February 16, 2026 • 32 mins
Masonic Education is a driving theme on this season of the Craftsmen Online Podcast. As many Master Masons find a gap between the Light promised during initiation and the reality of Lodge life, they seek external study. WB Metal Drew returns to discuss going beyond ritual memorization to discovering your path to becoming a Craftsman.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 Lodge, concordant Body, a Pendant Body, a Masonic authority,
or Craftsman Online dot com.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hey, welcome back to the Craftsman Online podcast. Yeah, it's
Monday and we are here for you. The only Masonic
podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge in New York, and
we love saying that each and every week. I'm your host,
right Worsheville Brother Michael ars. I'm guessing that this episode
may fall into the danger of clickbait, but trust me,
it's going to be a good one. First, another thing
to click while you're here listening. I know Patreon, We're
(00:51):
on it. It's five dollars a month. You get access
to all of our back catalog, which actually is going
to feature a subscriber extra episode with this week's guest Metal.
And you can get all of these episodes without having
to listen to the annoying commercials which I apologize for that,
but you know, bills don't pay themselves. Get the link
to start a seven day free trial to see if
(01:12):
Craftsman Online on Patreon is the right fit for you.
You'll find that link in the notes for this episode. Okay,
he is the only guest so far on the Craftsman
Online podcast that has his own intro music. Why because
of Dude Rocks. I mean, if you're gonna go by
metal Drew everywhere and anywhere, well then we got to
(01:33):
get the right music for you. As we welcome back
New Jersey's favorite freemason and ours too.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Hey there, guys, how are you doing? So?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Drew joins us on this episode of the craft Online
Podcast to kind of talk about brothers ironically that are
seeking light beyond Lodge, which means outside of Lodge, which,
as I told you it kind of is a very nice,
creamy Oreo filling. Here to the Oreo cookie sandwich where
we kicked off this year with Worshipful Brother Bulgarlington and
his paper on mesoterica, where we were challenging those that hey, hey, hey,
(02:05):
I got a secret. Come over here, I'll tell you
the secret about ritual and then you never really ever
get the secret, you just get more distractions about it.
Kind of also goes back to a podcast conversation I
had with brother John Naggy about the idea of independent
study in Freemasonry. So I kind of wanted to provide
that to our listeners, the frameworkers. There's really no better
(02:25):
guess I can think of for an episode on Seeking
Light than Worshipful Brother Metal Drew because of the presence
that you have on social media and the light that
you share with others with what you've learned. So let's
just kind of start right there, like tipping your toe
in the waters of Masonic education online. You specialize in
this like all the conspiracy, all the profane stuff that
is out there.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Hold on, hold on, there's my imposter syndrome coming back,
because I really I've said this to multiple brothers, like
especially because of TikTok, people have sent me letters or
like pins from there, you know, because Masonic wages. It's
it's pins and coins from from their grand jurisdictions. And
it's like in my mind, I'm like, I'm doing nothing
(03:06):
but being a conduit for as you describe what I've learned.
And maybe there's a brother out there that didn't know that,
that didn't know that, you know, Uh, Voltaire was only
an entered apprentice. He never made it to Master Mason.
Just to say something for me, It started with actually
my top line signer uh back now will be ten
(03:28):
years ago. After he signed my paperwork, he gave me
a copy or he showed me his copy and told
me to buy a Secret Teachings of All Ages.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
M M.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Manly P. Hally took you right to the top level. Okay, yeah,
I like that. And that's some heavy stuff. Yes, literally,
it's like a New York City phone book. It's a
giant book.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, it's a booster seat in my car.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
No.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Me being the more analytical, and I guess science driven
if you want to even call it that person I
am in general, not just in masonry, just in general.
I started reading this book and I'm like, holy crap,
this is full of not misinformation, but just the wrong
pathways to things. The one that always sticks out to
(04:14):
me is Manly P. Hall when he wrote Secret Teachings,
was a firm believer, or at least expoused the idea
that William Shakespeare was a Sir Francis Bacon.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That's who it is.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
He believed that William Shakespeare was a pseudonym for Sir
Francis Bacon. He's not the only one. There was a
group of people that believe that one individual could not
write the volumes of work that Shakespeare did in such
an eloquent way.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So a Shakespeare hoax, yes.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
In a way. And I'm like, how is this? Like
where did this come from? Like how is this? How
is this conspiracy or a hoax?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Like?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Because growing up, at least for me, like Shakespeare was
like a college level course.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yes, yes, you know, along the.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Lines of other historical writers, but like Shakespeare, of all things,
theater in general, that is their god.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Like, so how are you going to sing that it's
someone else?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm immediately going back to English literature and my senior
year of high school and like getting sweats and having
to remember all the terms, and I loved reading.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
I read Othello in high school and I was Iago,
and I loved it because of the way it was
written and interacting with my classmates in the way that
only a scumbag like Iago did. If you remember that play.
For those who don't know, go back and read Othello again.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's Shakespeare's so it's heady, but go and read it.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let's schedule some time this weekend. I'm good. It's not
a book club. We read Macbeth when I was in
my class we read Macbeth.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So did I. And again it's like, how is this
a fake person?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it was the witches and the conversations and the
old English that.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Is wife and yeah, yeah, by the pricking of my
thumb something which did this way comes like, yeah, you're.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It's interesting because most people go pursuing answers from Manly p. Hall.
You're one of the first brothers that I've heard that
goes like, well, I had shoved them my face. Yeah,
And it was like, well, I started reading it and
then it started spawning all these questions and I had
to close, you know, thud that book and go looking
for all these other places. So where did you go
to find your answers on the Shakespeare hoax and what
(06:34):
was going on with all that?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I'll be honest, like I've said in my techtoks, you
hold the universe in your hands.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You have a cell phone.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Now, there is so much interconnectivity with everything mm hmm.
And a lot of naysayers will say, oh, don't use Wikipedia.
It doesn't tell you, okay, don't use Wikipedia. Use the
sources they provide though on the bottom of the screen,
go to where they got their information from. And I'll
use that as not just in Wikipedia, but in general,
when doing research for anything, go to the source that
(07:05):
that person claims the information came from. It's either not
a primary source it was, or it was made up
and they just wanted to sound smarter.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
For me, it was I think I've told this story before,
so I'm sorry to anyone that's heard it. Had a
question in launch the point within a circle was the
first Masonic thing that came to mind. I was like, okay, well,
where is this in a lodge? And how is it
really explained beyond that paragraph or so that we get
in the Entered Apprentice we call it the Historical Lecture
in New York, and was told to go read a book,
(07:34):
and I was like, I'm not here to read books.
