041. Author, Mason and Brain Melter Robert W. Sullivan IV, Michael Phillip

LISTEN.      I remember it well- the first time I heard the phrase “Freemason”.  Sure, it came from an uneducated mouth at a college party, but it was enough to make me rush to Google for enlightenment.  My 20-year-old brain couldn’t believe what it had read.  Masons seemed to be a real-life shadowy cabal of powerful men linked to basically every major event that lead to the establishment of the United States.  It's well known that George Washington, Ben Franklin and and a slew of other founding fathers we worship were members of this secretive fraternal order shrouded in creepy symbols, weird phrases and secret handshakes.  How could I NOT have known this?  Then I came across the claims that masons were devil worshipers, prayed to idols and practiced black magic.                                                                         (OMG THEY'RE TOTES WATCHING US RIGHT NOW) After a couple of months of being sufficiently freaked out, I gained enough reliably sourced knowledge to see that the truth (as usual) lay somewhere in the middle.  No, “they” don’t orchestrate world events, worship the devil, or practice black magic (I don’t think).  So what do they do?  Well, a lot of it has to do with networking.   Imagine yourself in the year 17-hundred-and-something.  You’re an English well-to-do sort and you’re about 310 years short of Linkedin being a thing.  Wouldn’t you want to belong to an exclusive, secretive club of like-minded men? Of course, there’s more to it than just the fraternal aspect.  There’s real ancient knowledge linked to a wide variety of cultures from Europe to Asia and everything in between.  Today’s masons are some of the few that continue to communicate these transcendent truths through the powerful vessels of myth, drama, allegory and initiation.  Even Linkedin can't do that (yet).                             Robert Sullivan IV comes from a long line of masons, so the craft is in his blood.  He himself has received the 32nd degree (the highest you can earn).  The sum of his nearly 20 years of toil is his book, the Royal Arch of Enoch.  Within which, he thoroughly dissects how ancient mysteries, ceremonies, sages and even astral bodies have influenced the very foundation America was built upon. In this cast, Robert sums up much of the knowledge from his book, his masonic studies and beyond.  He evokes dozens of historical figures, locales and philosophies and modern day depictions that will have you writing furiously as you struggle to keep your brain from melting.   Strap in.  Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes! P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!