The Mystic Tye

"Is Freemasonry Esoteric" with Bro. Lon Milo DuQuette EFC2022 Keynote

• Troy Spreeuw

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Is Freemasonry Esoteric? — Lon Milo DuQuette EFC 2022 Keynote

Throwback episode: Bro. Lon Milo DuQuette delivers the opening keynote of Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference (2022).

"Is Freemasonry esoteric? The simple answer is yes, of course it is. It is, if you are."

To kick off the first Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference in 2022, we invited one of the most respected voices in modern Western esotericism to set the tone. Lon Milo DuQuette did not disappoint.

In this throwback episode, DuQuette opens with a haunting, dreamlike vision of what Masonry could be: a secret international gathering of esoterically-minded brothers, meeting in a magnificent temple to labor for the soul of the Craft. From there he asks the harder question: why has so much of mainstream Masonry turned away from its own esoteric roots, and what does that mean for the future of the fraternity?

This is essential listening for any Mason who has ever felt the pull of the symbols, sensed there was something deeper behind the ritual, and wondered whether anyone else in their lodge was seeing the same thing.


What we cover

  • The dream of esoteric Masonry: a vivid imagining of what the Craft is supposed to be
  • Why anti-esoteric attitudes inside the fraternity are both ill-timed and self-defeating
  • Membership decline and the one demographic still applying in significant numbers
  • Symbols as living messengers, and how to follow the ones that find you
  • DuQuette's own path: 25 years of ceremonial magic, the O.T.O., and A∴A∴ before joining the Craft at fifty
  • Why an esoteric Mason is not made by Masonry — but esoteric Masons make Masonry esoteric


Q&A highlights

  • Comparing the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, O.T.O., and the A∴A∴ to the Masonic experience
  • The Chamber of Reflection and why it deserves a place in every lodge
  • "Blue lightning" one-day classes and what gets lost when degrees are rushed
  • How to nurture esoteric curiosity in brothers whose initiation experience left it dormant
  • Concordant bodies versus the Blue Lodge: where the real treasure actually is


About the guest

Lon Milo DuQuette is an author, lecturer, musician, and one of the leading voices on Hermetic Qabalah, Tarot, and the work of Aleister Crowley. He is a long-time member of the Ordo Templi Orientis and the author of more than twenty books, including The Magick of Aleister Crowley, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, and Low Magick. His latest book is The Tarot Architect. He returns as our keynote speaker for the upcoming Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference, alongside Ike Baker and Doug Russell.


Links and resources


Support the show

If this episode resonated with you, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. We are also building a directory of Freemasonic events and publications. If you know of something coming up, send Troy an email at troy@mystictye.com.

Graphics and web hosting by Art Szabo Creative. Theme music by Organist (Moka Only).

Happy to meet, sorry to part, happy to meet again.


SPEAKER_02

Welcome to MysticTye on the podcast for free data. You can find us online at mystictie.com. Email me feedback, yes, suggestions, and any other questions at Troy at Mystictie.com. To kick off esotericism in Freemasonry Conference 2022, we invited Brother Lonmilo Duquette to deliver a keynote address. He did not disappoint. Please enjoy this throwback episode of The Mystic Tie.

SPEAKER_04

The title of my talk today is Freemasonry Esoteric. Now that's a generic sounding title, and it sounds like something that a person just took off the top of their head when someone asked them to speak at a Masonic esoteric Masonic conference. And that's exactly what it is. But because this is sort of the kickoff presentation for the esoteric conference here, I guess it's uh is pretty appropriate. Is Freemasonry esoteric? And the simple answer to that question is yes, of course it is.

SPEAKER_03

It is if you are.

SPEAKER_04

Now every Mason is told that Masonry is a progressive moral science divided into different degrees, and as its principles and mystic ceremonies are regularly developed and illustrated, it's intended and hoped that they'll make a deep and lasting impression upon your mind. Now I'm going to repeat that last part because I want us to remember it as its principles and mystic ceremonies are regularly developed and illustrated. It's intended and hope that they'll make a deep and lasting impression on your mind.

SPEAKER_03

Now I want you just to come with me for a few moments.

