The Mystic Tye
The Mystic Tye is a podcast for Freemasons
I intend to curate a environment where brethren and other aspirants can discuss ideas in a civil and productive way. We will not be afraid to tackle controversial or difficult topics, but all discussions will be done in a respectful and understanding manner. With the forbearance exemplified by our ancient brethren we will labour in the quarry together to prepare the stones of our thoughts and actions. All these prepared for the temple not made with hands.
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The Mystic Tye
Br. J.P. Gomez of Fraternal Ties dot com
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Br. J.P. Gomez is an active Freemason and founder of www.fraternalties.com. He is most well known for doing battle with the forces of superstition and intolerance on various social media platforms. No small feat! Please welcome JP Gomez!
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Stay tuned to this space for more great interviews on The Mystic Tye! If you think you would make a great interview for our listeners, or if you have a book or event of interest to Freemasons, reach out to me at troy@mystictye.com
We are looking to create a directory of Freemasonic events and publications. If you are aware of something coming up please let me know by email. In the meantime check out the Masonic Conferences website: masonicconferences.com
Upcoming Events
Grand Masonic Day 2026 April 18th at 10am — Vancouver Masonic Centre, 7th and Granville Keynote speaker: historian, scholar and author Josef Wages, with special guest speaker Arturo De Hoyos Tickets available on Eventbrite
Br. Troy Spreeuw — Memory Palaces Everywhere A talk on emblematic imagery and Western Esotericism Wednesday, April 22nd — Capilano Lodge #164, Vancouver Masonic Centre, lodge tyles at 7:30pm Wednesday, May 13th — Star of the West Lodge #29, Nakusp For other dates, check The Mystic Tye Patreon
Esotericon 2026 June 20th — Tickets available at esotericon.net
Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference Saturday, September 19th Keynote speaker: Lon Milo DuQuette, author of The Tarot Architect RSVP for advance tickets: esotericmasonry@gmail.com
For other events check out our calendar at mystictye.com and don't forget to sign up for our newsletter while you are there.
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Happy to meet, sorry to part, happy to meet again.
Welcome to MysticTye. Or free meetings. You can find us online at Mystictie.com.
SPEAKER_01Email me feedback, guest suggestions, and any other questions at Troy at MysticTye.com. Brother JP Gomez is an active freemaker and founder of FraternalTye.com. He is most well known for doing battle with the forces of superstition and intolerance on various social media platforms. No small feat. Please welcome Brother JP Gomez. Brother JP Gomez. Thanks for joining me today on the Mystic Tie Podcast.
SPEAKER_00Pleasure to be here.
SPEAKER_01It's great to spend a couple minutes with you getting to know you. I've been following your social media with interest for quite some time and watching you the feeding the trolls in engaging with the anti-Masons. And so we're here today. I want to get your history and some other stuff, but we're really here today to talk about how you got started engaging with these anti-Masons and what that's done, uh what how that's uh that's changed your lodge experience and your life. What can you tell me a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I have disregarded them for the longest time. I created my social media pages back in 2000, between 2008 and 2010. And uh from the period of 2010 to 2019, if you scroll down far enough on my page, you'll see me just skateboarding with my kids, cooking, doing a little bit of boxing, just like dad stuff, right? And I I didn't have a lot of followers. I guess you can call it a very like what do you call that? Like a niche, niche, uh, you know. And uh I have a few select masons who follow me because I design neckties, and that's why the name of the brand is fraternal ties, fraternal neckties, the tie that binds. And um, you know, I would encounter the occasional anti-mason saying silly stuff, like making claims, and and uh I disregard them, and nothing happens after that. But I guess the turning point happened in in 2019 when I was elected as the uh worshipful master of my lodge, which was dying at the time. And I proposed that we we change the uh the branding, the logo, because it's pretty much dead anyway. So we bypassed the Grand Lodge. Typically, if you're gonna redesign your your your uh identity, you have to get approval and things like that, right? So we kind of bypassed that and just redesigned and did things on our own. And uh, to make the long story short, it became successful in terms of engagement online because we're pulling in younger people, we got people affiliating. Uh but unfortunately, most of the engagement are coming from the United States. Like I'm talking more than more than 50%, like more than 70% actually, right? Of the traffic are coming from the United States, not in Canada, but it's still it attracted younger members into our lodge, so that was good. But the drawback, I guess, was uh because of the pandemic, and a lot of people are thinking of a lot of conspiracies at the time. Indeed, yes. The the friction that's happening between uh Hamas and uh in Israel. Yes, and uh previously I didn't care about those things, you know. I I was baptized a Roman Catholic, and I have I have my own, I guess you can call it bigoted view as well of uh who who killed uh Jesus or you know, things like that. Sure. And uh so that happened. And I think uh to those familiar with uh DDoS attack, multiple uh attack attacks from different computers, different people just just hitting you with messages, or you know, they're not hacking me or anything, but my my my kids stopped following my page, my pages, because of just the vile comments that are coming from from people from the internet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's understandable.
