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THE TREE OF LIFE 115
guarded. One exception, however, exists to this general rule.
The lamp must always hang above the Theurgist's head, and is
never kept in the altar cupboard. It symbolizes in every system
the undimmed radiance of the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian
Angel to whose Knowledge and Conversation he so ardently aspires.
Whenever that lamp is shining, illuminating the magical work, that
operation bears the immortal seal of legitimacy and the abiding
sanction and approval, as it were, of the Holy Ghost. Moreover,
the oil which this lamp consumes is olive oil, sacred to Minerva, the
goddess of Wisdom.
Those weapons, the so-called elemental weapons, are arrayed
on the top of the Altar prior to the operation. These consist of the
Wand, the Sword or Dagger, the Cup and the Pentacle, representing
the letters of Tetragrammaton, and the four elements from which
the whole gamut of heterogeneity in the cosmos has been built.
To the element Fire is attributed the Wand ; the Cup is Water,
while to Air is allocated the Sword, and the Pentacle symbolizes
the fixedness and inertia of earth. There is no weapon to represent
the fifth and crowning element of Spirit or Akasa ; for that is
invisible, and its tattvic colour is black or indigo.
There is a series of correspondences which may prove of interest
to the Magician. Each of the Gods is characterized by some particular
weapon or symbol which expresses more clearly and perfectly
than anything else his essential nature. Thus when the Magician
flourishes the Wand it is to be conceived that he takes upon himself
the authority and wisdom of Tahuti before the council of the
cosmic Gods. When with the sceptre he announces his relationship
with Maat, the Lady of Truth and Sovereignty ; while the flail or
scourge denotes his authority and self-sacrifice and connects him at
once with Osiris.
The Wand is the Will, representing the wisdom and spiritual
presence of the creative s-If, the Chialz, and it should be upright
and mighty, a worthy figure of his divine force.
Passive and receptive, the Cup or Chalice is a true symbol of his
fieschamah, the intuition and understanding which is ever open
awaiting the supernal dew which daily descends, according to Thc
Book of Splendoz~r, from the highest regions for the pure of soul.
In ceremonial, the Cup is used but rarely, and then only in the highest
invocations, to bear the libations ; in evocations it plays no part
at all.