Ben shares the Grand Oration he was honored to deliver at the Grand Sessions of the Grand Lodge of Colorado in January of 2019 on the History and Significance of the Cornerstone Ceremony. Drawing on historical source material, Ben shows the remnants of an ancient, magical tradition exist in the modern ceremony performed today. 

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Ben relays an account of the last time the Jehovah's Witnesses attempted to proselytize him while living in Norwood, Colorado (a small rural town on Colorado's Western Slope), an interesting theological discussion concerning the "hypostatic union." Continuing the religious theme, Ben discusses the importance of the Masonic obligation and relays a Kabbalistic parable. 

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Drawing from historical  newspapers of the day and direct witness testimony surrounding the shootout at the OK Corral (not least testimony given by Wyatt Earp himself), Ben discusses the life and times of this most famous gunfighter, John "Doc" Holliday.

Doc Holliday is rumored to have attended Lodge in Trinidad, CO, Leadville, CO, and Glenwood Springs, CO.  Wyatt and Virgil Earp are said to have been members. (The square and compasses is displayed in various scenes in the movie Tombstone, for example). These rumors have, however, never been substantiated.

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Bro. Mark Stavish is a respected authority on Western spiritual traditions. The author of 26 books, published in 7 languages, including The Path of Alchemy and Kabbalah for Health and Wellness, he is the founder and director of the Institute for Hermetic Studies and the Louis Claude de St. Martin Fund. He has appeared on radio shows, television, and in major print media, including Coast to Coast AM, the History Channel, BBC, and the New York Times.

The Institute for Hermetic Studies offers practical learning for anyone interested in Western and Eastern mystery systems and, ultimately, the discovery of their own true nature.

Learn more at the Institute for Hermetic Studies on line at http://www.hermeticinstitute.org/.

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In this episode, Ben reviews the history of the discovery of the longitude - a problem that  vexed humanity for a millennium. Eventually solved by John Harrison, who spent the majority of his life on the problem, the solution of the longitude marks an important moment in social history when mankind ceased to look to the majesty of nature for external inspiration, and instead turned his attention to the mechanisms of his own contrivance. This symbolic shift from the natural to the manmade represents the ascendency of the empirical method, the coming of the modern age, and the emergence of the Anthropocene. But also, perhaps, the loss of something much larger. 

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Drawing on detailed sources arising from the investigation into the disappearance of William Morgan, Ben presents the facts surrounding this remarkable and disturbing event in the history of the Fraternity. 

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In this episode Ben interviews R.W. Bro. Kevin Townley, Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Colorado. R.W. Bro. Kevin has a varied and interesting past - in his teens he joined a monastery and became a Carmelite monk. Later he would be a founding member of the Philosophers of Nature in the United States. He is the author of The Cube of Space and Meditations on the cube of Space. He also reprinted a faithful reproduction of H.P. Bromwell's impressive tome, Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbolry. R.W. Bro. Kevin has been a student and teacher of the Western Mystery Tradition for nearly 40 years.

Kevin offers insights into a spiritual awakening arising in Masonry. He discusses the desire of new members for meaning in Masonry, beyond the quotidian. He discusses the importance of the rite of initiation in impressing subtle truths on the candidate to become more in Masonry.

Find R.W. Bro. Kevin's books available online at: https://kevintownley.com/

Three books R.W. Bro. Kevin recommends to the attention of the curious student:

The Meaning of Masonry, by Walter Leslie Wilmhurst
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=meaning+of+masonry&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Masonic Initiaiton, by Walter Leslie Wilmhurst
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=masonic+initiation&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Initiation, Human and Solar
https://www.amazon.com/Initiation-Human-Solar-Alice-Bailey/dp/0853301107

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In this episode Ben reviews a complaint stuck to the door of Norwood Lodge No. 111, posted by an anonymous anti-mason, and shows, among other important misreadings of a quintessential Masonic tome, the importance of commas.

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Ben presents on the several reasons why the Larmenius Charter, purporting to relay an unbroken, secret transmission of Templar Grand Masters from Jaques Demolay to Cossé Brissac, Duke of Orleans, is believed by most credible experts to be a fake probably forged by the dubious Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat, or his associates, in the early 19th Century.

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In this episode, Ben Williams relays the story of one of history's most legendary and ingenious deceptions - Bro. Wolfgang von Kempelen's chess playing automaton. For more than a century, this ingenious illusion - perhaps the fist "cabinet illusion" ever devised - was the talk of Enlightenment court. 

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