the motto is, uh, non Vee said art.
• 15:48
  Speaker: Not by force, but by skill.
• 15:53
  Speaker: Nice.
• 15:54
  Speaker: Oh, these are good.
• 15:55
  Speaker: Yep.
• 15:55
  Speaker: Lots.
• 15:56
  Speaker: Lots of people like that.
• 15:56
  Speaker: One too much.
• 15:58
  Speaker: I like it.
• 15:59
  Speaker: Yep.
• 16:01
  Speaker: All right.
• 16:03
  Speaker: Well, let's go back around.
• 16:05
  Speaker: All right, Joe, take us there.
• 16:06
  Speaker: Take us on that journey.
• 16:07
  Speaker: All right.
• 16:08
  Speaker: What am I talking about?
• 16:09
  Speaker: You're going.
• 16:09
  Speaker: You're going deep.
• 16:10
  Speaker: You're going to go.
• 16:11
  Speaker: So.
• 16:12
  Speaker: Yep.
• 16:13
  Speaker: I've got it structured by, um, again, membership.
• 16:18
  Speaker: So let's talk about membership first.
• 16:19
  Speaker: There is no petitions.
• 16:21
  Speaker: There's no membership campaigns.
• 16:22
  Speaker: What's yours called.
• 16:23
  Speaker: Again it is the order of the Hidden temple.
• 16:28
  Speaker: Yes, yes.
• 16:29
  Speaker: Um no social media posts talking
• 16:34
  Speaker: about joining this and come on
• 16:35
  Speaker: weekend and get a steak sandwich
• 16:37
  Speaker: and a barbecue or whatever the
• 16:38
  Speaker: hell.
• 16:38
  Speaker: Um, none of that.
• 16:40
  Speaker: Um, I can't if they serve steak
• 16:43
  Speaker: sandwiches might actually show
• 16:44
  Speaker: up.
• 16:45
  Speaker: Steak em.
• 16:46
  Speaker: I'm there for sure.
• 16:47
  Speaker: Um, steak.
• 16:49
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 16:50
  Speaker: It's my hidden love.
• 16:51
  Speaker: Right next to sliders from white castles.
• 16:53
  Speaker: It's almost, almost there.
• 16:55
  Speaker: Um, okay, so it's guaranteed to,
• 16:58
  Speaker: uh, remove the idea of a solid
• 17:02
  Speaker: bowel movement.
• 17:03
  Speaker: Yes, yes.
• 17:04
  Speaker: Um, so requirements candidate would have to be a master mason
• 17:10
  Speaker: for at least five years.
• 17:12
  Speaker: So no newbies.
• 17:14
  Speaker: Um, they have to be.
• 17:16
  Speaker: Yes they have.
• 17:17
  Speaker: Yes.
• 17:19
  Speaker: It's the legends of the Hidden temple, right?
• 17:21
  Speaker: Oh yes, yes it is.
• 17:24
  Speaker: Um. That is not that is not my degree.
• 17:25
  Speaker: Right.
• 17:25
  Speaker: It's a different one.
• 17:26
  Speaker: Yes.
• 17:27
  Speaker: They say that game show was secretly unwinnable.
• 17:31
  Speaker: Yes.
• 17:32
  Speaker: Facts.
• 17:33
  Speaker: Okay.
• 17:33
  Speaker: Sorry, Joe.
• 17:36
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 17:36
  Speaker: Um. Let's see.
• 17:38
  Speaker: So have to be a master Mason for at least five years.
• 17:40
  Speaker: Um, needs to demonstrate serious study.
• 17:43
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 17:44
  Speaker: Things like symbolism,
• 17:45
  Speaker: philosophy, comparative
• 17:46
  Speaker: religion, ancient wisdom, all
• 17:49
  Speaker: that stuff.
• 17:49
  Speaker: He's got to be a knower and a doer, right?
• 17:51
  Speaker: Um, to get in, you have to be
• 17:53
  Speaker: independently nominated by two
• 17:55
  Speaker: members.
• 17:56
  Speaker: Um, so again, you cannot ask to join.
• 17:59
  Speaker: Um, once you are invited, you
• 18:01
  Speaker: have to submit an original paper
• 18:02
  Speaker: or presentation.
• 18:05
  Speaker: And then again, we're looking at who you are, why you want to be
• 18:08
  Speaker: here, all this kind of stuff.
• 18:10
  Speaker: Um, we're not going to go the
• 18:11
  Speaker: Texas route or any other places
• 18:13
  Speaker: route.
• 18:13
  Speaker: It's got to be unanimous ballot
• 18:14
  Speaker: by the temple in order to be
• 18:17
  Speaker: invited.
• 18:18
  Speaker: Nice.
• 18:18
  Speaker: Okay.
• 18:20
  Speaker: Um, one thing that ChatGPT did,
• 18:22
  Speaker: which I loved, was an
• 18:24
  Speaker: invitation.
• 18:25
  Speaker: Does not mean you're going to be initiated.
• 18:27
  Speaker: That means you're allowed to enter the circle, so to speak,
• 18:31
  Speaker: and you get to come to the public events like dinners and
• 18:34
  Speaker: things like that.
• 18:35
  Speaker: And everybody got everybody gets to know you and you've got a
• 18:38
  Speaker: requirement for attendance because we don't just hand out
• 18:41
  Speaker: dues cards here, you actually gotta show up.
• 18:44
  Speaker: So whether that's quarterly or monthly or whatever the hell it
• 18:46
  Speaker: is, you gotta show up.
• 18:47
  Speaker: You gotta show up to all the things.
• 18:48
  Speaker: Then after that initial initiatory period, then the
• 18:52
  Speaker: temple votes again, whether you move forward or not.
• 18:56
  Speaker: So that's how you get it.
• 18:59
  Speaker: Did you want me to keep going or.
• 19:01
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:02
  Speaker: Okay.
• 19:02
  Speaker: All right.
• 19:03
  Speaker: So for degrees, um, again, these
• 19:05
  Speaker: are based on the ancient
• 19:06
  Speaker: mysteries.
• 19:07
  Speaker: So it's a journey of initiation.
• 19:09
  Speaker: So the first degree I would call it the aspirant at the gate.
• 19:13
  Speaker: Oh that's me.
• 19:14
  Speaker: Um and this degree is basically
• 19:17
  Speaker: the purification degree the
• 19:19
  Speaker: candidates examined.
• 19:20
  Speaker: He's purified and he's
• 19:22
  Speaker: symbolically separated from the
• 19:23
  Speaker: mundane world.
• 19:24
  Speaker: Right.
• 19:25
  Speaker: Um the lessons that are taught are silence, patience,
• 19:29
  Speaker: Discipline and preparation.
• 19:31
  Speaker: Um, and basically this degree is not a throw away degree.
• 19:35
  Speaker: It's basically saying you just
• 19:38
  Speaker: because you've been invited does
• 19:39
  Speaker: not mean you have a right to be
• 19:40
  Speaker: here.
• 19:41
  Speaker: So before approaching the
• 19:42
  Speaker: mysteries, the candidate must
• 19:44
  Speaker: learn how to wait outside the
• 19:46
  Speaker: gate.
• 19:48
  Speaker: So once we do that, then we get to the fun degrees.
• 19:50
  Speaker: The next degree is called the
• 19:52
  Speaker: Wanderer in the land of the
• 19:53
  Speaker: dead.
• 19:54
  Speaker: Um, so this is the descent degree, right?
• 19:57
  Speaker: Um, and my thought was we're going to take a little bit from
• 20:00
  Speaker: each of the ancient mysteries, and we're going to take this one
• 20:03
  Speaker: and go with the story of Osiris.
• 20:04
  Speaker: So this is the story of Osiris death.
• 20:06
  Speaker: That's going to be the symbolic framework for the degree and his
• 20:10
  Speaker: death and his descent into the underworld, and all the things
• 20:13
  Speaker: that you do when you descend into the Egyptian underworld.