SPEAKER_00And the the most messed up stuff is when somebody claimed that I'm a pedophile, because uh they found my name apparently on a database in California. And uh I heard it once, disregarded it, until on the following day, more and more people are saying it. But my alibi is I've never been to the I've never been to the United States. So that accusation falls flat. But you know what they say, damage has been done, right? And it would just keep on going. So I started blocking them. Um I've been blocking them like hundred hundreds of them per day until I got suspended by Meta. And I'm like, okay, I wonder why I'm getting suspended. At first, I was suspended for an hour, and then okay, I waited, and then it got unsuspended and went back immediately to uh blocking them and I got suspended again until I finally realized that it's actually the act of blocking them is uh I'm getting penalized for that. So uh uh I I really don't have a choice because my my choice at that point is okay, should I just not engage them and let them ruin my page? And I've I've seen I've seen what happened to other people's pages, you know, when when they don't when they don't manage that kind of interaction, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_00So I started talking to them the way my adults have spoken with me when I was younger and when I was stupid. I thought I knew everything. And they they talked to me with with sarcasm, right? And with sarcasm, I was being forced to think they're giving me the questions that I'm supposed to be asking myself. And uh I guess at that point I learned I learned how to deal with them in a Socratic way, just being sharp and asking questions that they should be asking themselves, and they don't like that. Yeah, they don't like that because it it really challenges what they think they know, and uh a lot of them would just echo uh uh slogans from from the likes of Candace Owens. But the problem is if you actually have read the Bible and you you cross-check those things, the the claims, it it's make-believe, it's not there. So uh, you know, it's very good in terms of engaging the younger audience, because like in in my lodge, we had a few younger Freemasons who joined because of that. And I have um I was able to, what's the term for that? Uh not direct, but reference refer people to lodges uh primarily in the United States. But but on the flip side of that is my business really suffered because uh my demographics before this was the younger Freemasons who have the adult money to to buy uh uh limited edition neckties, right? Which which is you know, because I produce them in such limited quantities, they're expensive. Right. So so the only people who can uh uh you know afford them really are the uh you know in that uh mid-age range, right? Not the younger crowd. So uh I I think it's good. Uh eventually I would recover, but uh I'd probably do it again if uh if I have to do the same thing all over. I I find that being sarcastic to people, it's not I'm it's not like I'm trying to be mean to them, but in a way that is me just showing them how it feels when when they interact in a certain accusatory way. Uh it's a way of me flipping it back to them, and then they get to feel how I feel when they talk to me in that way. So uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's it's been entertaining, but more than that, it's got me thinking about um this sort of engagement and uh and how good you are at engaging in this way and getting people, especially people who identify as Christians, to think about about their own faith rather than trying to to point out how bad your faith is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well we can I see myself uh in them. That I guess that's why I can see through them because they're me. I I know I know how their mind works, I guess. And and uh the that's where I I attack attack them, not by giving them the answers right away, but by challenging them first.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like how I was challenged by by my own uh you know the those before me.
SPEAKER_01No, it's been good. And you and you you say in a Socratic way, I'm sure your own uh rhetorical ability has been honed. Your mastery of that particular liberal art is impressive, being able to message these guys with language that kind of ties them in knots and ties them up. And it's not it's not I mean, sometimes it's it's a little bit it's a little bit pointed, but it's not malicious, right? Yeah, yeah. You're not you're not meeting hate with more hate. You're just like, man, you gotta think about what you're saying here. This yeah, yeah, you're you're being very inconsistent and disingenuous, like just pointing that out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, when they catch me in a bad day, I do mock them. But but I guess the the way they got it, they got it coming. Come on, they're just they're trolling some stranger. Exactly. And I mean, uh, I I guess I talk the way I do. That comes with a territory of having four kids, uh, a wife and a dog. And sometimes you just have to to uh handle things a certain way.
SPEAKER_01It's and and uh yeah, it's impressive, and I would challenge people to go have a look at your social media. Now I know you as fraternal ties. You want to talk a little bit about your business, how you started and and what it is that you do?
