An Esoteric Course of Kabala

CHAPTER V

ARCANUM V

Beloved Brothers and Sisters of my soul:

Today we are going to study Arcanum Five of the Tarot.  This Arcanum is the Blazing Pentagram, the Blazing Star, the sign of Divine Omnipotence.  This is the ineffable symbol of the Word made flesh, the terrible Bright Star of the Magi.

When the Pentagram raises its two lower rays into the air it represents Satan.

When the Pentagram made light raises just one of its rays into the air, it represents the Inner Christ of every human being who comes into the world.

The human being with his legs and arms open to the right and left is the Five-Pointed Star.  Brain and Sex live in eternal struggle.  The brain must control sex.

When sex conquers the brain, the Five-Pointed Star (the Human Being) falls into the abyss with feet upward and head downward.  This is the Inverted Star; this is the he-goat of Mendes.  A human figure with the head downward and the feet upward naturally represents a Demon.

The whole Science of Gnosis is summed up in the Blazing Star.  Many Bodhisattvas (Human Souls of Masters) fell like the Five-Pointed Star, inverted, with the higher ray downward and the two lower rays upward. 

When one of those Bodhisattvas is raised, when he returns to the Path, when he recapitulates Initiations, then the brethren are surprised and say, “He’s just now beginning our studies and already he’s supposedly an Initiate?”  Much of the time students really judge many things a priori, because they don’t know the great mysteries.  We must differentiate between what a person is who is beginning these studies and what is a fallen Bodhisattva.  In the Revelation of St. John, the Pentagram falls from Heaven to the Earth and the human waters become bitter, they are turned into wormwood.  The Prophet Isaiah says, “How hast thou fallen from heaven, bright star, which was so splendid in thy morning!”

However, the bright star (the fallen human being) will one day shine like the morning star in the right hand of the Word.

Many times a man or woman comes to the Gnostic Lumisials seeking the Divine Torch of Truth.  The newly arrived person is apparently a beginner.  However the brothers and sisters don’t know what the Soul of that man or woman is; it could be a Bodhisattva (the Soul of some Master) that wants to return to its Father who is in secret.  The brothers and sisters are astonished when something superior happens to the apparent beginner and then they say, “What is happening to this person hasn’t happened to us who have been in these studies longer.”  And they ask themselves, “How is it possible that this person who has just started is all of a sudden an initiate?”  We need to not judge in order to not be judged, because “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” [1]

We need to be humble in order to achieve Wisdom, and after having achieved it we must be more humble still.  The Bodhisattvas of Masters fall through sex.  The Bodhisattvas of Masters are raised through sex.  Sex is the Philosophical Stone.  It would be impossible to decapitate the Medusa (the Satan we carry within us) without the precious treasure of the Philosopher’s Stone.  Remember that Medusa is the Lady of evil—the psychological I—whose head is covered by hissing vipers.  The union of the Sophical Mercury and the Sophical Sulfur gives the Philosophical Stone as its result.  The Ens Seminis is the Mercury.  The Sulfur is the Sacred Fire of Love.

We are now living in the specific age of Samael.  We are living in the Fifth Age.  Life has begun its return to the Great Light and we have to define ourselves in these moments, as eagles or reptiles, as angels or demons.

We are facing Philosophy’s dilemma of Being or Not Being.  The Tarot’s Arcanum Five is represented by the Hierophant.  The Fifth Sphere is definitive, because then the human being takes into his hands the reins of his own destiny and becomes angel or demon.

The Great Hierophant of the Tarot appears seated between the Temple’s Two Columns, making the Sign of Esotericism.

The Number Five is grand, it is sublime.  Remember that the human being is also a Five-Pointed Star.  That Star must constantly clean itself with the Five Perfumes.  If we can craft a Metallic Pentagram, we can also consecrate ourselves with the same Rites and Perfumes that we use for our Metallic Pentagram, because the human being is a Five-Pointed Star.

All who feel unclean, with larvae, or who are misery, should utilize the five perfumes to incense themselves, on the condition of treading the path of Perfect Chastity.  In the Lumisials the custom of cleansing the brothers and sisters who are full of larvae should be established.  That way they will receive the benefit in their souls and in their bodies.

[1]  Matthew 7:2