7. The Fiery Sword-a

NETSAH GLADIUS THE septenary is the sacred number in all theogonies and in all symbols, because it is composed of the triad and the tetrad. The number seven represents magical power in all its fullness; it is the mind reinforced by all elementary potencies; it is the soul served by Nature; it is the SANCTUM REGNUM mentioned in the Keys of Solomon and represented in the Tarot by a crowned warrior, who bears a triangle on his cuirass and is posed upon a cube, to which two sphinxes are harnessed, straining in opposite directions, while their heads are turned the same way. This warrior is armed with a fiery sword and holds in his left hand a sceptre surmounted by a triangle and a sphere. The cube is the Philosophical Stone; the sphinxes are the two forces of the Great Agent, corresponding to JAKIN and BOAZ, the two Pillars of the Temple; the cuirass is the knowledge of Divine Things, which renders the wise man invulnerable to human assaults; the sceptre is the Magic Wand; the fiery sword is the symbol of victory over the deadly sins, seven in number, like the virtues, the conceptions of both being typified by the ancients under the figures of the seven planets then known. Thus, faith - that aspiration towards the infinite, that noble self-reliance sustained by confidence in all virtues - the faith which in weak natures may degenerate into pride, was represented by the Sun; hope, the enemy of avarice, by the Moon; charity, in opposition to luxury, by Venus, the bright star of morning and evening; strength, superior to wrath, by Mars; prudence, hostile to idleness, by Mercury; temperance, opposed to gluttony, by Saturn, who was given a stone instead of his children to devour; finally, justice, in opposition to envy, by Jupiter, the conqueror of the Titans. Such are the symbols borrowed by astronomy from the Hellenic cultus. In the Kabalah of the Hebrews, the Sun represents the angel of light; the Moon, the angel of aspirations and dreams; Mars, the destroying angel; Venus, the angel of loves; Mercury, the angel of progress; Jupiter, the angel of power: Saturn, the angel of the wilderness. They were named also Michael, Gabriel, Samael, Anael, Raphael, Zachariel and Orifiel. These governing potencies of souls shared human life during successive periods, which astrologers measured by the revolutions of the corresponding planets. But kabalistic astrology must not be confounded with that which is called judicial. We will explain this distinction. Infancy is dedicated to the Sun, childhood to the Moon, youth to Mars and Venus, manhood to Mercury, ripe age to Jupiter, and old age to Saturn. Now, humanity in general subsists under laws of development analogous to those of individual life. On this basis Trithemius establishes his prophetic key of the seven spirits, to which we shall refer subsequently; by means thereof, observing the analogical proportions of successive events, it is possible to predict important future occurrences with certitude, and to fix beforehand, from age to age, the destinies of nations and the world. St. John, depositary of the Secret Doctrine of Christ, has commemorated this sequence in the kabalistic book of the Apocalypse, which he represents sealed with seven seals. We meet also the seven genii of ancient mythologies, and the Cups and Swords of the Tarot. The doctrine concealed under these emblems is pure Kabalah, already lost by the Pharisees at the time of Christ's advent.