R∴L∴S∴ Khepri-Ra-Atum No. 1
Respectable Symbolic Lodge. Mother lodge of the Symbolic Grand Orient of Mexico. Works the solar cycle as a cipher for the journey of the Initiate.
Khepri at dawn, Ra at noon, Atum at sunset. Three faces of the Sun, one single Light. The Initiate recognizes them because he traverses them each day within himself.
The Name
The lodge takes its name from the Heliopolitan solar triad: the three faces of the Egyptian Sun through the cosmic day.
- Khepri (𓆣) — the sun at dawn. Represented by the scarab Scarabaeus sacer, which rolls its dung ball just as the god rolls the solar disc from the eastern horizon. Khepri is becoming, self-creation, the principle that turns upon itself. Its name shares a root with kheper, "to become".
- Ra (𓇳) — the sun at noon. The full star, at its zenith, radiating light and life upon creation. Patron of kings and of initiates who have reached their maturity.
- Atum (𓇋𓏏𓅓) — the sun at sunset. The one who completes himself, the one who returns to the primordial ocean Nun to rise again tomorrow as Khepri. Atum is the principle of totality, of completeness, of reintegration.
To work under this invocation is to work under the full cycle of the day as a cosmological model of the initiatic life: the birth, fullness, and decline of the Initiate are the same journey of the Sun, sustained and repeated until the work is accomplished.
Why it is No. 1
Khepri-Ra-Atum No. 1 is the mother lodge of the Symbolic Grand Orient of Mexico: the first regularly constituted symbolic lodge under the national Sovereign Sanctuary of the Rite of Memphis-Mizraim, and since its establishment, the source of initiatic transmission for the Brothers of the Rite in the Mexican jurisdiction. The other symbolic bodies opened later—the Akhetaton Triangle No. 2 and the R∴L∴S∴ Osiris Amenti Resurrectus No. 3—originally worked under its light.
The Grand World Hierophant 99° M∴S∴H∴ Mishel Arreola has celebrated meetings with this lodge in Mexico City on several occasions, an event that highlights its character as a reference lodge of the Sanctuary.
Board of Officers
R∴L∴S∴ Khepri-Ra-Atum No. 1 works with the following board of officers:
V∴M∴ Past∴ · Past Master
V∴M∴ · Worshipful Master
P∴Vig∴ · Senior Warden
S∴Vig∴ · Junior Warden
M∴C∴ · Master of Ceremonies
The remaining offices — Orator, Secretary, Treasurer, Almoner, Expert, Tyler, Inner Guard — are appointed by the V∴M∴ each cycle.
Ritual Work
R∴L∴S∴ Khepri-Ra-Atum No. 1 works in the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Mizraim in its blue degrees (Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason). The meetings take place with the regularity established by the constitutions of the SGO. Their works include:
- Opening and closing of the Temple according to the Rite's ritual.
- Initiation, passing, and raising to the three symbolic degrees.
- Readings, instruction, and internal lectures.
- White meetings on special dates (Equinoxes, Solstices, St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist).
- Joint meetings with sister lodges of the SGO and with visiting bodies.
How to Approach
Free and upright profane who wish to be initiated into the Rite in R∴L∴S∴ Khepri-Ra-Atum No. 1, and masons from other regular obediences who wish to affiliate, may submit their application to the Worshipful Master of the lodge through the channel of the Sovereign Sanctuary.
The first step is the contact page: brief description, motivation, masonic background if applicable. All applications are handled with due discretion.