worldly and perverted conceptions of sex, that can accomplish this task. To be laid square and firm, the Mental Foundation must be cemented by the use of the Water of Life. The Will must be so developed and the imagination (silver, Moon) so purified that in pouring from the silver to the golden vase the imagination shall be turned into creative energy without loss or defilement.

In one of the most noted Temples in long past ages, all that is symbolized in this card was expressed in a symbolic ceremony celebrated every evening at sunset. This ceremony, foreshadowing as it did the perfect equilibrium and balance between the sexes and the lifting up of the life-forces into a higher manifestation, was considered most sacred.

It was performed by a pure virgin Priestess who had been educated in the Temple and kept from all profanation. And woe to her if by any mischance or by distraction of attention, one drop of the Water of Life in the vase should be spilled upon the ground; for this would reverse the whole symbology. The water thus spilled on the ground would symbolize that aspect of the Water of Life used only for physical procreation or poured forth on the earth to bring forth the fruits of the earth, both of which are perfectly right in their places, but not in a ceremony performed by a virgin Priestess. Therefore, should such a thing happen, it would indicate that she either had or was destined to fall away from the pure worship, hence was no longer fitted to make propitiation to the gods for the shortcomings of the people. In this Temple the esoteric truth was understood, namely, the real creative power of thought and Will, especially when emphasized through a mystical ceremony, every act of which helped to impress the thought held and to strengthen the Will. And it was this esoteric truth, supposed to be known only to the Priestess, which was indicated by the Water of Life in the silver vase held in her left hand, which she as Priestess must pour into the golden one in her right, namely, this esoteric truth must be poured out for humanity and made exoteric, yet only into

a vase of pure gold or those pure minds who were fitted to receive it. Hence the spilling of a drop meant that the task had failed.

The Temple in which this ceremony was performed was a many storied structure, having in its center a high tower with battlemented parapets. Access to the several stories of its tower was obtained by a circular flight of steps with a broad romp winding round and round on the outside. The tower formed the entire center or core of the Temple, with rooms surrounding it on each story, all opening outwardly on to the romp. At its base it spread out into an immense audience chamber, with an altar in the very center, upon which burned a perpetual fire.

The tower was surmounted by a wonderful crystal dome which was so constructed on a movable axis as to be a mighty reflector and burning glass. It was so arranged that it caught the first rays of the rising Sun and the last rays of the setting Sun and focused them upon an altar directly under the dome. By this powerful focus the rays of the Sun in that hot climate started the fire for the morning sacrifice, the wood for which was saturated with highly inflammable substances and laid in readiness.

The altar in the center of the audience chamber was reached by seven stone steps or platforms entirely surrounding it, the fourth step being a broader platform on which most of the ceremonies of the Temple were performed. The High Priest and the acolytes were permitted to ascend the fifth and sixth steps, but only the virgin Priestess could ascend the seventh step, for it was upon this step that the mystical ceremony of transmuting the life-force took place.

This ceremony, which was performed at sunset, began by twelve maidens and twelve youths-each robed in appropriate colors symbolizing the forces of the zodiac, and arranged according to the forces predominating at the time-ascending to the fourth step and there performing the mystical Sundance.

At a certain signal the Priestess, who was dressed in a wonderful robe of translucent glistening white, ascended to the seventh step and there stood with the lurid light of the altar fire shining through the folds of her robe, and with the golden beams of the setting Sun reflected around her head like a golden halo. Then a kneeling acolyte handed her the two vases, one in either hand. Into the silver vase a Priest dressed in full pontifical attire poured from a crystal vase held high, the water which had been blessed, very much as the Priest of today blesses the baptismal water.

In an intense hush and illuminated by the rays of the sinking Sun intensified by the reflecting globe, and while the vast audience was in semi-darkness, the Priestess first sprinkled an oblation of water upon the Flame that it might be cleansed through the fire of Divine Love, and then poured the water from the silver into the golden vase. This ceremony was but a symbolic outpicturing of a mystical step in attainment which must be taken on the Path to Mastery by every Soul in some life when this stage of spiritual unfoldment has been reached. This is plainly the fundamental symbology of the fourteenth card.

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Number 15. MAN THE CREATOR. THE AWAKENING.

"All beings, from the first divine emanation, or 'God manifested,' down to the lowest atomic existence, 'have their particular number which distinguishes each of them and becomes the source of their attributes and qualities as of their destiny.'"The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, III, 101.

In number 15 we find ourselves confronted with a very powerful number and one that is very little understood. In truth it is a most mystical number, combining as it does the 10 of Perfection and the 5 of Humanity, being completed in the 6 of the Christ-force (1+5=6) struggling into manifestation against the inertia of matter. This number might therefore be called Man, the Redeemer of Matter.

Hence the fundamental meaning of number 15 is Man the Creator. But he is still blinded by and scarce dares to look at the pure Light of the Christos (6) on the one hand, and on the other hand with the 5 of personality so strong that he still seeks amidst the darkness of the vibrations of his 5 senses (sensations) for some focus for his faith, thus setting up his own conceptions and attributing to them the Perfection of the 10 of God. Therefore in number 15 we see man standing midway in evolution, but with his face turned toward the darkness produced by his own black shadow, which is made more intense by the brilliancy of the Light focused upon him at this point. The pure Christ-light is beginning to shine within him like the Sun rising on a new day, its magical life and warmth stirring in him a great longing for the Light. All he has to do to find it is to turn around and face it.

No one who has spent a night camping out in a spot far from mankind and has awakened very early when the first herald of the dawn begins to appear, but has felt and heard through the darkness, which at that hour seems even more dense than at midnight, certain vague stirrings. All nature