• 20:16
  Speaker: And let me tell you, boys and girls, including the
• 20:18
  Speaker: necrophilia, there's a lot of stuff going on there.
• 20:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:21
  Speaker: You've got, uh, you've got the
• 20:23
  Speaker: things that Jason said and
• 20:24
  Speaker: you've got talking alligators
• 20:25
  Speaker: and things like that and missing
• 20:27
  Speaker: appendages.
• 20:28
  Speaker: I got my wife to watch Moon Knight.
• 20:31
  Speaker: Oh, okay.
• 20:31
  Speaker: Right on.
• 20:32
  Speaker: Just finish it up.
• 20:32
  Speaker: So good.
• 20:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:34
  Speaker: Right on.
• 20:35
  Speaker: A lot of a lot of egyptomania in that.
• 20:37
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:37
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 20:38
  Speaker: Um, so that degree, you travel down to the underworld and you
• 20:43
  Speaker: learn those lessons.
• 20:44
  Speaker: Um. And then it stops there at the threshold.
• 20:46
  Speaker: You do not leave the land of the dead.
• 20:48
  Speaker: Uh, after that degree.
• 20:50
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 20:51
  Speaker: So yeah.
• 20:51
  Speaker: So then the next degree, the third degree is called the
• 20:55
  Speaker: witness to the mysteries.
• 20:56
  Speaker: So while you're in the land of the underworld, we're going to
• 20:59
  Speaker: go from Egypt to ancient Greece, and we're going to witness the
• 21:03
  Speaker: mysteries of Eleusis.
• 21:04
  Speaker: So we're going to see the story of Demeter and Persephone.
• 21:07
  Speaker: Um, and this is we're going to
• 21:09
  Speaker: go really, uh, classical with
• 21:11
  Speaker: this.
• 21:12
  Speaker: So for those who don't know, um, the lesser mysteries in Eleusis
• 21:17
  Speaker: were like a one day class.
• 21:18
  Speaker: You sat in the bleachers and you
• 21:20
  Speaker: watched a performance and you
• 21:22
  Speaker: watched a dramatic play, you
• 21:24
  Speaker: know.
• 21:24
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker: It is so yes.
• 21:26
  Speaker: Um, but there was a bit more work involved in it and, and
• 21:30
  Speaker: stuff like that.
• 21:30
  Speaker: And it was very well put on.
• 21:32
  Speaker: Um, and they did take a, a
• 21:33
  Speaker: candidate to act as the, uh, the
• 21:35
  Speaker: aspirin, you know, or the
• 21:36
  Speaker: exemplar or whatever you want to
• 21:37
  Speaker: call it.
• 21:37
  Speaker: So here we're going to witness
• 21:39
  Speaker: the story of Persephone
• 21:41
  Speaker: traveling through the
• 21:42
  Speaker: underworld, leaving the
• 21:44
  Speaker: underworld.
• 21:44
  Speaker: And what happened there?
• 21:45
  Speaker: Um, and this is where the candidate learns basically about
• 21:49
  Speaker: their death, their mortal death, the death of their ego, the
• 21:52
  Speaker: death of all the things that keep us trapped in this world,
• 21:55
  Speaker: right, of Cortados and Starbucks and, you know, barbecue and all
• 22:00
  Speaker: that stuff, right?
• 22:01
  Speaker: All the things that that keep us trapped.
• 22:04
  Speaker: Um, but again, it stops there.
• 22:07
  Speaker: Um, you still have not left the underworld.
• 22:10
  Speaker: Uh, and then the fourth degree,
• 22:11
  Speaker: we call this the degree of the
• 22:13
  Speaker: hidden flame.
• 22:13
  Speaker: So this is the degree that talks about rebirth and restoration,
• 22:17
  Speaker: and it's going to draw upon leaving the underworld.
• 22:20
  Speaker: Um, and what happened when Persephone left the underworld?
• 22:24
  Speaker: Nature came back to life, nature started to bloom.
• 22:27
  Speaker: So it's, you know, the things that we talk about in, in
• 22:29
  Speaker: traditional masonry, right?
• 22:31
  Speaker: Like the, the book of nature and
• 22:32
  Speaker: revelation, all those things
• 22:33
  Speaker: we're going to learn about and
• 22:35
  Speaker: pull apart.
• 22:35
  Speaker: And you're going to find out more about yourself.
• 22:37
  Speaker: Um, yeah.
• 22:38
  Speaker: So that is the degree system, right?
• 22:40
  Speaker: The aspirin, then you wander, then you witness, and then you
• 22:44
  Speaker: actually become the bearer of the light and hopefully do
• 22:47
  Speaker: something meaningful with that.
• 22:49
  Speaker: I love it.
• 22:50
  Speaker: Next person.
• 22:51
  Speaker: That's so cool.
• 22:52
  Speaker: Any questions?
• 22:53
  Speaker: Thoughts?
• 22:55
  Speaker: Additions.
• 22:55
  Speaker: Subtractions.
• 22:57
  Speaker: I liked the bit about the invisible flame.
• 23:01
  Speaker: Is that what it was called?
• 23:05
  Speaker: The hidden flame.
• 23:05
  Speaker: The hidden flame.
• 23:07
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 23:07
  Speaker: So, Max Heindel's ancient modern
• 23:10
  Speaker: initiation is pretty good in
• 23:11
  Speaker: this, uh, there's a, there's a
• 23:12
  Speaker: bit quite a bit in in that
• 23:14
  Speaker: particular thing.
• 23:15
  Speaker: And I know he pulled a lot from
• 23:16
  Speaker: Steiner, but it is really cool
• 23:18
  Speaker: because he talks about like this
• 23:19
  Speaker: unseen flame.
• 23:22
  Speaker: Um, that's, that's always burning around you and.
• 23:25
  Speaker: But it's cool because he also talks about it like we can't see
• 23:29
  Speaker: it because our literal, our biology doesn't allow us to see
• 23:33
  Speaker: all the things.
• 23:35
  Speaker: So he kind of ties it into physics with that too.
• 23:37
  Speaker: But it was really cool.
• 23:38
  Speaker: Uh, it just kind of reminded me of that.
• 23:39
  Speaker: I really like that symbolism.
• 23:42
  Speaker: Uh, I did, I did pilfer from, uh, from our dear friend and bro
• 23:45
  Speaker: manly p hall.
• 23:46
  Speaker: Uh, definitely look through the initiates of the flame for that,
• 23:49
  Speaker: um, as well.
• 23:50
  Speaker: But again, I mean, he was, he talked about the ancient
• 23:52
  Speaker: mysteries like they in every single thing he wrote, you know
• 23:55
  Speaker: what I mean?
• 23:55
  Speaker: So, um, and he's good at pilfering, you know, like people
• 23:59
  Speaker: love pilfering from him.
• 24:00
  Speaker: So I'm like, yeah, I'm all about that.
• 24:01
  Speaker: So what?
• 24:04
  Speaker: This has nothing to do with anything other than the fact I
• 24:07
  Speaker: just noticed Joe's shirt.
• 24:10
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:11
  Speaker: You came on late.
• 24:12
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:13
  Speaker: Uh. So good.
• 24:15
  Speaker: Timothy is my spirit animal.
• 24:17
  Speaker: So shout out.
• 24:18
  Speaker: Shout out to Barb.
• 24:19
  Speaker: Uh, she's got me three different Timothy shirts.
• 24:21
  Speaker: This is number one.
• 24:22
  Speaker: I, I will do one a week.
• 24:25
  Speaker: That is amazing.
• 24:27
  Speaker: There you go.
• 24:27
  Speaker: Sorry.
• 24:29
  Speaker: Right on.
• 24:30
  Speaker: Timothy.
• 24:31
  Speaker: Hashtag not a mascot.
• 24:32
  Speaker: Not a mascot.
• 24:33
  Speaker: So, Joe, in the second degree,
• 24:36
  Speaker: when does the candidate get
• 24:38
  Speaker: ritualistically castrated?
• 24:42
  Speaker: So that happened before he died.
