2025 Top 10 Countdown — Part II (Episodes 5-1) - Craftsmen Online Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Commons.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Opinions and views shared during this program are of those
individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official position of
a Grand Launch, Concordant Body, a Pendant Body, a Masonic authority,
or Craftsman Online dot Com.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only Masonic
podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge of New York. I'm
your host, right worship for Brother Michael Larci, and we
have kicked off our countdown of the most listened to
Craftsman Online Podcast episodes of twenty twenty five. Now, if
you're new, here's how it works. Our listeners, you do
your thing, downloading, listening our weekly episodes. iHeartRadio. They do

(00:53):
their thing. They put together and compile all the data
from fifty two weeks. Yeah, fifty two weeks in a year.
That's how long our season is. Fifty two weeks worth
of guests. Wow, that's a lot of numbers. We stack
up our ten most listened to episodes of the year,
and you and I we go all the way to
the top number one. We get to enjoy the greatest

(01:13):
hits as we count down our way to that top
spot and find out who's gonna hold the honor of
being the most listened to guest of twenty twenty five.
You ready to find out, Let's get back to it.
I have said the word first a record number of
times on the twenty twenty five countdown, and we get
to say it again here. Our fifth most listened To

(01:35):
episode features two First one, this is right Worshipful Kanjin
Setterman's first appearance on our list. And secondly, and most importantly,
he is the first Buddhist Grand Chaplain of the Grand
Lodge of New York. We actually got to break that
news to him during the recording of this episode, so
maybe a bonus. First, Right Worshipful Brother Kanjin became a

(01:56):
Buddhist monk at the age of eighteen, and on this
epiod showed he answered the question that yeah, Buddhists can
become a Freemason. Will also exploring how the four Noble
Truths connect with the principal tenants of freemasonry. Number five.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
I grew up with masonry. I particularly remember all the
shrine events because my dad was that as well. He
owned it, was a wine distributor, and also he was
a professional wine taste. Moving back, I was very pleasantly
surprised with the mentality I grew up. Even though it
says north Tonawanda, it's actually niagr Wheatfield, which is a
very small town. You had to be a very strong

(02:34):
individual with someone that you know, especially to take on
a new tradition or be part of that traditional religion
amongst people who had no idea of what that meant.
I wouldn't funny joke my mother when I became wanted
to become a munk, her only request to me was
that she would never see me in an airport handing
out flower. I had to say, too, well, of course,

(02:58):
the only thing. Her only point of understanding Eastern philosophy,
of course was Hari Krishna.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Right, yes, yes, yes, So I didn't bother to explain
that to her.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
I just said that that was absolutely one promise I could.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Keep good boy, good boy nice.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
One question is why do we have that need for
deity and what does it mean? What is the point
of that that we require it with a mason, Because
when we take, when we make an obligation towards each other,
towards the mentality, the precepts that we follow, what do
we base that on. I think that that's one of

(03:36):
the main important aspects that we have to think about
that we're not just doing it on O or we're
doing it on a system of belief in something good
than something as they said, even in the point of
being eternal.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Right.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
So yeah, there's a few differences possibly that would be
confusing for people. And that's one reason why I wanted
to do this interview was because I went online and
I saw a lot lots of people, lots of Buddhists,
asking what can I be a Freemason? And it was
interesting because first of all, the amount of misunderstanding all
over because even in Japan people are terrified about freemasons.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Why is that, well, because they don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
We've done such a great job keeping ourselves a secret
that everyone has made up what they think. The perfect
example there was a Buddhist temple, you know the tsunami
that they had that destroyed many places. Actually, the Grand
Lodge of Japan rebuilt a Buddhist temple in northern Japan
where it actually happened. They gave the donation everything, and

(04:35):
the Buddhists were just so confused by that because they
had no idea and actually there was a kind of
negative connotation with Masons, because they just assumed what everyone
else assumes we read online.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Do you think it's a bit of like the Eastern
versus Western traditions.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
No, I don't think so. I just think it's that
we didn't make the effort to make ourselves available, so
therefore people would like to. Of course, what they don't
understand they usually fear, and rightfully. So part of your
question was was that the specifics in Buddhism that allow
this concept. One interesting point was so, first of all,
the idea of creator. Buddhism does have a creator, because