So I went onto YouTube and I found this guy
called the Backyard Freemason, and the dude lives somewhere like
in Montana or Wyoming, and the videos are so awesome.
I hope that they're still online, and I hope that
someday you have him on this podcast if he's still,
you know, here with us, because he was the first
(07:57):
little drop of Masonic edge or esoteric thought that I
found on YouTube that came from a trusted source. Not
only was the video the shoots of like just the
empty highways and watching you know, a herd of sheep
go up the side of a mountain while he's explaining something,
but how he talked about it. It made me start
looking for other sources, and I eventually got to Albert
(08:20):
Pike wrote a very thin expose on the point within
a circle, as did many other brothers, and I got
that and kind of got more of the religious and
traditional implications of it and started forming my own opinion
about it, as how it is one of the most
widely sought after symbols and has such a diverse meaning
that there is just no one answer of to what
(08:41):
the point of within a circle is. But to the
point of our conversation here is that I think these
are healthy examples of brothers looking for that light and
when you find it, as you said, like find reliable
sources that are peer reviewed or trusted, and then bring
that information back to somebody and have a conversation with
(09:02):
them to not only verify that this is actually true
or they're like, okay, yeah, that sounds realistic. They don't
know much about it, but also to have that healthy exchange,
that dialogue, the sharing of ideas, because that's really what
freemasonry is about, so.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
To piggyback off of that. As with most lodges. The
first officer position I held was the steward and the
worstfel master at that year literally pointed to people and said,
you're doing a presentation on this. You're doing a presentation
on this. It was nothing that any of us knew about.
He gave me the spirit fire, which is like about
(09:41):
a paragraph long example in secret Teachings where Manly p
Hall talks about the spine, spinal fluid and the pineal gland. Okay,
and that's all I yeah, exactly. And like for a
mason that was only at the time months old into masonry,
(10:03):
to try and to look at something like that and
again back to my scientific mind look at this and
go what the hell are you talking about? What is
this and then be volunt told to do a fifteen
minute presentation on it. Really kind of forced me not
only into the public speaking aspect of freemasonry, but also
(10:23):
the more research oriented and I'll admit I failed horribly
at that presentation.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I gave up.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
It was about a ten minute presentation, and it was
more back and forth with brothers than it was me
speaking on the subject matter. But I think that back
and forth helped me as a quote unquote researcher for
the topic and also established my thought pattern to the
brothers in what I specialized in.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
The whole point of like education is you're going to
go to your experience, your background, and as much as
I know about you Roman Catholic, you're kind of going
back to you your religious you know. Wheelhouse is like, okay, this,
I know some things I can pull from here. I've
never heard of that before. I've literally tried to read
one chapter of Manly P. Hall's book. I have no
(11:11):
desire to read all because it's very heady, to say
the least. Yes, the other challenge that runs intrough all
of this is while you're out seeking for this, especially
when you don't know, freemasonry is not like the matrix
where you're like, I know kung Fu. It does not
work that way, you know what I mean. I'm a
third degree Master Mason. I know everything.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Anyone who tells you right off the rip, if they're like, oh,
I know everything about that uh ritual? I know everything
but you're like, they are so full of it, and
you can tell them that I said that. Because no
one can know everything, there's always going to be a
new angle or idea or thought that's involved. And that's
what we love about this and that's kind of the
point of this whole episode because we're told we're promised
or guaranteed something depending on what jurisdiction is at a
(11:54):
certain point in your Masonic career, that hey, this is
everything the Lodge can show you, and now well you
can go out as a master Mason and anything you
want to know about freemasonry. It's fair game, Like, go
at it. The title of this episode is the unfulfilled Promise,
right or the unfilled Promise? It could go both ways
on that you are out there with your little cup
(12:15):
and you're trying to catch every little raindrop of massonic
knowledge that's out there. But the thought of it is
is that you have thirsty brothers back at the lodge,
So bring it back. Because the point that you know
we were talking about beforehand, and let's just get to
it right here, Drew, is it does nobody any good
if you know everything but don't share what you've learned.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, Yeah, I made the quote before the show started
that I read somewhere where if you claim that you
know all the esoteric secrets, or that freemasonry is esoteric,
you're just a gatekeeper in the negative sense, not in
the sense of guarding the West gate. You're just beat
keeping secrets. Now, why we are taught, even as an EA,
(12:58):
that we are supposed to be build building not only
ourselves up, but by building ourselves up, we're building up
our community and it spreads outward. So how is it
that you're going to go out and you're going to
read Born in Blood and then, you know, keep it
to yourself, whether it's a critique or it's a it's
an approval of the book or anything. Why are you
(13:19):
just going to sit there and read it and not
share how you felt about that book with at least
two other brothers.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
That was one of the books that I read early on,
and I'm like the first half of it and I'm like,
why are they talking about the Knight's Crusade and Achre
and all these ancient kingdoms in the Middle East and
the fighting and the and then all of a sudden
it started to make sense with you know, just a
turn of a page. But also the other unique thing
about that book is that was one of the first
books I came back to lodge, and I'm like, I
(13:46):
must have read it over the summer, because I that's
the only time I would have had time to read.
And I felt so much smarter and I couldn't wait
to talk to people about it. And they're like, well,
you know, that guy wasn't really a Mason, and this, this, this,
and this are not really true about that book, and
I'm like, I feel totally crushed right now. I thought
I could believe everything that wasn't a like what are
you talking about? The precipice of what started this podcast
(14:32):
discussion was over the holidays. I was going through my
old iPhone before I switched over to a new one
and was going through my photos of like what do
I keep? What do I ditch? And I had snapped
this picture of warsiwful brother Andrew Hammer's book Observing the Craft,
and it was a quote and I was like, oh,
I got to share this with Drew where he says, quote,
how many of you have felt utterly lost in this
(14:54):
thing called freemasonry because there seemed to be nothing of
what you thought there was in it end quote. And
I'm going to ask you this question now with the
reflection of being a past master, having that experience, like
how does that land hearing Hammer's words now versus when
you were a newly raised master Mason just kind of
(15:14):
trying to find your way into the ocean of education.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It's almost comical because by the time you reached the east,
some of us get there quickly. Some of us take
every chair. You know, it all depends on your journey.
