Masonic Temple

So Crowley came to Detroit in 1919, and according to his journals, he thought Detroit at that time was the spot he was gonna start the New Aeon of Horus.

And this is before the lodge, and his idea was to create a Masonic temple that was gonna incorporate all the different branches of the Masons, and he, for all intents and purposes, was gonna be the leader.

So that's where the initial idea for the lodge that encompasses all the different sects, 'cause that's what initi- eventually was to be built, came into fruition.

Uh, that said, before Crowley got to that point, uh, th- he started, they started having, uh...

Yeah, th- the, yeah, these are awesome.

Yeah.

I'll just let it loop back through again, but it says, "The Knights Templar guard Detroit's Masonic Temple.

They are the largest sculptures in Detroit, perched at the top of the largest Masonic temple in the world.

But yeah, I don't think I could.

I stayed in the Masonic Temple near the castle for the first two years.

We slept on the floor of a Masonic Temple when we were students.

That was a good accommodation.

It was cheap.

It was good.

Have you ever been in the Masonic Temple up there? Any Masons in? We found, like, they hid most of their stuff away, but they had, like, a TARDIS in the basement.

It was very exciting.

He knew my dad.

my dad passed and my dad here's the other thing my dad passed in 2012 so hashtag I had like I was using the dead dad card a little bit like I wasn't using it but it did work out because he knew my dad and liked my dad and was like you know I'll sell this to you and I was like okay great and he was like oh by the way the lot comes with the property in the back which is a 7,000 square foot old Masonic temple and I was like wait, what? So I've owned this Masonic temple now for a few years.

And, um, I've been kind of like what, you know, what could be done with this Masonic temple, but I just don't have the extra time, money or energy, honestly, to invest in what I could possibly do to it.

And so I just through having conversations with the local library, they were like, we're in a 300 square foot room.

We would love to make this, you know, our home.

It's so ridiculous.

Like I like when I go somewhere and people like introduce me, I never know how they're going to introduce me.

Am I an author? Am I an agent? Am I a bookstore owner? Am I the owner of this like Masonic temple that they're intrigued by? Aren't you

Give us an update, and then we'll start diving into some more of the things that you guys at Knoxville History Project have going on.

An update on the Masonic Temple.

I think last time you were here, there was some concern that that building might be lost at some point.

Yeah, and a month ago, though, I think there was a lot of hope that there were people within the Masonic organization, and I talked to several of them, and they said they didn't want to tear the building down, but apparently a few people do, and they're powerful, and they're not talking.

stay around? It's one of the oldest buildings downtown.

For a city that claims to date back to 1791, we have only, seven or so buildings that are from the first 80 or 90 years and that's one of them and that's a shame in itself but it's also the first known building by Joseph Bowman who founded Bowman and Bowman and later Bowman Brothers that was the actually Bowman Brothers was first but they were that was our first real architecture firm so that was it's an interesting story because he found it Joseph Bowman built the house and his much younger brother A.B.

Bowman built redesigned it as a Masonic temple.

He was a member of the Masonic organization.

It has connections with Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, even Jewish mysticism, Merkava mysticism, that sort of thing.

So there was that idea that a Masonic temple was the recreation of Solomon's temple.

But then when Mackie gets involved... then Mackey draws in all of these other associations, including references to Lucifer and Satan and everything, that suddenly turned that kind of masonry into something else entirely.

Of course, he also brought in the Knights Templar, which was already being brought in by the French, and they were trying to show an association with the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.

All we're doing is we're teaching ethics and morality.

And I always stop at that point and I say to myself, well, do you mean to say then that the church is not teaching ethics and morality? Why would you need another group teaching ethics and morality if everyone who belongs to Freemasonry has to believe in one God? That's a requirement.

There's a book of the law in every Masonic temple, which the book of the law in a Christian country is the Bible.

Or it could be the Torah.

... is I never saw Michael Jackson live.

Um, so number two is I saw Prince on the 1999 tour at, at, at, uh, Masonic Temple.

He was u- Bro, he's unbelievable.

He's unbelievable.

So those are my top five.

Run-DMC is number one, '86.

Number two, Prince 1999 Tour in, um, Masonic Temple.

Three is Al Green.

At the keyboard, we're so pleased that we were able to get this fine recording for you, our listeners, of this privileged night that we all enjoyed.

So let's listen to Edsel Gomez and his quartet coming to you from the Sag Harbor Wailing Museum, and that is the top floor, which is the Masonic Temple in downtown Sag Harbor Village, New York.

One of our most admired and beloved composers, pianists from our island, Puerto Rico, where I come from.

It's Noro Morales.

I went to a Phoenix show one time.

It was at the Masonic Temple.

And you would have thought that the enemy invaded the whole arena.

Because