SPEAKER_04

It's four AM I creep silently past the rooms of my sleeping brothers and out to the darkened hallway that leads to the staircase to the atrium. The atrium is a cavernous space, nearly two hundred feet long and over fifty feet wide, built in the style of the Roman Empire. The marble floor is adorned with Masonic symbols inlaid in brass and stone of contrasting colors. The Doric and Ionic columns that flank the great hall and support the second story walkway and chambers are dwarfed by towering Corinthian columns that buttress the vaulted ceiling three stories high, whose centerpiece stained glass skylight now bathes the chamber in a soft iridescent moonlight. There are five statues here whose bronze presences I'm I'm moved to honor. Four of them are the goddess figures of the of the cardinal virtues temperance, prudence, fortitude, and justice. They're positioned at the at the corners of the chamber, which I slowly circumambulate as I as I move from pedestal to pedestal. There's a fifth goddess that stands in the very center of the hall and bears no inscription or emblem. She simply holds her forefinger to her lips as if to hush the universe. It's here at the feet of silence that I sit down on the cool floor and close my eyes. Only a moment, it seems, passes before I hear the warm ring of a temple bowl. The other brothers are now awake, and we're being called to don meditation. I slip off my shoes outside the door of a small lodge room, one of several that flank the atrium terraces, and I tiptoe inside and take my seat. The chamber is dark, save for a single candle on the center altar.

SPEAKER_03

After a few quiet words of introduction, we close our eyes and enter our private inner temples. Forty-five minutes later, the sun has arisen.

SPEAKER_04

We open our eyes and see the room is now brilliantly illuminated by three large Italian stained glass panels that form the entire southern wall of the lodge room. Each window dramatically depicts one of the three ages of man Youth, manhood and old age. My eyes linger on each scene as I weigh the well lived episodes of my own life against those of time mispent. After a communal breakfast, we assemble in the spacious reception room and settle down beneath chandeliers of priceless Czechoslovakian sil crystal and get a good look at all who are in attendance this year. I immediately recognize some of the brightest stars in the firmament of modern esoteric masonry. I also see old friends and colleagues from years past, writers, scholars, artists, teachers, and students. As always there are several new faces, brothers who have been discreetly vetted and invited for the first time to present papers and to lecture. We are met for three days of presentations and discussions of issues and subjects relating to a broad range of esoteric aspects of the craft of Freemasonry. We have gathered secretly and informally under no official warrant, charter, or auspices, to explore the craft as a self-transformational art and science, gathered to labor and strategize as how best to proceed to protect, preserve, and advance the esoteric heartbeat and soul of Freemasonry. Appropriately the venue for this gathering is one of the largest and most architecturally magnificent Masonic edifices in the world, unexplainably abandoned by its usual team of custodial stewards for the duration of our weekend meetings.

SPEAKER_03

The building itself is intoxicating. We're all humbled by its beauty and perfect proportions.

SPEAKER_04

One can not resist being tangibly elevated as we each instinctively and subconsciously attempt to adjust our inner imperfections to harmonize and reflect with the outer perfections of the sacred geometry that surrounds us as we walk the sacred labyrinth, or sit quietly studying in the Gothic library, or discuss alchemy, or the Gnostics at the feet of Assyrian sphinxes.

SPEAKER_03

We find ourselves pausing and asking each other Is this really happening? Yes, it happens.

SPEAKER_04

And this is how I always dreamed masonry would be. As a matter of fact, there are a great many of our brothers who now feel that the esoteric roots of our ancient institution are something of a quaint embarrassment, a queer and unwholesome link to paganism, the occult, and perhaps even Satanism. As many of us know, there is a concerted effort now taking place within influential quarters of masonry to once and for all denounce and divorce the craft from her esoteric heritage, and make her simply a service organization open only to men professing certain specific religious convictions. Even though Masonic traditions dictate that a candidate need only profess a belief in a supreme being and a form of afterlife, today there are jurisdictions and lodges all around the world that will not consider the application of a man if they believe his religion or his religious convictions to be not mainstream enough, or his interest in the mystical nature of the craft suspiciously intense. This is why, sadly, I cannot tell you in what country our gathering takes place, neither can I tell you the names of the participants, or the circumstances that bring us together, or the details of our activities and goals.

SPEAKER_03

By necessity, Masonry has for us once again become a secret society.

SPEAKER_04

Ironically, what makes this anti-esoteric movement so ill timed and suicidal is the fact that Masonry's membership numbers are plunging precipitously. Lodges are closing or merging with other lodges for lack of members. Freemasonry, as we've known it for the last three hundred years, will be all but dead in just a few years if something isn't done.

