EFC 2026 Debrief: Troy, Ken Lane, and Brett Wolfe on What Worked and What Changes for EFC 2027

For Episode 57 of The Mystic Tye, Troy Spreeuw sat down with his fellow Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference organizers, Brother Ken Lane and Brother Brett Wolfe, a few weeks after EFC 2026. They cover what worked, what did not, why five speakers was too many, the proceedings Troy is finally publishing, and the plans taking shape for EFC 2027. What follows is their conversation, edited only for readability. The words are Troy's, Ken's, and Brett's, as spoken. Listen to the full episode at mystictye.com/episodes.

A Whirlwind Weekend, and Why In-Person Still Matters

Troy: Welcome to The Mystic Tye, a podcast for Freemasons. I am your host, Troy Spreeuw. You can find us online at mystictye.com. Email me feedback, guest suggestions, and any other questions at troy@mystictye.com. You could support us on Patreon at patreon.com/mystictye. EFC 2026 was a tremendous success. Five brilliant speakers, a mountain of books, and one parking ticket from the city of Seattle. I guess around these parts, even enlightenment has a price. This week, my partners in esoteric crime, Brother Ken Lane and Brother Brett Wolfe, join me to discuss all things EFC 2026. What worked, what didn't, and why did we think cramming five speakers into one day was a good idea? What are our even more ambitious plans for EFC 2027? And have we learned our lesson? Only time will tell.

Troy: Brother Ken Lane, Brother Brett Wolfe, and I'm Brother Troy Spreeuw. We're the principal organizers for the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference, and welcome you, listener, to the Mystic Tye Podcast. Hey, guys.

Ken: Hi, Troy.

Troy: Look, we're a few weeks after the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference now. And I just found out today I forgot to deal with that parking ticket that we got on Nina's car, but we'll have to deal with that at some point. We were in a handicap space, or we thought we were, but the red line was worn right off down to nothing, so.

Brett: Everyone who lives in Seattle has made their fair share of $80 donations to the city, you know?

Troy: Yes. I don't reside there. You can come get me, bro. Seattle City Hall, you're gonna hear from me. Anyway, other than the hangover from the parking ticket, I think we've all satisfactorily recovered from our amazing whirlwind weekend. Nina and I had our hands full with Lon DuQuette, and it was great to see him and spend a bunch of time with him. He's older than he was the last time. I think it's been a decade since I've had him anywhere. Man, the ravages of old age. That's not for the faint of heart for anybody. But it was a blessing and a joy to see Lon and spend so much time with him. What were your guys's impressions of this year's event? I feel like I hardly talked to anybody, 'cause I was too busy stick handling Lon the whole thing. Same with Nina. Even you guys, I hardly talked to you guys. We did the event, and it was like, "Okay, bye." We were gone.

Ken: I was very thankful that Lon came out. I thought it was fantastic that he would take the time. I thought if, like you're saying, he's getting older, and if he didn't come this time, he wouldn't in the future. And so many people that had never had an opportunity to spend time with him, say hello, do anything, that it was just a big draw, I think. A lot of positive energy.

Troy: I will forever remember, you know, I've got great memories of spending time with Lon. There was an incident where he was going to start playing more music, and he was here in our living room in his underwear and a shirt, and he brought his guitar, he says, like, "I want to play you guys something." And he played the song, Roman Rider, about his great-grandfather, the Native guy that was killed and the circumstances around his death. And I have really fond memories of Lon being in my living room in his underwear on an event we had here, just playing that for us. We were some of the first people outside of his household that have ever heard it. Anyway, we had such a good time with Lon. So good to see him. And then everybody else. I've talked to Ike Baker I don't know how many times now, and finally we meet in person. I've been on his podcast, he's been on my podcast, a couple of times each. And he even presented for us a couple years ago 'cause he got stranded by the hurricane there in Asheville. And yet he came out this year, and it was a blast to get to know him and get to see him. Of course, his star has risen quite considerably over the last two years since we had him just online, and now in person. It was great. He had quite the following that was there, too. It was good to get to meet him finally.

Ken: Well, the energy that they brought was just phenomenal.

Troy: Yep.

Ken: The room was just abuzz all day.

