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

THE COMPLETE GOLDEN DAWN SYSTEM OF MAGIC
Hierophant.
Thanks be to Thee, 0 Lord and Father Almighty, for the Secret Word which is
conceived and born in the heart. We have accepted Thy Cross and Thy Calvary because of
the glorious resurrection that is to come. May Thy Word also be born in the heart of this
Neophyte. May it grow in grace and truth. May the power and perfection of its fulness be as
the glory of the King of all. (The Hierophant resumes his seat.)
Hierophant.
To the East of the Cubical Altar are the Pillars which are analogically referred to
Seth, Hermes and Solomon as allusions to the secret tradition and its perpetuation by the
guardians of the Mysteries. They bear certain hieroglyphical texts from the Ritual of the
Dead. They are symbols of eternal equilibrium, active and passive, fixed and volatile,
severity and mercy. The solid triangles on their summits bear each a veiled lamp, signifying
the triad of life. Between them lies the narrow path of the Hidden Wisdom. It was down this
path, my brother, that I passed for your reintegration in the light; on the threshold thereof,
and between the Iwo Pillars, you received the secrets of the Grade, the distinguishing
badge and the final and perfect consecration.
You should now learn that the Hierophant on his Throne in the East personifies the
substance and the evidence and the experience which are represented by faith in the eternal.
He is the Rising Sun in Nature and power, light, mercy and wisdom in the providential
world. It is said: Ex oriente Lux, and that light is for the illumination of the peoples of the
earth. Behold He hath placed His Tabernacle in the sun, and the purpose is that our feet
may be directed in the way of peace. This is how the Orient from on high visits us. The
intention is furthermore that the knowledge of salvation may be granted to His people. This
is the import of the power of the Hierophant and the correspondence thereof is His mercy,
for mercy is on all sides. But the correspondence of his light is his wisdom, and this wisdom
symbolises that which proceeds from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to
end and strongly and sweetly overruling all things. The Hierophant is also the teaching
spirit at the place of the Rending of the Veil.
The Hiereus on the Throne of the West is the Setting Sun in Nature and Divine
Fortitude in the world of Providence. But the Fortitude of God on the threshold of initiation
is the power and will to save the soul alive when it has gone forth seeking the true light. That
is the kind of Fortitude. The Hiereus is also a correspondence of that Divine Darkness which
is behind all manifested Divine Light.
The Hegemon represents religion, the foundation of which is in faith, but it is also
holy hope. He is the Mediator, the Reconciler, the Preparer for the Path to the Divine. He
represents in an especial manner the condition of the ascent of the soul, and that is purity,
which is symbolised by his white robe. It is in and by this quality that he directs the higher
aspirations of the spirit. Purity is not only the condition, but in a sense it is also the term; it
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