SPEAKER_03

It's getting a little better. But not enough. And not soon enough.

SPEAKER_04

Ironically, and much to the terror of anti-esoterrorists, the only demographic group that is applying for membership in significant numbers is composed of young men and women who are passionately interested in the esoteric mysteries of the craft.

SPEAKER_03

But don't let me scare you too much.

SPEAKER_04

There, fortunately, for the time being, exoteric masonry is still for the most part a very big tent. Even in the most conservative quarters, leadership still pays anemic lip service to the concept that masonry opens her doors to upstanding men, and in too few places at the moment women of all races, religions, political persuasions, and social and economic circumstances. Aside from the obligatory duties required to advance through the degrees, an individual mason is free to be as interested or as disinterested as he likes in matters that concern the history, rituals, traditions, and the mysteries of the craft. As it is, and much to the relief of the anti-esotericists, the majority of Masons, once they are raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason, are happy to put the quaint and curious stuff behind them and simply enjoyed being part of one of the most active and generous service organizations in the world. And I think that's fine. And please don't think that I'm denigrating the contributions and efforts of any brother who wishes to participate on any level. God knows the world needs a generous service organization to sponsor hospitals and clinics and scholarships. Most men need a relatively wholesome place to meet socially once or twice a month with other relatively wholesome men. Add to this the possibility that some men might actually have a psychological need to put on clown makeup and drive tiny cars and parades. Without men like this, Mason would not, for the time being, at least, be the largest and wealthiest fraternal organization in the world.

SPEAKER_03

These are good men who are made better by their involvement in the craft.

SPEAKER_04

But there are also those among us who would like to be spiritually transformed by masonry's deeper secrets.

SPEAKER_03

And currently, these men, and I'm happy to say women, are the only people applying in significant numbers.

SPEAKER_04

Still, I'd wager that even some of our brothers in tiny cars, if properly informed and inspired, might be fascinated, even edified by the esoteric side of things. The sad fact is most masons are never adequately exposed to knowledgeable brothers or educational material that might excite their curiosity beyond wondering what's for stated dinner. It's not that the information is not available. Plenty of fine books have been written over the centuries, some of which might already be found in the libraries of local lodges all around the world. But many of these books were written in the eighteen hundreds, at a time when interest in esoteric masonry was at its zenith, and when even a high school diploma meant a basic familiarity with the classics of world literature and with Greek and Latin and a smattering of philosophy and world religions and history. Anyone who's ever started to read Albert Pike's morals and dogma will know exactly what I'm talking about. Masonry is a big tent, and that's good. Masonry does make good men better, and that's good. The world needs better men. The crest the craft must always be blessed and enriched by the involvement, participation, and work of good men who are willing to work on themselves, but who might not yet be inclined to labor too strenuously in their minds, not yet inclined to enter the laboratories of the philosophical and soul sciences. But for those who are so inclined, Masonry's tent is infinitely big.

SPEAKER_03

And you are already standing at the door.

SPEAKER_04

And as you had to do at each step of your esoteric Masonic career, all you have to do is knock.

SPEAKER_03

Your journey begins very subtly, very personally, very subjectively, very mystically.

SPEAKER_04

Your journey begins by simply recognizing the living symbols of the craft that are already attracting your attention.

SPEAKER_03

Symbols are living things.

SPEAKER_04

They're not emblems, they're not completely definable. They are living things. And those symbols that are attracting you the most, those symbols which you tend to doodle when you're on the telephone, those symbols of masonry that look to you fascinating, cool, scary, perhaps.

SPEAKER_03

Those symbols are reaching out to you.

SPEAKER_04

Those symbols, the ones that intrigue you the most, are your personal Masonic angel messengers calling you to investigate the inner mysteries of the craft. Let those symbols guide your inquiries and studies. That is how Masonry's principles and mystic ceremonies are regularly developed and illustrated. That is how they will make a deep and lasting impression upon your mind. Your attention to these sacred symbols will automatically initiate a chain reaction of events and circumstances in your life that will open for you the true treasures of the craft of Freemasonry. Okay, I uh I believe that's uh that's all I ha have for us uh this morning. I believe my time it is up. I Troy said we might be open up to questions and answers, but this is so subjective. Your objective questions will probably get a subjective answer. So right now I'll thank you for your kind attention. Thanks, Lon. And hope that you guys are gonna enjoy the rest of the conference. And please remember that tomorrow at 4 p.m. Pacific time, I'll be saying a few words about the Kabbalah of the Blue Lodge.