Brett: I think it really goes to show just how important in-person meetings really are. You talk about Lon being there, Ike being there. These are people who we've talked to in the past, and I haven't met Lon before in person, and it really is something special to have them in person. And when you're all in the building together, it kind of reaffirms for me our choice not to really have a true virtual offering for this conference, you know?

Troy: We did capture it all. The recordings worked, and this year for the first time, I've been swearing since we started that we'd do it, but this year for the first time, we will publish our proceedings. I got 214 pages of a transcript to process, is what I would say. But I think we're gonna put it out. Hopefully we'll get it out by January, and it'll be ready to support next year's event. I'm stoked about that. The recordings, including the capturing of the PowerPoints, worked, the audio worked, the voices are audible, and the video works. The only thing we can't really rebroadcast, 'cause we don't have permission, is all of the video clips from the Fight Club and Freemasonry presentation. Of all the presentations, I think that's one that wouldn't survive not being in the room. So I need to get Dago back on the podcast at some point to go through maybe a little more of the PowerPoint and just tell people, "Hey, go watch these scenes and you'll get a feel for that," and maybe we can put it out that way. I'm not quite sure how it will translate in the proceedings, but we'll put all the different points towards the clips there anyway. And it was just a blast. Every presenter had their own sort of home run moments, seeing Doug Russell get his magnum opus in print. We're hoping to have copies. We will have copies at some point. But getting to watch him do that, and then all the Q&As. We spend all this time putting this together. Was there anything that took you guys by surprise or challenged your assumptions or caught you off guard about this year's conference?

Five Speakers Was Too Many

Brett: Well, we talked about how many speakers we had, but in practice, the amount of speakers we had was a lot. It's more than we've had in the past. We've had years where our keynote speaker will speak twice sometimes, and we'll have a couple of speakers and a panel.

Troy: A panel at the end of the day.

Brett: This year was just like, we had so much content from so many different people. It was truly eye-opening for me to see everyone go through it and have all of this information.

Troy: Yeah. I mean, every year I'm whipping guys. "Okay, go, quick. Have a break, then get back here." And then all three of us are wandering around the venue, which is kinda like a circle. We're like, "Okay, we're going. Let's go. Everybody back in the room. Let's go." And then I find myself gotta step out after I had just about everybody introduced. I'm like, "Man, I gotta get a drink. I gotta go have a pee." And then you end up missing the first few minutes. But Nina was surprising. This is the first year she's attended and hasn't worked a table. She's not attended the last few years, and this year she was able to watch all the presenters, and that was the most surprising thing for her. She's like, "Man, this stuff is really good and engaging, even for somebody who isn't as deeply into the Freemasonry as we are." Did you have any surprising revelations there, Ken Lane, at this event?

Ken: Not surprises. It went, I thought, extraordinarily well. I thought our timing was good. Hats off to our sponsor, Occidental Lodge, for keeping everyone together. I thought having lunch where people wouldn't head off, and they could buy books. They don't have to read them, but just buy them. I saw tons of people stopping with the authors and getting books signed, so I thought everyone was out of it very happy.

Troy: Ken, your audio did drop out there. Brett, you better get your Ken hat.

Brett: Uh-oh. Ken's audio dropped out.

Troy: No, we need, yeah.

Brett: I'll have to put on my Ken hat for a second and see what I can do.

Troy: Drop your voice down a couple of octaves. So, here's the next question. What do you think we got right?

Brett: Well, it's like Ken was saying, keeping everyone together. Again, with the virtual offering, I think it's always better to have people in the room. I think the lunch was a good choice. We always have options for people who can't eat that lunch. But just keeping everyone in the building. I remember what it was like before we did it this way, and wrangling everyone back after lunch was just so difficult. I think that definitely worked out really well. We had the right ingredients for a great EFC.

Troy: Yeah. You know, too many speakers. Five is too many. And I realize that now. You guys don't necessarily know, but I declined one well-known and one a little less well-known speaker that had really good presentations and wanted to come and present. And I was so tempted to be like, "We could do six." God, am I glad we didn't do six. I think the biggest complaint I heard is that there wasn't enough time for fellowship during the day, 'cause there wasn't. We were whipping everybody, "Go and come back. There's no break. Let's go." And the lunch, we were supposed to take maybe 30, 40 minutes, and we weren't that long. The lunch was ready. We pounded it down, and then it was like, "Okay, let's go."