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. Well, 2008. I I became a Freemason, right? 2024 migrant. I I moved from the Philippines to Canada. I was 24 years old, became a Freemason in 2008.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, what was that year? That wasn't 2024. You were 24 when you moved. 2004. 2004. Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So uh moved to Canada, and then eight years uh four years later, I petitioned my wife and our oldest daughter, so moved them here, and on the same year I became a Freemason. And I didn't at the time I was working as um, I think a uh tax support agent or something like that. And I never owned a uh business suit my whole life, no dress shirt, no neckties. Wow, and uh that was a great opportunity for me to finally, hey, you know what? I'm gonna have my own, I'm gonna dress like a sir, right? I'll have my suit and tie, and uh I started looking for for Masonic neckties. And during that time, the only Masonic nectars are things that you can get from eBay. There's no brand that actually sells Masonic nectars. So I was looking for Masonic necties, right? Finally a Freemason, and I want to wear a Masonic necktie at my initiation. And uh so uh uh I remember shopping, looking for Masonic nectars on eBay. During that time, there's no Masonic brand selling the Masonic nectes at the time, or maybe the I can't seem to remember, but from what I remember, the only things that are available are prints and they're loud, they have big square encompasses uh patterns. And I I didn't I didn't like that because in my head, if I'm gonna if I'm gonna buy a necktie, I want to be able to wear it not only for large, you know, because it's gonna be the only necktie that I have at the time. I have you know, uh I was getting frustrated because I think I spent hours, maybe days, looking for for a Masonic necktie. And my wife came up to me and and she goes, uh, you're a graphic designer, why not why not just design your own? Why not make your own necktie? So uh I designed something, and I found a manufacturer in China, and I asked them to create one, just one necktie for me. Send them the money. And what happened was they sent me two instead of one, and I needed only one, so I kept one for myself and the other one I auctioned off for 99 cents. My my wife was so mad because she's like, What would you auction of something rare for 99 cents? And uh what what happened was after three days, the the uh the value of the tie went up to like uh like 150 or or something like that. Wow. And that's when I realized that hey, there's a market for this, right? So uh sold the tie and and uh uh reinvested the the money back into production and it just went from there. And uh yeah, we're still doing it to this day.
SPEAKER_01So do you still run like auctions or do you just sell to like an exclusive mailing list?
SPEAKER_00Or so uh I typically produce a if there's a new design, we'll make maybe 50 to 150 of those. And some designs sell out uh they they uh we we we uh sell out in about a couple of days, so they go fast, right? Wow, and and uh we do um auctions still, but very rarely, like if I'm cleaning the like like one time I found a an old 30 second degree necktie, golden black, and that was from our 2010 collection. And I put it up for auction for 99 cents, and and uh the final bid was uh$500. Wow. For you know, people are that surprised me because um I I I didn't not in my wildest dreams have I ever thought that people would be collecting uh uh my brand, but we we do have uh uh a dedicated followership who collect rare fraternal ties.
SPEAKER_01Look at that. Yeah, I'm browsing your website right now, and all the time I've been following you on social media, and I think that's been like two years, maybe longer. And I don't I don't even remember how I found you. It was probably just some random engagement on a post. Or maybe maybe I was rage responding to somebody on one of your posts before you can get to it, maybe. And I think you caught my attention by being more mature than I was being. Because that'll get my when you take the high road, that'll get my attention. Because I don't often I I take the bait, not the high road. And so uh I think that's how I found you. And I I I'm sure I've browsed over to your website before, but it it's I keep on changing it. Yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff in here.
SPEAKER_00I I have to clean it up because there's still a lot of uh sold-out items there.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So wow, this is really cool.
SPEAKER_00Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_01Man, I'm gonna I'm gonna post it on the show notes and I'm gonna mail it out on my next blog post to everybody to make sure they all know about it.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate that. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, it's uh it's important. Look, uh Masonic subculture, I'm always banging on about Masonic print culture, like our books. Our books will outlive us, right? And there's there's a lot of really good Masonic scholarship going on right now, a lot of really good books being published. And so I'm always joking, and this is a joke I got from my friend Lon Duquet, where he's always like, You don't have to read the books, but please buy the books.
SPEAKER_00I like that, right?
SPEAKER_01And I'm always and Lon says something like, 'I've made no plans for no further plans for my family's future,' right? Like buy these books, or I'll need fraternal assistance, like that's that kind of stuff. And when I set up my book table wherever I go, and I have the Mystic Tie pop-up bookshop, and I carry quite a bit of stuff now from Lewis Masonic. Yeah, and we'll be getting stuff from McCoy here soon. I I it's the same thing. I always tell guys I stand up a lodge, hey, I brought my bookstore tonight. Please buy a book. You don't have to read it, but please buy it. I like that. I really like that. It's a good, it's a good laugh, but I use it too much. Maybe I should stop using it so much.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna borrow it. I'm gonna borrow it because I've been I'm writing a book. I was supposed to self-publish it over a year ago, yeah, but things happened. You know, we had a new uh Pope, American Pope Leo XIV, of all names that he could pick. Very exciting. So and and then and then uh we have Donald Trump, and and before you know it, I'm rearranging the chapters, I'm adding more. Now the one book have expanded into three titles. So um uh it's gonna take me a while to finish them, but I have a very clear outline of the books.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So when you go to publish, you gotta promise to come back on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely, and talk about it.