I was a quick worstful master. I skipped two or
three chairs. Because of various reasons. You still flounder. You
absolutely still flounder because being a leader in general, you've
(15:42):
got to make stuff up on the flock. You have
to be malleable, you have to be open to counter
ideas to what you thought you were going to run
your lodge like during that year. And I'll always remember
the words of my secretary. If you succeeded in one
thing that you had planned for your year, you won.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
You got it.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
In New Jersey, we only serve as worsfel master for
one year. I know there are jurisdictions where some worsful
masters serve you know, consecutive turns for two or three
and when I look at those guys, yeah, the first
thought is.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Damn, you're in that chair for that long.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
But then on the other side, like now you can
kind of do things that you want to do because
the transition period of the lat the immediate past master
and you, that honeymoon period is now over. Now you
can really go into I really wanted to focus on fellowship,
or I really wanted to focus on the esoterra, whatever
(16:39):
your plan was for that year. You don't have to
just focus on Okay, we've got a Master Mason, an EA,
a fellow craft degree coming up this year. We've got
gold tokens, we've got you know, the deputy visit, you know,
the stuff that has to happen during your year.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Now you have that room to expand.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
But yeah, you're still floundering in a different sense because
as a newly raised Master Mason, the world is open
to you. The Masonic world is open to you, and
you don't know where to go unless you got to
a lodge that has a really strong mentorship program, or
you had already a strong mentor in maybe a father figure,
(17:20):
or you know, maybe you talk to some of the
guys that you saw like online with a podcasts like
this or the various other ones.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
That are out there, because a lot of us are.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
On social media and you can reach out to us
and just be like, hey, I like what you did.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
What do you recommend?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
And I've done that on TikTok. I've gotten guys who
are not Masons heard me talk about the conspiracies and go, hey,
where'd you learn that? I have a gentleman right now
in Illinois. He'll never become a Mason, and that's fine.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I don't care. He's not anti Mason.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
He's actually very involved with charity and asked me if
I could contact someone in Illinois Brand Lodge to help
with the charity that he runs. But like he wants
to know how it ties together with some of the
conspiracies that he deals with being a Norse pagan.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It's not something you hear every day. That's very interesting, Yeah, exactly.
The symbiotic relationship between the two of us is awesome.
But like that's one of those things is find find
a mentor whether it be in the physical sense of
someone at your lodge or your family, or find someone online.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
That could give you good and wholesome advice, as we say.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's a fantastic example. And I love that story. And
I find your world on social media, especially TikTok, a
lot different than mine, where you have guys taking what
you say and then stitching themselves right into it. And
then my favorite is when you you stitch yourself on
the other side of it to like straighten this the
back out, like that's not what I said, but for me,
kind of using that ocean analogy, and we can just
(18:52):
kind of play around with this one a little bit,
like when I became a master mason and I was told, hey,
everything you want to know about freemasonry is at your disposal,
And it was like being a kid the first time
growing up in San Diego and going to the beach
and just seeing like how far the coastline goes. You're like, wow,
it goes on forever, Like that's amazing. Yeah, that's what
it felt like as a master mason. And then once
(19:13):
you become the master of your lodge or you get
into freemasonry, it's like me now being a scuba diver,
It's like how deep can you get into freemasonry?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah? Years later, after reading brother Hammer's observing the Craft book.
I got a chance to meet him as a brother
here in the district of Columbia, and we talked about
how Masons go from lodges to kind of forming groups,
and some of them even form lodges around the style
or the practice of masonry that they want to work on,
(19:45):
which is really working the way of the craft and
then the truest sense of it. And I guess the
thing for me is that as a brother through all
of this, it has made me feel less alone to
know that there's others that walk in and feel like
I'm not getting every Because this is the other thing
that kind of prompted me to want to have this
conversation with you is in one of your TikTok videos
(20:05):
you were talking about you know, basically as a marketing person,
I'd say, what's the unique value proposition of being a freemasonry, Like,
what's so special about it? What's the value of it?
And knowing that there's other guys that are out there
around the country and the world that are all reading
these ritual books, learning this stuff, going to lodges, trying
to live by a certain code, reading other things that
(20:28):
are foreign to them and taking it in and it's
becoming part of your DNA, it's becoming part of your
knowledge base. And then again the connections, the networking that
you're having with other like minded men. You do not
feel as alone in this great, big, beautiful world as
you will without it.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Oh no, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
And I keep parkening back to TikTok because apparently that's
where everyone thinks I'm from.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, I know you're from New Jersey, the land of
shouting out the window.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
More than shouting yeah, come drive on the parkway this time. Anyway,
I have been podcasting on and off for fifteen years.
I started with my friends back in twenty ten, just
life podcasting type thing, no general direction, and from there
I realized the power of the Internet because people from
(21:19):
literally India would reach out because they wanted to hear
about the American experience. And one of the biggest fans
of our podcast was an Indian gentleman who happened to
also work in America, but like he only flew over
here to do like little things and then he went
back to his company over there.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Dude, if you said lodge meeting, I would have fallen over.
That would have been amazing. That's dedication.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
No no, no, no. We did have a brother from
India visit us though.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
That was really.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
But like he just wanted to hear about American life
and he just wanted to chit chat with us, you know,
through messaging or comments on our show or whatnot. And
then having joined Masonry and you know, being a part
of the social media experiment that it is, whether it
be on the Facebook groups or doing a podcast with
my my own lodge mates, or being with you or
(22:07):
being with wind Winding Stairs or you know, any of
the other multitude of Masonic shows out there. It just showed,
it just goes to exemplify the the universality of masonry.
Like TikTok introduced me to Mason's from New Zealand. New
(22:28):
Zealand has all three constitutions, English, Irish and Scottish, three
all in agreement Grand.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Lodges, that you could be part of each.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
One of these uh uh constitutions and have a completely
separate Masonic experience all within that little island now, and
then going further than that, finding that this brother not
only is a master Mason has done similar things, but
like we're also dads, we're also fathers of autistic children.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You know we're going through the same stuff.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
We can even though we're literally a time zone apart,
you know, a day apart, technically we can communicate on
a similar level. Another great example, when you're a new
master Mason, you don't know about the other mason, be
it Prince Hall or Grand Lodge of State. You just
hear about, oh there was a racial divide, Why, why
(23:22):
was there? Where does it come from? How does my
experience differ from their experience? And meeting brothers like brother
Damian Jack, who actually is one of the co hosts
of the.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Prince Hall think Tank podcast.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Listening to him and hearing about the experiences and how
much more strict they are and how proud they are
to be Prince Hall Mason's is incredible. And I've within
the last couple of months, I've kind of just like
slid into their side of the algorithm because they inspire
(23:59):
me someone. They inspire me to be a not only
a no nonsense Mason, but a no nonsense individual, Like
you're not gonna come onto my my little sphere of
influence and try and play that bogus either bogus masonry
or that conspiracy stuff.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I'm not there for it.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
He's New Jersey's day for free mason ours to worship
of brother Metal Jew. He is also the only guest
on the Craftsman Online podcast that has his own intro music,
which I can't play for you right now, but when
you hear this and it's full produce version, you'll be
like this rock. Don't worry. I'm not gonna leave you hanging.