(05:14):
in the East Brahma is the creator of the world. However,
he is not the top of the pinnacle of the
prect of the teacher. He is seen as a state
of our high state, but yet not the most enlightened being. Okay,
so that's something totally different for Western I would have

(05:35):
mad But I don't think that that's where this question sits.
This question sits in that what represents that belief or
that essence that we can take that vow upon, that
obligation upon, and what is directing our life. As you said,
there's very specific traditions that would not be necessarily compatible

(05:56):
with an outlook of you know, a free freemason outlook.
So one of the things they had said is that
some people believe the dharma Dharma means teaching in the
Sanskrit word in the East, the dharma, the teaching itself
is seen as enlightened and that's representative in our daily lives,

(06:18):
and that the Buddha himself. This is also a common
mistake that people think that people believe Buddha is our God,
so they automatically supplement the Buddha with God. There are
some traditions that see Buddha as the center of the
teaching right as a kind of divine being. So the
Buddhas see it as divine but yet also as a human.
But the state of Buddha, which there's two connotations which

(06:40):
can be mixed up. Buddha also means the highest consciousness,
which could mean God as enlightenment. That each of us
have that within ourselves. So the basic premise of Buddhism
is to realize that nature in ourselves, to connect with
that nature. There is a great book by Teknahan that
called it Buddha nature Christ's nature. The interesting thing is

(07:03):
such a different understanding in the East that some people
would very much easily understand misunderstand by thinking as a
god head that the Buddha himself, as a human being
was that is top of However, the Buddha represents that
divine nature, just as I would say Jesus represent the
entity of God or Christian right. And you know, to

(07:26):
be honest, as a Freemason, I always find more and
I think this is where the majority of people they
talk about this in being a chaplain, specifically, that our
level of spirituality becomes that we understand the basic underlying
premise that I believe freemasonry is built on.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
That we can see in.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Every trigach right that goes that it holds those same
goals of goodness and enlightenment and compassion.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
So as host of the Craftsman Online podcasts, I feel
like I can create a special award for our next guest,
and I so do. To say that Metal Drew is
the most metal guest is definitely an understatement. I mean, listen,
he gets his own theme music when he's not attending
all of Branch Lodge number sixteen and Freehold New jay Z.

(08:20):
They meet on the second and fourth Tuesday. By the way,
Drew's a big presence on social media, constantly sharing videos
on TikTok and Instagram, fighting those online trolls and spreading
Masonic light. Yeah, he's one busy guy, and ironically the
topic that made our countdown didn't feature his knowledge of
metal music. Like this, as we discuss the wages of

(08:42):
a master mason, which you know are corn wine and
oil for our fourth most listened to episode in twenty
twenty five, Worshipful Brother Metal, Drew and I get past
the physical representation of the wages of a traveling man
and discuss how to carry corn wine and oil as
we're rock in that everyday life.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
The number oh, and that's the beauty of masonry in general,
is that we are number one taught to think in
ways like this, We are taught to ascribe to. Yes,
there is the literal sense, which I myself am that
kind of mason. I like finding the literal things.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
I discussed this.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
When we had our episode on the Heavy Metal album covers.
I like looking at the literal things and where they
came from there. But no, that's my thing, and I
know that there are brothers out there that are more
esoterically minded than myself, not just you, but even some
of my own lodge brothers that will take it to
that aspect of well, Corn's not just corn. Corn is

(09:44):
also the thing that made the body of Christ. I'm
using big air quotes here. This is not literal.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
This is just me.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
We come to an agreement that there are multiple concepts
when it comes to the lessons taught within the different degrees.
I want to bring it back to like I said,
I'm going to lean heavily on the Square magazine. Corn
has always was always regarded as an element of national wealth.
It formed part of the tribute brought to Hezekiah on