• 24:45
  Speaker: Um. Or as he died.
• 24:46
  Speaker: So that happened to the underworld?
• 24:48
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:49
  Speaker: So if we're going to go.
• 24:50
  Speaker: Yeah, if we're going to go historical, um and accurate.
• 24:53
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:54
  Speaker: The castration does not happen in the temple.
• 24:56
  Speaker: Yes.
• 24:58
  Speaker: Okay.
• 24:59
  Speaker: Should be technically correct.
• 25:00
  Speaker: I just figured there'd be an unforgettable degree moment.
• 25:03
  Speaker: We can add we can add a side degree for those that wish it.
• 25:07
  Speaker: I think there's a York Rite
• 25:09
  Speaker: degree where some there's a
• 25:10
  Speaker: blade that comes down or
• 25:12
  Speaker: something.
• 25:12
  Speaker: Maybe you just do it like that, some snip snip.
• 25:16
  Speaker: All right.
• 25:17
  Speaker: I'll leave it at that.
• 25:18
  Speaker: Let's go over to Robert to talk about this.
• 25:24
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:24
  Speaker: Uh. All right.
• 25:25
  Speaker: So pretty quickly, fourth
• 25:27
  Speaker: degree, the apprentice, uh,
• 25:28
  Speaker: cordwainer.
• 25:30
  Speaker: So this is has a allegory.
• 25:33
  Speaker: Sorry, sorry.
• 25:35
  Speaker: Cordwainer.
• 25:36
  Speaker: Okay.
• 25:39
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 25:39
  Speaker: Okay.
• 25:41
  Speaker: Uh, so allegory is rawhide, like the mind, a raw mind.
• 25:46
  Speaker: It's rough and prone to decay.
• 25:49
  Speaker: So the candidate learns to cut away vices and prepare their
• 25:52
  Speaker: character for serious work.
• 25:55
  Speaker: Uh, the working tool is the
• 25:57
  Speaker: cutting blade or the round
• 25:58
  Speaker: knife.
• 25:58
  Speaker: You guys may have seen those before.
• 26:00
  Speaker: Um, the password is, uh, Tom to
• 26:08
  Speaker: mean I'm not great with these,
• 26:10
  Speaker: but, uh, so it basically just
• 26:12
  Speaker: is, um, means to heat cure or to
• 26:14
  Speaker: preserve.
• 26:15
  Speaker: Um, the grip is called the shearer's grip.
• 26:20
  Speaker: Uh, and the sign, uh, is the right hand held flat across the
• 26:25
  Speaker: lower neck, drawn horizontally to the right shoulder, depicting
• 26:30
  Speaker: the trim line of the knife across the rawhide.
• 26:34
  Speaker: Ooh, fancy.
• 26:36
  Speaker: Uh, your fifth degree is the craft artisan.
• 26:39
  Speaker: So this one is essentially saying you cannot force a thread
• 26:44
  Speaker: through leather without first piercing a precise path.
• 26:48
  Speaker: That's the all right.
• 26:49
  Speaker: Every action leaves an indelible mark.
• 26:52
  Speaker: Careless words are permanent.
• 26:54
  Speaker: Permanently pierce another's trust.
• 26:57
  Speaker: So the password, the working tool here is the diamond.
• 27:00
  Speaker: All.
• 27:00
  Speaker: Uh, so the name of the system, uh, the word is, uh, Safa.
• 27:07
  Speaker: And that is a, uh, a word
• 27:10
  Speaker: meaning to pierce through or
• 27:12
  Speaker: align cleanly.
• 27:14
  Speaker: Um, the the grip is called the awl press.
• 27:17
  Speaker: The sign is the right hand clenched into a fist with the
• 27:20
  Speaker: index finger extended downward, pressed firmly against the
• 27:26
  Speaker: center of the chest.
• 27:27
  Speaker: So then you have, uh, the sixth degree.
• 27:31
  Speaker: This is the journeyman stitcher.
• 27:33
  Speaker: Uh, this is demonstrates the traditional saddle stitch.
• 27:37
  Speaker: A single thread snaps under
• 27:38
  Speaker: tension, but two threads
• 27:40
  Speaker: interlocked in every hole
• 27:41
  Speaker: reinforce one another against
• 27:43
  Speaker: all strain.
• 27:45
  Speaker: So I think you have a thinking about it like brotherhood,
• 27:48
  Speaker: fellowship kind of thing.
• 27:50
  Speaker: Uh, working tool is the harness
• 27:52
  Speaker: needle, uh, and the flax thread
• 27:54
  Speaker: and beeswax.
• 27:56
  Speaker: Uh, the password is kikar, which means bound together.
• 28:01
  Speaker: Uh, the, the, uh, the, the grip
• 28:03
  Speaker: is called the saddle stitch
• 28:05
  Speaker: lock.
• 28:06
  Speaker: So, uh, this is I, this is one that I kind of described.
• 28:09
  Speaker: So both brothers can clasp the right hands while simultaneously
• 28:13
  Speaker: weaving fingers, like in and around the wrist.
• 28:18
  Speaker: So it kind of, I don't know, you figure it out.
• 28:20
  Speaker: Uh, the sign, um, hands held at
• 28:24
  Speaker: chest height, palms facing
• 28:26
  Speaker: inward, moving past each other
• 28:28
  Speaker: horizontally in opposite
• 28:29
  Speaker: directions.
• 28:30
  Speaker: Right.
• 28:30
  Speaker: So just kind of like this, uh, the double needle pass.
• 28:33
  Speaker: Um, and the seventh degree is the last one.
• 28:35
  Speaker: It's the sublime master courier.
• 28:38
  Speaker: Uh, so this is, um, the mason learns to apply controlled
• 28:41
  Speaker: discipline and seal their character against life's harsh
• 28:44
  Speaker: enemies, ensuring integrity, remaining, uh, essentially, uh,
• 28:50
  Speaker: invincible against things like rot and wear.
• 28:53
  Speaker: Working tools of the rawhide maul.
• 28:56
  Speaker: So it's like a setting maul.
• 28:57
  Speaker: It looks exactly like a setting maul.
• 28:59
  Speaker: Some guys use a rawhide hammer, but I use them all.
• 29:02
  Speaker: Um, uh, and a resin sealant.
• 29:06
  Speaker: Um, so it's like a sealant you
• 29:07
  Speaker: can use over the top of the
• 29:09
  Speaker: leather.
• 29:09
  Speaker: The word is coffer, which is, uh, found in Genesis.
• 29:15
  Speaker: and it's just the resin slash,
• 29:17
  Speaker: the pitch used by Noah to seal
• 29:19
  Speaker: the ark.
• 29:20
  Speaker: Uh, the token is the courier seal, uh, brother's right hand.
• 29:25
  Speaker: Um, uh, anyway, uh, the sign, uh, the right palm brought down
• 29:31
  Speaker: firmly over the heart with a single deliberate strike,
• 29:34
  Speaker: followed by sliding the palm smoothly down toward the left
• 29:37
  Speaker: hip, as if sealing a surface.
• 29:41
  Speaker: Uh. Those are the degrees.
• 29:44
  Speaker: I also have regalia.
• 29:46
  Speaker: Uh.
• 29:48
  Speaker: Oh. I'll give you just these last two pieces.
• 29:50
  Speaker: The requirements to entry.
• 29:51
  Speaker: I told you about the first two.
• 29:52
  Speaker: The last two are you have a vouching process.
• 29:55
  Speaker: So two master couriers in the order have to physically inspect
• 30:00
  Speaker: the petition piece.
• 30:01
  Speaker: So the thing that you bring to
• 30:03
  Speaker: to say, hey, can I be in this
• 30:04
  Speaker: order?
• 30:05
  Speaker: Um, and they have to vouch, uh,
• 30:08
  Speaker: for the candidates patience and
• 30:10
  Speaker: attention to detail and a steady
• 30:13
  Speaker: hand.
• 30:13
  Speaker: And then the balloting.