SPEAKER_01I'll send you a copy and talk about how Freemasonry changed your life in such a way to make you a publisher. Because anybody will tell you, like, you know, the best one of the best ways in the world to make a uh a small fortune or a large fortune into a small fortune, don't you? Start the religion, it's to no, it's to get involved in books. Um uh that's how Alastair Crowley went bankrupt was publishing books, right? Uh yeah, and he was quite passionate about what he was publishing, but he still went broke.
SPEAKER_00Right, wow, wow. He's no manly p.
SPEAKER_01No, and but then again, a lot of uh the majority of authors experience the opposite, not what brother Hall or what like Stephen King might experience. It's a pretty unusual experience. But I wish you all the best, and I hope I hope everybody buys your book. And in fact, when you do publish your book, if it's got even a modicum of Masonic content, we should fly out to Vancouver to speak at Grand Masonic Day and promote the book. Oh, why not? And then you can in a room with a hundred or a hundred and fifty guys that paid to see you speak, you could make that joke about you don't have to you don't have to read the book.
SPEAKER_00I'll credit you. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Please buy it. Thanks. And it's not my joke, it's Lawn Duquette's joke for the record.
SPEAKER_00Hey, you know, every Monday here in here in uh our district, they hold uh an education night every Monday. Wow. And last person or on Zoom? Zoom, Zoom. 281st Yeah, yeah. And I was the uh speaker last Monday. Nice. And uh I talked briefly about some of the things in my book. And uh if you're interested, if you're free on Monday, from 7:30, it typically typically goes from 7:30 to about 8 45. Yes. But last Monday we ended up staying until around 11 p.m. So that was uh that was a great success. Yeah, I'll I'll send you I'll send you uh give me the zoom link. I think you have to register.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, get me get me. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Every they have a new zoom link. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, send send it on over. I'd I'd love to you're gonna like it. I would love to come something like that. I I usually have a marketing call I do every Monday from five to seven Pacific, but if you guys are running around that time, it'll be just before that, so I can pop on and have a listen. No, I I really awesome.
SPEAKER_00It it was attended by the by the grandmaster and uh uh board of directors, and we have past grandmasters from uh other jurisdictions as well in the Caribbean and the United States. So it will it's well attended.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. Yeah, and it's open to any Freemasons anywhere.
SPEAKER_00All Freemasons, yeah, from uh Enter the Apprentice and Up.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's interesting. I'm gonna get you some more active listeners.
SPEAKER_00You're gonna you're gonna know you'll you'll probably recognize uh some people.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, no, I I attend uh quite often attend the Sapore Aude, the dare to know lectures that David Chicanate organizes. And it's like the same it's out of about a 500 pool of people, it's the same, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50 guys on that. How many people attend that Zoom meeting on a regular basis?
SPEAKER_00The last time is 60, uh last Monday. But they said they they typically get anywhere between four 40, 50. They had they had one night where uh over a hundred people attended, so it it it can vary, I guess. But but uh uh 60 50, 60 would be uh a good turnout for them.
SPEAKER_01I'm giving a talk right now called the Memory Palace is everywhere about the technology of emblems and how Freemasonry includes not just the tracing boards, but um uh through the the uh French occult revival, uh were basically every every developmental step in the tarot was influenced by a Freemason. And how the tarot is essentially our tracing. And Kabbalah as well, yeah. Yeah, and Kabbalah as well. And the the tarot is basically uh an extension of our of our tracing board imagery, the way we use emblems in the craft. Uh anyway. Oh wow. I digress, yeah. But uh that that's gonna send you some information. I'm giving it uh March 3rd at Mount Herman Lodge. I was just there last night, so next next month, first Tuesday, I'll be doing it uh in person with my slides and I'll have my little bookshop there. Awesome. One thing we didn't talk about before we got on here, one of the questions I always ask first-time guests is and I'm I'm I'd like to get return to the to the feeding the trolls, so to speak, again, but I want to know why you joined the craft. How did you stumble upon Freemasonry?