Authors, Books, and the Book Table

Troy: I know the other thing we did different that I think we should repeat is, this year we had more published authors maybe with more books in print than ever, thanks to Lon. And Josef is no slouch, and if he comes back again for other years, he'll have three or four more books every year until he's dead. He was telling me how much he's already got in the pipeline. It's staggering how much this man has done. His books are awfully big, but he still has to translate all that or write commentary and stuff. There's just a huge amount of material.

Brett: When I got to talk to him about it, the way he describes it is like, "So you know me, I repair pinball machines in my spare time. He writes books. That's what he likes to do. It's a hobby."

Troy: Yeah, he's got hypergraphia. Part of his autism spectrum is this hypergraphia. I'm always joking with him that many cult leaders, new religious movement cult leaders, have hypergraphia too. So I wonder when he's gonna come out with his own Masonic adjacent religious system. The other thing I think we got right was the book table, 'cause I think we sold way more count of books and certainly more dollars in books than we've ever done. And I have a formal relationship now with Lewis Masonic, and I'm working with Macoy as well. I think there's more Masonic books in print, but I think the authors we had this year were a huge part of that.

Ken: I think if we can line up the speakers earlier and kinda advertise them, get the books in early and have a pre-sale.

Troy: Yeah, that's for sure. I tried this year, but I don't have the reach on my social media. It would be better to put out an organized email like 60 days in advance and say, "Hey, we're about to order a buttload of books. How would you like 15% off across the board?" And even on other stuff from the same suppliers that you aren't even being featured, you could order and get a discount rather than buying through Amazon, and support your local book event. And if you wanna support the local bookseller, you could do worse than going to Edge of the Circle Books. Robert Anderson there is a friend of the conference. He hasn't been to the conference. He's gotta run his store all the time, but we were there with Lon DuQuette, and he was ecstatic to see Lon, and Lon signed. So if you want another Lon book, or stuff that we didn't have at the conference, and you live in the Seattle area, go down to Robert Anderson's Edge of the Circle bookstore at 45th and, what is that, Roosevelt? 45th and Roosevelt roughly, in the U District, and go buy signed Lon books at retail. Just go see Robert, and there may be future items that you see at the EFC that will be carried at Robert's bookstore.

Brett: Yeah, it's a block away from the old Neptune Theater.

Troy: Yeah, great spot, close to the University Lodge where we used to spend time.

Why People Keep Coming Back

Troy: How is this different than other Masonic events? Why do the people who come to this event keep coming back, right? This year it felt like two-thirds of the attendees have been before. So why is it that people keep re-attending this event? Do you think...

Brett: It reaffirms the value that we give, and sort of the speakers, the high bar that we try to reach for, getting this information to everyone. When everyone comes here, we have a couple of repeat attendees that are from out of state, not from the states that we even market to. There's a Mason that always comes out from Helena, Montana. A lot of times what I hear is there's nothing else like this, even beyond just the talks themselves. It's meeting everyone that's here and sort of coming together to exchange ideas, talk about what's going on in Freemasonry or in your neck of the woods. Or there was a brother who came this year who was showing his... He does watercolor tarot cards that he makes himself, and it was really fascinating. People really sort of just get together and share ideas, and I think that's what it's about, and it's a safe space for that.

Troy: Yeah, that's true. Ken?

Ken: I agree. I'm back to, I think the speakers were motivating. I think that they kind of talk to the people that want to be here. I think we're on that leading edge of what people are wanting to find in their Masonic experience. Most of the lodges still remain social or charitable, and they're doing things, but they're not inviting speakers in, and they're not engaging the people to really participate as a group. And the energy that we have where we're meeting people, it's almost like they're not getting that experience somewhere else. So that passion comes here, and it's great to see and kind of connect with everyone that's enjoying that. Let alone outside of the conference, we have the downtime that we do things too, the night meditation, all of that. I think it kind of builds on itself.

