The Tower - Meaning and Symbolism

THE TOWER.

I saw a lofty tower extending from earth to heaven;

its golden crowned summit reached beyond the clouds.

All round it black night reigned and thunder rumbled.

Suddenly the heavens opened, a thunder-clap shook

the whole earth, and lightning struck the summit of the

tower and felled the golden crown. A tongue of fire shot

from heaven and the whole tower became filled with fire

and smoke. Then I beheld the builders of the tower fall

headlong to the ground.

And the voice said:—-

"The building of the tower was begun by the disciples

of the great Master in order to have a constant reminder

of the Master's teaching that the true tower must be built

in one's own soul, that in the tower built by hands there

can be no mysteries, that no one can ascend to Heaven by

treading stone steps.

"The tower should warn the people not to believe in it.

It should serve as a reminder of the inner Temple and as a

protection against the outer; it should be as a lighthouse,

in a dangerous place where men have often been wrecked

and where ships should not go.

"But by and by the disciples forgot the true covenant

of the Master and what the tower symbolized, and began

to believe in the tower of stone, they had built, and to

teach others to so believe. They began to say that in this

tower there is power, mystery and the spirit of the

Master, that the tower itself is holy and that it is built for

the coming Master according to His covenant and His

will. And so they waited in the tower for the Master.

Others did not believe this, or interpreted it differently.

Then began disputes about the rights of the summit.

Quarrels started, 'Our Master, your Master,' was said; 'our

tower, your tower.' And the disciples ceased to

understand each other. Their tongues had become

confused.

"You understand the meaning here? They had begun

to think that this is the tower of the Master, that He

builds it through them, and that it must and, indeed, can

be built right up to Heaven.

"And you see how Heaven responded?"

Strength - Meaning and Symbolism

POWER.

In the midst of a green plain, surrounded by blue hills,

I saw a woman with a lion. Girdled with wreaths of roses,

a symbol of infinity over her head, the woman calmly and

confidently covered the lion's mouth and the lion

obediently licked her hand.

"This is a picture of power", said the voice. "It has

different meanings. First it shows the power of love. Love

alone can conquer wrath. Hatred feeds hatred. Remember

what Zarathustra said: "Let man be freed from vengeance;

this is a bridge for me which leads to higher hope and a

rainbow in heaven after long storms."

"Then it shows power of unity. These wreaths of roses

suggest a magic chain. Unity of desires, unity of aspirations

creates such power that every wild, uncontrolled,

unconscious force is subdued. Even two desires, if united,

are able to conquer almost the whole world.

"The picture also shows the power of infinity, that

sphere of mysteries. For a consciousness that perceives the

symbol of infinity above it, knows no obstacles and

cannot be withstood."

The Devil - Meaning and Symbolism

THE DEVIL.

Black, awful night enveloped the earth. An ominous,

red flame burned in the distance. I was approaching a

fantastic figure which outlined itself before me as I came

nearer to it. High above the earth appeared the repulsive

red face of the Devil, with large, hairy ears, pointed beard

and curved goats' horns. 

A pentagram, pointing downwards, 

shone in phosphoric light between the horns

on his forehead. Two large, grey, bat-like wings were

spread behind him. He held up one arm, spreading out his

bare, fat hand. In the palm I saw the sign of black magic. A

burning torch held down-end in his other hand emitted

black, stifling smoke. He sat on a large, black cube,

gripping it with the claws of his beast-like, shaggy legs.

A man and woman were chained to the cube—the

same Man and Woman I saw in the garden, but now they

had horns and tails tipped with flame. And they were

evidently dissatisfied in spirit, and were filled with protest

and repulsion.

"This is a picture of weakness", said the voice, "a

picture of falsehood and evil. They are the same man and

woman you saw in the garden, but their love ceasing to be

a sacrifice, became an illusion. This man and woman forgot

that their love is a link in the chain that unites them with

eternity, that their love is a symbol of equilibrium and a

road to Infinity.

"They forgot that It is a key to the gate of the magic

world, the torch which lights the higher Path. They forgot

that Love is real and immortal and they subjugated it to

the unreal and temporary. And they each made love a tool

for submitting the other to himself.

"Then love became dissension and fettered them with

iron chains to the black cube of matter, on which sits

deceit."

And I heard the voice of the Devil: "I am Evil", he said,

"at least so far as Evil can exist in this best of worlds. In

order to see me, one must be able to see unfairly,

incorrectly and narrowly. I close the triangle, the other two

sides of which are Death and Time. In order to quit this

triangle it is necessary to see that it does not exist.

"But how to do this is not for me to tell. For I am the

Evil which men say is the cause of all evil and which they

invented as an excuse for all the evil that they do.

"They call me the Prince of Falsehood, and truly I am

the prince of lies, because I am the most monstrous

production of human lies."

