Esoterica In Freemasonry Day 1

You should be here

I arrived in Seattle at about 5:00PM, and checked into my room at the Ballard Inn. What a funky little place! It’s nice, but it’s strange. My room isn’t connected to the lobby, rather it’s in the back of the building, and my door opens directly on to the sidewalk. A bit odd, and tiny, but comfortable.

Ballard Inn

Photo by Enache Georgiana on Unsplash

So I got here, and it was a little early to go to the Lodge, and Melinda didn’t feed me lunch, so I went off on a wander, in search of food. Man needs food dammit! So my wanders took me to a most excellent steak house! Actually the place is just about outside of my hotel room door.

Asadero Prime

Holy smokes they cook a fine steak.

Of course, I had a wee bit of trouble getting it. I wander in, the joint is packed with people and loud. No worries, I snag a seat at the bar.

Bartender hands me some lucite thing with a QR code, says it’s the menu.

I says, ‘hey bartender dude, I’s from Lewis County, we don’t believe in no technology. We’s a bunch of Luddites, I don’t know how to operate this nonsense.’

He say’s, ‘No worries, I’ll get you a paper menu.’

I says, ‘That’s good, otherwise I gotta get my banjo and go all Deliverance on your ass.’

So he gets me a paper menu.

Trouble is, I didn’t have my glasses, so I couldn’t read the damn thing. Couldn’t even read the headings.

‘Tis OK, I says, ‘What would you get?’

He tells me, I say ‘Sounds good to me.’

He orders me a steak, and damn that thing was good. Comes out still cooking, on a super hot rock, the rock placed on a large chunk of wood. I drag it off the rock, start carvin’ and eatin.’ Superb! But the rock is so hot, half an hour later I’m still getting a sunburn on my face from the thing.

I’d only seen food cooked like that in Mexico City before.

Anywhoo, superb dinner.

Then I’m off to the Lodge.

The Devil Man is channeling Lon Milo Duquette, says ‘Hey Grand Master Dude, you don’t have to read the books, but you have to buy the books, otherwise we are going to go broke on this deal.’

Scholomance Project

So, I buy three books. One about psychedelics, one about Tarot, and one about Crowley. It’s all good.

Then it’s time to wander into the Lodge Room.

Now for the serious stuff…

A brother from the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and the Yukon goes through some of their work, pointing out the similarities and the differences between their work and ours. Good stuff!

But then the highlight of the evening begins. Brother Jaime Paul Lamb leads us on a meditative, upward quest through the orbits of the seven planets known to the ancients, with ritualistic use of incense and music. It was a completely unique and wonderful experience. If you missed it, you missed something truly amazing.

Jaime Paul Lamb

I met Brother Lamb at last year’s conference, and I’ve got to say, he is a truly delightful Freemason, and a superb speaker. His presentation tonight was well worth the entire conference admission.

But, the serious stuff ended…

So we hit dive bar number 1. I can’t remember what on earth it was called, but the important thing is they had plenty of Jack Daniels.

Then we hit dive bar number 2. Olaf’s. Interesting place Olaf’s. I’m pretty sure that it has a hallway designed to resemble a rather interesting part of the female anatomy. Anywhoo, we got a pic in front of it, of course. And they had plenty of whiskey.

The point of all this is…

You should be here!

This is the very finest of Masonic education, the very finest of Masonic fellowship.

I learned a lot this evening, and I had a wonderful time. Isn’t that what Freemasonry is all about?

You can come tomorrow. It begins at 9:00AM, Occidental Masonic Temple in Ballard. You can buy a ticket at the door.

Esotericism In Freemasonry Conference

Trust me, if you are in the area, you don’t want to miss this!