3. The Triangle Of Pantaclesc

We may remark, in passing, that the author of the Apocalypse, that key of the Christian Kabalah, composed the number of the beast, that is to say, of idolatry, by adding a 6 to the double senary of ABRACADABRA, which gives 18 kabalistically, the number attributed in the Tarot to the hieroglyphic sign of night and of the profane - the moon, together with the towers, dog, wolf and crab - a mysterious and obscure number, the kabalistic key of which is 9, the number of initiation. On this subject the sacred Kabalist says expressly: “He that hath understanding” that is, the key of kabalistic numbers - “let him count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred three score and six.” It is, in fact, the decade of Pythagoras multiplied by itself and added to the sum of the triangular Pantacle of ABRACADABRA: it is thus the sum of all Magic in the ancient world, the entire programme of human genius, which the Divine Genius of the Gospel sought to absorb or transplant. These hieroglyphical combinations of letters and numbers belong to the practical part of the Kabalah, which, from this point of view, is divided into GEMATRIA and THEMURA. Such calculations, which now seem to us arbitrary or devoid of interest, belonged then to the philosophical symbolism of the East, and were of the highest importance in the teaching of holy things emanating from the occult sciences. The absolute kabalistic alphabet, which connected primitive ideas with allegories, allegories with letters, and letters with numbers, was then called the Keys of Solomon. We have stated already that these Keys, preserved to our own day, but wholly misconstrued, are nothing else than the game of Tarot, the antique allegories of which were remarked and appreciated for the first time in the modern world by the learned archaeologist, Court de Gebelin. The double triangle of Solomon is explained by St. John in a remarkable manner. He says, “There are three which give record in heaven - the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit”; and “there are three which give testimony on earth - the spirit, the water and the blood.” Thus, St. John agrees with the masters of Hermetic philosophy, who attribute to their Sulphur the name of Ether, to their Mercury that of Philosophical Water, and to their Salt the qualification of the Dragon's Blood or Menstruum of the Earth. Blood or Salt corresponds by opposition with the Father, Azotic or Mercurial Water with the Word or LOGOS, and the Ether with the Holy Spirit. But the things of transcendent symbolism can only be understood rightly by the true children of science. The threefold repetition of names with varied intonations were united to triangular combinations in magical ceremonies. The Magic Wand was frequently surmounted with a small magnetized fork, which Paracelsus replaced by the trident represented below. This trident is a pantacle expressing the synthesis of the triad in the monad, thus completing the sacred tetrad. He ascribed to this figure all the virtues which kabalistic Hebrews attribute to the name of Jehovah and the thaumaturgic properties of the ABRACADABRA, used by the hierophants of Alexandria. Let us recognize here that it is a pantacle and consequently a concrete and an absolute sign of an entire doctrine, which has been that of an immense magnetic circle, not only for ancient philosophers but also for adepts of the Middle Ages. The restoration in our own day of its original value by the comprehension of its mysteries, might not that also restore all its miraculous virtue and all its power against human diseases?