(10:12):
the restoration of priesthood, and bread was one of the
signs of welcome and goodwill to Abraham. Wine, in a
metaphorical sense, represents the essence of goodness. Jerusalem, Israel, the Messiah,
the Righteous, etc. Are all compared to wine, whereas wine
that has been aged into vinegar is compared to wickedness

(10:35):
and the souring of wine. So, like I said in
the beginning, wine is a wine as itself is a
thing of opulence, is a thing of beauty and good
taste and things like that. But it can become soured
it can become bad and quote unquote wicked. His longest definition,
which I'm not going to bore you with, is the

(10:56):
one on oil. And because it's got so many different uses,
there's is it olive oil? Is it beaten oil that
they used to use on the tabernacle? Is it one
of the metaphors where it says they dip his foot
in oil when referring to the original Hebrew anything that,

(11:17):
Like when they say things about the feet, it means
like the bottom half of them are naked, like they're
either using the bathroom where they're performing some kind of
act bound there. So there could be multiple construed stories
with that, just in like, oil is a broad term.
What kind of oil was it? Are we going back
to some one thirty three? It ran down the beard? Well,

(11:40):
that's an anointing oil. That is a sacred oil that
one would use to ritually purify themselves. Are you getting
that as part of your payment or are you getting
sustenance oil to go with your bread and your wine?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
As you were talking, I was writing down food equals wealth,
wine equals joy, which or happiness, And you know you
can go overboard too much. Happiness can actually as you
kind of mentioned lead to some dark times.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Oh yes, hold on, I got my whiskey bottles behind me.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Hey, we got to take a little break to pay
some bills. But don't worry. On the other side of
these messages is the third most listened to episode of
twenty twenty five. As our countdown rolls on and we're

(12:40):
back ready to jump into the top three. Yeah, this
is where the numbers get smaller, but as they say,
the hits get bigger on our countdown of the most
listened to podcast episodes of twenty twenty five. For our
third most listened to episode of the year, we're heading
to the western coast of Canada in British Columbia. That's
where we find worshipful Brother Will Robe. Brother Will had

(13:01):
a great idea for a three part series this season
titled now what Where We answered common question brothers asked
after being raised at a sublime degree of a Master Mason.
This was a pretty popular series. A an A that's
Canadian for right or you know, as we say here
in America. As two of the three episodes landed in
our top twenty this year, so we took the score

(13:23):
of both and put them together and that's what's taking
the third spot in our countdown, our discussion on the
first steps a master mation should take a after they
received their third degree, wellber three.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
Most Mason's views change in the perspective of you kind
of you think that you're going through you know, you
get the EA, you get the fellow Craft, you start
you kind of you're getting a grasp of what's going
on here. But then you get the Master Mason degree,
and it's so filled with so much knowledge and so
much information, and it really just rounds out the rest

(13:55):
of Blue Lodge for you in a way that now
you can you can move whatever way you want. You
want you can you know, if you want to join
these bodies or whatever, that's that's totally up to you.
But now you can really start to understand Masonic literature.
You can really start to go back to the first
two degrees and see what foundations they had that really

(14:18):
built up to this Master Mason, to this new perspective
that you have now where you can go and travel
freely again, like what you were saying with the analogy
about having your own driver's license, you don't have to
get tagged along to a lodge now as an EA
or a fellow craft. You can now go and visit
with other lodges and build these meaningful connections with these

(14:38):
other brothers inside or outside of your jurisdiction, and it's
just a very beautiful thing. You can now become a
lodge officer, And I think I don't necessarily agree with
becoming a lodge officer right after becoming a Master Mason,
but just knowing in the back of your mind there's
all these different steps, there's all these different directions that

(15:00):
you can go, and I think that's really important when
you have these viewpoints and these understandings, that there's so
many different directions that you can go. But in the
big sense, I think it really is just an eye
opener when you really start to break down a lot
of the knowledge and information that's in the Master Mason degree,
that really helps to give you this new profound perspective