What We Would Do Differently

Troy: Yeah. We've gotten a little feedback, and I know we're gonna solicit some more feedback from the people who did attend. Are there things that we can be doing better? I've always wanted to do a proceedings, and now I'm gonna do a proceedings, so that's it. I'm gonna stop complaining about not doing a proceedings 'cause we're gonna do one. Okay, that aside, the other thing that I've always talked about is the practical side, right? We've had a couple of Sundays where we've done practical stuff, and people keep bringing up the same practical class, that it had something to do with candles and dead lizards and how cool that was, right? And we haven't done that again. What else could we be better at? Or what have we learned that we need to do differently in future years? Fewer speakers. Five is too many. Message received. And not enough break time during the day to converse. Okay, we're gonna make you guys get there at 8:00 instead of 10:00. Then we'll have a whole lot longer in the day, because we all know everybody's staying up way too late that Saturday night because there's no Sunday morning session. Okay. What else could we do different? What do you guys got? Anything in your pocket?

Ken: I'd like to, if we could actually coordinate with the speakers to take an afternoon flight. They all had early morning flights out, and if we could have had a breakfast, I'll say a VIP, do something where now that this is over and people are digesting the information and they're still excited and they've gotten books, if we could've gone to breakfast and done something, I think they would have loved that.

Troy: Yeah. I mean, The Gary and Dino Show, that I appeared on as Troy the Devil Man, when they do their Vegas event, there's always on the Sunday morning a breakfast of champions at a place that serves unlimited Bloody Marys and margaritas. You're already hair of the dog at 11:00 or 12:00 or 1:00, and then you spend the next three hours at an amazing Mexican place on Fremont Street getting the breakfast of champions. I would totally just steal that and be like, "Well, we'll call it the breakfast of champions." You guys have a place that we wanna do that. You know what, Ken? That's all our fault, 'cause we booked most of our guys' flights, didn't we? Maybe we could just insist if you're coming, you don't gotta be here Friday night, but you do gotta be here Sunday afternoon or Sunday morning for breakfast of champions. Maybe we should be doing that, and selling tickets.

Ken: And I would say we could do a better job at highlighting Friday too. We have meditation, we should say that the conference starts on Friday. Having Doug out has been just fantastic.

Troy: I like the meditation, but I think we could add a practical as well. So do a practical, then do a meditation. It doesn't have to be a long practical. It could be just, like Lon could have done his tarot card coloring book and talked about that, the Tarot Architect talk. He could have talked about some of the practical aspects of doing that, learning the different scales of color and different stuff. Or I could do a tarot and Qabalah class where we learn the rudiments of that sort of system or whatever. We should do a practical on a Friday night. Instead of being a one-trick pony, it could be a two-trick pony on the Friday night. And we will have Doug Russell back continuing that practice as long as he'll do it. That would be fantastic. And I don't think marching up to a different local... We've gone to different locals in the past, but I think we have a home base now. The only complaint I'd have is that they were so busy when we got there Saturday. There was hardly enough room for us. The poor waitress, she was just run off her feet. Anyway.

Brett: Yeah, I did give him the heads-up. There were other things going on that day that brought people there. That's gonna happen from time to time. But I agree. We've kind of iterated and iterated and iterated and iterated. I think we're getting really, really close on a lot of this stuff. We've done three-day events. We've done events where we have multiple Masonic things and non-Masonic things happening at the same time. We've done Sundays. We've done different types of things, and I think we're really close to honing in on what that is. I think Ken's right. I think we have this thing that is the Friday night, and I like your idea, Troy, of having a practical and the meditation. I think people would really grab onto that. It gives people time to get into town. It still can be a Friday night thing, where you do the practical and the meditation. What are we talking, two hours total or something like that?

Troy: Yeah. We're already set up and in the lodge, right? And everybody goes to bed at a reasonable time 'cause we're all responsible adults and have to get up in the morning and think. Nobody stays at the local until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning on the Friday night. That wouldn't be proper.

Brett: I know.

Ken: One out of three of us are in that category.

Brett: I don't, I wouldn't, doesn't sound like me.

Troy: Not for nothing, but the speakers always say how much the fellowship is transformative for them, and they almost always universally reach out after the fact and be like, "More of that, please." And it's just like, how much more of that can we do? You guys gotta dance monkey, dance. Stay till Monday or Tuesday. We can do more of that. Right?

Ken: You're making me think, what if we took a time and just had all of the speakers in, I'll say in our cafeteria, with their books, and we're kind of doing things in between, but why not have a whole session where people can break out and just go talk to them, sign their books, say hi, run around for a period?