• 30:15
  Speaker: So, upon approval of the leather piece by the most worthy master
• 30:19
  Speaker: Tanner, a unanimous ballot in the tannery, that's what we'll
• 30:24
  Speaker: call the Lodge secures the candidate's election to receive
• 30:28
  Speaker: the fourth degree.
• 30:29
  Speaker: Um, so there you go.
• 30:32
  Speaker: That's the, uh, that's that's the gist of it.
• 30:36
  Speaker: And then, yeah, regalia is I'll wait for another go around.
• 30:41
  Speaker: That was super detailed.
• 30:42
  Speaker: Man, I like it.
• 30:43
  Speaker: I had all day to do this.
• 30:46
  Speaker: Uh, my, my work was very light today.
• 30:52
  Speaker: It's never let an unconstrained mind have boredom.
• 30:57
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 30:57
  Speaker: That's true.
• 30:58
  Speaker: Plus, I was in the shop a little bit today and it, uh, inspired
• 31:03
  Speaker: and then I got, and of course I got to go to I'm going to
• 31:06
  Speaker: Masonic camp tomorrow.
• 31:07
  Speaker: So I got a, I had to pack up and
• 31:08
  Speaker: I had my bags and all this other
• 31:11
  Speaker: stuff.
• 31:11
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 31:12
  Speaker: You know, one thing that I like
• 31:13
  Speaker: that also is probably going to
• 31:15
  Speaker: be a theme for all of these too,
• 31:16
  Speaker: is that we're drawing on what a
• 31:21
  Speaker: degree would like be like that
• 31:23
  Speaker: we personally identify with,
• 31:25
  Speaker: right?
• 31:26
  Speaker: Because of, you know, Joe's love of like the Greek mythology and
• 31:30
  Speaker: that kind of stuff.
• 31:30
  Speaker: And then the leather work.
• 31:32
  Speaker: Uh, the lock picking, it's just,
• 31:34
  Speaker: it's really neat to see the
• 31:36
  Speaker: extension of your identities
• 31:38
  Speaker: like bloom into these creative
• 31:40
  Speaker: outlets.
• 31:41
  Speaker: So I don't know, I'm, I'm digging it.
• 31:43
  Speaker: John.
• 31:43
  Speaker: I, I'll be honest with you.
• 31:45
  Speaker: It was this or I was going to go
• 31:48
  Speaker: into a retro eight bit video
• 31:51
  Speaker: game degree.
• 31:52
  Speaker: Um, and I thought, well, maybe John will do that.
• 31:56
  Speaker: So let me steer clear.
• 31:57
  Speaker: It's funny.
• 31:58
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 31:58
  Speaker: We didn't, we didn't compare notes.
• 31:59
  Speaker: And I was worried that yeah, we were gonna have some overlap,
• 32:01
  Speaker: but no, this is good.
• 32:03
  Speaker: Maybe maybe we need a part two.
• 32:05
  Speaker: The eight bit lodge.
• 32:07
  Speaker: The lodge.
• 32:09
  Speaker: Uh, I do have a bonus track of
• 32:10
  Speaker: one that I've talked about years
• 32:11
  Speaker: ago, but I'm not going to use
• 32:12
  Speaker: that one.
• 32:13
  Speaker: Uh, any other questions for
• 32:14
  Speaker: Robert or anything else that you
• 32:16
  Speaker: wanted to add or subtract to his
• 32:18
  Speaker: awesomeness or two when it's
• 32:21
  Speaker: already great?
• 32:22
  Speaker: It was good.
• 32:23
  Speaker: Let's, uh, go back to me then,
• 32:26
  Speaker: and I will tell you the tale of
• 32:30
  Speaker: the order of the Stoa and
• 32:31
  Speaker: Citadel.
• 32:33
  Speaker: This order reframes speculative
• 32:35
  Speaker: building from erecting external
• 32:37
  Speaker: temples to fortifying the inner
• 32:39
  Speaker: citadel.
• 32:41
  Speaker: This dramatic narrative is
• 32:42
  Speaker: framed around an ongoing
• 32:44
  Speaker: dialogue with Emperor Marcus
• 32:46
  Speaker: Aurelius at his military
• 32:47
  Speaker: encampment during Along the
• 32:49
  Speaker: Frozen Danube during the
• 32:51
  Speaker: Marcomannic Wars.
• 32:53
  Speaker: As the Emperor wrestles with his own journals in the dead of
• 32:56
  Speaker: night, the candidate acts as his nocturnal companion, confidant,
• 33:00
  Speaker: and fellow student of the porch or the Stoa.
• 33:05
  Speaker: So mission is to train master
• 33:07
  Speaker: Masons and the rigorous daily
• 33:09
  Speaker: discipline of classical stoicism
• 33:11
  Speaker: through the mastery of the four
• 33:12
  Speaker: cardinal virtues and a couple
• 33:14
  Speaker: other stoic philosophy ideals as
• 33:17
  Speaker: well.
• 33:18
  Speaker: So you're really weaving in
• 33:20
  Speaker: stoic philosophy as a degree
• 33:22
  Speaker: system.
• 33:23
  Speaker: And let's see.
• 33:25
  Speaker: So I said it's a four degree
• 33:27
  Speaker: process because it uses the the
• 33:31
  Speaker: four cardinal virtues, which are
• 33:32
  Speaker: temperance, fortitude, prudence,
• 33:33
  Speaker: and justice.
• 33:35
  Speaker: And it is a story.
• 33:36
  Speaker: It's a continuous story where the progression follows a
• 33:39
  Speaker: continuous night vigil across four watches in Marcus
• 33:43
  Speaker: Aurelius's tent, moving through each cardinal virtue, starting
• 33:47
  Speaker: with the watch of the bridle as the first degree, second degree,
• 33:53
  Speaker: the watch of the shield.
• 33:55
  Speaker: The third degree is the watch of the mirror, and finally ending
• 33:58
  Speaker: on the watch of the balance.
• 34:00
  Speaker: So temperance, fortitude,
• 34:01
  Speaker: prudence, and justice in those
• 34:02
  Speaker: orders.
• 34:04
  Speaker: In the first degree, the scene starts at midnight at carnuntum.
• 34:09
  Speaker: Marcus sits riding by an oil lamp, battling the exhaustion of
• 34:13
  Speaker: power, the allure of luxury, and the noise of sycophants.
• 34:16
  Speaker: And so the lesson here is about the dichotomy of control.
• 34:19
  Speaker: The candidate learns to
• 34:20
  Speaker: distinguish what is up to us our
• 34:24
  Speaker: our opinions, impulses, desires,
• 34:25
  Speaker: and aversions and what is not
• 34:27
  Speaker: body, property, reputation, and
• 34:29
  Speaker: external vanity.
• 34:31
  Speaker: The working tool is the curb, bit and bridle used to rein in
• 34:35
  Speaker: destructive cravings and emotional excess before they
• 34:38
  Speaker: gallop past reason.
• 34:41
  Speaker: And in this, uh, in this
• 34:44
  Speaker: dialogue, Marcus instructs the
• 34:46
  Speaker: candidate that freedom is not
• 34:47
  Speaker: found in fulfilling every
• 34:48
  Speaker: appetite, but in eliminating
• 34:50
  Speaker: desire for things beyond one's
• 34:52
  Speaker: volition.
• 34:55
  Speaker: The second degree, if the first
• 34:57
  Speaker: degree started at midnight,
• 34:58
  Speaker: second degree starts two hours
• 34:59
  Speaker: later at two a m, the watch of
• 35:01
  Speaker: the shield.
• 35:02
  Speaker: This is based around fortitude,
• 35:04
  Speaker: the sounds of the barbarian war
• 35:06
  Speaker: horns echo across the frozen
• 35:07
  Speaker: river, and reports arrive of
• 35:10
  Speaker: betrayal in the eastern
• 35:11
  Speaker: provinces.
• 35:12
  Speaker: And so the lesson here is the
• 35:15
  Speaker: pre-meditation of evils and a
• 35:16
  Speaker: more fatty.
