Esoteric
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A new Video! There was a clear winner of our YouTube poll held during the week. ‘The Mystical Quest in Freemasonry‘ won exactly 50% of the votes cast. Thanks to all who submitted their votes – the response was far greater than I anticipated, so I think I’ll try it again in future! This presentation…
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A new Video! This video is a chapter from ‘The Antiquity of the Holy Royal Arch’ which was Published by F. de P. Castells in 1927. In it he examines in detail some of the astronomical and astrological symbolism underpinning the Royal Arch degree. I have redacted some small portions of the text which I…
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A new Video! Next year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter. I had intended to save this video for that anniversary, but I’m going though a bit af an Ancient Egyptian phase at the moment, so here it is. This anonymous lecture was first presented in January…
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A new Video! This short presentation is by Brother Harry M Furniss (Prince of Wales Lodge No. 100) from January 1974. In The Legend of Enoch Brother Furniss summarises a story from the apocryphal Book of Enoch, as interpreted by Mackey. While not mentioned in any Masonic works, the legend is a wonderful addition to…
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The Great Masonic Conspiracy. This video is a response to the viewers of this channel who believe that Freemasonry is a vast, world encompassing and ominous conspiracy (Hint: it’s not). Watch out though – this video is exactly 13 minutes long. Surely that can’t just be a coincidence?
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A new Video! Geometry and Masonry is a wonderfully researched paper is published with the kind permission of the author, Bro. Harvey Lovewell of Lodge Millaa. It was first presented in 2008. Many thanks to Harvey for allowing me to reproduce it.
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This is the 50th video from the quarries and it is a special one. More than double the length of the usual lectures at over 50 minutes long, ‘Our affinity with the Ancient Egyptians‘ is a deep, thoughtful and moving address by W. Bro. R. W. Harwood, first presented in October 1977. The address looks…
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The Mystery of Mithra is short overview of Mithraism and its possible relationship to some of the more arcane aspects of Masonry by Bro. Harry Kenison from April 1961. Of course, correspondence does not imply causation, but I’ll leave any interpretation to the viewer!
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IMPORTANT NOTE: I have just been advised (27 January 2021) that the Leo Taxil video I uploaded to YouTube yesterday contains copywrite material to which I am not entitled. Specifically it includes clips from the 1920 Swedish/Danish film ‘Haxan’. As this content is over 100 years old I mistakenly assumed that its copywrite had lapsed.…
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New text in Esoterica – The Hieroglyphic Monad It’s a bit self-indulgent to mention, but this month marks 30 years since I submitted my Masters Thesis on John Dee’s 1564 work Monas Hieroglyphica. (January 25th was also coincidentally, the date on which Dee finished writing the book)! In celebration I’ve uploaded a copy of this…
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HERMES TRISMEGISTUS A brief summary of the highly esoteric 1912 work ‘The Kybalion’, by ‘Three Initiates’. It offers a surprisingly Masonic take on Hermetic Neo-Platonism. The broadcast is a brief summary of its content with reference made to Masonic connections.
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Now available in the Library. The two Volumes of Arthur Edward Waite’s summative work: The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry – an analysis of the Inter-relation Between the Craft and the High Grades in respect of their term of research, expressed by the way of Symbolism. Originally published in 1911.
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A new podcast This lecture was first published in November 1925 by the Masonic Service Association of the United States. I have removed a few small sections of this lecture where the content either is no longer aligned with Masonic practice, or where the views expressed are not in line with the values of contemporary…
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Now in our Esoterica Collection is the complete 2 volume set of Wallis Budge’s 1920 masterwork. With an index of English words, King list and Geographical list with indexes, List of Hieroglyphic characters, Coptic and Semitic Alphabets, etc. VOLUME 1 VOLUME 2
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This video lecture is a funny and insightful look at the ‘rules’ and symbolism of Masonic circumambulation and their absolute irrelevance to the Southern Hemisphere! It was first presented by V.Exc. Comp. B. G. Patterson, Grand Lecturer of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Qld in 1943, and was originally published in the Qld…
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It’s been a while since my last video. I’m honoured to be working on a couple of large Masonic projects at the moment, which are taking up quite a bit of time and I’m really looking forward revealing them when the time is right. In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a few more historical texts to…
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This is the second in a seven-part series of videos examining the relationship between Pythagoras, Pythagoreanism and Freemasonry. In this episode I outline the historical evidence for Pythagoras, or lack thereof. Details of the full series can be found in Pythagoras Part 1 – Introduction.
From the Quarries 