(15:24):
on Masonic understanding. And even the fact that we really
touch on death in the third degree. And I won't
get any further into it than that, but it's very
much something that we all have to come to grips
with because it's something that's going to meet us one
day altogether, and I don't think a lot of people
thinking when they're going through their EA and their fellow

(15:46):
craft that they're going to get hit so hard with
such a moral lesson in the third degree that it
really just hits home and the allegory that's built into
the third degree, I don't think a lot of people
are really expecting that. Going through the EA and fellowcraft,
you get the idea that you're building yourself up. You're

(16:07):
building up on building blocks here, but really, when you
hit that Master Mason degree and it gives you such
a rounded idea of what it is that you've really
gotten yourself into, I think it really gives a great
perspective when you finally reach that finish line and now
you have carte blanche to basically go off on any

(16:27):
literature that you want. You can pick up any Masonic book.
You have so much more freedom now, and so I
think those are good things to view now that you're
a Master Mason.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
I love how you put it that way, because I
always tell guys in early on stages when they're now
an EA, they just got that first degree, and I
meet with them and I'm like, Okay, here's what I
want you to do, and it's very structured. Our learning
process is superstructured with it starts with the memorization the catechism.
You're learning about working tools, you're learning about specific lessons
that are coming through in all of the degrees. There's

(16:57):
the dissecting of what these bigger thoughts now mean, and
you're getting little, you know, bread from trails. I would say,
as you're pointing out about all of this, and then
you get to as you mentioned, like boom, I'm raised
to the sublime degree of master Mason. I would witness
the Herramic legend. If that's the real story of freemasonry. HM,
that's interesting, Well now it do wide do? And then

(17:18):
that's the next conversation that you got to start picking
up with somebody is like if they're still seeking that knowledge,
which I hope that they are. I don't think most
guys just give up on learning after they get their
third degree. I just feel like we don't really have
anything more for them to do, at least in the
structure as it exists. Now, now it's time for you

(17:40):
to do what I call free range learning, like go
find that topic or that subject, Like let's go back.
Was it something in the first degree. Was it in
the second degree the middle chamber of the winding staircase lecture?
Was it in the third degrees a piece of the
Harramic legend or just some of the ritual or symbolism
that exists in the conferral of the degree the obligation part.

(18:02):
Was there something in there that you had a question about,
Because now we can actually go explore that.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
There's a lot of times where we have a hard
time kind of discerning from what's fiction and we kind
of just fill in the blanks to kind of make
this allegorical story really resonate with what we're doing in
freemasonry and really bringing this stone builder element to it.
That's really this giant metaphor about you building yourself up.

(18:32):
One of the big reasons why we don't really explain
the allegory very further. It's not even a bad idea
to sit down with one of your mentors, or maybe
the mentor that you had through your three degrees, and
talk to him about these different pieces of the degree
that we're very educational that we kind of just roughly
go past on and we don't really touch on that

(18:54):
very much. And those are really the types of things
that one as being mentors, we need to point these
to these younger Masons or Masons who are coming up,
because sometimes you just kind of gloss over some of
these parts of the degrees and you just think, okay,
that was cool. But having a chat about it, I
think is a great way of opening those doors for

(19:14):
you and introducing you to this whole other side of
masonry that's not quite guarded or very secretive, but it's
just not something that we really talk in large lengths
about in the middle of lodge, and it's really those
are those are the opportunities where you kind of have
to go out of your way to learn a little
bit more.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
So, it doesn't matter where you live in the world.
The factor mains there are less Freemasons now wherever you
are than almost one hundred years ago. It's crazy. Our
second most listened to episode this year features Brother Matthew
Brockbank and fun fact, this is Brother Matt's second consecutive
year holding the runner up spot on our countdown. Sorry

(19:57):
to point that out, Matt. He addressed them as membership
problem with a modern solution. Oh yes, the most powerful
working tool of all time his cell phone. He literally
did an exit interview style approach to reach out to
brothers who either demitted NPDD or simply stop coming to
his lodge. He then compiled all this data to provide

(20:18):
a pathway to answer the question why are men leaving
our lodges and what can we do to get them back?

