It is a real pleasure to be able to offer a sneak preview of a book that is coming down the pike in a few months. This book offers a glimpse into a lesser understood Rite of Freemasonry, although one about which there has always been much talk and speculation. Not only does this book offer interesting insight into this complex and misunderstood rite, but it is illustrated with some amazingly lush visionary artwork. It seems to me that it deserves a place on every mason's bookshelf, but I suspect that if bought, it will seldom sit on the shelf. It is all the more my pleasure to offer this first peek, as the author is a good man and a dear friend of mine.
Spirit Builders—a Free Illuminist Approach to the Antient & Primitive Rite of Memphis+Misraim, is the first book of its kind to explore in depth, a radical expression of a little known branch of mystical Freemasonry for men and women, and provide a ritual monitor and guide for those desirous of practicing this avant-garde system. The expression of this branch of spiritual Masonry is Free Illuminist and the Rite is the Antient & Primitive Rite of Memphis+Misraim (APRM+M).
Book One intends to answer some basic questions concerning the movement of Free Illuminism, and its approach to one of the more esoteric branches of Freemasonry. It hopes to accomplish this with neither a strictly scholarly approach nor an exclusively personal voice. The combination of both objectivity and personal reflection are blended so as to make the material more user friendly and to translate some of the more arcane emblems into tangible forms. Book Two explores the Symbolic Degrees as practiced by one branch of the movement, and Book Three includes the ritual workings for the entire corpus (all 97 Degrees) of the Antient Primitive Rite of Memphis+Misraim. In its Appendices, this compendious volume also includes essays by other Free Illuminist groups, an Afterword by T Allen Greenfield, the veritable God-Father of the movement, and an Elemental Mass of the Misraim.
Taken as a whole, this book presents and provides the means of accomplishing, the three primary functions of Spirit Building which are; the enlivening of the Scintillating Body through points-chauds (hot points) empowerments, the creation of the Mystic Temple and the building of community by collaboration and mutual support with others working in Free Communion. This simple, yet profound approach to a mystical and magical system of Freemasonry shares no equal in the vast ocean of Masonic and Gnostic Orders across the globe.
+Palamas is a Bishop in the Coptic Gnostic Church and holds a Free Illuminist Charter for a Research & Philosophical Lodge of Memphis-Misraim. He is the author & illustrator of Syzygy, Reflections on the Monastery of the Seven Rays, Hadean Press, 2013. An art teacher for over eighteen years, he is currently pursuing a Masters in English & Creative Writing/Non-Fiction. Situated on the top of a ridge in Northwest Georgia, he serves with his wife Salome+ in their small parish, the Chapel of the Gnosis.
The book will be published by
Transmutation Publishing, and will be available on the publisher's website, at brick & mortar occult bookstores, and through
Weiser Antiquarian. The book should be available for purchase by the public in January of 2015. The Hedge Mason will be alerting our readers when the book is finally available for purchase, so if you are a regular reader, you needn't worry about taxing your memory. We will do that for you. In the meantime, enjoy the images.
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