• 35:17
  Speaker: The love of fate.
• 35:19
  Speaker: The candidate undergoes simulated losses, such as the
• 35:22
  Speaker: loss of the reputation or comfort or health.
• 35:25
  Speaker: Any of these external things
• 35:26
  Speaker: that can happen to you learn
• 35:28
  Speaker: learning that external pain
• 35:30
  Speaker: cannot injure the soul unless
• 35:31
  Speaker: accompanied by a faulty
• 35:33
  Speaker: judgment.
• 35:34
  Speaker: So the working tool of this degree is the anvil of fate,
• 35:37
  Speaker: which demonstrates that the mind adapts and converts every
• 35:40
  Speaker: obstacle into fuel, just as fire turns everything into flame and
• 35:44
  Speaker: brightness, and the dialogue anchor for this part of the
• 35:49
  Speaker: degree is where Marcus Aurelius reveals a very common phrase in
• 35:54
  Speaker: stoicism that the impediment to action advances action.
• 35:58
  Speaker: The obstacle becomes the way.
• 36:02
  Speaker: Right.
• 36:02
  Speaker: And then we move to the third
• 36:04
  Speaker: degree two hours later at four a
• 36:06
  Speaker: m this is called the watch of
• 36:08
  Speaker: the mirror, or focused around
• 36:10
  Speaker: prudence.
• 36:11
  Speaker: Marcus reviews difficult
• 36:13
  Speaker: judgments, political intrigues,
• 36:14
  Speaker: and deceptive counselors
• 36:16
  Speaker: wrestling with how to perceive
• 36:17
  Speaker: reality without bias or
• 36:19
  Speaker: delusion.
• 36:21
  Speaker: The lesson here is the practice is practical wisdom.
• 36:23
  Speaker: Applying prudence and the discipline of assent.
• 36:28
  Speaker: The candidate is taught to strip away poetic exaggeration and
• 36:31
  Speaker: emotional narrative from every event, viewing things as pure,
• 36:35
  Speaker: raw physical facts.
• 36:37
  Speaker: Um, just like, uh, there's, there's a common, um, uh, stoic
• 36:42
  Speaker: writing which talks like, hey, don't worry about purple robes
• 36:46
  Speaker: and how everything is, is, you know, all decorative because
• 36:49
  Speaker: purple is just like, you know, ink dye from some shellfish and
• 36:52
  Speaker: how this food that you're eating was just an animal, you know, a
• 36:56
  Speaker: couple hours ago and it's just going to be digested.
• 36:58
  Speaker: So don't hype yourself up too
• 37:01
  Speaker: much on things that don't really
• 37:03
  Speaker: matter.
• 37:04
  Speaker: The working tool is the polished steel speculum, or the mirror of
• 37:09
  Speaker: Truth, used to inspect every initial impression before
• 37:13
  Speaker: granting its mental agreement.
• 37:15
  Speaker: And really, again, this is pulling the thread of, you know,
• 37:21
  Speaker: looking inward or looking at more and more importantly,
• 37:23
  Speaker: looking at what things truly are rather than what we perceive
• 37:26
  Speaker: them to be.
• 37:27
  Speaker: And finally, the fourth degree is the watch of balance.
• 37:32
  Speaker: Obviously, talking about
• 37:33
  Speaker: justice, the cold hour is now
• 37:35
  Speaker: about six a m just before
• 37:37
  Speaker: daybreak.
• 37:38
  Speaker: Soldiers and citizens bring disputes, crimes, and pleas for
• 37:42
  Speaker: mercy to the Emperor's tent.
• 37:44
  Speaker: And here we learn the lesson of
• 37:46
  Speaker: sympathy and mutual like
• 37:50
  Speaker: basically mutual
• 37:50
  Speaker: interdependence, how we're all
• 37:53
  Speaker: kind of one big cosmopolitan
• 37:58
  Speaker: group.
• 37:59
  Speaker: And Oh, how do we learn that we are part of a whole and that we
• 38:04
  Speaker: are all part?
• 38:05
  Speaker: You know, we're all part of one big system.
• 38:07
  Speaker: And so what's damage to one is damage to all.
• 38:11
  Speaker: And so the working tool is the plumb, but it's the cosmopolitan
• 38:14
  Speaker: plumb where no individual stone stands soundly unless aligned
• 38:19
  Speaker: with the other stones around it.
• 38:23
  Speaker: So this ultimately culminates to
• 38:26
  Speaker: basically a half degree at the
• 38:28
  Speaker: end, because you got to, you got
• 38:30
  Speaker: to plus up the last degree,
• 38:32
  Speaker: which you guessed it has a dawn
• 38:35
  Speaker: discourse on memento mori, where
• 38:38
  Speaker: Marcus extinguishes the oil
• 38:40
  Speaker: lamp, lifts a human skull from
• 38:42
  Speaker: his chest of camp books, and
• 38:43
  Speaker: leads the candidate into the
• 38:44
  Speaker: final philosophical exchange
• 38:46
  Speaker: about.
• 38:47
  Speaker: Remember that one day you will die.
• 38:52
  Speaker: Um, and then yeah, then basically it's.
• 38:55
  Speaker: I actually went a little bit
• 38:56
  Speaker: further and said, well, what
• 38:57
  Speaker: charities would this degree
• 39:00
  Speaker: system support?
• 39:00
  Speaker: Right.
• 39:01
  Speaker: And so what are some good stoic charities?
• 39:04
  Speaker: I definitely think supporting
• 39:06
  Speaker: like civics and ethics would be
• 39:10
  Speaker: a good charity that this body
• 39:13
  Speaker: should support.
• 39:14
  Speaker: Um, and having like cognitive resilience and moral injury
• 39:20
  Speaker: retreats for, um, for youth.
• 39:23
  Speaker: Right.
• 39:23
  Speaker: Just to, um, support strong,
• 39:26
  Speaker: strong mental, um, adaption to
• 39:28
  Speaker: the world.
• 39:30
  Speaker: So there we go.
• 39:30
  Speaker: Those are the four degrees of the stoic and citadel.
• 39:37
  Speaker: Me gusta.
• 39:38
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 39:39
  Speaker: Question.
• 39:40
  Speaker: Yes.
• 39:42
  Speaker: Um, are the time periods symbolic or would you really do
• 39:47
  Speaker: like a midnight?
• 39:48
  Speaker: You start the degree at midnight and then another degree would be
• 39:51
  Speaker: at two a m and then you'd have like the sunrise, six a m one or
• 39:54
  Speaker: whatever you think.
• 39:56
  Speaker: Would it physically, would it be.
• 39:57
  Speaker: Oh. I think you should do it.
• 40:01
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
• 40:03
  Speaker: You should.
• 40:06
  Speaker: I particularly love the idea of
• 40:11
  Speaker: actually doing like, what if you
• 40:14
  Speaker: could like, it sounded like you
• 40:18
  Speaker: do them in succession in a
• 40:19
  Speaker: single night.
• 40:20
  Speaker: Right.
• 40:21
  Speaker: So I love that idea of like a, like it kind of ties back to,
• 40:25
  Speaker: uh, the northern jurisdictions thirty second degree in terms
• 40:30
  Speaker: of, uh, holding vigil.
• 40:33
  Speaker: Uh, it's pretty cool.
• 40:36
  Speaker: I also really liked, uh, when you spoke about the horn, all I
• 40:40
  Speaker: could think of was, uh.
• 40:44
  Speaker: Oh, what's it called?
• 40:45
  Speaker: The, uh.
• 40:49
  Speaker: The cert.
• 40:50
  Speaker: No, it's like that super crazy war.
• 40:53
  Speaker: The carnyx.
• 40:55
  Speaker: Uh, it's this incredible sounding war horn, um, that it's
• 41:00
  Speaker: like a massive bronze trumpet.
• 41:02
  Speaker: It was like six feet tall, and, uh, it didn't play any music.
• 41:06
  Speaker: It was literally just designed for psychological warfare.