SPEAKER_02

Excellent, Lon. That was really good. Can you unshare your screen now so we can put you up on the big screen?

SPEAKER_04

Before I do that. Oh, yes. I'll give you I'll give you a little benediction here. May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all regular masons. May brotherly love prevail and every moral and social virtue cement us. Amen.

SPEAKER_01

So would it be. Um, question about this old uh craft has uh led to derivatives starting with, I'm sure most of us are familiar with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, all the derivative orders from that, such as uh OTO and such, based on quasi-Masonic principles, I think is the most common adjective used to describe those. Why should a practitioner do both? Is there isn't there a redundancy or uh somehow of a compromise of one's time or one's maybe spread out too thin? I'd just like you to compare and contrast the two similar but not exactly identical paths. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, well, that's a really good question. And uh for everybody the answer would be uh a little bit uh different. Uh in my particular case, even though I have sort of family Masonic uh heritage, if you will, my my father and brother encouraged me to join Masonry. But uh as it turned out, I didn't join Masonry until I was 50 years old. And uh uh that was after 25 years of being intensely involved in uh ceremonial magic, the OTO, the AA, sort of what we think of as good hardcore ceremonial magic and Kabbalah. And so when I uh was first uh I well, one of my students was going to be master of my dad's old lodge, uh, one of my uh regular weekly weekly students, and was going to be worshipful master the next year. He says that uh I I really now was the time to to join. From the moment that the door I knocked, and the door was opened, and I heard that that first uh uh uh little little saying from the the senior deacon. I knew what what was going on. I stepped into an egregore of the foundation of all my uh uh interest in the Golden Dawn, all my interest in AA, OTO, Kabbalah, everything was like an interactive experience of the greatest hits of magical and Kabbalistic principles. And I could see what a treasure the Masonic experience was from a hardcore magical perspective, but that's because I already had a hardcore magical kabbalistic perspective, and I could easily see what gold, what treasures there were in the Masonic experience. Now, if if I wanted those treasures and thought that I was going to initially get them from my uh Masonic experience, I would uh be completely disappointed and not at all satisfied. So my point is that a cabalistic or a magical or a mystical or an esoteric Mason isn't made by masonry, but the esoteric masonry makes masonry esoteric, if that makes any sense whatsoever. For someone who is even even has a fundamental background in uh in the esoteric arts and sciences and uh ceremonial work, cabalistic work, hermetic work as a self-transformational exercise, will just go crazy in love with the Masonic experience. But they may be the only person in the room that's doing it, and I couldn't help but feel and and have uh my heart just almost burst open with gratitude at the generation, generation after generation of good, well-meaning, noble individuals who year after year, century after century have memorized and preserved this spiritual art form with such perfection, with such attention to detail, most of whom did not even know what it was that they were preserving. It was like they were handing me a treasure, a jewel box, a priceless spiritual treasure locked in a casket for which they had no key. But like angelic guardians generation after generation were now handing it to me, and in a certain way I had the key to open it. So this is the situation an esoteric mason finds himself. Masonry itself is is is uh is an environment that for the most part the inhabitants of the environment don't appreciate what they have, but nevertheless they are worthy custodians of that environment.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know if that answered your question. Did that that answer good? We gotta we gotta thumbs up, Lawn. Just a further comment to that. I'm not a humble person. I find the idea what you were just expressing, the millions of brothers in history, hundreds of years, mouth to ear, in the careful preservation of our symbols and tradition. And you you get inside and it's just a humbling experience to be involved. And I had a similar experience to yours. I was uh, you know, into into hermetic arts and forgotten sciences when I applied to Freemasonry, and again, the initiation that I received was beautiful, and I appreciated it in a different way than most of the guys that were delivering it. And it was a humbling experience to be in a room full of guys that didn't know what they were doing even. They knew it would be experience, but they didn't realize how much of an experience it was for me.