Speaker 6 (20:27):
Number two, I wanted to know were there any like
really bad things, because sometimes, you know, conflict goes unspoken,
you know, as as we know a lot of sometimes
you know, personal crimes go unreported because of embarrassment or
they're they're fearful from some kind of retaliation. So I was,

(20:50):
I was wondering, you know, would I hear, you know,
anything very bad. I got a range of responses, and
to be honest, some of which did involve some form
of conflict, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional. You know,
I don't want to you know, I don't want to
sugarcoat anything or say that, Oh yeah, all the brothers
that they admitted because you know, they had other things

(21:11):
going on, they were just too busy.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Oh that's not the case. You know, we're not perfect.
That's a good point, Like you have to be ready
to embrace what we call fearless feedback that I'm really interested,
not so much to hear what their feelings are about freemasonry,
just in general down the road, when we're talking about
freemasonry with people that have an interest in it, how
can we explain it to them so that we're more
careful in kind of outlining potentially what their experience could

(21:35):
be like.

Speaker 6 (21:36):
When I when I brought this before the lodge, the
main reaction was kind of you know, wow, you made
us very uncomfortable, but for good reasons, right, And that
kind of was you know, that was kind of the
aim here. You know, these are not comfortable conversations to have.
This simply is very much a relationship between one or
more men and you know, as an organization, and obviously

(22:00):
we come from different backgrounds. We have different political, religious,
or social beliefs, and you know, whether those come into
play in the lodge or not. You know, we are
different people, so sometimes we don't always you know, gel
or mesh with you know, the brothers in our lodge.
I didn't really get any responses where people just straight
up said, you know what, it's not for me. Everyone

(22:22):
really wanted to be there, and for the most part,
a lot of the responses I got, not all of them,
but a majority of the responses that I got were
very positive. When it came to individual brothers, they all
said something about, oh, you know, I really like that guy,
or I really like this guy. You know, I really
like this one thing.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
It's not like anyone said, ah, everything was awful, all negative.
So I want to give people some action points. By
the way, I hate just talking about things, you know,
and abstract. I like to give people actual things to do.
So I want to talk about the actual reactions because
maybe other lodges are listening to this and they're thinking, oh, wow, yeah,
we do that, we should change that. So, for instance,

(23:02):
Saint George's we wear white ties and tails. So we wear,
you know, a white vest, a white bow tie. We
wear it not just a tuxedo, but full blown tails.
It's pretty much the most dolled up you can possibly be. Oh,
I know, and that's a tradition. Yeah, Mike knows.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, you know, right. Oh. I remember stopping to get
gas at a gas station and someone asking me, where
are you going all dressed up? And I'm like, well, actually,
I play piano down the street. On the second four Thursday.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
So.

Speaker 6 (23:32):
So we have this tradition of wearing these kind of
silly penguin suits. And then I'm at a bunch of
different lodges, and what are they wearing. They're wearing whatever
they want, because it's not The suit doesn't make you
a mason. The suit doesn't make you a good man.
The suit when you get to heaven, God doesn't care

(23:54):
that you wore a suit. Right, No one gives a
crap about a suit.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
Maybe we should re examine that. Does it really mean
as much to us as we think it does.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Right?

Speaker 6 (24:05):
We're also, you know, a colonial lodge. So sometimes we
have a colonial day where we dress up in the
colonial outfits. That's great, we do that for one day. Okay,
maybe we wear the tuxedos for only I don't know,
one day. Maybe we wear them to table lodge. Maybe
we only wear them when we do degrees.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
You know.

Speaker 6 (24:22):
But we have to kind of cut back a little
bit and examine, you know, is this really what members
want or is this just something we're doing because we've
done it for a hundred sorry, two hundred and fifty years.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Hey, the bills don't pay themselves. After this quick break
the big reveal come back for the most listened to
Craftsman Online Podcast of twenty twenty five. Wow, fifty two
weeks later, and here we are the answer to who

(24:59):
will be the number one most listened to Craftsman Online
podcast for twenty twenty five? Are you ready? Well, a
little spoiler alert we have a new guest holding the
top spot this year. New as in Masonic author Worshipful
Brother Nathan Saint Pierre. Now. He narrowly missed the twenty
twenty four count down, but firmly made his presence this year.

