Fifty episodes. For this milestone we do things a little differently, in two parts.

First, Troy sits down with his fellow organizers Brett Wolfe and Ken Lane for a quick update on the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference 2026, coming to Ballard, Seattle on September 19th. The lineup is the strongest yet: keynote Lon Milo DuQuette in person, plus Ike Baker, Dago Rodriguez of Fraternal Review, Josef Wäges, and Doug Russell, with lunch once again courtesy of the brethren of Occidental Lodge No. 72. Tickets are at esotericmasonry.com, and if you cannot make it, buy a ticket anyway and call it a donation.

Then the tables are turned. Art Szabo, the designer behind all of the Mystic Tye artwork, takes over the microphone and puts Troy in the guest chair. They cover the road that led here: a small-town bookstore in Powell River, a Golden Dawn paperback lost on a train and returned ten years later with the bookplate still inside, discovering Aleister Crowley's The Book of Lies in a New Westminster bookshop, initiations and Gnostic Masses between Vancouver and Seattle, and the path into the craft at Duke of Connaught Lodge, where Troy now serves as District Deputy Grand Master for District 17.

They also get into why a podcast at all (a certain talk radio host is to blame), what fifty conversations with authors and scholars have changed about Troy's own practice, and where this is all going: a monthly online class on the rudiments of tarot and Kabbalah, in-person salons for supporters in the Lower Mainland, a published proceedings collecting ten years of EFC talks, and a community for Freemasons drawn to the contemplative side of the craft.

Books mentioned in this episode

The Book of Lies and The Book of the Law, Aleister Crowley
A Garden of Pomegranates and The Golden Dawn, Israel Regardie
The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford and The Tarot Architect, Lon Milo DuQuette
The Templar Revelation, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince

Coming up on The Mystic Tye: EFC keynote Brother Lon Milo DuQuette, and Brother Ike Baker previews his talk at the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference.