Esoteric Freemasonry for Men and Women
Unique to the Egyptian Rites is the esoteric approach to Freemasonry. The initiation rituals and practices are meant to help the individual shine in the world and assist them in discovering their inward spiritual life.
The paradox of spiritual work is that to find ourselves we must loose ourselves. We think that self-mastery means that we have full control over ourselves but if we want to be in control, we again find ourselves within self-created boundaries. To know ourselves we must go beyond those boundaries of self-imposition.
Philosophy points to the ultimate mystery of that paradox but it is only through personal exploration and direct experience that we can solve it. The Great Work is therefor self-motivated and requires the utmost sincerity of the candidate. Freedom of thought and the individual search for Truth free from all imposition of a particular belief and dogma is therefor essential.
The Order attempts to enhance one’s possibilities by creating a place outside of the daily routine of ordinary life where rituals, personal practices and symbols encourage inner reflection and exploration.
Lodge Seshat
Lodge Seshat is a recently established Blue Lodge in the Tradition of Memphis and Misraim in the Netherlands. We are an international Lodge and our working language is English.
We have received the Masonic Light from experts who have been perfecting their rituals over a long period. This provides us with an authentic lineage in the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraim and our Lodge will attempt to repeat that same standard of excellence.
As Brothers and Sisters we are made the custodians of this very rich initiatory body of teachings. We are bound by the same attraction for Symbolism, Esotericism and Hermeticism as well as the nature of matter and consciousness.
Our Lodge is open to receive worthy aspirants, both men and women, from all ranks and social classes, who are sincerely interested in esoteric Freemasonry and the exploration of the mysteries in a atmosphere of fraternity and cooperation free from worldy vanity.
Receiving and transmitting these initiations is a labor of love and service towards those who want to walk on an esoteric masonic path.
What Sets the Egyptian Rites Apart?
Within the schema of Freemasonry the first step is the moral refinement of the individual Mason. It applies to our daily lives and actions and is the first step of every individual. As it is the basis of every day profane life, this does not strictly relate to the greater lessons of a mystery school.
Freemasonry has many paralels with magical and theurgical practices and in this way it is also a ‘yoga of the West’. Within the Egyptian Rites we aim to ensure that this aspect is never to be lost. In that way you can experience a dimension of the Craft that is no longer to be found in more prevalent forms of Freemasonry.
Candidates for membership are expected to have time to study, contemplate and above all practice the simple exercises by which the practioner gains a new psychological state through which the mason will perceive the world in another way.
We can agree that Freemasonry is not for everyone and the Egyptian Rites are also not for every Mason. It requires a sincerity and genuine interest, a dedication and discipline to persevere and a certain amount of time for daily practice.
An Initiatory School
Within Freemasonry we find multiple currents: a moral current, a psychological current, a philosophical current, an esoteric current and a spiritual current. These currents can meet as much as they can oppose or ignore each other.
Freemasonry is indeed defined, within all the currents, as an initiatory School, but many forget this definition and deviate largely from their singular mission to become sorts of learned circles (or especially having the ambition to present this appearance), where they present works on various subjects, often unrelated to each other, and above all without any goal of formation. […]
We thus see a new approach, or a renovated approach, of Masonry of the Egyptian Rites, rid of the tinsel of a heterogeneous occultism, and certain of the completeness of its message, without having to go and complete it with other schools. […]
For those interested in the Egyptian Rites, and looking for the esoteric and spiritual currents within the Craft, it would be good to quote De Conventu generali Latomorum, written at the end of the Convent of Wilhlemsbad in November 1782:
“… the purpose of the F:.M:. is to know the origin of the man, the reason and the end of the creation, which requires a study, an application, which does not resemble the study and to the application that one gives to the knowledge of all the other things that are reduced in a system, since it is impossible to reach this knowledge without forming the majestic idea of the Godhead, and without seeking to penetrate it’s adorable decrees. To achieve this, it is necessary to have a sanctity of morals, a humble and respectful contemplation, to divest oneself of the old man (to use the proper terms) and to put on the new one; It is necessary that the soul abstracts the most absolute of the coarse and material machine which envelops it, to devote itself wholly to the spirituality of the object which is to occupy it, in order to obtain from the Supreme Being the special grace to be enlightened in the contemplative work to which she gives herself. This is called wisdom, that wisdom which Solomon and some other privileged beings have obtained; it is through it that the explanation of the mysteries of the Holy Book, the Bible, the parables, and the miracles of our Redeemer must have been known. “
Convent of Wilhlemsbad in November 1782
Lodge Seshat 