SPEAKER_00That will bring me back to uh the days gone by. I was uh 13 years old. Well, I was 12 years old, and uh in the Philippines we have a culture of um if um if somebody is older than you are, we call them big brother or big sister, we call them ate or kuya in my language. And I have one of those my cuyas, uh like a big brother, a playman, but but he's older than I am. I was 12 and he is uh I think 15 years old, and uh he belonged to this clique. I think that's the term in English, like clique. Is that the term? Like for a group of kids.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh he belonged to the cool kids. Well, I'm I'm I'm part of the Uh the the loner type. I'm I'm a nerd, like I'd rather stay at the library to read. And uh and he belonged to that to that group of kids, right? The cool kids. The cool kids, the cool kids. And and uh one time he invited me to one of their gatherings, and I went and all the cool kids are there, and uh they're having fun. And and uh, you know, they said they're a part of that organization called the Dimole, they're part of the uh Masonic organization, which I know nothing about at the time because I came from a very royal Roman Catholic family. My my um my dad and my grandfather were knights of Columbus members at the time. Right. And uh my uncle is a uh an active priest. Wow. Okay, and and uh I I go to this, I'm not sure if you could call it exclusive school, but it but it's for Roman Catholics, the school. Yeah, like a parochial school, primarily, yeah. And uh all the cool kids were there, and and uh I got drawn into it. And uh I joined uh learned about Freemasonry, learned about church history, and uh it eventually it became just uh it feel it felt like a natural progression from being a DMA to becoming a Freemason eventually. So I would say that that is how it started for me.
SPEAKER_01And at what point did so you were a DMLA? Did you join D Molay in Canada when you moved, or did you migrate as an adult?
SPEAKER_00Well, the way the way D Mulet works is it's for uh young man 12 to 21 or maybe 13 to 21 years old, depending on the depending on jurisdiction. And uh once you're a D Moule, you're you're D Mulet. So I'm still a D Moule, even though I'm not active because I'm outside of that age uh range already, but I can still work in my capacity as like a like an advisor to them. So so every once in a while I I'd get myself involved, but not in a very regular basis.
SPEAKER_01I see. And so you migrate to Canada. How did you end up joining the craft then?
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. I used to have this website called Zemo Graphics, which is my last name, Zemo Graphics. And uh one time I received a phone call from someone that I didn't know. It was a strange number, picked it up and knew from the accent, my accent right away, that you know it's a Filipino guy calling. And he he introduced himself, told me that he's a D Mulet from the Philippines, and uh he told me that uh he was Googling up, and I think there's something that I mentioned on my website that you know made him realize that, oh, okay, there this guy's a Dimoulet, I'm gonna call him. So he called me up, and at the time he said that he he's in communication with uh with a particular lodge here in Toronto, and he's gonna be joining. So he invited me to join, and uh we went together. We we were the very first Filipino uh members of that lodge when we joined, and uh yeah, it's through Dimolay still that that uh you know that led me to Freemasonry.
SPEAKER_01That you were connected, and so what you're a member at you you were telling me Doric, Dork 3616, and I was made uh an honorary member by Harmony Lodge number 699 OM in Buffalo, New York.
SPEAKER_00But I have I have I've never I've never been to US. Oh so yeah, that traveling is a Freemason is one of the one of the joys.
SPEAKER_01You should lifeblood, yeah. Absolutely get out and and travel and visit. Yes. So that's a uh grand lodge of Canada in the province of Ontario. That is correct, yeah. Oh, that's cool. Uh so you join because a friend called you was like, I'm gonna go join.
SPEAKER_00You should join. I I always wanted to, and and uh so I I think I told you, or maybe I haven't, but 2004 I was a graphic designer, but I'm self-thought. So I couldn't find a graphic design related job in Canada because I I didn't have the Canadian experience. And and and uh you know that that is that that is a a major requirement for Canadian companies, right? They want to fail out because I'm a graphic designer, but I'm self-thought, so my way of doing things is different from the standard, and nobody nobody wants that understandably. So I was a security officer, and my boss at the time, who's about three years older than I am, he happened to be a Freemason. And I kept on bugging him. I told him, Yeah, yeah, hey, I wanna, you know, let me in. But but he's keeping things secret, and uh he he won't he won't let me join. He he kept on telling me I'm not ready. But later on I found out that uh he belonged to the Grand Orient, so it's a different kind of as you know, right? Yep, and and I'm actually uh glad that I didn't, you know, join that route. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I I I waited, I waited, like you said, but eventually it was with the uh my my buddy uh uh who who uh reached out, and uh that's how I ended up joining a UGLE uh uh affiliated Grand Lodge.
SPEAKER_01What I would say capital F Freemasonry, you're a regular Freemasonry. Okay, so what in what year was that? Did you join? That was in 2008. So you've been a member, you're closing in on 20 years now, right? Uh yeah, that's right. So you may not know this, but about two-thirds of guys in the first five years drift away. I it happened to me. Those could be old statistics, but you know that I've as I've said on the show before, they sound true, so I just keep repeating these statistics. About two-thirds.
