THE LODGE OF IMHOTEP : TEMPLE OF THE KA

In Pharaonic Egypt, everything revolves around the KA.
The KA represents the immaterial double of the being. This is the counterpart of the self, a self from the depths.
The KA is the universal force which in man becomes the energizing body, the "astral body".
KHNOUM, the Divine Potter, shaped man and his KA.

The Rite of mummification, invented by ANUBIS, the Chief of the Western Mountain,
impacts on the KA and prevents it from dissolving in the hereafter, the DOUAT.
Dying is known as "Going to one's KA".
For the Egyptians, to die is to be reborn.

The first conscious external expression beyond the physical body in the astral body was named "Second birth",
because he who thus externalizes himself consciously leaves the physical body,
just as he left the physical body of his mother at the time of his physical birth.
He leaves his physical body astrally and this exit is a birth into the spiritual world.
Pharaoh, the living Horus, will reign again, after his death and by his KA, over a parallel Egypt.

The Temple of PTAH is inhabited by the divine KA which there ensures the real presence of the Neter.

In ancient Egyptian initiations, Initiation always intended to purify morally the initiate and,
being the chief way of making moral ideas perceptible and giving them a material representation,
moral purification was generally represented as material purification by means of the four Elements.

In ancient Egypt, the postulant for the Mysteries had to crawl through long
and vast underground passages before entering the great halls of the crypt.
This was the ordeal of the Earth.
He was then required to undergo the ordeals of Fire, Water and Air,
the Four Elements of the Hermetists.
We can hardly imagine modern followers undergoing such treatment ......
They would accuse the Masters of mental cruelty!
Initiation to the first degree, the one that opens the access to Freemasonry,
includes symbolic rites: the five journeys of the Entered Apprentice.

We propose to novices an exercise to purify the elements, give health to your Djet (ethereal body)
and keep miasma and disease away from your Khat (physical body).

Stand mentally between the two Pillars of the Temple (in this exercise there is no mirror)
and become aware of your spinal column and your head.
Your spinal column will be transformed into a third central pillar.
This third pillar represents consciousness (MAAT),
the Middle Way between opposites symbolized by the Pillars of OSIRIS (evolution) and SETH (involution).

You are going to call forth the Great Master of the Lodge:
IMHOTEP, Vizier, Architect and Doctor of the Pharaoh DJESER.
The Egyptians immortalized him for having been the architect of the Step Pyramid of Saqqarah.
He was deified during the Saitic period and was held to be the fruit of the union of PTAH and SEKHMET.

Visualize the Master IMHOTEP as a priest with a shaven head,
seated and holding on his lap an open scroll of papyrus.
Pronounce the following Invocation:

"As it was in Memphis, let it be so now.
Hail to you, Neter the Lion-heart, Imhotep, son of Ptah!
Come into your dwelling, your Temple of Memphis,
May your believers see you with joy.
I knock at the door of Mystery.
May SEKHMET, the Guardian of the Threshold,
be gentle with your servant."

Try to feel the presence of the Master IMHOTEP, call him with your mind:
the Master PTAHMOSE stands by his side.
Relax. Eliminate all tension from your physical body.
Also remove any emotional and mental tension so that earthly problems
and troubles are no longer active in your consciousness.
Take on the posture of the KA: both arms raised.
Repeat the Invocation four times:

"SEKHEM EN I-EM-HETEP!".

Visualize a sphere of white light above your head.

Now visualize a priest of Hapi:
he is dressed in a priestly alb of ultramarine;
on his face he wears a ritual mask representing a head of a baboon;
in his left hand he holds the scepter of WAS, in the right the ANKH.
Say the invocation four times:

"SEKHEM EN AH-AH-PEE!"

Identify yourself with the element AIR... Call forth in your mind the god SHOU.
Ask him mentally to purify your mind, let him free it from false ideas,
so that eternal knowledge may be inscribed in you.
The white light will flow from the head and create a second sphere at the level of the throat.

Now visualize a priest of AMSET:
he is dressed in a priestly alb of red;
on his face he wears a ritual mask representing Pharaoh's funeral mask;
in his hands he holds the WAS and the ANKH.
Say the invocation four times:

"SEKHEM EN AAM-SET!"

Identify yourself with the element FIRE... Call forth in your mind the god RA.
Ask him mentally to consume your conceits and the entities which feed them
and to direct all your being towards the Divine.
The white light descends to the solar plexus and creates a third sphere of brightness.

Now visualize a priest of KHEBSENOUF:
he is dressed in a priestly alb of white;
on his face he wears a ritual mask representing a head of a falcon;
in his hands he holds the WAS and the ANKH.
Say the invocation four times:

"SEKHEM EN QE-EBEB-SEN-NOOF!"

Identify yourself with the element WATER.. Call forth in your mind the god OSIRIS.
Ask him mentally to cleanse your desires and feelings,
to make them noble and useful for everyone in the kingdom of PTAH on earth.
The white light descends to the sacred plexus and creates a fourth sphere of brightness.

 

Now visualize a priest of DOUAMOUTEF:
he is dressed in a priestly alb of brown,
on his face he wears a ritual mask representing a head of a jackal,
in his hands he holds the WAS and the ANKH.
Say the invocation four times:

"SEKHEM IN DOH-AH MU TEF!"

Identify yourself with the element EARTH... Call forth in your mind the god GEB.
Ask him mentally to cleanse your body of all impurities.
The white light descends to the feet and creates a fifth sphere of brightness.
The five spheres merge in your body, dulling the self in favor of the Double, allowing the KA to express itself.
In your mind, move slowly between the Pillars,
pass through them and propel your KA to the place where you want to go:
the astral Lodge of IMHOTEP.
This "astral projection" will take place on another plane, the plane of the KA.

The acme of psychic development is the faculty to externalize yourself consciously beyond the physical body.
Conscious externalization of the astral body is a normal phase of psychic development
and thus occurs naturally when the beginner is ready.
More exactly, it is activated from the outside by the Instructor,
when he considers that his follower has reached a sufficient level of psychic development
and that the moment is right.
Such is the true meaning of the ancient judgment: "When the follower is ready, the Master will appear".

 

Altar of Imhotep