THE CHARIOT.
I saw a chariot drawn by two sphinxes, one white. the
other black. Four pillars supported a blue canopy, on
which were scattered five-pointed stars. The Conqueror,
clad in steel armour, stood under this canopy guiding the
sphinxes. He held a sceptre, on the end of which were a
globe, a triangle and a square. A golden pentagram
sparkled in his crown. On the front of the chariot there
was represented a winged sphere and beneath that the
symbol of the mystical lingam, signifying the union of two
principles.
"Everything in this picture has a significance. Look and
try to understand", said the voice.
"This is Will armed with Knowledge. We see here,
however, the wish to achieve, rather than achievement
itself. The man in the chariot thought himself a conqueror
before he had really conquered, and he believes that
victory must come to the conqueror. There are true
possibilities in this beautiful conception, but also many
false ones. Illusory fires and numerous dangers are hidden
here.
He controls the sphinxes by the power of a magic
word, but the tension of his Will may fail and then the
magic word will lose its power and he may be devoured
by the sphinxes.
This is indeed the Conqueror, but only for the
moment; he has not yet conquered Time, and the
succeeding moment is unknown to him.
This is the Conqueror, not by love, but by fire and the
sword,—a conqueror against whom the conquered may
arise. Do you see behind him the towers of the conquered
city? Perhaps the flame of uprising burns already there.
And he is unaware that the city vanquished by means
of fire and the sword is the city within his own
consciousness, that the magic chariot is in himself and that
the blood-thirsty sphynxes, also a state of consciousness
within, watch his every movement. He has externalized
all these phases of his mind and sees them only outside
himself. This is his fundamental error. He entered the
outer court of the Temple of knowledge, but thinks he
has been in the Temple itself. He regarded the rituals of
the first tests as initiation, and he mistook for the goddess,
the priestess who guarded the threshold. Because of this
misconception great perils await him.
Nevertheless it may be that even in his errors and
perils the Great Conception lies concealed. He seeks to
know and, perhaps, in order to attain, mistakes, dangers
and even failures are necessary.
Understand that this is the same man whom you saw
uniting Heaven and Earth, and again walking across a hot
desert to a precipice.
