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II. The Priestess—La Papesse

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Depth is equal to height, darkness is contrasted with light, matter is but the garment of the spirit. That which is below is like that which is above. The breath of God is borne along over the waters, and the waters remain aloft carried on by the breath of God. That which we call the Breath of God is the Life Essence spread over the worlds; it is that warm luminous fluid which gives a soul to the planets; the common reservoir of progressive animal life; the universal basis of the sympathies between bodies, and the medium of love between souls; it is the vehicle of the will, and common basis for all the varied modifications of the Creative Word. The Breath of the mouth of God leads to the corresponding human breath. God said, “ Let us make man,” and man answers, “ Let us make to ourselves a God.”

When God made creation manifest as a temple, He illumined the planets as light-bearers, He decorated the earth with flowers as an altar, He gave mysterious properties to metals and plants, and He drew with His finger circles, triangles, and the cross, as eternal pantacles, traced in living fire upon the immense vault of the skies. The Magus should imitate his God upon this earth, his dwelling.

Know, Will, and Act; these are the three essentials for sacerdotal and royal high magic. Matter and form are instruments placed in the power of the Magus, his acts should be dependent on the Word, and so shall none of his deeds be lost, and his teachings shall be preserved.

You then who desire to understand the mysteries of this Science and to perform marvels, consider and tremble lest you have as yet failed to attain to knowledge and wisdom; for if so, you stand on the brink of an abyss ; stop, ere it is too late. But if you have secured the Lamp and Wand of Initiation, if you are cognisant of the secrets of the Nine, if you never speak of God without the Light which proceeds from Him, if you have received the mystical baptism of the Four Elements, if you have prayed upon the Seven Mountains, if you know the mode of motion of the Double Sphynxed Chariot, if you have grasped the dogma of why Osiris was a black god, if you are free, if you are a king, if you are in truth a priest in the temple of Solomon—act without fear, and speak, for your words will be all-powerful in the spiritual kingdom, and the breath of God will follow the utterances of your mouth, and the powers of the heavens and of the earth will be obedient unto you.

Notes.

The Second Tarot Trump represents a seated female figure, crowned with a tiara, and holding a book in her hands; it is partly concealed by her mantle. She has a veil around her head, and some old cards show the horns of Isis upon her head-dress. Some authors who discredit the great age and Egyptian origin of the Tarot symbols have asserted that this card was intended to represent the fabulous Pope Joan. This character was said to be an Englishwoman of great learning, ability, and vice, who was chosen Pope in a.d. 855, succeeding Leo IV. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics have now rejected the story as a groundless fiction. L£vi, in his Dogme de la haute Magie, throws out the suggestion that this trump represents the Greek Juno, and he assigns as its occult meanings— the house of God, and of man; sanctuary, the Gnosis, the Kabalah, the dyad, Woman and maternity.

The Rosicrucians considered this card to be Isis, the Great Mother, Soul of Nature. P. Christian gives as its meaning—Occult Science awaiting the initiate at the door of the sanctuary.