Imago Templi / Book III - 1st part
by Athos A. Altomonte
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Treaty of Esoteric Symbology and Archaic Cosmogony of the Masonic Temple for the Freemason Brothers

Index: The Universality of the Masonic Temple – The Love Knot of the Masonic temple – The Love Knot, symbolic expression of the Energetic Knot

The Universality of the Masonic Temple

Let's take a first step in understanding the Universality of the Masonic Temple, in the past as well as in the present, as a Container of the Initiatory Tradition and then understanding the Universality of the ‘ Universal Freemasonry ' towards a future of Illuminated Minds.

In this nation there are many Masons and Catholics united in the attempt to shorten the history of their faiths and ideologies in order to prevent the highlighting of the fact that they both come from the Ancient Hebrew Tradition.

On the other hand, Jews as well wanted, with no justifications but their faith, that Moses, Great Initiate of the Temple , was a Bene Israel like them.

Our School doesn't hesitate to recognize that in the Temple built around the System of the Oblong Square and the Square the symbology originates from the Archaic Hebrew Symbology; for this reason we will not corroborate, not even when introducing the next topic, conceptualizations which are mostly self-serving or aimed at limiting the origin through the interpretation drawn from the profane use of the Symbols of the Temple, independently from the Race of the men that live in it and use it, where some of them think they can own it.

In this chapter we will take the chance to highlight an ‘ intermediate historical point ', that is not distant from the western present of the researcher but also not far away from its origins, which rise farther East and back in Time.

We will point out how various methods are used to mark the passing of time for man.

The most accredited of these methods in the outside World is the measurement of the wear and tear of objects . It is commonly used in the various branches of archaeology, such as the measurement of carbon 14 in solids.

Another common technique is to measure, improperly from now on , the motion of the Planet in the Solar System. But this subject will have the due attention in a specific work.

To measure the flowing of Time our School uses the observation of the Motion in the passage of the same symbolic container from the Archetype preserved in Tradition, during its crossing of the cultural and learning Entities of the various Races; although they tend to change its exterior Form in order to claim it as its own , they transmit it as a language, sometimes sowing it by force in the tissue of the following young Cultures; in our case the latter are those flourishing around the Mediterranean basin.

We can find evidence of this method to calculate man's time in the Masonic Tradition of the calculation of years of True Light .

We can agree with the system but not with the number of years, circa 6,000, in the Masonic Calendar linked only to the events of the Hebrew National Tradition and mentioned in the Old Testament. In this text they pass on the genesis of their Nation and the meeting with their God-Jehovah. Yahwèh, y- é vè, Adam-Evè, male-female (+-) and (or) One and Trine.

It is said that the Egyptian Civilization and the Hebrew one that followed are to be considered the links between two Quality Spheres , the Oriental and the Occidental ones, in the passage from the Ancient Era to the Modern Era in the Tradition of the Builders of the Temple .

We can understand, then, how the years of True Light of Tradition must be counted in tens of thousands rather than in thousands.

Following the consequences of these statements in introducing the topic of the Love Knot present in the Masonic Temple, we will go back to the first Knot present in the Tradition of the Modern Era, the Egyptian one, and to the last one of the Ancient Era, the Indo-European one.

For the Master Builders the ANKH Knot developed, and still does, the mystery of the Number Twelve and of the Cross.

On this subject, it reminds us of the Archaic Cosmogony.

The unfolded Cube shows the TAU, the Egyptian Cross, symbol of generation and birth; it is the Cross of the Matter. Adding a Circle to the TAU, we will see the Ansate Cross and ANKH.

In Egypt Ankh means Life-Spirit. The Circle joined to the TAU is the Egg symbol of Life and immortality; the departed was represented shining in his (Auric) Egg when he headed towards the Land of immortality.

The image of the Ankh reminds us of a man with his arms spread in Space, viz. the Septenary, the animated, living man.

Another way of representing the ANKH was in the shape of a Knot; in the right side we can see the Cross or ‘X', in the left side the Circle ‘O'.

Going back in Time and Tradition, the ANKH Knot in the East is the Indian ‘Pasha', the ‘rope of Shiva', rope that the Divinity holds in his lower Right Hand. The Pasha is held in the Hand so that the first finger and the hand form a cross.

If we wanted to expand in a common language the symbolic meanings of the previuos lines, we would open another work apart; but we will only expand it in order to recognize the aspect of the theorem of knowledge that we consider to be the most esoterical, the Energetic Motion.

In order to understand why, it is sufficient to observe how only on these topics of study it is developed the access to the Bridge that links the Initiatory Tradition to the concrete Science.

In the Cross of the Matter and in Spirit or Vitality , we find two idiomatic formulas that, with another language, stand to the energetic dualism of Passive-Active or even more synthetically with the language of Physics, stand for the signs + and -.

