A little while ago, I was driving past the local Masonic Temple. And I saw a really cool banner in front of the building. The Masons (which are a group of men who belong to a sort of mysterious society) announced that they were holding public tours of their “temple.”

And of course, I jumped at the chance to look around inside. I mean, c’mon! The building has a couple of sphinxes out front. And you never see people coming or going out the front entrance. So I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

On my guided tour, I learned a lot about this secretive organization:

1. The Masons are featured in Dan’s Brown’s new book, “The Lost Symbol”
2. The organization has a lot of money … and influence
3. A ton of famous people have been members (including many musicians)

But one of the most interesting things I learned as I walked through their temple is that the Masons like music. And I mean a lot. In one of the rooms, there was this weird stairway that led up to the second floor. And each step was labeled with a different word.

From the bottom to the top, the Masons had painted the terms: hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting, grammar, rhetoric,logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Candidates in the society climb the steps in special ceremonies to symbolize their increasing knowledge of human understanding. (Oh, yeah—it’s heavy stuff, man.)

Above mathematics—and even astronomy—is music! And naturally, I say, “no doubt.” Because it’s probably true. Anyway if anyone asks, I guess we can say it’s official … music is really more important than the universe itself. (After all, the Masons said so….)