The Equinox (Volume I, Number X)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES their hidden signification shall soon be made known, that is to say, at the end of the Age.” “Oh, well, sir,” solemnly replied the Professor of Magic; “even before the end of the Age, I will explain them to you: these three qabalistic signs are the signature of the devil !” “It is impossible!” cried the old priest. “Tt is the case,” replied Eliphas, with determination. Now, the signs were these : 1°—The star of the micrososm, or the magic pentagram. It is the five-pointed star of occult masonry, the star with which Agrippa drew the human figure, the head in the upper point, the four limbs in the four others. The flaming star, which, when turned upside down, is the hierolgyphic sign of the goat of Black Magic, whose head may then be drawn in the star, the two horns at the top, the ears to the right and left, the beard at the bottom. It is the sign of antagonism and fatality. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns. It is a sign execrated by initiates of a superior rank, even at the Sabbath. 2°.—The two hermetic serpents. But the heads and tails, instead of coming together in two similar semicircles, were turned outwards, and there was no intermediate line repre- senting the caduceus. Above the head of the serpents, one saw the fatal V, the Typhonian fork, the character of hell. To the right and left, the sacred numbers III and VII were relegated to the horizontal line which represents passive and secondary things. The meaning of the character was then this : Antagonism is eternal. 1 But if this were on a circular host, how could it be upside down ?—O. M. 149