22. The Book Of Hermes-e

Symbol, THE EMPRESS, a woman, winged, crowned, seated and uplifting a sceptre with the orb of the world at its end: her sign is an eagle, image of the soul and of life. She is the Venus-Urania of the Greeks and was represented by St. John in his Apocalypse as the Woman clothed with the Sun, crowned with twelve stars and having the moon beneath her feet. She is the mystical quintessence of the triad; she is spirituality, immortality, the Queen of Heaven. דThe Porte or government of the easterns, initiation, power, the Tetragram, the quaternary, the cubic stone, or its base. Hieroglyph, THE EMPEROR, a sovereign whose body represents a right-angled triangle and his legs a cross image of the Athanor of the philosophers. הIndication, demonstration, instruction, law, symbolism, philosophy, religion. Hieroglyph, THE POPE, or grand hierophant. In more modern Tarots this sign is replaced by the image of Jupiter. The grand hierophant, seated between the two Pillars of Hermes and of Solomon, makes the sign of esotericism and leans upon a Cross with three crossbars of triangular form. Two inferior ministers kneel before him. Having above him the capitals of the two Pillars and below him the two heads of the assistants, he is thus the centre of the quinary and represents the divine Pentagram, giving its complete meaning. As a fact, the Pillars are necessity or law, the heads liberty or action. A line may be drawn from each Pillar to each head and two lines from each Pillar to each of the two heads. This gives a square, divided by a cross into four triangles and in the middle of this cross is the grand hierophant, we might almost say like the garden spider in the centre of his web, were such a comparison becoming to the things of truth, glory and light. וSequence, interlacement, lingam, entanglement, union, em-brace, strife, antagonism, combination, equilibrium. Hieroglyph, man between VICE and VIRTUE. Above him shines the Sun of Truth, and in this Sun is Love, bending his bow and threatening Vice with his shaft. In the order of the ten SEPHIROTH, this symbol corresponds to TIPHERETH that is, to idealism and beauty. The number six represents the antagonism of the two triads, that is, absolute negation and absolute affirmation. It is therefore the number of toil and liberty, and for this reason it connects also with moral beauty and glory. זWeapon, sword, cherubic sword of fire, the sacred septenary, triumph, royalty, priesthood. Hieroglyph, a CUBIC CHARIOT, with four pillars and an azure and starry drapery. In the chariot, between the four pillars, a victor crowned with a circle adorned with three radiant golden pentagrams. Upon his breast are three superposed squares, on his shoulders the URIM and THUMMIM of the sovereign sacrificer, represented by the two crescents of the moon in GeDULAH and GEBURAH; in his hand is a sceptre surmounted by a globe, square and triangle: his attitude is proud and tranquil. A double sphinx or two sphinxes joined at the haunches are harnessed to the chariot; they are pulling in opposite directions, but are looking the same way. They are respectively black and white. On the square which forms the fore part of the chariot is the Indian lingam surmounted by the flying sphere of the Egyptians. This hieroglyph, which we reproduce exactly, is perhaps the most beautiful and complete of all those that are comprised in the Clavicle of the Tarot.