SPEAKER_00No, no, I I believe you. I think it's a common occurrence, actually, because uh at one point you get jaded and then you kind of drift away. And as you drift away from your mother lodge, you get invited by other lodges, and and you'd go like that. That is what happened to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I drifted, I drifted from my mother lodge, but because it's known in the district that I know all the three charges and the working tools, so every once in a while they they'll reach out to me. And remember, I told you my goal that I want to be a better English speaker. Sure. So even though I drifted away from the responsibilities of of of managing a lodge, of being an officer, I I remained active in the sense that I want to go out and perform, I want to do my final charges, I want to do my working tools, and I enjoy it. I don't go there to socialize, I don't go there to have dinner, and you know, because I was I don't know, I'm different, I guess. And uh, I suppose that kind of helped build a certain reputation for me. Yeah, yeah, and and uh I became known as that guy, uh who can deliver those things, and and uh yeah. So it was more about the ritual for you. I'm I fell in love with the ritual and an opportunity to actually speak, and people will have no choice but to listen to you. But because I grew up with um a speech defect, it it's not apparent if I'm talking in English, but you'd notice it if I'm talking in Filipino, yeah. And uh Filipinos, we can be very tribal, you know. There's some clicks and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_00And and uh if you speak the certain way, which happened to be my way, I cannot I cannot roll my R's. It sounds like a Spanish R, right? I can't do it. And I I I get bullied to death for that. So I grew up you know, not wanting to roll that. Oh, it happens. I'm you know, I'm I'm happy looking back, and uh now I I realize things like that happen for a reason. Yeah, because once you identify whatever that was that was dragging you down, as long as you focus on it, you have a clear vision of what you want to do. Like for me, okay, I'm not gonna be joining a Filipino lodge. Okay, I'm I'm gonna go to a lodge that you you don't want to per you don't want to per you don't want to perform the ritual in Tagalog as well. That that'll be yeah, that would be tricky. So yeah, yeah. That's my goal, you know.
SPEAKER_01So it was the it was the ritual that kept you, but I'm I'm still want to drill down more on this. The the reason I ask is so many guys drift away, right? So did you ever go through the officer lineup?
SPEAKER_00Have you been worshipful master in your lodge yet? I'm uh I was the worshipful master from 2019 all the way till 2023. Oh, that's yes, you got installed and then the pandemic hit.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, pandemic hit, yeah, yeah. Did you guys meet by Zoom when the pandemic was on? Well, it took some jurisdictions, it took forever, some of us didn't like it. We couldn't have regular Masonic meeting here, we couldn't make initiations, we wouldn't do because there was no way to secure a lodge room, right? That was the reason given. So we didn't do any what you would call capital F Freemasonry. We weren't right opening or closing a lodge, we were just gathering on Zoom for education. Yeah, couldn't meet in person, and that was the decision that was made here, and it worked fine. We we actually the education boomed, we did all this zooming. Bunch of old people learned how to use the modern tools to include my old uh, you know, I was five years younger, I was in my early 40s at the time when the pandemic hit, and so I learned Zoom the same way everybody else pretty much learned Zoom. Oh, same here. Conferencing went from something that would be fun to play with someday to something absolutely necessary now, right? Everybody overnight, Zoom and Teams and all these different platforms of uh FaceTime, all of this just kind of boom. Uh so so you were master of your lodge, yeah. And it was it's it's involvement in the ritual and initiations that that's kept you interested in going.
SPEAKER_00That and I've always had interest with the occult growing up, okay. And and mystery and conspiracy and all that. So I guess well, this is a pretty safe place to explore those things, right? Exactly, because you know everyone they don't they don't question you for your beliefs or whatever. People would actually listen to you, they go, Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, so it it it it's such um it is a great third place where people can come together and speak their mind and not worry about getting bullied or anything like that, because I I find that a lot of Freemasons are very curious, they they actually want to hear what what you want to say, you know. So uh that was refreshing to me, and that is what kept me. Uh, I drifted away because uh I think it's a combination of some personal issues. We had the new baby, and and uh my in-laws pass away a day before my twins were born. So a lot of those things contributed to just the pressure, and I kind of drifted away and stayed away for about maybe four years away from the lodge. But during that time, I I suppose you can say that I remained sharp in terms of the ritual because I I allowed myself to get invited by the other lodges and I'd go out and deliver my speech. So I remained to be to be in the loop even though I was away. I think I was the senior warden at the time when I stepped out, and then I went back in and uh uh I went back. So I was the senior warden, did half of my term, and then drifted away for about four years, came back as the junior warden, and when I came back, that was the time when the lodge was really about to die. We're talking about the the uh the uh outgoing master at the time was saying that we should just return the charter instead of getting humiliated. And and uh we we have the DDGM and members of the board calling us to to say, you know, um there's no shame in in going like and lodges have a natural life and this one's done. Yeah, so I presented a three-point plan that that somehow made them say yes. I said I'm gonna change the uh the branding, the identity, and we're gonna go social media and uh we'll do more fun stuff. And uh I I thought at first no nobody would have predicted the lockdown. So I had a three-point plan and then the lockdown happened. So the different thing that we did is every day we're on WhatsApp, and uh we're we're just having fun, you know, talking all the time. And um actually that almost destroyed us because that's when we realized that we have different political views. Yeah, we we have people who just are in love with Trump, we have we we have people who are pro-Tudeau, we got we got people who are anti this, we have flat earthers. We're our youngest lodge, right? So we have, and um, I I I thought I thought this was a new phenomenon for Doric, but I was talking with a pastmaster, and he told me that it's for for the past 30 years, Doric has been a mar like a magnet for people who tend to be on the artistic and creative side. I see. So that does the spirit of our life, we're actually none of us think the same, but when we form lodge, you'd think that we're best friends. Right.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that's the part of the part of the the joy of Freemasonry is that we avoid religion and politics, and yes, the the tribalism of the outside world sort of melts away. And uh, you know, that I have guys I disagree with in my mother lodge and in the craft in general, and I just I just find you know it's just a great place to set those things aside, as hard as that is to do, right?
