The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way [Hardcover]

Ph.D. Robert Masters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2002

Robert Masters presents the wisdom of ancient Egypt through the perspective of contemporary research in psychology and religious studies in his profound study of The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way. The fifth way refers to the Egyptian theory that humans consist of five bodies: the (most subtle) Spiritual Body (Egyptian: Sahu); and, after that, the increasingly less subtle: Magical Body (Khu); Shadow (Haidit); Double (Ka); and Physical Body (Aufu). Also included are Sekhmet’s myth, her hundred Sacred Names, as well as her rites of meditation, prayer and exercises in body movement, awareness, mind expansion, imagination and creativity. This book initiates readers into a direct experience of the lost feminine mysteries.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fascinating . . . Master’s unswerving devotion to the Goddess Sekhmet is captivating and infectious. -- Kenneth Grant

Masters has broken through to a new understanding of the sense and uses of the disciplines of inward-turned contemplation. -- Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth

Pioneer of modern consciousness research -- Stanislav Grof, psychiatrist and author --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Robert Masters has been, for more than three decades, Director of Research of the Foundation for Mind Research, which he cofounded. He is the author or coauthor of 25 books and more than 100 papers and articles describing his researches into the varieties of human behavior and potential. His works have been translated into many different languages and he has taught and done research in Europe, Africa, Asia as well as the Americas. Masters is recognized as a leading pioneer in consciousness research and the human potentials field. His books include "Varieties of Psychedelic Experience," "Forbidden Sexual Behavior and Morality," and "Eros and Evil." He lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: White Cloud Press; 1st White Cloud Press ed edition (December 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188399148X
• ISBN-13: 978-1883991487
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,984,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars some big time screw ups, but some good info, February 15, 2011

By 

Flyboy - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way (Paperback)

There are some MAJOR screw ups in this book with regard to Egyptian mythology. Sekhmet is NOT one of the oldest of the neters (gods), but even if that were true, it's not all that important, so I can let that go. A bigger mistake however is his discussion regarding Set, he's basically confusing Set for Apophsis, however Set is instrumental in fighting chaos according to Egyptian mythology. This is a common mistake in a lot of Egyptian mythological books as Set was demonized later in ancient Egypt. There is some good info in the book however such as explaining the 5 bodies, which is tricky. A bit more studying of Kemetic Reconstructionism would have been appropriate.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Buy if Your Called to Sekhmet, July 8, 2008

By 

Tina2s - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way (Paperback)

Dont buy this book from the sellers on this site their too expensive, go straight to Robert Masters Website, you'll see links to how you can purchase brand new paper and hardcover copies.

According to an extremely ancient tradition, distorted variations of which are a part of many religious, spiritual, magical and occult systems, the human being has five bodies, all interactive, but each one having a dimension or reality in which it lives and functions and which is of the same substance as that body. These bodies, and realms, in order of subtlety, are the (most subtle) Spiritual Body (Egyptian: SAHU); and, after that, the increasingly less subtle: Magical Body (KHU); Shadow (HAIDIT); Double (KA); and Physical Body (AUFU).
"The Way of the Five Bodies" requires a consciousness which simultaneously differentiates each of the five while, at the same time, all of the five are functionally integrated. There is a metapsychology and a methodology for achieving this ideal and, as well, an underlying metaphysic. The Way is practical and realizable, although extraordinarily demanding. It can explain much and lead to accomplishments which would otherwise be impossible. If it is humanly valid, then it is not just "Egyptian", although its known source is the magico-spiritual Way of the Goddess called Sekhmet by the Egyptians. I will discuss the metaphysic briefly, the metapsychology, which can be tested, in considerably more detail.

According to this Way there are two primordial, co-existing, interactive and absolutely antagonistic realities: Cosmos (the Powers and Principalities of Order) and Chaos (the Disordered Powers and Principalities).

The essentially irrepresentable Powers are functionally represented by Neters, or beings experienced by humans as Gods and Goddesses, angels and demons, and others known to religion and mythology. These Powers, in their Principalities, and for us, are hierarchical and, in our terms, good or evil. They are locked in a thus far perpetual struggle, each seeking the other's transformation. They are indestructible, but subject to such transformation, so that a final resolution would be the transforming of Chaos into Cosmos, or that of Cosmos into Chaos. Out of this conflict, sometimes called The War in Heaven, have arisen "intermediate" realities including the human.