It's gonna be metal. You know it's gonna be metal.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
If I don't hear Slayer now, definitely not slat.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I know you're also one of the deeper thinkers, and
that's what I love having you on the podcast for again.
You can find Metal Drew. That's his handle on Instagram, TikTok,
that's where I'm on social media and everywhere else that
he is. And as he mentioned, yes, there are other
Masonic podcasts out there and he's often a frequent guest there.
Why because he's good And one of the things that
(25:29):
we've talked about as Jacob Ernst and the philosophy of
free masonry, and in that he wrote that masonry should
help us quote identify and develop our strengths and this
can kind of be a challenge. Let's go back to
being in the East and kind of in that mindset,
most lodge meetings are kind of focused on was the
opening good, okay? And then there's this business meeting that happens,
(25:52):
and then was the closing good? And sometimes the Masonic
education portion can be an afrothought. Right, So if we
started a new rule, and this is a challenge I'm
going to throw out to you without a PowerPoint deck,
how would you if you were told, hey, two, you're
going to be sitting in the east as the guest
master at our next meeting of the lodge, how would
(26:14):
you bring in something that you've learned outside of the
lodge inside with your brothers. And what got me thinking
about this was our discussion with Franklin Ring brother Franklin
Rings on how metal heads all connect to the music
and there's like this community that exists between them.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
So, okay, I'll point to an example that's more recent
to me.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Being a part of TikTok.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Obviously, you start to get little splinter groups that happen,
and like you'll get discord channels or WhatsApp messenger groups
and everything that you form with these brothers that you
meet online and a brother that I met online, along
with some other brothers, got together and we just started,
you know, talking back and forth, and they brought the
idea of dungeons and dragons.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Nothing to do with stranger things, so keep that that's
no more to do.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
With Balder's Gate because we're all gamers.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
They asked me to be the dungeon master because they
like the way that I enunciate things and how I spoke,
and they wanted me to do and make a campaign
based around the third degree.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So can I ask a question? So I love this idea.
So this idea of a D and D style presentation,
would you be the campaign for lack of a better
term that you would be building. Would it be like
exploring the Harramic legend, like being a character that's.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
All see, that's the beauty of it is. You can
absolutely do that.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
What we were planning on doing was making it, yes,
the hieramic legend, having the player characters go to different towns,
having the Ruffians two of them eventually become the bad guys.
You didn't know that in the beginning, and then the
last and then the last Ruffian being what we call.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
In the community the BBGE, the big bad evil guy.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
As the final boss, and like creating a story based
around that with these characters who are not part of
the Hiramic legend. They're just random, typical D and D. Yeah,
you gotta know if you got you got a dwarf,
blah blah blah. And that's just our take. And I
know there's brothers out there who've probably already done this,
and I'm not new to this concept, but like they've
(28:27):
done it, and they've probably done it, like maybe they've
done it with the fellowcraft degree and you're actually walking
up a flight of stairs and something's happening for that
flight of stairs.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
All right, hold on, shameless plug here. We did do
a Dungeons and Dragons and Freemasonry episode with a past
master of my lodge here in DC, worshipful Brother Jason Lee.
But we did not, and I can't believe we didn't
explore this area. So if there is any brother listening
or someone knows of a lodge that has done this,
please It's podcast at Craftsman online dot com. That's my
(28:57):
email address. No, I'm not Joe. I want to talk
to this person. I want to do a whole episode
about this campaign and like get into It podcast at
craftsman online dot com. Thank you. So here's the thing.
I do see it as also a negative thing, like
if we're not teaching these guys in a lodge, then
there's a potential that we could miss a generation. But
I think there's also a positive thing about that. And
(29:17):
it's a really you're gonna have to follow me for
a couple steps here, and I'm seeing it now. And
I'm not saying that my generation didn't benefit from from
good and wholesome instructors, because you know, that would be
the I would be looking up to the boomers. Those
are the ones before my generation. I think we're close
to the same age that we might be in that
same boat. But what I'm seeing now is like the
millennials that are coming in right, and they're asking us pointed, philosophical, deeper,
(29:45):
more researched, more truths.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Not even the millennials. I'll give I'll give it to
gen z that's coming in now.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Have I just did a committee of investigation on a
gentleman who just finished his bachelor's in physics and is
going for his masters and possibly an undergraduate program in
it now. His father is a New York Mason. They
live now now, they live in New Jersey. But like
he was coming at me and the other two members
(30:15):
of the committee with some really good questions and kind
of esoteric, like he was trying to connect Manly P.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Hall or Arthur Edward.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Waite to actual physics. And I'm like, that's a really
cool thing. I don't know, let's go look it up.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Bingo's That's where I feel like that's where we're gonna go,
because it'll either start with I don't know, let's find
out together, or it will say, well, our ritual explains
it this way, but let's go learn where it came
from in this place.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
It kind of goes along with me saying you have
to become uncomfortable, you have to remove your ego, and
we talk about that symbolically throughout all the degrees. But
it really is hard for a mentor or a teacher
to go, I don't know what they do, go talk
to that. And the least you could ask for is
(31:03):
that group of people, that person whomever says, hey, thanks
for sending that guy over, let go or your ego
ego death has to happen.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Thanks again to my guest this week, Worshipful Brother Metal Drew.
Oh no, no, no, this conversation is not over. As
I teased in the beginning, We've got almost a whole
nother episode for our subscribers on Patreon that drops Thursday morning.
You want to listen to it, you can go ahead
and sign up. If you're not already following us on Patreon,
you can just get the free seven day trial and
(31:34):
get more of me and Metal Drew talking about Masonic
education and trying to fill that void that sometimes gets
left in lodge on Patreon just five dollars a month
if you'd decided to join us ad free episodes and
of course access to the full back catalog of extra
episodes with some of our favorite guests. I'm right, worshipvilp
Brother Michael Arsay. You know I'm always looking forward to
(31:55):
our next conversation, and on Monday, we are bringing back
the most listen to Craftsman Online podcast guest for twenty
twenty five, warshipvil Brother Nathan Saint Pierre. We're going to
hop into the time machine and travel back to the
year eighteen forty three to visit the Baltimore Convention and
learn more about this first attempt at unity in the craft.
