The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE EQUINOX Neophyte, is led up to the Portal of the First Grade, the Grade of Neophyte, and is momentarily revealed a flashing vision of Adonai, as it were a tongue of blinding flame out of the depths of darkness, to show him that there is light even in this dreadful night through which he has to journey. He learns that though Adonai is in Kether, Kether also is in Malkuth; but the Rituals which follow the 0°=o°, excepting the Portal, which consist more of symbols and their explana- tions than of rites and ceremonials, are more inclined to obsess than to illuminate. Of course it may be urged that as they constitute four great trials, it is after all a greater test to be placed under a false guide than an honest one. But indeed, if this be so, then most certainly should the Neophyte, Zelator, Theoricus or Practicus travel his own road unhelped by others ; further, he should not be tempted by others, and when he is hopelessly entangled be relieved of his trials like the reader of a fairy-tale who invariably finds that after the most monstrous difficulties the hero and heroine always marry and live happily ever afterwards. It is a better trial of the powers of a swimmer to let him swim without a cork jacket, notwith- standing the fact that it is a greater trial by far if you order him to leap into the water with a millstone round his neck; but this is scarcely “ cricket,” even if at the last moment you pull him out of the water and restore life by artificial respira- tion. Further, it is not teaching him how to swim, or how to improve his powers of swimming. In the 1°=10° Ritual the Neophyte enters the first sphere of the Elements, the Element of Earth, and is at once liable to fall prey to the terrible worldly obsessions of the path of n. This dark path he journeys up only to become child of the 292