(25:21):
In April, Brother Nathan joined me to tackle a question
that has been burning on my mind, and I'm guessing
in the minds of most Freemasons for years. Who are
Preston Webb and how did their ritual become the standard
for most Freemasons in North America. His answer claims the
most listened to Craftsman Online podcast title for twenty twenty

(25:43):
five number one. So I'm left with kind of two
questions after everything that we've talked about in this episode,
I'll start with the first one. I mean, after hearing Preston,
who had these great lectures and just kept writing and
writing and write and writing and say, hey, you know what,
I've got more, let's talk about more. And then you

(26:03):
have web that's like, oh, these were great, and I'm
going to put this in a book, but I need to,
you know, kind of chop things up here a little
bit and make it fit and boom boom booms, and
then that's how we literally get the present and web ritual.
It's not like they worked together. They did not, and
they corresponded. They didn't know each other. Yeah, those romantic
ideas of one influencing the other and somebody so not

(26:24):
the case here. What's stopping modern men today in the
craft from saying, hey, you know what I would like
to write or rewrite or contribute or tweak our ritual
and make it this way now instead of what we
now know.

Speaker 7 (26:43):
Permit no innovation in the body of masonry. That's an
old charge. So it really comes down to a philosophy.
What is freemasonry is freemasonry Going to a building and
doing a meeting and reading minutes is freemasonry? Participating in
a degree one time on one night, wearing a ring
on your finger for the rest of your life and
never going back. What is a freemason? Right so like

(27:07):
if you're if you define it by the the number
of degrees that you collect, you're you're doing homage to
a sort of Thomas Smith web system. But if it's
like this, the perpetual seek of knowledge, that's Prestonian like.

(27:29):
That's so I see them as as what is your
north star like? Rather than because Preston was collecting old charges,
old rituals, old things, so a lot of stuff that
he was writing, he's he's quoting Charles Leslie from seventeen
forty one, he's quoting other stuff, you know, and he's
he's putting it in there because he's trying to he's

(27:50):
trying to compile as much of the the old, like
back when we actually believed that we had antidiluvian knowledge
that we needed to perpetuate, back when we back when
we gave a damn, That's what he was trying to
bring back now to steal man Thomas Smith Webb. I
don't think he was completely a Charlatan. I think instead

(28:12):
it was wow, masonry over here is not quite what
it could be. I found these really great lectures from England.
What if we did these like I don't ascribe necessarily
ill faith to our to our our dear brother Web.
In fact, the opposite like what he did, especially if
you're a royal arch mason. What he did for the
York Right in America was was unparalleled like and the

(28:34):
fact that we that it's known elsewhere as the American
Right is such a testament to him and what he
did right. I don't I don't want to diminish Thomas
Smith Web at all, especially given that he had such
a short life.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
And for our listener, it's like, you know, Nathan and
I have had a lot of fun about this particular
topic and in this episode, because ritual can be dry
and history sometimes can be boring, and I've appreciated the
tone that you've taken. And as a proud New York freemason,
I would never be poorly of Thomas Webb because I
know the wonderful contributions I know are Grand Lodge in
New York's is we are the one that follows things,

(29:07):
is close to what the ritual is supposed to be.
And I know that kind of leads into my second question,
where each grand jurisdiction makes those claims that we are
the one that's most aligned to this or that I
hate to.