(32:19):
Until next time, let peace and harmony prevail.
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 Lodge, concordant Body, a Pendant Body, a Masonic authority,
or Craftsman Online dot com.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hey, welcome back to the Craftsman Online podcast. Yeah, it's
Monday and we are here for you. The only Masonic
podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge in New York, and
we love saying that each and every week. I'm your host,
right Worsheville Brother Michael ars. I'm guessing that this episode
may fall into the danger of clickbait, but trust me,
it's going to be a good one. First, another thing
to click while you're here listening. I know Patreon, We're
(00:51):
on it. It's five dollars a month. You get access
to all of our back catalog, which actually is going
to feature a subscriber extra episode with this week's guest Metal.
And you can get all of these episodes without having
to listen to the annoying commercials which I apologize for that,
but you know, bills don't pay themselves. Get the link
to start a seven day free trial to see if
(01:12):
Craftsman Online on Patreon is the right fit for you.
You'll find that link in the notes for this episode. Okay,
he is the only guest so far on the Craftsman
Online podcast that has his own intro music. Why because
of Dude Rocks. I mean, if you're gonna go by
metal Drew everywhere and anywhere, well then we got to
(01:33):
get the right music for you. As we welcome back
New Jersey's favorite freemason and ours too.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Hey there, guys, how are you doing? So?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Drew joins us on this episode of the craft Online
Podcast to kind of talk about brothers ironically that are
seeking light beyond Lodge, which means outside of Lodge, which,
as I told you it kind of is a very nice,
creamy Oreo filling. Here to the Oreo cookie sandwich where
we kicked off this year with Worshipful Brother Bulgarlington and
his paper on mesoterica, where we were challenging those that hey, hey, hey,
(02:05):
I got a secret. Come over here, I'll tell you
the secret about ritual and then you never really ever
get the secret, you just get more distractions about it.
Kind of also goes back to a podcast conversation I
had with brother John Naggy about the idea of independent
study in Freemasonry. So I kind of wanted to provide
that to our listeners, the frameworkers. There's really no better
(02:25):
guess I can think of for an episode on Seeking
Light than Worshipful Brother Metal Drew because of the presence
that you have on social media and the light that
you share with others with what you've learned. So let's
just kind of start right there, like tipping your toe
in the waters of Masonic education online. You specialize in
this like all the conspiracy, all the profane stuff that
is out there.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Hold on, hold on, there's my imposter syndrome coming back,
because I really I've said this to multiple brothers, like
especially because of TikTok, people have sent me letters or
like pins from there, you know, because Masonic wages. It's
it's pins and coins from from their grand jurisdictions. And
it's like in my mind, I'm like, I'm doing nothing
(03:06):
but being a conduit for as you describe what I've learned.
And maybe there's a brother out there that didn't know that,
that didn't know that, you know, Uh, Voltaire was only
an entered apprentice. He never made it to Master Mason.
Just to say something for me, It started with actually
my top line signer uh back now will be ten
(03:28):
years ago. After he signed my paperwork, he gave me
a copy or he showed me his copy and told
me to buy a Secret Teachings of All Ages.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
M M.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Manly P. Hally took you right to the top level. Okay, yeah,
I like that. And that's some heavy stuff. Yes, literally,
it's like a New York City phone book. It's a
giant book.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, it's a booster seat in my car.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
No.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Me being the more analytical, and I guess science driven
if you want to even call it that person I
am in general, not just in masonry, just in general.
I started reading this book and I'm like, holy crap,
this is full of not misinformation, but just the wrong
pathways to things. The one that always sticks out to
(04:14):
me is Manly P. Hall when he wrote Secret Teachings,
was a firm believer, or at least expoused the idea
that William Shakespeare was a Sir Francis Bacon.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That's who it is.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
He believed that William Shakespeare was a pseudonym for Sir
Francis Bacon. He's not the only one. There was a
group of people that believe that one individual could not
write the volumes of work that Shakespeare did in such
an eloquent way.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So a Shakespeare hoax, yes.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
In a way. And I'm like, how is this? Like
where did this come from? Like how is this? How
is this conspiracy or a hoax?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Like?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Because growing up, at least for me, like Shakespeare was
like a college level course.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yes, yes, you know, along the.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Lines of other historical writers, but like Shakespeare, of all things,
theater in general, that is their god.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Like, so how are you going to sing that it's
someone else?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I'm immediately going back to English literature and my senior
year of high school and like getting sweats and having
to remember all the terms, and I loved reading.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
I read Othello in high school and I was Iago,
and I loved it because of the way it was
written and interacting with my classmates in the way that
only a scumbag like Iago did. If you remember that play.
For those who don't know, go back and read Othello again.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's Shakespeare's so it's heady, but go and read it.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let's schedule some time this weekend. I'm good. It's not
a book club. We read Macbeth when I was in
my class we read Macbeth.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So did I. And again it's like, how is this
a fake person?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it was the witches and the conversations and the
old English that.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Is wife and yeah, yeah, by the pricking of my
thumb something which did this way comes like, yeah, you're.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It's interesting because most people go pursuing answers from Manly p. Hall.
You're one of the first brothers that I've heard that
goes like, well, I had shoved them my face. Yeah,
And it was like, well, I started reading it and
then it started spawning all these questions and I had
to close, you know, thud that book and go looking
for all these other places. So where did you go
to find your answers on the Shakespeare hoax and what
(06:34):
was going on with all that?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I'll be honest, like I've said in my techtoks, you
hold the universe in your hands.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You have a cell phone.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Now, there is so much interconnectivity with everything mm hmm.
And a lot of naysayers will say, oh, don't use Wikipedia.
It doesn't tell you, okay, don't use Wikipedia. Use the
sources they provide though on the bottom of the screen,
go to where they got their information from. And I'll
use that as not just in Wikipedia, but in general,
when doing research for anything, go to the source that
(07:05):
that person claims the information came from. It's either not
a primary source it was, or it was made up
and they just wanted to sound smarter.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
For me, it was I think I've told this story before,
so I'm sorry to anyone that's heard it. Had a
question in launch the point within a circle was the
first Masonic thing that came to mind. I was like, okay, well,
where is this in a lodge? And how is it
really explained beyond that paragraph or so that we get
in the Entered Apprentice we call it the Historical Lecture
in New York, and was told to go read a book,
(07:34):
and I was like, I'm not here to read books.
So I went onto YouTube and I found this guy
called the Backyard Freemason, and the dude lives somewhere like
in Montana or Wyoming, and the videos are so awesome.
