Entering the Interiority of the Masonic Temple

Within the EMO UK, all of our Candidates are not only taken through a Masonic ritual, with all its attendent symbolism, lectures, actions and reactions; they are also brought into the entry-level of a very particular state of awareness, consciousness, and activity.

In the Symbolic Lodge of Egypt, we call this, in a general sense, the Interior State.

The Sacred Mysteries as they survive in the Rites of Memphis-Mizraim, are divided into three sections - Symbolic, Lesser and Greater - for the purpose of graduated learning and the steady integration of both knowledge and experience in Egyptian Masonry. Nobody would reasonably expect to commence their education in a subject at the doctorate level; they would begin with preparatory learning, a phase of research, and examination to confirm their comprehension, before progressing to more complex aspects of study. The Sacred Mysteries are the same, for this and many other reasons besides.

In Egyptian Masonry, we are working to expand the Consciousness and unleash the secret potential within the Human Constitution; not only the intellect, or the morals, but the Body (in a holistic sense which includes intellect, emotion and persona), Soul, and Spirit. Such a magnificent undertaking requires all due care and circumspection.

The First Degree of Apprentice is perhaps the most important of all the Degrees of Masonry. It is the true 'first step', the initial entrance and courageous journey, into a place, a state, a company, and a world which had previously been concealed. Make no mistake, the important 'secrets' of our Craft are well concealed indeed.

Even those who research Freemasonry and Masonic history, read the rituals they can find online, study what secrets they can ferret out, are still blind to the Reality of Masonry; a Reality which can only be communicated and experienced directly through the perfomance of the Rites, in the open Lodge. Masonry is something one does, not something one reads. It is a perfect  and highly sophisticated combination of subject and object. This power to produce change is evident to every Mason who has walked the Path of Freemasonry, regardless of their Rite, Order or Obedience; it is even more pronounced in Esoteric Masonry, and greatly so in Egyptian Masonry.

When our Candidates come into the EMO UK, they soon realise that they are commencing a two-handed study; they are not only learning the rituals, symbols and motions of the external Lodge, but also that which is happening within themselves, within the environment, and within those around them. All of our EMO UK Lodges are constituted, opened and operated in this "two-handed" manner, for our Mysteries, on all levels, are both Exterior and Interior.

There is a Hidden Portal. A Narrow Gateway, concealed behind the apparent, the obvious, the superficial.

Our Members are those who have discovered this Portal, and made a brave ingression, which is simultaneously an egression. Once through this Portal, and set upon the Path, there is no turning back.

In a very real sense, those who seek our Lodge of Egypt, and bravely enter in, come not forth again.

T.'.F.'.E.'.