The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING Olympus and Sinai, the result being that unless his under- standing is as clear as these rituals are obscure, all he obtains is a theatrical impression of “ make-up” and “ make-believe,” and a general detachment from the realities of Consciousness. The words obsess him; he cannot see that Typhon is as necessary in the Egyptian Scheme as Osiris ; in the Christian, that Satan is but the twin of Christ. They fetter the freedom which they are supposed to unbind, producing not only a duality but a multiplicity of illusions; so that, in the end, the chances are, instead of conversing face to face with Adonai, he becomes a prig addressing a mass meeting in the Albert Hall, rationalising about irrational qualities. Fortunately in the case of P. the result was somewhat different; already master of a vast storehouse of knowledge and learning he was less likely to gasp “Oh my!” at the display of Egyptain pyrotechnics than many of the others; he was in fact enabled by their help to weld to his knowledge a catalogue of disruptive learning, and from it add many words to the great dictionary of magical language he was at this time eagerly attempting to construct. This construction of a language should be the object of all rituals; they should bring the seeker step by step nearer to his quest, that is to say, to perfect him in the tongue he one day hopes to speak. Each Ritual, be it a letter, a word, a sentence, or a volume, should contain a lesson clear and pre- cise, it should leave behind it so bright and dazzling a picture that the very thought of it will at once conjure up the power dressed in its simple yet luminous symbols. In the o°=o° Ritual this is much more clearly carried out than in the following four. The candidate, the would-be 291