The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE EQUINOX for any one to fail therein. Unsuitable candidates wereadmitted for no better reason than that of their worldly possessions. “In short, the Order failed to initiate. “‘ Scandal arose, and with it schism. “In 1900 one P., a brother, instituted a rigorous test of S.R.M.D. on the one side and the Order on the other. . . .” Here we must leave the “ Lection,” returning to it in its proper place, and after explaining “the Diagram of the Paths and the Grades,” enter upon the Ritual of the o°=o° Grade of Neophyte. It will be at once apparent to the reader that the Diagram of the Paths is simply the ordinary Sephirotic Tree of Life, combined with the Tarot trumps, the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the thirty-two paths of the Sepher Yetzirah, the signs of the Zodiac, and the signs of the planets and the elements. The following account of it is taken from S.A.’s copy No. 2 of the“ Ritual of the 24th, 25th, and 26th Paths leading from the First Order of the G.*. D.*.in the outer to the 5°=6°, Associate Adept speaking: “ Before you upon the Altar is the diagram of the Sephiroth and Paths with which you are already well acquainted, having marked thereon the grade of the order corresponding to each Sephira, and the Tarot Trumps appropriated to each Path. “You will further note that the First Order includes: Malkuth, answering to Neophyte and Zelator, and the element of earth. Yesod to Theoricus and air. Hod to Practicus and water. And Netzach to Philosophus and fire. “Of these the last Three Grades alone communicate with the Second Order, though cut off from it by a veil which may 242