We are still on the 9th Arcanum of The Hermit, studying small aspects of this Great Initiate. When we are looking at the Tarot, as has been said previously in our little introductions, we are being transported to a place of Archetypal View. This view is like that of standing upon the Statue of Liberty or Empire State Building. Every thing that we were looking at before arriving at the summit pops into perspective and we are now able to see what we have walked through and its ultimate position in relation to that which matters.
The great sage Eliphas levi has said in his book on tarot exegesis
" The lamp of Trismegistus is reason illuminated by science;
The lamp of Trismegistus
enlightens present, past and future, lays bare the conscience of men and manifests
the inmost recesses of the female heart. The lamp burns with a triple flame"
Eliphas Levi tells us the lamp has a triple flame, or in other words The lamp is threefold , corresponding to Physical Astral and Mental Planes. The biggest secret of Initatic Science is that of the Constitution of Man , the actual structure of Man the Microcosm apart from that of "unique" personality levels, we are all of the same "parts".
This is the lamp of Wisdom speaking to us, When the hermit comes and reveals the "light" what is being shown is that we are part , nay, entirely interwoven in the Cosmic Fabric. As the lamp stands for what is in Initiatic Language "LUX OCCULTA" or profanely known as "The Hermit" we are seeing the actual light.
Light in the physical realm as deduced from reason and illuminated by science is a ray of vibration slowed down at a prism and split into lower and lower aspects of the original whole. It shows us color and perspective. Occult light is the light that is literally "Hidden" when this hidden light is shown it’s what Blavatsky called "astral light" or the light of our higher constitutions of being. This whole based view of our entire self or MONAD is the Light of the Occultist and learning to use it is the activation of the Staff and Mantle.
When we are familiar with all levels of vibration , psychic energy and the literal fabric of our SELF then we can be that self everywhere, communicate to that self in water, earth, fire and air. WE can be the self in others and the SELF of the Cosmos.
For the Light (SELF)that shines in the Darkness (PERSONALITY), but the Darkness comprehends it not.
In GNOSIS
Tim
