Sydney Egyptian Chapter Room

I must admit to having a ‘thing’ about Royal Arch Chapter Rooms – especially if they have an Egyptian theme. Perhaps it comes from Golden Dawn influences, seeing the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum at an early age, the fact that my car license plate is ‘Thoth’ and my former boat was called ‘Horus’, or the fact that my top floor corridor is filled with Egyptian (well, faux-Egyptian) artefacts?

So of course I made a beeline for the Egyptian Room in Petersham, a suburb of Sydney, NSW.

It is normally open to the public one day a year, so being a Mason has its privileges! We were ferried there by Comp. John Anderson, a valued guide, senior Mason, and also Treasurer of the Lodge we visited later that evening at Grand Lodge.

The first thing which threw me was the ante-chamber, which could have been my top floor, right down to the Sarcophagus and even the style of glass cabinets housing Egyptian whimsies!

As a comparison, here’s my top floor…

Then into the room itself!

Breathtaking was the first reaction. The room is overwhelming in its deteil. While all the features are stunning – and I won’t go into detail as there are pictures here – the main feature is the frieze which runs around all four walls. Taken from the Book of the Dead created for Ani, a scribe of the 29th Dynasty, it depicts in bas reliefs the entire journey of his soul through the trials of the underworld, his reuniting with his wife, his encounters with many gods, and finally his weighing in the scales of Ma’at.

The room was originally created in 1927 in the Royal Arch Temple in Sydney Street, but moved into storage following the demolition of that building in the late 1960s, before being restored and placed in its current home in Petersham, where it serves as the headquarters of the United Supreme Grand Chapter of Mark & Royal Arch Masons of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (yes, they have a ‘DC’ thing going in with Canberra, too!).

As a bonus, since this is after all a Royal Arch venue, performing a version of the Domatic Ritual, we were treated to a viewing of the vault below, thankfully lowered down by means of a ladder rather than ropes! My Masonic brethren will understand I cannot post pictures of that part of the tour – but suffice it to say the vault was spectacular!

My thanks to the United Supreme Chapter of NSW for authorizing our tour, and especially to its gracious host and guide, John Anderson, for his expert commentary and evident love of this historic part of Sydney.