History
-
Good evening Quarrymen This weekend I’ll be taking a closer look at Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), a work that has shaped how many modern readers understand the symbolic traditions of the West. Hall attempted something rather ambitious: to gather Hermeticism, Pythagorean philosophy, Kabbalah, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry into a…
-
In this video I try something a little different from the usual From the Quarries format: a tier list of Masonic authors. A tier list is simply a ranked set of categories, from S (exceptional) down through A, B, C, and D. I’m judging these writers by a mix of usefulness to serious Masonic study,…
-
Good evening Quarrymen A slightly different kind of video is coming to From the Quarries this weekend. This time, instead of a formal lecture or deep historical treatment, I’ve put together something more conversational: a tier list of Masonic authors. After well over 1,400 videos on the channel, I thought it might be interesting to…
-
This omnibus explores one of the longest and most misunderstood tensions in modern religious and Masonic history: the relationship between the Church and the Craft. Drawing together three earlier talks, it examines the Catholic Church’s condemnations of Freemasonry, the question of whether Freemasonry is a religion, and the issue of its compatibility with Christianity. Grounded…
-
This compilation offers concise, historically grounded introductions to major Masonic traditions—Russia, Japan, Ireland, Sweden, and Prince Hall (USA)—tracing their origins, key turning points, and the distinctive features of their rites and lodge culture, so you can see how the Craft expresses itself differently across jurisdictions while remaining recognisably Masonic.
-
The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, first published in Strasbourg in 1616 and attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae, is the most elaborate of the Rosicrucian manifestos, presenting a seven-day allegorical narrative that fuses Lutheran theology, Renaissance alchemy, and Hermetic symbolism. Though sometimes read as a literal esoteric revelation, Andreae later described the work as a…
-
This lecture was originally presented by Bro. Harvey Lovewell at the ANZMRC conference in Dunedin in 2022. Download the original lecture and supporting PowerPoint of this presentation here: The Belief in a Supreme Being?
-
In this carefully argued presentation, The Origins of Freemasonry by Alphonse Cerza, P.M., dismantles the many romantic and speculative myths that have accumulated around the Craft’s beginnings, from the Temple of Solomon to the Garden of Eden, the Ancient Mysteries, Roman Collegia, and medieval cathedral legends. Drawing on respected Masonic historians such as Henry W.…
-
Good evening Quarrymen Something new is landing on 24 January, and it asks a slightly uncomfortable question: what if much of what we think we know about the origins of Freemasonry isn’t quite as solid as we assume? This upcoming video takes a calm but mischievous look at where the Craft is really said to…
-
In this presentation we explore Ancient Symbolic Penalties, a thoughtful and challenging Short Talk Bulletin by K. W. Aldridge, which invites viewers to reconsider one of the most frequently misunderstood elements of Masonic ritual. Rather than treating the penalties found in our obligations as literal or archaic survivals, Aldridge frames them as part of a…
-
Good evening Quarrymen This weekend, as voted by our wonderful channel members will be asking the question ‘What do we really mean when we speak of the “ancient penalties” in Freemasonry—and have we perhaps misunderstood them all along’? In this short presentation, K. W. Aldridge invites us to pause and reflect on a subject that…
-
ANTIPODEAN SUMMER SERIES A selection of videos from the Quarries Archive.
-
ANTIPODEAN SUMMER SEASON This week we’ve published a suite of Videos originally published in 2023 and 24. I hope you enjoy this selection of four lectures from the archive exploring the Philosophical World of Freemasonry.
-
Good evening Quarrymen In the giving spirit of the season, here is a short Christmas release … This video explores The Apocalypse of Adam, a striking Gnostic text preserved in the Nag Hammadi Library, presenting Adam’s final revelation to his son Seth as a radical counter-history of creation. The work depicts humanity’s loss of primordial…
-
ANTIPODEAN SUMMER SEASON Videos originally published in 2022. These lectures explore the three Principals of the Royal Arch—Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and Haggai—through close reference to A History of Royal Arch Masonry by Everett R. Turnbull and Ray V. Denslow (1955), one of the standard historical treatments of the development of the Royal Arch in the Anglo-American…
-
This presentation explores the strange and often contradictory world of anti-Masonic conspiracy literature, drawing on historical sources and modern examples to reveal how Freemasonry has been alternately vilified, romanticised, and misunderstood. Inspired by an essay by Australian journalist David Greason, this lecture traces the evolution of anti-Masonic thinking across Britain, America, Russia, and beyond, highlighting…
-
In this extended lecture, we explore one of the most extraordinary texts of early twentieth-century esotericism: The Hidden Life in Freemasonry (1926) by Charles Webster Leadbeater. A towering figure within the Theosophical Society and Co-Masonic circles, Leadbeater claimed that modern Masonic ritual is not merely symbolic but the vestigial survival of an ancient Egyptian initiatory…
From the Quarries 