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this were not so the sword would be a Black Magical weapon.
The pommel of the Sword is in Daath, the guard extends to Chesed and Geburah;
the point is in Malkuth. Some magi make the three spheres of lead, tin, and gold
respectively; the moons are silver, and the grip contains quicksilver, thus
making the Sword symbolic of the seven planets. But this is a phantasy and
affectation.
"Whoso taketh the sword shall perish by the sword," is not a mystical threat,
but a mystical promise. It is our own complexity that must be destroyed. {89}
Here is another parable. Peter, the Stone of the Philosophers, cuts off the
ear of Malchus, the servant of the High Priest (the ear is the organ of Spirit).
In analysis the spiritual part of Malkuth must be separated from it by the
philosophical stone, and then Christus, the Anointed One, makes it whole once
more. "Solve et coagula!"
It is noticeable that this takes place at the arrest of Christ, who is the
son, the Ruach, immediately before his crucifixion.
The Calvary Cross should be of six squares, an unfolded cube, which cube is
this same philosophical stone.
Meditation will reveal many mysteries which are concealed in this symbol.
The Sword or Dagger is attributed to air, all-wandering, all-penetrating, but
unstable; not a phenomenon subtle like fire, not a chemical combination like
water, but a mixture of gases.
fierce for life; it must be largely diluted with the inert nitrogen.
The rational mind supports life, but about seventy-nine per cent. of it not
only refuses itself to enter into combination, but prevents the remaining
twenty-one per cent. from doing so. Enthusiasms are checked; the intellect is
the great enemy of devotion. One of the tasks of the Magician is to manage
somehow to separate the Oxygen and Nitrogen in his mind, to stifle four-fifts so
that he may burn up the remainder, a flame of holiness. But this cannot be done
by the Sword.>>
The Sword, necessary as it is to the Beginner, is but a crude weapon. Its
function is to keep off the enemy or to force a passage through them -- and
though it must be wielded to gain admission to the palace, it cannot be worn at
the marriage feast.
One might say that the Pantacle is the bread of life, and the Sword the knife
which cuts it up. One must have ideas, but one must criticize them.
The Sword, too, is that weapon with which one strikes terror into the demons
and dominates them. One must keep the Ego Lord of the impressions. One must
not allow the circle to be broken by the demon; one must not allow any one idea
to carry one away.
It will readily be seen how very elementary and false all this is -- but for
the beginner it is necessary.
In all dealings with demons the point of the Sword is kept downwards, and it
should not be used for invocation, as is taught in certain schools of magick.
If the Sword is raised towards the Crown, it is no longer really a sword.
The Crown cannot be divided. Certainly the Sword should not be lifted.
The Sword may, however, be clasped in both hands, and kept steady and erect,
symbolizing that thought has become one with the single aspiration, and burnt up
like a flame. This flame is the Shin, the Ruach Alhim, not the mere Ruach Adam.
The divine and not the human consciousness. {90}
The Magician cannot wield the Sword unless the Crown is on his head.
Those Magicians, who have attempted to make the Sword the sole or even the
principal weapon, have only destroyed themselves, not by the destruction of
combination, but by the destruction of division.
that this ambiguity in the word "destruction" has been the cause of much
misunderstanding. "Solve" is destruction, but so is "coagula." The aim of the
Magus is to destroy his partial thought by uniting it with the Universal
Thought, not to make a further breach and division in the Whole.>> Weakness
overcomes strength.
The most stable political edifice of history has been that of China, which
was founded principally on politeness; and that of India has proved strong
enough to absorb its many conquerors.
strict as that of the "heaven-born" (Indian Civil Service).>>
The Sword has been the great weapon of the last century. Every idea has been
attacked by thinkers, and none has withstood attack. Hence civilization
crumbles.
No settled principles remain. To-day all constructive statesmanship is
empiricism or opportunism. It has been doubted whether there is any real
relation between Mother and Child, any real distinction between Male and Female.
The human mind, in despair, seeing insanity imminent in the breaking up of
these coherent images, has tried to replace them by ideals which are only saved
from destruction, at the very moment of their birth, by their vagueness.
The Will of the King was at least ascertainable at any moment; nobody has yet
devised a means for ascertaining the will of the people.
All conscious willed action is impeded; the march of events is now nothing
but inertia.
Let the Magician consider these matters before he takes the Sword in his
hand. Let him understand that the Ruach, this loose combination of 6 Sephiroth,
only bound together by their attachment to the human will in Tiphereth, must be
rent asunder.
The mind must be broken up into a form of insanity before it can be
transcended.
David said: "I hate thoughts."
The Hindu says: "That which can be thought is not true."
Paul said: "The carnal mind is enmity against God."
And every one who meditates, even for an hour, will soon discover how this
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