The whole of reality has substance, but is neither "material" nor "spiritual", and it is more or less subtle in varying degrees. Much of it is altogether inaccessible to and unknowable by humans. Some of it can be glimpsed or revealed, but not participated in by human beings. Within an exceedingly narrow sector of the whole of reality is the dimension of the human.

The present situation may be very roughly described in the following manner, with references to positioning in space understood as a convenience and not essentially veridical. At the "TOP" is Chaos, a realm of such subtlety that it could, if experienced, be misunderstood as Void or NonBeing, also Darkness. In terms of The War in Heaven this realm and the existences natural to it are the "Place" and the "UrGods" of Evil, working with absolute intensity toward the transformation of Cosmos into Chaos. To human reasoning the fact of such "Forces" itself implies a kind of order. But that is not true, and the "order" is a fabrication of minds which cannot grasp the mystery.

Primordially contiguous to Chaos is Cosmos, the "Place" and "Forces of Order, Good, Light, Creative Harmony, and the Cosmic UrGods". Implacable as Chaos, Cosmos unwaveringly and with absolute intensity pursues the goal of transformation. Cosmos and Chaos are of the same degree of subtlety and only their subtle substance is completely and eternally real. Yet it is as if there have come to be, in a "space" between Cosmos and Chaos, dimensions of Being which most fundamentally are the arenas of conflict in which the struggles of the Forces take place. These arenas, and conflicts and combatants, have substance of varying degrees of subtlety, but more fundamentally they are appearances, imaginal constructs, functional representations of the essentially irrepresentable Powers and Principalities. The so-called "material" and "spiritual" worlds, including humans and their world(s), are such appearances and representations -- something like "particles of mind," temporarily given differing kinds of existence and, in some instances, degrees of autonomy. These mysteries also go beyond human understanding, although Mystery Schools can impart a measure of understanding. What is important to really know and to fully believe is that man and his world(s) are not at all what they seem to be; that the apparent reality is far more malleable and subject to directed transformation than we are taught that it is or it seems to be; and that those belief systems which sustain such illusions as immutability and objectivity are also subject to alteration, all "Laws of Nature" amongst them.

"Above" Chaos is the created and already-imaginal realm of the Demonic Metaeidolons: Evil Gods, Demons, and other Chaotic entities. Correspondingly, "below" Cosmos is the realm of the Divine Metaeidolons: Gods and Goddesses, angels, demons, and others. This realm, too, is created and imaginal, and it is the Metaeidolons, whether of Cosmos or Chaos, which interact directly with the human dimensions. A few -- the most potent -- of these great Metaeidolons represent the UrGods of the two primordial realities.

"Above" the realm of the Metaeidolons of Chaos is the disordered "material" realm of the "subatomic particles", "matter" with chaotic, not just unpredictable, positions and velocities. This is the reality which is referred to by the second law of thermodynamics, predictive of the eventual triumph of Chaos. Similarly, "below" the realms of the Metaeidolons of Cosmos, there is the realm of "spirit", and equally potent and seemingly irrefutable "laws" of teleology predictive of evolution of consciousness and eventual transformation of "matter" into "spirit." It is also, however, an imaginal realm, without true immutable laws and is part of the transient, created arena, the "space" between Cosmos and Chaos. It is also called the realm of Evolutionary Order.

Next, limiting discussion to humans and their world(s), there are five human realities, each of them potentially knowable by man, who is able to participate in them by means of the five bodies he/she possesses. These are the "gross" and "subtle" bodies encountered in all major spiritual traditions and systems of magic and occultism. The understanding of them is distorted, however, and some systems, for example, subcategorize, while others lump together, thus arriving at three, seven, nine, or some other number of bodies and their respective realities. The five human dimensions or worlds are a "midpoint" between the realities of chaotic "matter" and evolutionary "spirit."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way, September 6, 2009

By 

M. Anatsui (laurel, md) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Goddess Sekhmet: Psycho-Spiritual Exercises of the Fifth Way (Hardcover)

I read the first two chapters and recited the invocation. and the only thing i can say is be prepared for anything and expect the unexpected. from my understanding of the reading and revelation is that you have to become more spiritual on many different levels. sekhmet is a goddess of war she is very powerful. she rids out evil and protects the good. if you are not ready for change then don't call her.