Troy: Yeah, well, you know what? Maybe we need a longer lunch to do that. And the authors who aren't performing immediately, they are given their lunch early. They get first dibs. They go out and they eat while we're still in session with the one speaker. And then we set up a table with guys with their books and other stuff. The other thing I've been meaning to do for years, and we need a volunteer to take this on, is we need more vendors. We need people to come and sell their wares at our event, whether it's their self-published Masonic book or their Masonic tarot deck. We had Doug Blake a couple years ago present his tarot deck. It was brilliant. Well, why wouldn't he come and have a table with his tarot deck for sale? I don't know how many more he's got or if he would, but that's an example of the kind of stuff we should have. I've been after Marcus and Catamara, formerly of the Esoteric Book Conference. Catamara has a curio and magic shop now in Olympia, and I would just love to have them come and vend, even if it's just a few hours. But I don't know if they can afford it, right? Or how it's gonna work. I know Robert can't, 'cause he's always got the store open. But maybe he could send somebody with some inventory and just see. I don't know. I know that he doesn't like doing that, but maybe there are other vendors in the city. Maybe it's worth asking around. I think we've got the right space for it, right? The attendance was good, but we weren't bursting the room, right? I think we could still fit another 25, 30 people into this event. It might be a little tight at lunchtime, but we could still pull it off. Masons are very sociable, right? Not that all of us are Masons. If you're within the sound of my voice and you're not a Freemason, but you're curious, coming to this event will make you extra curious anyway. Yeah, I thought the programming, scheduling, venue, communication, overall experience, it was all pretty good, but we're always narrowing our focus to make it a better event.

Did EFC 2026 Create Community?

Troy: One of our ambitions this year was to build something bigger than last year, something bigger than just a weekend conference. Did EFC26 create community? Is this an event where we come away closer to the attendees than when we arrived?

Ken: Definitely.

Troy: That's kind of a yes or no question. How do you guys feel we're doing on that score? It sounds like we're doing good. Anything further?

Ken: Well, I'll start with the feedback, and my observation was that there were more people connecting with people they hadn't met or didn't know, that would just stop and talk, and just the buzz in the room got those people that wouldn't have normally come together, together.

Brett: What was cool about this event too was I feel like everyone who wanted to have a moment with that speaker got to have a moment with that speaker, right? I know people who were out just to see Lon in person, people to see Ike in person. They all got to have that moment to ask them questions and have that fanboy experience, I guess.

Troy: Yeah. No, that's fair. And it was great to share the floor with each of those guys. I feel like at the beginning of each Q&A, I got to have a moment and ask a question. I'm getting more confident as a presenter and a podcaster too. I feel like standing with these guys, it's a peer relationship. I haven't talked to Dago. Have you guys talked to Dago yet?

Brett: I talked to Diego. He was just over the moon with everything. He had a great time. It was his first time up here. I told him to come a little bit early so he could get some of his touristy stuff out of the way too, and he did. He got to go down to the Space Needle, see a couple of things, and I think he went to the EMP Museum.

Troy: Yes, he did. He was saying that. I asked him if he went to the Chihuly exhibit, 'cause I think that's the most impressive thing in Seattle, and that's what I tell everybody who's coming, if you wanna go see... Although, if you're into pop music more than you are glass art, I grew up watching PBS, so for me it's Chihuly wall-to-wall, but I also enjoy the Experience Music Project.

Brett: Well, have you been to the Glass Museum in Tacoma? I think that one is better.

Troy: Is more impressive. I've always wanted to go, but it's in Tacoma, so.

Brett: It is very impressive, and they actually do glassblowing there. And it's also a lot more inexpensive than the one in Seattle is, so.

Troy: I've always done the one in Seattle, and I don't know what it is about Tacoma. I had a car accident in Tacoma once, and so getting off the freeway in Tacoma is not on my list of things to do. I'm trying to get through to Olympia or Portland, if I'm coming through Tacoma.

Brett: It's much larger, it's much more interactive. It's got a lot going on.

Troy: And they've got an outdoor space too, right? There's a river and a bridge and a bunch of other stuff. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what? Maybe we'll do it with some speakers next year.