I hope that they're still online, and I hope that
someday you have him on this podcast if he's still,
you know, here with us, because he was the first
(07:57):
little drop of Masonic edge or esoteric thought that I
found on YouTube that came from a trusted source. Not
only was the video the shoots of like just the
empty highways and watching you know, a herd of sheep
go up the side of a mountain while he's explaining something,
but how he talked about it. It made me start
looking for other sources, and I eventually got to Albert
(08:20):
Pike wrote a very thin expose on the point within
a circle, as did many other brothers, and I got
that and kind of got more of the religious and
traditional implications of it and started forming my own opinion
about it, as how it is one of the most
widely sought after symbols and has such a diverse meaning
that there is just no one answer of to what
(08:41):
the point of within a circle is. But to the
point of our conversation here is that I think these
are healthy examples of brothers looking for that light and
when you find it, as you said, like find reliable
sources that are peer reviewed or trusted, and then bring
that information back to somebody and have a conversation with
(09:02):
them to not only verify that this is actually true
or they're like, okay, yeah, that sounds realistic. They don't
know much about it, but also to have that healthy exchange,
that dialogue, the sharing of ideas, because that's really what
freemasonry is about, so.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
To piggyback off of that. As with most lodges. The
first officer position I held was the steward and the
worstfel master at that year literally pointed to people and said,
you're doing a presentation on this. You're doing a presentation
on this. It was nothing that any of us knew about.
He gave me the spirit fire, which is like about
(09:41):
a paragraph long example in secret Teachings where Manly p
Hall talks about the spine, spinal fluid and the pineal gland. Okay,
and that's all I yeah, exactly. And like for a
mason that was only at the time months old into masonry,
(10:03):
to try and to look at something like that and
again back to my scientific mind look at this and
go what the hell are you talking about? What is
this and then be volunt told to do a fifteen
minute presentation on it. Really kind of forced me not
only into the public speaking aspect of freemasonry, but also
(10:23):
the more research oriented and I'll admit I failed horribly
at that presentation.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I gave up.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
It was about a ten minute presentation, and it was
more back and forth with brothers than it was me
speaking on the subject matter. But I think that back
and forth helped me as a quote unquote researcher for
the topic and also established my thought pattern to the
brothers in what I specialized in.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
The whole point of like education is you're going to
go to your experience, your background, and as much as
I know about you Roman Catholic, you're kind of going
back to you your religious you know. Wheelhouse is like, okay, this,
I know some things I can pull from here. I've
never heard of that before. I've literally tried to read
one chapter of Manly P. Hall's book. I have no
(11:11):
desire to read all because it's very heady, to say
the least. Yes, the other challenge that runs intrough all
of this is while you're out seeking for this, especially
when you don't know, freemasonry is not like the matrix
where you're like, I know kung Fu. It does not
work that way, you know what I mean. I'm a
third degree Master Mason. I know everything.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Anyone who tells you right off the rip, if they're like, oh,
I know everything about that uh ritual? I know everything
but you're like, they are so full of it, and
you can tell them that I said that. Because no
one can know everything, there's always going to be a
new angle or idea or thought that's involved. And that's
what we love about this and that's kind of the
point of this whole episode because we're told we're promised
or guaranteed something depending on what jurisdiction is at a
(11:54):
certain point in your Masonic career, that hey, this is
everything the Lodge can show you, and now well you
can go out as a master Mason and anything you
want to know about freemasonry. It's fair game, Like, go
at it. The title of this episode is the unfulfilled Promise,
right or the unfilled Promise? It could go both ways
on that you are out there with your little cup
(12:15):
and you're trying to catch every little raindrop of massonic
knowledge that's out there. But the thought of it is
is that you have thirsty brothers back at the lodge,
So bring it back. Because the point that you know
we were talking about beforehand, and let's just get to
it right here, Drew, is it does nobody any good
if you know everything but don't share what you've learned.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, Yeah, I made the quote before the show started
that I read somewhere where if you claim that you
know all the esoteric secrets, or that freemasonry is esoteric,
you're just a gatekeeper in the negative sense, not in
the sense of guarding the West gate. You're just beat
keeping secrets. Now, why we are taught, even as an EA,
(12:58):
that we are supposed to be build building not only
ourselves up, but by building ourselves up, we're building up
our community and it spreads outward. So how is it
that you're going to go out and you're going to
read Born in Blood and then, you know, keep it
to yourself, whether it's a critique or it's a it's
an approval of the book or anything. Why are you
(13:19):
just going to sit there and read it and not
share how you felt about that book with at least
two other brothers.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
That was one of the books that I read early on,
and I'm like the first half of it and I'm like,
why are they talking about the Knight's Crusade and Achre
and all these ancient kingdoms in the Middle East and
the fighting and the and then all of a sudden
it started to make sense with you know, just a
turn of a page. But also the other unique thing
about that book is that was one of the first
books I came back to lodge, and I'm like, I
(13:46):
must have read it over the summer, because I that's
the only time I would have had time to read.
And I felt so much smarter and I couldn't wait
to talk to people about it. And they're like, well,
you know, that guy wasn't really a Mason, and this, this, this,
and this are not really true about that book, and
I'm like, I feel totally crushed right now. I thought
I could believe everything that wasn't a like what are
you talking about? The precipice of what started this podcast
(14:32):
discussion was over the holidays. I was going through my
old iPhone before I switched over to a new one
and was going through my photos of like what do
I keep? What do I ditch? And I had snapped
this picture of warsiwful brother Andrew Hammer's book Observing the Craft,
and it was a quote and I was like, oh,
I got to share this with Drew where he says, quote,
how many of you have felt utterly lost in this
(14:54):
thing called freemasonry because there seemed to be nothing of
what you thought there was in it end quote. And
I'm going to ask you this question now with the
reflection of being a past master, having that experience, like
how does that land hearing Hammer's words now versus when
you were a newly raised master Mason just kind of
(15:14):
trying to find your way into the ocean of education.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It's almost comical because by the time you reached the east,
some of us get there quickly. Some of us take
every chair. You know, it all depends on your journey.