• 41:10
  Speaker: Um. That's awesome.
• 41:12
  Speaker: It it's it's totally badass.
• 41:14
  Speaker: Anyway, I pictured that in this degree.
• 41:18
  Speaker: Um, super cool, man.
• 41:21
  Speaker: I really liked and I like how
• 41:23
  Speaker: you went into the charity as
• 41:24
  Speaker: well.
• 41:24
  Speaker: I thought that was pretty cool.
• 41:28
  Speaker: Every order has to have its own charity, right?
• 41:30
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:30
  Speaker: Now I gotta think about, like, what would mine be?
• 41:32
  Speaker: I don't even know.
• 41:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:33
  Speaker: I, I, I had some comments on, on
• 41:36
  Speaker: the financial bits of it, but
• 41:37
  Speaker: I'll save those for later for
• 41:39
  Speaker: mine because I went a totally
• 41:40
  Speaker: different route.
• 41:41
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:41
  Speaker: And I didn't do any words or signs or any of that fun stuff.
• 41:44
  Speaker: But of course, that's just a chat away.
• 41:47
  Speaker: Let's head over to Jason Richards.
• 41:50
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:51
  Speaker: All right.
• 41:53
  Speaker: So for the ancient and sublime order of the sheer line.
• 41:57
  Speaker: We have our legend.
• 42:00
  Speaker: And so the, um.
• 42:04
  Speaker: The martyr hero of the order is Alfred Charles Hobbs, the
• 42:12
  Speaker: American who traveled to the Great Exhibition of London in
• 42:15
  Speaker: eighteen fifty one and publicly picked the Brahman or the Brahma
• 42:21
  Speaker: challenged lock that had stood unpicked for sixty seven years.
• 42:30
  Speaker: And so the legend kind of recasts this as the great lock
• 42:34
  Speaker: controversy, the moment when the craft learned that no ward is
• 42:40
  Speaker: eternal and that patience and feeling defeat, brute security.
• 42:47
  Speaker: And that an honest.
• 42:49
  Speaker: The honest picker exposes weakness so that it may be
• 42:53
  Speaker: repaired rather than exploited.
• 43:01
  Speaker: And so the degrees are structured as a journey up a
• 43:08
  Speaker: single pin stack.
• 43:11
  Speaker: And so.
• 43:14
  Speaker: You have the apprentice of the
• 43:15
  Speaker: ward, the fellow of the tension,
• 43:17
  Speaker: and the master of the shear
• 43:18
  Speaker: line.
• 43:20
  Speaker: And then there are a couple of um honorary degrees like the,
• 43:27
  Speaker: the perfect bidding and.
• 43:33
  Speaker: You know, companion of the binding order.
• 43:36
  Speaker: Um, some interesting things here.
• 43:40
  Speaker: Um the, uh, the password of the first degree is Brahma.
• 43:48
  Speaker: And that was the, the lock That that was unbroken.
• 43:54
  Speaker: Um, the grip has the, um brothers clasping hands and
• 44:03
  Speaker: applying slight rotational pressure with the thumbs.
• 44:09
  Speaker: Light tension.
• 44:12
  Speaker: Nice.
• 44:14
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 44:14
  Speaker: Just just, uh, just to have a graphic to go with, with this.
• 44:18
  Speaker: So the shear line here is, this
• 44:20
  Speaker: is kind of the inside of a lock
• 44:21
  Speaker: looks like.
• 44:22
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 44:22
  Speaker: So the goal is to raise the, the blue pins essentially up above
• 44:28
  Speaker: the shear line.
• 44:29
  Speaker: And that's essentially what a
• 44:31
  Speaker: key does when you insert the
• 44:32
  Speaker: key.
• 44:33
  Speaker: Um, and then you can turn the lock because the pins are no
• 44:36
  Speaker: longer in the way.
• 44:38
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 44:39
  Speaker: So I would love to see, and you could probably just gpt it, but
• 44:45
  Speaker: a tracing board for this would be so cool.
• 44:49
  Speaker: Well.
• 44:50
  Speaker: That's awesome.
• 44:51
  Speaker: Nice.
• 44:53
  Speaker: Oh, I just told Doctor Claude to create a tracing board.
• 44:59
  Speaker: Um, you know, you have regalia.
• 45:05
  Speaker: Um, you have the sash of the binding order worn from the
• 45:10
  Speaker: shoulder to hip, um, embroidered with a rising sequence of pins.
• 45:17
  Speaker: Uh, you have the apron, which is
• 45:20
  Speaker: white leather, but, um,
• 45:22
  Speaker: embroidered with a kiwi
• 45:24
  Speaker: silhouette.
• 45:26
  Speaker: Colors and jewels.
• 45:27
  Speaker: You have cords according to the grades and the working tools.
• 45:34
  Speaker: Um, there's the tension wrench given at the fellow degree.
• 45:42
  Speaker: Um, you know, you have, um Um, and you have like pinning
• 45:50
  Speaker: tweezers and follower, um, at like some of the higher honorary
• 45:57
  Speaker: degrees, the, these being, um, used in like rekeying locks.
• 46:03
  Speaker: And so you've, you've mastered
• 46:04
  Speaker: the lock and so you get the, the
• 46:06
  Speaker: tweezers and the, the follower,
• 46:09
  Speaker: which is something you
• 46:11
  Speaker: essentially plug into the lock
• 46:13
  Speaker: once you've rekeyed it so that
• 46:15
  Speaker: the pin positions stay in the
• 46:17
  Speaker: same place.
• 46:18
  Speaker: That's so cool.
• 46:23
  Speaker: I like it.
• 46:23
  Speaker: Um, not bad for someone who waited till the last minute.
• 46:26
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 46:28
  Speaker: Hey, you know what?
• 46:29
  Speaker: A win's a win, actually.
• 46:32
  Speaker: Um, I don't know if I may have shared this years ago, but I, I
• 46:36
  Speaker: come back to this as, as I was dabbling in lock picking myself,
• 46:40
  Speaker: um, I came up with this design.
• 46:45
  Speaker: Ooh ooh.
• 46:47
  Speaker: Lock pick with square encompasses.
• 46:50
  Speaker: I like it.
• 46:51
  Speaker: You know, what I like is the fact, Jason.
• 46:55
  Speaker: It's literally like it works very well for the icon.
• 47:04
  Speaker: That's really cool.
• 47:06
  Speaker: Why is there no Affinity Lodge?
• 47:09
  Speaker: No affinity lodge.
• 47:10
  Speaker: Where's the G. It kind of spells a G. Got the circle punct ish.
• 47:17
  Speaker: That's right.
• 47:17
  Speaker: Yep.
• 47:19
  Speaker: Well, that's that's the entrance to the to the plug.
• 47:22
  Speaker: Nice.
• 47:23
  Speaker: Very cool.
• 47:25
  Speaker: No, I like the thing that got me
• 47:27
  Speaker: most excited when you said it
• 47:28
  Speaker: was, uh, the lesson of patience
• 47:30
  Speaker: and feeling beats brute
• 47:32
  Speaker: security.
• 47:33
  Speaker: Yeah, that's a good lesson there.
• 47:37
  Speaker: Awesome.
• 47:38
  Speaker: Uh. Bonus track.
• 47:40
  Speaker: So there was one that I kicked around with another guy.
• 47:43
  Speaker: I believe it was actually Adam.
• 47:45
  Speaker: The same guy who recommended this episode.
• 47:48
  Speaker: Um, where?
• 47:51
  Speaker: I don't know if you guys know
• 47:52
  Speaker: that, um, George Washington was
• 47:54
  Speaker: a Freemason.
• 47:55
  Speaker: Get out of town.
• 47:57
  Speaker: Yes.
• 47:57
  Speaker: And actually had a secret spy ring called the Culper Ring.