On the basis of what we have stated so far, if we observe how the Knot is formed, we will find the symbolic presence of the male element, which penetrating the feminine aspect translates once again into + and -.

This is true starting from a unique entity, the Knot, which the presence of + and – makes two-fold, as an energetic value.

The observation of images is more useful than words; here the stages of what we have discussed so far are reproduced in a sequence.

Since we want to state a fact rather than discuss it, we will shorten the process and reach immediately the unwinding of conclusions which I don't think will be brief, given the complex presence of multiple factors which I don't intend omitting.

We will start from the assumption that the physical Man is the Energetic Knot of the Microcosm to discover how many times and how it is stated in the Masonic Memory .

The Man of Tradition is energetically represented with his positive or active right aspect and the negative or passive left aspect, + and -.

Although ordinary man is not yet able to conceive himself as three-fold, he contains the energetic knot that, in the psychic order and beyond, once unveiled leads to the fusion of the twos with the three ; the Androgyne of the Alchemic Tradition appears.

In simpler terms this means that the Spiritual Conscience (the Three) joined in the consciousness of + and -, the One and the Two, allows the flow through the physical Personality and Its Metals (see the abandonment of metals ) of a Three-fold energetic Unity which, with the conscious use of the Will makes it possible for him to transcend the animal garment that he wears (the garment of skins described in the Book of Genesis) and re-establishes it in the likeness of God and at His house, the Temple as a re-awaken and living Conscience, in the Auric Egg of Cosmic Energy that permeates our System through the three-fold catalyzer of the Solar Logos.

We find confirmation of this energetic mechanism in concrete knowledge, thanks to the activity guided by the two lobes of the brain where the right side of the body, also active, is overseen by the left lobe (+) and the left and passive side is supervised by the right lobe (-). At the same time conscience, the middle Pillar, invisibly guides and balances in the Free Will, the reflection on earth of the Spiritual Conscience guided on the Path of the initiatory Light.

In the Tradition of the Cabbala we find the accurate description of the ingeneration and transmission of the One Energy in the Sephirothic System and in the Centers of the Man that it hides. This image refers to such description; in it we highlight the energetic correspondences that we find:

• in the System

• in the Man hidden by the System,

• in the analogy among the components of the M.L. and the energetic Centers or Sephirs.

As a consequence we can recognize the true esoteric interpretation of the Tree of Life, in its symbol, in the Temple and in Man.

I suggest you spare a few moments to consider carefully the sequence in the following images.

Still following the Masonic Memory, remember that in the Lodge Pictures on the three levels, among the symbols represented we find that the Lodge Picture in the Degree of Apprentice portrays three Knots, just like three is the number of M.Ms. necessary to form the first Sacred Geometrical configuration that rules a Lodge in the Temple, the Triangle.

This is also true in the two following degrees, where we have five Knots in the degree of Fellow Craft and seven in the degree of Master. Seven like the ‘true and perfect' Number of Masons which are necessary for a Lodge to be operative.

But under which aspects? The geometrical and energetic ones.

The Motion of Energy in a geometrically harmonious Form produces a geometrically Harmonious Sound; this represents the ‘Order' in all Forms.

Outside and above the representation contained in the Lodge Pictures, where the Work of the Mason man at this level of knowledge is represented, we have the presence of other Love Knots, but this time on the walls of the Temple itself and in the Number of twelve .

Since the Temple is the representation of the Planetary Logos in the ‘Cosmos', that is in the Solar System, we can conclude that the twelve Knots are to be attributed to the Work of the Logos itself in the Energy expressed by the twelve stages of the Zodiac.

The true Work in the Circular Temple.

This last statement unquestionably links us to a context of research of a scientific kind as well as of a historic, esoteric and philosophical kind, which for us can start form the Astronomical aspect. We must take care that, although privileging the Motion and Energy Aspects of our Solar System, we realize its introduction into greater Systems and the latter in expansion with a sequential order in complex interdependent structures, whose most evident characteristic is the Fluidity between Magnetic Attraction and Dynamic Expansion .

The relation and synergy among the different Subjects of study and research form what in tradition is called Initiatory Science, Art-Science-Religion.

To rebuild this method in Himself means for Man the Restoration of the Ancient Mysteries that have always been called the Initiatory Secret.

The three fundamental Subjects, Art, Science and Religion, are the manifestation of the three different currents of expression and impression possible for the Mind; their assumption to a Unique Subject depends on the progression in the conscience separated from the personality and on the effort to reunite inside ourselves, with the will of the Ego, the three energetic flows, passive, active and neutral; the three will then go back into the synthesis of thought with the use of the abstract Mind.

Since this is a work for Apprentices I don't want to make it heavier than it is necessary, in order to highlight the aspects that we consider useful for the understanding of the language and the meanings of those who work in the Temple with the awareness of what they do and what they would like to do.

Therefore let's simply drift onto what Masons form when they are joined together through a subsequent theory of Knots.