The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES SEMITA XXXI Vocatur intelligentia perpetua ; et quare vocatur ita? Eo quod ducit motum solis et lunze juxta constitutionem eorum ; utrumque in orbe sibi conveniente. Rabbi Abraham F.°. D.*. dicit: Semita trigesima prima vocatur intelligentia perpetua: et illa ducit solem et lunam et reliquas stellas et figuras, unum quodque in orbe suo, et impertit omnibus creatis juxta dispositionem ad signa et figuras. Here is the French translation of the Hebrew text which we have transcribed in our ritual : “ The thirty-first path is called the perpetual intelligence ; and it governs the sun and the moon, and the other stars and figures, each in its respective orb. And it distributes what is needful to all created things, according to their disposition to the signs and figures.” This text, one sees, is still perfectly obscure for whoever is not acquainted with the characteristic value of each of the thirty-two paths. The thirty-two paths are the ten numbers and the twenty-two hieroglyphic letters of the Qabalah. The thirty-first refers to w, which represents the magic lamp, or the light between the horns of Baphomet. It is the qabalistic sign of the op, or astral light, with its two poles, and its balanced centre. One knows that in the language of the alchemist the sun signifies gold, the moon silver, and that the other stars or planets refer to the other metals. One 217