22. The Book Of Hermesb

Gaffarel thus expresses himself: “He (Philo the Jew) speaking of the history concealed in the before-mentioned chapter of JUDGES, says that Michas made three “images of young boys and three young calves, three also of a lion, an eagle, a dragon and a dove, all of fine gold and silver; so that if anyone sought him to discover a secret concerning his wife, he interrogated the dove; concerning children, the young boy; concerning wealth, the eagle; concerning strength and power, the lion; concerning fecundity, the cherub or bull; concerning length of days, the dragon.” This revelation of Philo, though deprecated by Gaffarel, is for us of the highest importance. Here, in fact, is our key of the tetrad, and here also are the images of the four symbolical animals found in the twenty-first Key of the Tarot; that is, in the third septenary, thus repeating and summarizing all the symbolism expressed by the three septe-naries superposed; next, the antagonism of colours expressed by the dove and the dragon; the circle or ROTA, formed by the dragon or serpent to typify length of days; finally, the kabalistic divination of the entire Tarot, as practised in later days by Egyptian Bohemians, whose secrets were divined and recovered imperfectly by Etteilla. We see in the Bible that the high priests consulted the Lord on the golden table of the holy ark between the cherubim, or bull-headed and eagle-winged sphinx; that they consulted by the help of the TERAPHIM, URIM and THUMMIM, and by the Ephod. Now, it is known that the Ephod was a magical square of twelve numbers and twelve words engraved on precious stones. The word TERAPHIM in Hebrew signifies hieroglyphs or figured signs; the URIM and THUMMIM were the above and beneath, the East and West, the yes and no, and these signs corresponded to the two Pillars of the Temple, JAKIN and BOAZ. When therefore the high priest wished to consult the oracle, he drew by lot the TERAPHIM or tablets of gold, which bore the images of the four sacred words, and placed them by threes round the rational or Ephod; that is, between the two onyx stones which served as clasps to the little chains of the Ephod. The right onyx signified GEDULAH, or mercy and magnificence; the left referred to GEBURAH, and signified justice and anger. If, for example, the sign of the lion were found on the left side of the stone which bore the name of the tribe of Judah, the high priest would read the oracle thus: “The staff of the Lord is angered against Judah.” If the TERAPHIM represented the man or cup and were found also on the left, near the stone of Benjamin, the high priest would read: “The mercy of the Lord is weary of the offences of Benjamin, which outrage Him in His love. Therefore He will pour out on him the chalice of his wrath,” etc. When the sovereign priesthood ceased in Israel; when all oracles were silenced in the presence of the Word made man, and speaking by the mouth of the most popular and mildest of Sages; when the ark was lost, the sanctuary profaned and the temple destroyed; the mysteries of the EPHOD and TERAPHIM, no longer traced on gold and precious stones, were written, or rather drawn, by some learned Kabalists on ivory, parchment, gilt and silvered copper, and, finally, on simple cards, which were always suspected by the official Church as enclosing a dangerous key to its mysteries.