The Three Working Tools of the Kabbalist, with Bro. Lon Milo DuQuette

Two weeks before the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference, Bro. Lon Milo DuQuette, author, magician, Freemason, and one of Troy’s own longtime teachers, joins the show to preview his Seattle keynote. Lon is coming in person, and at 78 he has a pretty good argument for why you should be there too.

The talk is the three working tools of the Kabbalist, from his book The Tarot Architect: the divine name, the Tree of Life, and the cube of space, treated the way a Mason treats the square and compasses, as tools for building your own spiritual temple. Lon starts with the rough and perfect ashlars and makes the case that a perfect stone has to do more than look perfect: it has to be a working miniature model of the whole universe. His image for it is a giant tuning fork. If the Great Architect is a B flat, your job is to true yourself into a little B flat and let the sympathetic vibration do the rest. The Temple of Solomon, in that light, is a house built to the proportions of God. Tarot cards are the flashcards of the Kabbalah, and Kabbalistic study is, in Lon’s words, a cosmic lube job. You will be lubricated.

Troy asks whether this is material a lodge should already be teaching, which gets Lon onto the Kabbalah classes he gave for his Scottish Rite bodies in Long Beach, the way a Blue Lodge’s character changes with every Master and every Grand Master, and the big tent. Troy adds his own hobby horse about brothers who claim every concordant body as Freemasonry and then insist there is no esotericism in it. Lon’s answer: Masonry makes a good man better, and even the man who is not as good as we’d like would be worse without it. The magic works whether you want it to or not.

Also in this episode: Gary and Dino, the Kwisatz Haderach, and the rumoured spring reappearance of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford; Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, and why an EFC ticket works out to eight dollars a speaker; the sober table in the corner of the Ballard pub; Lon’s novel Young Aleister Crowley, written with filmmaker Jim Brickowski, still the number one new release in teen and young adult fantasy since June; the expanded Chicken Qabalah coming from Weiser Classics in December, with a newly surfaced deathbed lecture and the Jehovah talisman class; the expanded Homemade Magick from Red Feather in October and Accidental Christ in spring 2027; the black wax Round Table of Nalvage that turned an oven into an eternal flame; and three days at Joshua Tree next spring with Magical Retreats.

Bring your tarot deck. Any 78-card deck will do. Bring your rare unsigned editions too.

Books mentioned in this episode

The Tarot Architect, Lon Milo DuQuette
The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, Lon Milo DuQuette (expanded Weiser Classics edition, December 2026)
Young Aleister Crowley, Lon Milo DuQuette and Jim Brickowski (novel, June 2026, also on audio)
Homemade Magick, Lon Milo DuQuette (expanded Red Feather edition, October 2026)
Accidental Christ, Lon Milo DuQuette (Red Feather reissue, spring 2027)
The Magick of Aleister Crowley, Lon Milo DuQuette (Weiser Classics)
My Life with the Spirits, Lon Milo DuQuette

Coming up on The Mystic Tye: the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference, Saturday September 19th, Ballard, Seattle. Keynote by Lon Milo DuQuette, with Ike Baker, Doug Russell, Dago Rodriguez, and Josef Wäges. Fifty dollars, lunch included. Tickets at esotericmasonry.com.