I was a quick worstful master. I skipped two or
three chairs. Because of various reasons. You still flounder. You
absolutely still flounder because being a leader in general, you've
(15:42):
got to make stuff up on the flock. You have
to be malleable, you have to be open to counter
ideas to what you thought you were going to run
your lodge like during that year. And I'll always remember
the words of my secretary. If you succeeded in one
thing that you had planned for your year, you won.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
You got it.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
In New Jersey, we only serve as worsfel master for
one year. I know there are jurisdictions where some worsful
masters serve you know, consecutive turns for two or three
and when I look at those guys, yeah, the first
thought is.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Damn, you're in that chair for that long.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
But then on the other side, like now you can
kind of do things that you want to do because
the transition period of the lat the immediate past master
and you, that honeymoon period is now over. Now you
can really go into I really wanted to focus on fellowship,
or I really wanted to focus on the esoterra, whatever
(16:39):
your plan was for that year. You don't have to
just focus on Okay, we've got a Master Mason, an EA,
a fellow craft degree coming up this year. We've got
gold tokens, we've got you know, the deputy visit, you know,
the stuff that has to happen during your year.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Now you have that room to expand.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
But yeah, you're still floundering in a different sense because
as a newly raised Master Mason, the world is open
to you. The Masonic world is open to you, and
you don't know where to go unless you got to
a lodge that has a really strong mentorship program, or
you had already a strong mentor in maybe a father figure,
(17:20):
or you know, maybe you talk to some of the
guys that you saw like online with a podcasts like
this or the various other ones.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
That are out there, because a lot of us are.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
On social media and you can reach out to us
and just be like, hey, I like what you did.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
What do you recommend?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
And I've done that on TikTok. I've gotten guys who
are not Masons heard me talk about the conspiracies and go, hey,
where'd you learn that? I have a gentleman right now
in Illinois. He'll never become a Mason, and that's fine.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I don't care. He's not anti Mason.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
He's actually very involved with charity and asked me if
I could contact someone in Illinois Brand Lodge to help
with the charity that he runs. But like he wants
to know how it ties together with some of the
conspiracies that he deals with being a Norse pagan.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It's not something you hear every day. That's very interesting, Yeah, exactly.
The symbiotic relationship between the two of us is awesome.
But like that's one of those things is find find
a mentor whether it be in the physical sense of
someone at your lodge or your family, or find someone online.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
That could give you good and wholesome advice, as we say.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's a fantastic example. And I love that story. And
I find your world on social media, especially TikTok, a
lot different than mine, where you have guys taking what
you say and then stitching themselves right into it. And
then my favorite is when you you stitch yourself on
the other side of it to like straighten this the
back out, like that's not what I said, but for me,
kind of using that ocean analogy, and we can just
(18:52):
kind of play around with this one a little bit,
like when I became a master mason and I was told, hey,
everything you want to know about freemasonry is at your disposal,
And it was like being a kid the first time
growing up in San Diego and going to the beach
and just seeing like how far the coastline goes. You're like, wow,
it goes on forever, Like that's amazing. Yeah, that's what
it felt like as a master mason. And then once
(19:13):
you become the master of your lodge or you get
into freemasonry, it's like me now being a scuba diver,
It's like how deep can you get into freemasonry?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah? Years later, after reading brother Hammer's observing the Craft book.
I got a chance to meet him as a brother
here in the district of Columbia, and we talked about
how Masons go from lodges to kind of forming groups,
and some of them even form lodges around the style
or the practice of masonry that they want to work on,
(19:45):
which is really working the way of the craft and
then the truest sense of it. And I guess the
thing for me is that as a brother through all
of this, it has made me feel less alone to
know that there's others that walk in and feel like
I'm not getting every Because this is the other thing
that kind of prompted me to want to have this
conversation with you is in one of your TikTok videos
(20:05):
you were talking about you know, basically as a marketing person,
I'd say, what's the unique value proposition of being a freemasonry, Like,
what's so special about it? What's the value of it?
And knowing that there's other guys that are out there
around the country and the world that are all reading
these ritual books, learning this stuff, going to lodges, trying
to live by a certain code, reading other things that
(20:28):
are foreign to them and taking it in and it's
becoming part of your DNA, it's becoming part of your
knowledge base. And then again the connections, the networking that
you're having with other like minded men. You do not
feel as alone in this great, big, beautiful world as
you will without it.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Oh no, absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
And I keep parkening back to TikTok because apparently that's
where everyone thinks I'm from.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, I know you're from New Jersey, the land of
shouting out the window.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
More than shouting yeah, come drive on the parkway this time. Anyway,
I have been podcasting on and off for fifteen years.
I started with my friends back in twenty ten, just
life podcasting type thing, no general direction, and from there
I realized the power of the Internet because people from
(21:19):
literally India would reach out because they wanted to hear
about the American experience. And one of the biggest fans
of our podcast was an Indian gentleman who happened to
also work in America, but like he only flew over
here to do like little things and then he went
back to his company over there.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Dude, if you said lodge meeting, I would have fallen over.
That would have been amazing. That's dedication.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
No no, no, no. We did have a brother from
India visit us though.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
That was really.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
But like he just wanted to hear about American life
and he just wanted to chit chat with us, you know,
through messaging or comments on our show or whatnot. And
then having joined Masonry and you know, being a part
of the social media experiment that it is, whether it
be on the Facebook groups or doing a podcast with
my my own lodge mates, or being with you or
(22:07):
being with wind Winding Stairs or you know, any of
the other multitude of Masonic shows out there. It just showed,
it just goes to exemplify the the universality of masonry.
Like TikTok introduced me to Mason's from New Zealand. New
(22:28):
Zealand has all three constitutions, English, Irish and Scottish, three
all in agreement Grand.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Lodges, that you could be part of each.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
One of these uh uh constitutions and have a completely
separate Masonic experience all within that little island now, and
then going further than that, finding that this brother not
only is a master Mason has done similar things, but
like we're also dads, we're also fathers of autistic children.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You know we're going through the same stuff.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
We can even though we're literally a time zone apart,
you know, a day apart, technically we can communicate on
a similar level. Another great example, when you're a new
master Mason, you don't know about the other mason, be
it Prince Hall or Grand Lodge of State. You just
hear about, oh there was a racial divide, Why, why
(23:22):
was there? Where does it come from? How does my
experience differ from their experience? And meeting brothers like brother
Damian Jack, who actually is one of the co hosts
of the.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Prince Hall think Tank podcast.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Listening to him and hearing about the experiences and how
much more strict they are and how proud they are
to be Prince Hall Mason's is incredible. And I've within
the last couple of months, I've kind of just like
slid into their side of the algorithm because they inspire
(23:59):
me someone. They inspire me to be a not only
a no nonsense Mason, but a no nonsense individual, Like
you're not gonna come onto my my little sphere of
influence and try and play that bogus either bogus masonry
or that conspiracy stuff.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I'm not there for it.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
He's New Jersey's day for free mason ours to worship
of brother Metal Jew. He is also the only guest
on the Craftsman Online podcast that has his own intro music,
which I can't play for you right now, but when
you hear this and it's full produce version, you'll be
like this rock. Don't worry. I'm not gonna leave you hanging.