• 48:02
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 48:03
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 48:04
  Speaker: And, uh, I believe it was Adam that said, well, what if we had
• 48:07
  Speaker: a Culper degree where it was set up like a table lodge, and we're
• 48:13
  Speaker: all enjoying a good a good dinner together, and then all of
• 48:17
  Speaker: a sudden, um, some gentleman burst into the room, hoodwink
• 48:22
  Speaker: one guy and drags him out.
• 48:24
  Speaker: And so your job for the rest of
• 48:26
  Speaker: the degree is to actually try to
• 48:28
  Speaker: figure out who's the mole at the
• 48:30
  Speaker: table.
• 48:32
  Speaker: So tying into our brother George
• 48:35
  Speaker: Washington and his sonic dinner
• 48:36
  Speaker: theater.
• 48:37
  Speaker: Yeah, right.
• 48:39
  Speaker: Put you on your toes.
• 48:40
  Speaker: I guess if you don't solve it, do you not go home?
• 48:42
  Speaker: Like, do you have to?
• 48:44
  Speaker: I don't know, but again, that's another thing for AI to help
• 48:48
  Speaker: flush that idea out.
• 48:51
  Speaker: Well, cool.
• 48:51
  Speaker: This was amazing.
• 48:53
  Speaker: I had a good time.
• 48:55
  Speaker: Um, before we get to final thoughts and questions.
• 49:01
  Speaker: Would any, would you like any
• 49:02
  Speaker: one of these to replace an
• 49:04
  Speaker: existing side order or degree or
• 49:07
  Speaker: appendant body?
• 49:09
  Speaker: So many.
• 49:10
  Speaker: Where do I begin?
• 49:11
  Speaker: So so so many.
• 49:13
  Speaker: I mean, we have too many appendant bodies anyway.
• 49:16
  Speaker: That is true.
• 49:16
  Speaker: So I don't I don't want to throw something new out there just to
• 49:21
  Speaker: create another burden.
• 49:24
  Speaker: It's like it's another dues card to keep alive, right?
• 49:28
  Speaker: Like.
• 49:32
  Speaker: Yeah, I, I think for me, if I
• 49:35
  Speaker: was going to replace something,
• 49:36
  Speaker: it would be another system
• 49:41
  Speaker: that's probably equally as
• 49:43
  Speaker: struggling as this system would
• 49:45
  Speaker: be.
• 49:45
  Speaker: Right?
• 49:45
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 49:46
  Speaker: That's what the first thing that came to my mind was.
• 49:48
  Speaker: I don't know what it's like,
• 49:49
  Speaker: what has like tens of people in
• 49:51
  Speaker: it.
• 49:51
  Speaker: But also, you know, I feel like Freemasonry itself as its own
• 49:57
  Speaker: order is involved and like, has this established thing to it.
• 50:05
  Speaker: And so I just don't know, like, I love leather work, right?
• 50:12
  Speaker: I love doing that stuff.
• 50:14
  Speaker: However, if I all of a sudden
• 50:17
  Speaker: had to like go to an affinity
• 50:19
  Speaker: lodge for that, I would never
• 50:21
  Speaker: go, dude, it's like when the
• 50:24
  Speaker: hobby becomes the job, you lose
• 50:26
  Speaker: it and you're like, yeah, that's
• 50:28
  Speaker: true.
• 50:29
  Speaker: Um, but I think it would be cool.
• 50:32
  Speaker: Um, and I think the way a lot of lodges do it today with their
• 50:36
  Speaker: sort of like loose knit affinity options like Star Trek or Star
• 50:39
  Speaker: Wars or cowboys or whatever.
• 50:43
  Speaker: Uh, like that's that's cool enough.
• 50:48
  Speaker: For me.
• 50:50
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 50:50
  Speaker: My, my thoughts a little different.
• 50:52
  Speaker: I honestly, yes, there's probably a lot, a lot of bodies
• 50:56
  Speaker: that this would replace.
• 50:57
  Speaker: But the, the thing for me is not everybody can join this one.
• 51:03
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 51:03
  Speaker: Like that's true.
• 51:04
  Speaker: There's no petitioning.
• 51:06
  Speaker: Like you get an invitation and if you get an invitation, you'll
• 51:09
  Speaker: make the time.
• 51:10
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 51:10
  Speaker: Like, we're all members of
• 51:12
  Speaker: things that, you know, that
• 51:13
  Speaker: you've been invited to and you
• 51:14
  Speaker: will absolutely make the time if
• 51:16
  Speaker: it's something that brings you
• 51:17
  Speaker: value.
• 51:18
  Speaker: Um, if that takes away from, you
• 51:21
  Speaker: know, a crab roast or, or, you
• 51:24
  Speaker: know, a barbecue or something
• 51:25
  Speaker: like that.
• 51:26
  Speaker: Cool.
• 51:27
  Speaker: But I think most of the things that we know, yes, you need to
• 51:31
  Speaker: add like the little dusting of like old bay in there.
• 51:34
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:35
  Speaker: And that's a, that, that is a raw ass old bay Bay Baby.
• 51:40
  Speaker: That's pink.
• 51:41
  Speaker: I'm not eating that.
• 51:41
  Speaker: It's probably like, still liquidy inside.
• 51:43
  Speaker: Um, no, but you know what I mean?
• 51:46
  Speaker: Like, we we're all members of
• 51:47
  Speaker: things that we will choose to
• 51:49
  Speaker: make the time to attend in spite
• 51:51
  Speaker: of other things being on our
• 51:53
  Speaker: calendar.
• 51:53
  Speaker: You know what I mean?
• 51:54
  Speaker: So if people want to come, they'll come.
• 51:55
  Speaker: And I don't think it needs to supplant anything because it's
• 51:59
  Speaker: not open to all.
• 52:01
  Speaker: So that's my thought.
• 52:04
  Speaker: I agree.
• 52:06
  Speaker: Cool.
• 52:06
  Speaker: And I'd probably say the more the merrier.
• 52:09
  Speaker: I don't know.
• 52:10
  Speaker: Let a thousand flowers bloom.
• 52:11
  Speaker: Let's experiment.
• 52:12
  Speaker: Especially since we have only limited runway of masonry left.
• 52:16
  Speaker: Uh, we should be encouraging lots of experimentation and
• 52:20
  Speaker: trying new things.
• 52:21
  Speaker: All right, well, with that, let's do final thoughts, and
• 52:26
  Speaker: we'll start with Jason Wu.
• 52:31
  Speaker: The stage left.
• 52:32
  Speaker: There we go.
• 52:33
  Speaker: Claude is still working through a complex response.
• 52:37
  Speaker: So. we may very well not.
• 52:42
  Speaker: Um. Part two.
• 52:44
  Speaker: Part two.
• 52:45
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 52:46
  Speaker: Next week.
• 52:47
  Speaker: Um, so this was a lot of fun.
• 52:51
  Speaker: It was, uh, it was a nice little thought experiment.
• 52:55
  Speaker: I like when we do these.
• 52:56
  Speaker: Um, yeah.
• 53:00
  Speaker: Fun.
• 53:00
  Speaker: Learn something new.
• 53:02
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 53:03
  Speaker: And they're all different.
• 53:04
  Speaker: Uh, Robert, I just thought it was fun to use our creative
• 53:10
  Speaker: noodles a little bit, um, to to write something sort of original
• 53:16
  Speaker: to explore some things.
• 53:18
  Speaker: And I thought what I, what I
• 53:20
  Speaker: found that was interesting is
• 53:22
  Speaker: that masonry has so ingrained
• 53:24
  Speaker: itself within at least the way I
• 53:26
  Speaker: think.
• 53:26
  Speaker: And it seemed the way you all
• 53:28
  Speaker: think that the things that
• 53:32
  Speaker: masonry teaches were sort of
• 53:36
  Speaker: underlying or foundations of the
• 53:41
  Speaker: next, uh, archetypal tool that
• 53:43
  Speaker: you chose to put into your
• 53:45
  Speaker: degree work.
• 53:46
  Speaker: Um, maybe you just did it in a sort of a different way.
