The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING Hegemon: And the great Angel Metatron (Angel of Good) answered and said: Iam the Angel of the Presence Divine. The Wise man gazeth upon the Material Universe and he beholdeth therein the luminous Image of the Creator. Not as yet canst thou bear the dazzling radiance of that Light! Return, for thou canst not pass by! Hierophant: Let the Neophyte now advance by the Straight and Narrow way which inclineth neither to the right hand nor to the left. Hiereus and Hegemon: Whence comest thou? Kerux (for Neophyte) : Iam come from between the pillars and seek for the hidden Light of Occult Science. Hierophant; But the great Angel Sandalphon answered and said: ‘Iam the Reconciler for the Earth and the Soul of the Celestial therein. Equally is form invisible in total Darkness andin Blinding Light. . . . The Hiereus and Hegemon return to their seats, whilst the Hierophant and Neophyte remain, both facing the Altar. Here the Hierophant confers on the Neophyte the Secrets and Mysteries of the grade; and explains to him the Symbolism of the Temple as follows: “The three portals facing from the East are the gates of the paths which alone con- duct to the Inner. . . .” “The letters shin, tau, and qoph, make by metathesis mwp (Qesheth), which signifies a bow, the rainbow of promise stretched over our earth, This picture of the Flaming Sword of the Kerubim isa representation of the guardians of the gate of Eden; just as the Hiereus and the Hegemon symbolise the two paths of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” ‘You will observe that in this grade the red cross is placed within the white Triangle upon the altar, and thus placed, it is identical with the Banner of the West.” “The triangle refers to the three above- mentioned paths connecting Malkuth with the above Sephiroth, while the cross is the hidden DiacRam 13. wisdom of the Divine nature which can be ‘ ae ‘The Altar Symbol DiacraM 12. obtained by their aid. The two construed in the ‘The Flaming Sword, mean: LIFE IN LIGHT.” 1° = 10° Ritual. “This grade is especially referred to the Element Earth, and therefore, one of its principal emblems is the Great Watch-tower on the Terrestrial Tablet of the North. . . .” . You will observe that the Hermetic Cross, whichis also called Fylfat, . . is5 formed of seventeen squares taken from a square of twenty-five lesser squares. 263