Planning EFC 2027

Troy: So okay, we could start planning EFC27 tomorrow. This is a silly question 'cause we're already planning it. Knowing everything that we know, what are we doing differently next year? I think we're gonna do a practical on the Friday night now, and I think we're gonna do an author feature at lunch in the lunch room and have the authors maybe set up at a couple of tables so that people can line up and get their book signed and have a moment with the author in an organized fashion. Okay, sold. What else we doing differently?

Brett: Breakfast of champions.

Troy: Breakfast of champions. Listen to you guys. Steal it. We'll steal the name. I'll just go and beg forgiveness from The Gary and Dino Show.

Brett: I feel like that breakfast of champions has been used in more than a few places.

Troy: Yes. Yes. But I think the implication is there has to be drinking. Maybe not everybody has to be drinking, but there has to be an opportunity for drinking, maybe bottomless drinking. I don't know, does that...

Brett: A good time, Troy.

Troy: Maybe we bring our own bottle or I don't know. Maybe we'll see how that goes. What else are we doing? I know the speakers we're talking to would be maybe more research academic oriented, but I still feel like that group of speakers that we've got in mind, once we confirm them and announce them, would be taking us in a slightly different direction, but still a positive direction.

Ken: I think it's that balance. Everything that you're talking about, we wanna have a serious time where we can have great speakers, we wanna have social time. You have to have a little downtime where they can just relax. So, kind of hitting all of those aspects where they can engage, do everything. It's the experience, and I agree with Brett. It's that coming together is the biggest part of what brings people back and is attractive with our conference.

Troy: What do you guys think about doing a salon, having an event somewhere where we all dress up and get together and maybe powwow with people who are serious about this event and get feedback from them maybe directly? What do you guys think about doing something like that? I know you guys do a lot of socials at Esoterica and Occidental Lodge. Maybe we could just co-opt one of those.

Brett: One thing I do wanna mention about planning and what to do differently, by virtue of having fewer speakers, it reintroduces the idea of the panel at the end. I think we always do a panel for a lot of reasons, but it was obvious to me this year, having it missing, what was missing in that, and that is the ability, when the speakers go and they talk about this very specific thing, people ask about this very specific thing for the Q&A session. The nice thing about the panel is it sort of opens things up to have all of these speakers possibly talk about some problems facing a lot of Masons that may not be exactly what they came to talk about, but it has this sort of relating effect that gets people to really feel like they're on the level with everybody else and collaborate on ideas and ask some hard questions about Freemasonry in the country right now, right?

Troy: Yeah, yeah. And I think more interaction between the attendees and the speakers is paramount, right? I don't think any amount of pub time after would ever be enough, right? It's such a good time after. This year I was just absolutely worn down to nothing. Those are the ravages of getting old too, right? You can't party like you used to. And since I fell and broke my femur and had that hypoxic brain injury afterwards, I'm feeling of an age where I just can't go, go, go anymore. It might have also been having Lon there and Nina there, being responsible for a couple other people. Look, I've enjoyed every minute I've spent with you guys, even the times where we're at variance or at disagreement. We would never have had occasion to meet. I was at the Esoteric Book Conference with Gerrity and Harris for years. I remember meeting them, but we never really struck up a conversation until we started gathering at Esoterica, you know what I mean? Even though I had met those guys way before I'd met any of you guys, it was Freemasonry that brought us together. And people should remember those things when they're at home and lonely on a Thursday night, or at their local bar drowning their sorrows. There's better things to do with yourself. Come and join us and find out.

Ken: Get a photo in the Olaf's doorway.

Troy: Yes. Or come to our event and buy some books. You don't have to read them, but if you put them on your bookshelf in a certain way, friends might think you're some sort of weirdo, which is good. You want your friends to think you're a weirdo. Promise. Gentlemen, have you got anything else? Brothers, secretaries, anything further on your desks?

Brett: Yeah, how many secretaries you have in this room? Ken counts as, like, six, I think.

Troy: Yes.

Ken: Nothing further on my desk. No, I think the conference went really, really well. I think there are things to take away. I would be curious, one of the questions to ask people is if they're gonna buy things, what form do they normally pay? Just so that we can try to cover bases or have a common platform we can tell them in advance. Try to make it easier for them.

Troy: Yes.

Brett: Yeah, I think of this event like, when I was doing experimental nuclear physics, right? It's a lot easier to say what something is not than what it is, you know? And I feel like we've had this big space of what this event is, and we've been honing in and honing in and honing in and honing in. And I feel like we're almost there. We almost have it. There'll always be iterations, but we're getting really, really close to what this is, you know?