• 53:50
  Speaker: And in that it was cool because
• 53:52
  Speaker: it reaffirms this, I don't know,
• 53:56
  Speaker: this weird feeling that masonry
• 53:58
  Speaker: is, uh, this, uh, wonderful
• 54:04
  Speaker: organization that that's sort
• 54:06
  Speaker: of, you know, taken from the
• 54:08
  Speaker: best of the best organizations
• 54:09
  Speaker: out there and groups and
• 54:11
  Speaker: societies and sort of packaged
• 54:13
  Speaker: it in a way that, uh, captures a
• 54:17
  Speaker: lot of, of, you know, the, the
• 54:21
  Speaker: goods, I guess you could call
• 54:22
  Speaker: it.
• 54:23
  Speaker: And it was interesting to see that even though we made all
• 54:25
  Speaker: these different, uh, side pieces and use different, uh,
• 54:30
  Speaker: iconography, the foundations of masonry still existed within
• 54:35
  Speaker: them, so it was cool.
• 54:37
  Speaker: I had a lot of fun.
• 54:38
  Speaker: Thanks.
• 54:39
  Speaker: Sweet.
• 54:41
  Speaker: I agree.
• 54:42
  Speaker: We have a tracing board.
• 54:47
  Speaker: I yield my time to the man in Centerville.
• 54:50
  Speaker: Oh.
• 54:53
  Speaker: Lyme.
• 54:54
  Speaker: Order of the ancient and sublime order of the sheer line.
• 54:59
  Speaker: The first degree tracing board.
• 55:02
  Speaker: So this is a little kitschy, but.
• 55:08
  Speaker: To be honest.
• 55:10
  Speaker: Yeah, not bad for the first round.
• 55:14
  Speaker: First.
• 55:15
  Speaker: I really like the.
• 55:16
  Speaker: I really like the sheer line graphic though.
• 55:20
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 55:20
  Speaker: They got the the tumbler and the driver.
• 55:25
  Speaker: And the the blank.
• 55:29
  Speaker: The pick and the the bidding.
• 55:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 55:33
  Speaker: That's awesome.
• 55:35
  Speaker: Oh, yeah.
• 55:36
  Speaker: I need a link to that.
• 55:38
  Speaker: Yeah, I'll send it to you.
• 55:39
  Speaker: Nice.
• 55:41
  Speaker: All right, we're over to Joe.
• 55:43
  Speaker: Final thoughts.
• 55:45
  Speaker: Um, this was absolutely fun.
• 55:47
  Speaker: Uh, definitely want to do a part two.
• 55:49
  Speaker: Um, because I have way more thoughts.
• 55:50
  Speaker: Um, and I'll find them this time.
• 55:53
  Speaker: Uh, but yeah, I mean, my, my thought in this experiment was,
• 55:57
  Speaker: I don't want more masonry for the sake of having more masonry,
• 56:01
  Speaker: because that's not worked out well for us in the past.
• 56:04
  Speaker: Right?
• 56:04
  Speaker: So I don't want another calendar
• 56:06
  Speaker: filled with things that only
• 56:07
  Speaker: exist because we want to hold
• 56:09
  Speaker: them.
• 56:09
  Speaker: Right.
• 56:10
  Speaker: Um, if we are going to create a new body that I would expect it
• 56:14
  Speaker: to demand something from the people who, who enter it, right?
• 56:18
  Speaker: It would demand of their time, it would demand them to prepare,
• 56:22
  Speaker: it would demand their attention.
• 56:24
  Speaker: Um, it would demand their
• 56:26
  Speaker: discretion and their, and their
• 56:28
  Speaker: secrecy and, and yes, it would
• 56:29
  Speaker: demand of a bit of sacrifice,
• 56:32
  Speaker: right?
• 56:32
  Speaker: Um, my thoughts were that it would be something exclusive
• 56:37
  Speaker: because not every experience needs to belong to everyone.
• 56:41
  Speaker: Um, it would be costly because
• 56:44
  Speaker: meaningful experiences require
• 56:46
  Speaker: an investment.
• 56:47
  Speaker: Um, it would be demanding because there's no
• 56:51
  Speaker: transformation, as we all have seen without effort.
• 56:56
  Speaker: Right.
• 56:56
  Speaker: So it's not a demand of your time and your energy.
• 56:58
  Speaker: Um, and then finally it would be exclusive.
• 57:01
  Speaker: And that sounds, it sounds
• 57:02
  Speaker: douchey, but it would be
• 57:04
  Speaker: exclusive because things lose
• 57:07
  Speaker: their power when they're
• 57:09
  Speaker: constantly advertised, when
• 57:11
  Speaker: they're thrown in front of your
• 57:13
  Speaker: slave, when they're displayed to
• 57:14
  Speaker: the world.
• 57:15
  Speaker: Um, hey, come to this event, come to that event, you know,
• 57:18
  Speaker: um, anything with the, the fun bodies in masonry, you know,
• 57:22
  Speaker: they're just watered down and they become really banal and
• 57:25
  Speaker: vanilla and boring.
• 57:27
  Speaker: Um, and I don't want what I
• 57:30
  Speaker: envision to to be anything like
• 57:32
  Speaker: that.
• 57:32
  Speaker: So that was my takeaway.
• 57:35
  Speaker: Go, Jimmy.
• 57:36
  Speaker: Go, Timothy.
• 57:38
  Speaker: Uh, let's see.
• 57:39
  Speaker: So as for me, yeah, again, fun, fun thought experiment.
• 57:43
  Speaker: And what I liked was the variety.
• 57:46
  Speaker: I like the application of like doing something working, uh,
• 57:50
  Speaker: through the degree that it's a symbolic, uh, working with your
• 57:54
  Speaker: hands or something like that for all the different ones.
• 57:58
  Speaker: And, and I agree with Robert's statement of masonry being the,
• 58:01
  Speaker: the foundation or the undercurrent behind all, all of
• 58:04
  Speaker: these anyway, because when I was trying to come up with ideas
• 58:07
  Speaker: like I was starting to think of different things I want to say,
• 58:10
  Speaker: I'm like, oh, wait, I've seen that over there.
• 58:12
  Speaker: Or wait, I've seen this in this other degree.
• 58:14
  Speaker: And so it was a little
• 58:14
  Speaker: challenging at first until, you
• 58:16
  Speaker: know, kind of got the juices
• 58:17
  Speaker: flowing.
• 58:19
  Speaker: And, you know, just to wrap things up, I kind of see where
• 58:23
  Speaker: Joe was going because, um, there are, there are degrees that I
• 58:28
  Speaker: mean, there's even new things that pop up all the time.
• 58:30
  Speaker: I've seen, like the, uh, the
• 58:32
  Speaker: order of the Water Buffaloes and
• 58:34
  Speaker: a very Fred Flintstone kind of
• 58:36
  Speaker: thing.
• 58:36
  Speaker: And it looks fun.
• 58:36
  Speaker: Like the stonecutters.
• 58:37
  Speaker: It's another new thing that's been been growing.
• 58:40
  Speaker: And again, all for great, great fun.
• 58:43
  Speaker: Something new, something novel.
• 58:44
  Speaker: And yet what?
• 58:46
  Speaker: Um, which again, a little have a little FOMO.
• 58:49
  Speaker: I might want to join those
• 58:50
  Speaker: eventually just for the fun of
• 58:51
  Speaker: it.
• 58:52
  Speaker: But we, we all four did here was actually try to apply a
• 58:57
  Speaker: deliberate intention behind, uh, the, the, the fan fiction we
• 59:02
  Speaker: came up with.
• 59:03
  Speaker: And so I think that was a fun, fun experiment.
• 59:05
  Speaker: And who knows, maybe one day in
• 59:07
  Speaker: twenty forty one, we'll all get
• 59:09
  Speaker: a chance to live out live out
• 59:10
  Speaker: these dreams.
• 59:11
  Speaker: But until then, I want to thank you all very much for watching.
• 59:14
  Speaker: Keep searching for more like, have a good night.
• 59:21
  Speaker: Wow.
• 59:24
  Speaker: Wow.