The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING withdraw himself to pray. He has become a priest unto him- self his own Guardian, he may administer to himself the holy sacrament of God in Truth and in Right, he has become Exempt from the shackles of Earth. He is the Supreme Man, one step more he enters the Sanctuary of God and becomes one with the Brotherhood of Light. Up to this stage progress has meant Work, work terrible and Titanic, one great striving after union which roughly may be compared to the five methods of Yoga. From this fifth stage work gives place to knowledge, Qabalistically the aspirant enters Daath. VI. Right Effort. Man is now Master of Virtue and Vice and no longer their slave, servant, enemy or friend. The LVX has descended upon him, and just as the dew of the moon within the Sahasara Chakkra falling upon the two-petalled Ajna-lotus causes the leaves to open out, so now does this celestial light lift him out and beyond the world, as wings lift a bird from the fields of earth, encompassing him, extending to his right hand and to his left like the wings of the Solar Globe which shut out from the ruby ball the twin serpents which twine beneath it.* . . . Having purified himself, he understands the perfect life; being a doer of Holiness, he is a knower of Holiness; having practised Truth, he has become accomplished in the knowledge of Truth. He perceives the working of the inner Law of things, and is loving, wise, enlightened. And being loving, wise and * The two serpents and central rod of the Caduceus are in Yoga repre- sented by the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. The wings closed, to the Ajna- lotus; open and displaying the solar disk, to the Sahasara Chakkra. 147