SPEAKER_00Our approach is different. We uh we built program around it. That's why that's how we ended up with having conspiracy nights, and you know, we we we chose to to talk about those things, but with respect to it.
SPEAKER_01Well then yes, uh, and that's the other thing is that once properly instructed, there's no reason that philosophical people can't discuss such things in a civil manner. It's because even the even the most contentious things could be discussed in a civil manner as long as you agree that you're not trying to convince you're not trying to recruit and that dogma belongs in places outside of the lodge, right?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, and and that is the one thing that I I I tell anti-Mesists all the time. I I tell them, I don't really care what kind of uh of title you give to your God, as long as the God that you believe in is the same God who made me. I don't care what you call that God. We're brothers. That's the whole idea of brotherhood, right? Yeah, brothers of the dust. Exactly. We're brothers of the dust. That's right.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, I find it, I find it fascinating that people want to argue about extremely subjective stuff or points of religious dogma that are, especially to modern ways of thinking, patently absurd. And I don't want to go into what those might be. But if you want to follow some uh fallible religious leader down some rabbit hole, just don't take the rest of us with you. Off you go, uh go practice your whatever you're doing over there, just leave the rest of us out of it. What I'm absolutely convinced of is that I'm very wary of anybody who's absolutely convinced. And I just avoid them, you know, it would people I want to have uh dialogue with people who who who might change their mind. What yeah, what's the point? What's the point of having any kind of rational discussion uh when people use rhetorical devices to shut down the discussion, right? Yeah or use these avoidance that the rhetorical avoidance tactics, and you see them coming, right? And so and you see them, you see them respond to you all the time on your on your with their anti-Masonic stuff, and it's often it's often based in sort of uh a religious dogma and in ignorance, really, because you you'll ask them specific questions about uh their particular faith and holy book, and they have no idea. They're just repeating something they've heard and they don't understand the basis on which they stand, yeah. And it's just like how can people live like that? But apparently that people want to be certain rather than be educated or learn, right? They just want to have some sort of certainty that they're the good guy, and everybody how can you live like that, thinking exactly like billions of people have totally got it wrong and they're going to hell?
SPEAKER_00That's just that's just I think their their heart is at the right place in in the sense that they sense that there is something bad happening in the world. There's a lot of injustices, a lot of crimes happening, and uh, you know, very timely right now because the kids getting victimized, right? Sure. And and and uh people would wanna I I came from that world to just blame somebody for all these miseries and uh all the injustices. And unfortunately, it so happened that there are existing documents and from the Vatican. You can you can edit this out uh later on if you must. But uh there are certain documents that I'm I'm uh pretty sure you're probably aware of it. The uh humanum genus. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right, but it translates to uh the the uh the universe or the uh human family, humanum genus, I think is the proper translation. So before I learned about the uh that document written by Pope Leo the Thirteenth on April 20, 1884. Prior to that, I thought that all the anti-Freemason talking points was coming from from either uh Leo Taxil or there's another guy, Bill Schnobelin, a more recent one. Well, there's there's more than them guys, there's a bunch of them.
SPEAKER_01There's there's a whole there's a whole lot of John John Robison Robison. Uh there's so much uh anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic, and we do kind of get tied together. Right. Right. From a Catholic viewpoint, our our deistic faith is very Hebrew influenced. Oh yeah, yeah, but but but a lot a lot a lot of our people would deny that, which is I would say, but you know, from a from a particular orthodoxy, one could say um there's no reliance on a particular belief in this or that. Right faith matters, but belief or blind belief is not practiced. Vicarious atonement is not taught. And so the Catholics are like, you guys have no business claiming your any kind of faith because you won't accept original sin or vicarious atonement, which are philosophically speaking, like a terrible way to judge people because people could just behave however badly they want to behave and then they're clean, and then tomorrow they can go back to treating people badly again, right? It's interesting. Which is always the argument that rationalists like me would make against Catholicism. Not that I have a problem with Catholic Catholicism, how it's practiced, but Catholicism, how it enforces its political power in the world by manipulating people.