Rituals, Recruiting, and a New Word

Troy: Yeah. I like that example. Well, thank you guys for helping me do this. I get the impression we could talk all night, but nobody's got time for that. Nobody'll listen to that. And by the time I edit out my rantings, we'll be back down to the ideal 45 minutes that we need for this podcast. And thank you very much for letting me take my own podcast on a rant just now. That was really nice of you. If you're unsure of what I'm referring to, I edit out a huge block of a rant at the end of this interview, and I put it behind the paywall. So if you wanna hear it, you gotta go pay for my Patreon. You bum. Stop being on the bum and taking this for free, and go pay for it. Speaking of which, for members, we're gonna be doing a five-minute ritualist class starting at the end of November. I'm gonna be teaching people how to be good at ritual like me. Of course, the last time I had to do any ritual at an installation, back in the spring, I failed miserably, and I just realized that I can no longer brute force ritual because I'm old now. So I learned this system that Brother Kim March was kind enough to publish a number of years ago, and when he was on the podcast in the spring, he talked about it. I've got a number of copies of the book. You don't have to read the book, but please buy the book. And come to my five-minute ritualist class, which we'll be doing sometime between now and Christmas. We're also doing three showings of Join or Die, the documentary about Dr. Robert Putnam, and we will be openly soliciting members of the public and seekers to come to that and express their interest in joining the craft. This might be the first time I've ever openly recruited. And I'm using past Grand Master Ken Christopherson's idea of proper solicitation of friends, as opposed to improper solicitation of friends, to justify it. Something's gotta give. We gotta do something here. Brethren, this was such a joy and a pleasure.

Brett: Well, I was hoping, Ken, I was really hoping that I taught Troy a new word while he was down here, but I didn't hear him use it. He was so excited because he learned a new word in conversation. Do you remember what that word was, Troy?

Troy: I don't. What word was that?

Brett: Orthogonal.

Troy: Yes. Orthogonal. What the hell does that mean?

Brett: It means at a 90-degree angle. I was like, "Oh, we have these orthogonal sort of interests." And Troy was like, "Whoa, what does that mean?"

Troy: At a 90-degree angle. I like that.

Ken: And Brett told you that he learned a new word.

Troy: What's that?

Brett: No. It's no, Troy.

Troy: Oh, have I been asking you to do too much? I thought it was all the other Freemasons that ask you to do too much. I don't think I ask very much of you. Maybe I should ask more. I'm gonna keep asking. I got 214 pages of a transcript to edit, Brett. Would you get on that?

Brett: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know, right?

Ken: And he said...

Troy: That was a no. That was a no. It's in your inbox now.

Ken: The second word is...

Brett: It's you, Ken. That's on you.

Ken: It's no effing way.

Troy: No, there ain't no effing way. I learned a new word the other day watching an old Ally McBeal episode. Avuncular. Do you know what avuncular means? Having to do with being an uncle. Isn't the English language fantastic? I learned a new word last night, jocularity, which means fun and frivolous and joking.

Brett: But he didn't remember orthogonal? Come on.

Troy: 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. 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 masonicconferences.com. Upcoming classes and events will all be listed on the Mystic Tye Show calendar, including upcoming five-minute ritualist classes, tarot and Qabalah classes, and super-secret in-person listener gatherings. Make sure to sign up for our regular newsletter updates at mystictye.com. The Vancouver Lodge of Education and Research will be presenting some screenings of the documentary Join or Die, about the life and work of Bowling Alone author Dr. Robert Putnam. Join myself and co-host Right Worshipful Brother Shaun Turner as we lead a discussion following the screenings. Doors at 6:30 PM, film at 7:00 PM. Popcorn provided. Saturday, November 14th at North Shore Masonic Center, Saturday, November 28th at New Westminster Masonic Center, and Saturday, December 5th at Vancouver Masonic Center. Details posted soon on mystictye.com. Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference 2027 is being planned right now. Speakers and advanced tickets will be announced soon at esotericmasonry.com. Graphics and web hosting are by Art Szabo Creative. A special thanks to Organist for our theme music. Happy to meet, sorry to part, and happy to meet again.