The Hermit - Meaning and Symbolism

THE HERMIT.

After long wanderings over a sandy, waterless desert

where only serpents lived, I met the Hermit.

He was wrapped in a long cloak, a hood thrown over

his head. He held a long staff in one hand and in the other

a lighted lantern, though it was broad daylight and the sun

was shining.

"The lantern of Hermes Trismegistus", said the voice,

"this is higher knowledge, that inner knowledge which

illuminates in a new way even what appears to be already

clearly known. This lantern lights up the past, the present

and the future for the Hermit, and opens the souls of

people and the most intimate recesses of their hearts.

"The cloak of Apollonius is the faculty of the wise man

by which he isolates himself, even amidst a noisy crowd; it

is his skill in hiding his mysteries, even while expressing

them, his capacity for silence and his power to act in

stillness.

"The staff of the patriarchs is his inner authority, his

power, his self-confidence.

The lantern, the cloak and the staff are the three

symbols of initiation. They are needed to guide souls past

the temptation of illusory fires by the roadside, so that they

may go straight to the higher goal. He who receives these

three symbols or aspires to obtain them, strives to enrich

himself with all he can acquire, not for himself, but, like

God, to delight in the joy of giving.

"The giving virtue is the basis of an initiate's life.

"His soul is transformed into a spoiler of all treasures" so

said Zarathustra.

"Initiation unites the human mind with the higher mind

by a chain of analogies. This chain is the ladder leading to

heaven, dreamed of by the patriarch."

Temperance - Meaning and Symbolism

TIME

(TEMPERANCE).

An angel in a white robe, touching earth and heaven,

appeared. His wings were flame and a radiance of gold

was about his head. On his breast he wore the sacred sign

of the book of the Tarot—a triangle within a square, a

point within the triangle; on his forehead the symbol of

life and eternity, the circle.

In one hand was a cup of silver, in the other a cup of

gold and there flowed between these cups a constant,

glistening stream of every colour of the rainbow. But I

could not tell from which cup nor into which cup the

stream flowed.

In great awe I understood that I was near the ultimate

mysteries from which there is no return. I looked upon

the angel, upon his symbols, his cups, the rainbow stream

between the cups,—and my human heart trembled with

fear and my human mind shrank with anguish and lack of

understanding.

"Yes", said the voice, "this is a mystery that is revealed

at Initiation. 'Initiation' is simply the revealing of this

mystery in the soul. The Hermit re-

ceives the lantern, the cloak and the staff so that he can bear

the light of this mystery.

"But you probably came here unprepared. Look then and

listen and try to understand, for now understanding is your

only salvation. He who approaches the mystery without

complete comprehension will be lost.

"The name of the angel is Time. The circle on his forehead

is the symbol of eternity and life. Each life is a circle which

returns to the same point where it began. Death is the return

to birth. And from one point to another on the

circumference of a circle the distance is always the same, and

the further it is from one point the nearer it will be to the

other.

"Eternity is a serpent, pursuing its tail, never catching it.

"One of the cups the angel holds is the past, the other is

the future. The rainbow stream between the cups is the

present. You see that it flows both ways.

"This is Time in its most incomprehensible aspect.

"Men think that all flows constantly in one direction.

They do not see that everything perpetually meets and that

Time is a multitude of turning circles. Understand this

mystery and learn to discern the contrary currents in the

rainbow stream of the present.

"The symbol of the sacred book of the Tarot on the

angel's breast is the symbol of the correlation of God, Man

and the Universe.

"The triangle is God, the world of spirit, the world of

ideas. The point within the triangle is the soul of man.

The square is the visible world.

"The consciousness of man is the spark of divinity a

point within the triangle of spirit. Therefore the whole

square of the visible universe is equal to the point within

the triangle.

"The world of spirit is the triangle of the twenty-one

signs of the Tarot. The square represents fire, air, water

and earth, and thus symbolises the world.

"All this, in the form of the four symbols, is in the bag

of the Fool, who himself is a point in a triangle. Therefore

a point without dimension contains an infinite square.

Justice - Meaning and Symbolism

JUSTICE.

When I possessed the keys, read the book and

understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the

curtain of the Temple and enter its inner sanctum. And

there I beheld a Woman with a crown of gold and a

purple mantle. She held a sword in one hand and scales in

the other. I trembled with awe at her appearance, which

was deep and mysterious, and drew me like an abyss.

"You see Truth", said the voice. "0n these scales

everything is weighed. This sword is always raised to

guard justice, and nothing can escape it.

"But why do you avert your eyes from the scales and

the sword? They will remove the last illusions. How

could you live on earth without these illusions?

"You wished to see Truth and now you behold it! But

remember what happens to the mortal who beholds a

Goddess!