SPEAKER_00That's absolutely I I I like the I like that you mentioned that thing about living vicariously through that. So I'm writing a book, and one of the titles is Morons and Dogma. Oh, I like that. So people want salvation without the crucifixion. So salvation and no crucifixion. So they think that they can just simply repeat what they've heard and somehow it makes them clean. But the funny part is Jesus himself, that not because he's the word Lord, it means you'll walk with me. It it's more than that, right? They seem to be completely unaware of that, and they there's this one word, and and prior to this, I didn't know about this word, it's uh syncretic, syncretism. And and uh I learned about that just a couple of years ago through the anti-Masons. So I'm learning from them too. And and and I learned that so syncretic means uh the the the ideas coming together, right? And you're you're combining. So they're they're saying that Freemasonry is you have the Greek metaphysics, you have the Roman master morality, and you have the ancient Egyptian stuff, and you have metaphysics and Roman Catholicism and the syncretic. And what I did was uh being then the nerd that I am, I I checked the etymology of uh what is syncretism? What does that mean, and why is it so bad? So I learned that in Greece, during the ancient times, during the times when they were having troubles with Persia, so each of the Greek states are autonomous states, as we know. Yes, but during times of war, and they believe they have different gods, but during times of war, they forget about their differences and they come together. Okay, maybe I can mention the titles of the book that I'm working on.
SPEAKER_01Go ahead. Um is that okay? I thought you were trying not to mention that, but now I would rather you did. I thought you were trying not to mention that.
SPEAKER_00No, it's okay because I I I had it I had it published already. The uh not not not the well, actually, there's a portion of the manuscript that's been out for over a year. So three things that I'm working on. I'm gonna mention the title of the first two, the third one's a secret. I'm working on uh the satanic scrolls, yeah. And and morons and dogma, salvation, crucifixion. I'm still working on that subtitle. And well, actually, the third one I'm gonna mention the title anyway, the way. Right. Because I'm Christian, I I'm not I'm not Roman Catholic anymore. And the way is is a way for me to to show to people there's an e there's a way before before the Christianity as we know it, and they're simply called the way. That's what they're known as. They simply walk with the Lord and learn from him directly. And his lessons are very simple, right? So uh those uh those three titles. Originally it's only one book, but but they they they split into three titles. So uh that and oh I can plug, is that okay? Definitely. So I'm just gonna say that uh well everyone knows that we're in the Freemason necktie business, but I also do regalia, like custom regalia. So that's it. If you guys need uh custom regalia for yourself or your lodge, let me know. Alright.
SPEAKER_01No, I I appreciate that, and I will make sure to uh post your links on the show notes, and I really appreciate you coming on the show today. Thanks so much. I appreciate you. I had a great time. Thank you. Thanks for listening today. You could support the show by liking, sharing, and subscribing on your favorite podcast syndicator. Even more helpful, leave us a review. Stay tuned to this space for more great interviews on the Mystic Tie. If you think you would make a great interview for our listeners, or if you have a book or event of interest to Freemasons, reach out to me at Troy at Mystiktie.com. We are looking to create a directory of Free Masonic events and publications. If you are aware of something coming up, please let me know by email. In the meantime, check out the Masonic Conferences website at Masonic Conferences.com. Grand Masonic Day 2026 will be held at 10 a.m. on April 18th at the Vancouver Masonic Center at 7th and Granville. Our keynote speaker will be historian, scholar, and author Joseph Wages, with special guest speaker Arturo Dojo. Tickets are available on Eventbrite. I, Brother Troy Sprue, will be speaking at Capilano Lodge 164 on Wednesday, April 22nd. I will be presenting my talk Memory Palaces Everywhere about emblematic imagery and Western esotericism. Launch tiles at 7.30 p.m. This same talk will also be presented on Wednesday, May 13th at Star of the West Lodge number 29 in the CUSP. To see other dates for my presentations, check out my updates on the Mystic Tie Patreon. Esotericon 2026 will be June 20th. Tickets are available on the esotericon.net website. Esotericism and Freemasonry Conference will be held on Saturday, September 19th. Our keynote speaker will be Lon Mala Duquet, author of The Tarot Architect. Ike Baker of Arcanum Podcast has also confirmed. Get your tickets in advance by RSVP to esotericmasonry at gmail.com. For other events, check out our calendar at mystictie.com and don't forget to sign up for our newsletter while you are there. Graphics and web hosting are by Artsbo Creative. A special thanks to Organist for our theme music. Happy to meet. Sorry to part. And happy to meet again.