SPEAKER_00

Brother, please. Uh my question sort of pertains to things you were just touching on. Uh the key word that kind of stuck out in my mind is you kind of mentioned the Masonic experience. We all know that there is no one Masonic experience per se, because the rituals can differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And as such, when you do find yourself to be a person in a lodge room that may be the only one that sees or has the keys, like you mentioned, to these things that you see around them. Uh, I wonder, because for example, my own Masonic experience included something like a chamber of reflection. Well, that's not very universal. In fact, it's not even well dispersed within my own jurisdiction. And the importance of those, the sort of the will become what becomes the foundation of your Masonic experience, informing where you move next in your Masonic journey and exploring these deeper esoteric elements of our craft, you know, we, those, like you said, who've somewhat done the homework before you got to the test, you know, we see these things. My question for you, I guess, is because not everybody's journey is the same, in fact, often I've seen, are you familiar with the concept of like blue lightning, like uh where they do all the degrees performatively for a man in a manner of a day or two and just sort of push them through to get them through? You know, I I know brothers that that's been their experience. And it feels to me that they've been robbed of a crucial element of what we do in our sort of initiatic the series of initiatic orders that uh in the long span of time. So my question is, how can we best help a brother who has had such a widely different experience in even just masonry to come to understand it with it without maybe rewinding time and doing it over again for them? You know, what what can we do to nurture those elements in an already existing mason to help them create the next generation of esoteric masons? Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Quinn. Um I guess uh what you can do is you do the best you can if you have the the the time and interest and the opportunity in your in your local lodge to form a study group of some kind without ruffling uh too many feathers. You can expose uh your discussion group to uh the the more traditional uh Masonic uh experiences and landmarks and uh and uh literally walk walk people through that themselves. In other words, you you you educate them enough. Boy, you you you bring up one of my pet peeves or my pet projects or my pet interests about the chamber of reflection. You know, you really should lobby to get a chamber of reflection going. It's something that's easy to explain to somebody that it that uh you know isn't esoterically minded, that this is a kind of an important, important thing. One of the lessons in exoteric masonry is is how to be diplomatic. But you can be diplomatic with without uh uh being uh without surrendering to mediocrity. And uh you've got to remember that that you are you are one among among many, and most likely you're one of the youngest ones among many, and uh that uh the forces of resistance, their time is is is sort of uh is sort of short in the uh in the craft, and yours is uh has a has a longer future. So uh one of the easiest things to do, and and people are always uh uh even in the most uh conservative quarters, are anxious for uh uh volunteers, young blood volunteers. And uh uh besides being a volunteer for the for the pancake breakfast or the sweetheart dance or something like that, you could be a volunteer. I'd like to set up a little study, uh study group and bring and do it with uh with the true goal of exploring, first of all, older traditional uh applications of the degrees just to show the appreciation of where it comes from. And if a person is pushed through the degrees in one day or in a two-day uh thing, that that's fine. They're masons, but now let's explore what it is that you should have gone through.

SPEAKER_02

We're almost out of time, but I'm gonna use my bully pulpit to ask you this question. One of the biggest criticisms I've heard of my work in Freemasonry is that we have concordant, appendant, and affiliate bodies for this. Why do you bother us in the craft lodge with such nonsense? Well, now, uh but my strategy has been to acknowledge just like my sales training, I acknowledge that that issue and then I ignore the issue and move forward with what I want to do anyway. But uh, how would you handle such a thing?

SPEAKER_04

Well, just like uh uh we're uh told uh with with almost cliche repetition, that uh there is no higher degree than the than that of uh masturbation, that the concordant uh uh bodies and their activities are lateral evolutions or lateral movements, and that uh it's time to dig in your heels and show your your uh militant blue lodge patriotism and say no, the good stuff is all here. We've got it all here. We're just not uh understanding it uh uh in it in itself. And it's good to be a Scottish right mason, it's good to be a York right mason, it's good to be cryptic and all of that stuff. But that's what they are. They're their own Idaho. I was told, I believe, and I understand it to be all in our uh blue lodge degrees, and if you can't see it, let me help uh let me help others see it too.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for listening today. You can support the show by liking, sharing, and subscribing on your favorite podcast indicator. Even more helpful, leave us a review. 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 at Masonic Conferences.com. Estophuricism and Freemasonry Conference will be held on Saturday, September 19th. Our keynote speaker will be on my loaded cat, author of the tarot architect. Also coming are Ike Baker and Doug Russell. Get your tickets in advance by our SVP to exopuremasonry at email.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 Artsivo Creative. A special thanks to organists for our theme music. Happy to meet. Story Department. And happy to meet again.