It's gonna be metal. You know it's gonna be metal.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
If I don't hear Slayer now, definitely not slat.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I know you're also one of the deeper thinkers, and
that's what I love having you on the podcast for again.
You can find Metal Drew. That's his handle on Instagram, TikTok,
that's where I'm on social media and everywhere else that
he is. And as he mentioned, yes, there are other
Masonic podcasts out there and he's often a frequent guest there.
Why because he's good And one of the things that
(25:29):
we've talked about as Jacob Ernst and the philosophy of
free masonry, and in that he wrote that masonry should
help us quote identify and develop our strengths and this
can kind of be a challenge. Let's go back to
being in the East and kind of in that mindset,
most lodge meetings are kind of focused on was the
opening good, okay? And then there's this business meeting that happens,
(25:52):
and then was the closing good? And sometimes the Masonic
education portion can be an afrothought. Right, So if we
started a new rule, and this is a challenge I'm
going to throw out to you without a PowerPoint deck,
how would you if you were told, hey, two, you're
going to be sitting in the east as the guest
master at our next meeting of the lodge, how would
(26:14):
you bring in something that you've learned outside of the
lodge inside with your brothers. And what got me thinking
about this was our discussion with Franklin Ring brother Franklin
Rings on how metal heads all connect to the music
and there's like this community that exists between them.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
So, okay, I'll point to an example that's more recent
to me.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Being a part of TikTok.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Obviously, you start to get little splinter groups that happen,
and like you'll get discord channels or WhatsApp messenger groups
and everything that you form with these brothers that you
meet online and a brother that I met online, along
with some other brothers, got together and we just started,
you know, talking back and forth, and they brought the
idea of dungeons and dragons.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Nothing to do with stranger things, so keep that that's
no more to do.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
With Balder's Gate because we're all gamers.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
They asked me to be the dungeon master because they
like the way that I enunciate things and how I spoke,
and they wanted me to do and make a campaign
based around the third degree.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So can I ask a question? So I love this idea.
So this idea of a D and D style presentation,
would you be the campaign for lack of a better
term that you would be building. Would it be like
exploring the Harramic legend, like being a character that's.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
All see, that's the beauty of it is. You can
absolutely do that.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
What we were planning on doing was making it, yes,
the hieramic legend, having the player characters go to different towns,
having the Ruffians two of them eventually become the bad guys.
You didn't know that in the beginning, and then the
last and then the last Ruffian being what we call.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
In the community the BBGE, the big bad evil guy.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
As the final boss, and like creating a story based
around that with these characters who are not part of
the Hiramic legend. They're just random, typical D and D. Yeah,
you gotta know if you got you got a dwarf,
blah blah blah. And that's just our take. And I
know there's brothers out there who've probably already done this,
and I'm not new to this concept, but like they've
(28:27):
done it, and they've probably done it, like maybe they've
done it with the fellowcraft degree and you're actually walking
up a flight of stairs and something's happening for that
flight of stairs.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
All right, hold on, shameless plug here. We did do
a Dungeons and Dragons and Freemasonry episode with a past
master of my lodge here in DC, worshipful Brother Jason Lee.
But we did not, and I can't believe we didn't
explore this area. So if there is any brother listening
or someone knows of a lodge that has done this,
please It's podcast at Craftsman online dot com. That's my
(28:57):
email address. No, I'm not Joe. I want to talk
to this person. I want to do a whole episode
about this campaign and like get into It podcast at
craftsman online dot com. Thank you. So here's the thing.
I do see it as also a negative thing, like
if we're not teaching these guys in a lodge, then
there's a potential that we could miss a generation. But
I think there's also a positive thing about that. And
(29:17):
it's a really you're gonna have to follow me for
a couple steps here, and I'm seeing it now. And
I'm not saying that my generation didn't benefit from from
good and wholesome instructors, because you know, that would be
the I would be looking up to the boomers. Those
are the ones before my generation. I think we're close
to the same age that we might be in that
same boat. But what I'm seeing now is like the
millennials that are coming in right, and they're asking us pointed, philosophical, deeper,
(29:45):
more researched, more truths.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Not even the millennials. I'll give I'll give it to
gen z that's coming in now.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Have I just did a committee of investigation on a
gentleman who just finished his bachelor's in physics and is
going for his masters and possibly an undergraduate program in
it now. His father is a New York Mason. They
live now now, they live in New Jersey. But like
he was coming at me and the other two members
(30:15):
of the committee with some really good questions and kind
of esoteric, like he was trying to connect Manly P.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Hall or Arthur Edward.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Waite to actual physics. And I'm like, that's a really
cool thing. I don't know, let's go look it up.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Bingo's That's where I feel like that's where we're gonna go,
because it'll either start with I don't know, let's find
out together, or it will say, well, our ritual explains
it this way, but let's go learn where it came
from in this place.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
It kind of goes along with me saying you have
to become uncomfortable, you have to remove your ego, and
we talk about that symbolically throughout all the degrees. But
it really is hard for a mentor or a teacher
to go, I don't know what they do, go talk
to that. And the least you could ask for is
(31:03):
that group of people, that person whomever says, hey, thanks
for sending that guy over, let go or your ego
ego death has to happen.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Thanks again to my guest this week, Worshipful Brother Metal Drew.
Oh no, no, no, this conversation is not over. As
I teased in the beginning, We've got almost a whole
nother episode for our subscribers on Patreon that drops Thursday morning.
You want to listen to it, you can go ahead
and sign up. If you're not already following us on Patreon,
you can just get the free seven day trial and
(31:34):
get more of me and Metal Drew talking about Masonic
education and trying to fill that void that sometimes gets
left in lodge on Patreon just five dollars a month
if you'd decided to join us ad free episodes and
of course access to the full back catalog of extra
episodes with some of our favorite guests. I'm right, worshipvilp
Brother Michael Arsay. You know I'm always looking forward to
(31:55):
our next conversation, and on Monday, we are bringing back
the most listen to Craftsman Online podcast guest for twenty
twenty five, warshipvil Brother Nathan Saint Pierre. We're going to
hop into the time machine and travel back to the
year eighteen forty three to visit the Baltimore Convention and
learn more about this first attempt at unity in the craft.
(32:19):
Until next time, let peace and harmony prevail.
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