Israel Regardie - The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic.pdf

VOLUME TWO
condition, so there is a justice which is above, working in the souls of the
chosen ones, so that once indeed, they shall taste death, that they may pass into life
forever, under the auspices of the Faithful Intelligence.
Justice is the Daughter of the Lord of Truth, The Holder of the Balances.
10th KEY-WHEEL OF FORTUNE
The Lord of the Forces of Life
The form of the Order's Key of The Wheel of Fortune is much more simple
than most renditions. There are shown only three figures - the winged Sphynx above, the
revolving wheel in the center, while below is a sitting, pensive monkey, a
cynocephalus.
The Sphynx is half beast and half human, female as indicated by breasts, while
the head is covered by a nemyss encircled by a halo. Thus it represents humanity as a
whole, evolving from its primordial animal state to human self-consciousness. But
that is not all. The presence of large wings, indicate the divinity of the figure, so that
the symbol as a whole suggests the Real Self of man hidden behind the veil of the
lower Sephiroth, the lower self or personality. The higher Triad is well represented by
being above the other two symbolic figures.
The wheel is the symbol of time, cyclic progression and thus of karma. The
wheel of the zodiac and astrology per se are representative of the cosmic clock
constantly ticking away to bring into fresh activity the latent seeds of ancient deeds
whereby we rise or fall as our fortunes, in the broadest sense of the term, fluctuate
with the passage of time.
The cynocephalus is below, often described as Hermanubis, the combination of
Hermes the messenger of the Gods, and lower mind, and Anubis, the dog-faced (or
jackal) God who presided over death and mummification, and the watcher over the
tombs of the dead. Watching over the tomb is required to permit resurrection - and
thus he is associated with immortality, rising through the wheel of life from
transitoriness to the overshadowing sphynx above, eternity.
It is symbolized by the letter Caph, referred to Jupiter on The Tree. Caph is not
a closed hand, nor an open hand, but a curved hand, as if to hold or contain
something.
9th KEY-THE HERMIT
The Hermit on most packs of the Tarot is practically the same. It is a hooded
and cloaked figure, an old man, bearing a staff in one hand, and a lamp or lantern in
the other. Like Diogenes of old, he may be looking for Truth - the truth about man
and his relationship with the universe. He is a solitary figure; there is none other with
him. In the search to reach the divine, one is alone in quest of the Alone. At the same
time he represents the Kerux in the initiatory rituals, the shower of the way - the
Kerux who points out the way to the hidden knowledge.
The Hermit is attributed to the letter Yod on the Tree and to the sign Virgo,
ruled by Mercury. Mercury is not yet knowledge, but is the means whereby
knowledge is
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