Speaker 7 (29:18):
Break it to you, but every single one of your
grand jurisdictions has changed something. So this idea that the
rituals have gone continuously like unimpaired is very silly. And
and that's that's the honest answer to the question about
like why is this so different Because someone changed it,
that's the it's and that's fine, right. Another misconception is

(29:44):
that Web introduced the all seeing eye, that this is
a later symbol and is not ancient, and that's that's
that's actually not true. So he's credited with adding things
like that because in the You Know Too, he adds
pieces of those emblematic work, but these are old symbols

(30:05):
that he was adding in as he became aware of
the lectures. Another misconception is that the Monitor contains secret rituals.
I wanted to talk about this because you actually you
were talking about it earlier, like sometimes you get confused
it's the site us the monitor or whatever. So these
are actually two different books. So remember I mentioned earlier

(30:25):
that that he was selling he was selling his book,
but then it was like wing wing, No, he's not
like buy this book, but don't really because I'm not
supposed to let you buy an exposure or whatever. But right, so,
the idea was the exposure was what we would consider
the ciphered portions or the esoteric work, and then the
monitor was the exoteric work. And this is why plaintext

(30:51):
portions of your ritual are referred to as monitorial because
it comes from a monitor. So okay, that's so those
are two separate documents.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I love when you come on. I learned so much
from you, and I really appreciate you sharing your wealth
of knowledge, especially on Masonic ritual. I feel that I
didn't really start quote unquote bonding with ritual, not when
I had to memorize it, to learn it, to be,
to go through the degrees, but when I actually got
to sit back as a mastermation that start learning it,
really getting into it. The parts that appeal the most

(31:23):
to me are the lectures that come after the conferral
of the degree. Let's say, sure, is there a part
of the ritual that is memorable or meaningful for you
where you can say, you know what, this is kind
of the best blend of Preston and Web's works and
words and wisdom together that can be found in our ritual.

Speaker 7 (31:46):
Yes, so, because I'll give you. I'll give you one
from each right. So okay, So here's Preston and it's
and it's not from a lecture, and I'll bet you'll
love it, but the blessings of Heaven on us in
all regular masons. I brotherly love prevail every moral and
social virtue. Cementus amen. That's Preston. And for web, this

(32:11):
one has has a it's a personal story. So when
I was memorizing the the lectures my sometimes my wife
would have difficulty sleeping at night and that she'd go
tell me a story. And then I would always start
with the part that I knew that was plain Texas.
This famous fabric was situated on not Mariah, near the
place where Abraham was about to offer, and I just

(32:35):
start I would just start going with a with a
monitorial part of the third degree and the suit you
would and it was but it was it was always
the same story, no matter what. Like anytime she'd say, like,
just tell me a story, it was always this famous
fabric that you have. So I secretly like to think
she got insomnia so that way she could listen to

(32:56):
my lectures.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
And that is a wrap. Congratulations to all of our
top ten guests this year, and thank you to all
of our guests who have joined me throughout the fifty
two week season. Man. Season number five would not be
able to do this without you. And again, biggest thanks
goes to our listener. I mean, otherwise it's just me
and a guest on camera and microphone talking to each other.

(33:19):
Your support in listening every week. There's a reason and
why we've gotten up to one hundred and forty thousand downloads.
You've helped us out so much by sharing a review
on your podcast player or making a difference and subscribing
it and contributing the show through Patreon. Man, I really
appreciate you lots and lots of love. A quick reminder,
speaking of Patreon, if you haven't done so already, you

(33:41):
can open up your podcast player, click on the craft
butN Online podcast in the notes right there boom, you'll
see the link to subscribe or try our free seven
day trial on Patreon. You get ad free episodes and
you can browse all of the subscriber extra content with
some of the guests you've heard on this year's countdown.
I love the beginning of an we are going to
be kicking off season number six with a bang next Monday,

(34:05):
as we welcome in twenty twenty six with well, what
will potentially be its first most controversial episode, Mesoterica. Why
why Esoterica study is a waste of time? We'll be
tackling that with my guest, Worshipful Brother Bull Garlington on Monday.
Until next time. This is right, Worshipful Brother Michael Lars.

(34:27):
I've sincerely enjoyed our time together and cannot wait to
start a new year. Let peace and harmony prevail us.

(35:01):
Still boring

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2025 Top 10 Countdown — Part II (Episodes 5-1)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2025 Top 10 Countdown — Part II (Episodes 5-1)