The symbol of all created life, spiritual and material; of all goodness, human or Divine; the center of all thought, from brutal instinct to Deific wisdom; of all creations, from starry systems to man, and from man back again to invisible gas; of all action, from the imperceptible vibrations of nerve energy to the awful destruction of worlds. All creative potency lies within a Sun sphere. Light is life. The planets are but the offspring of light and life. So in this symbol, we read the source of the human Ego, of our own life. We are, as it were, the planets of the spiritual Sun. Our souls are the attributes of the Sun, of the spiritual Ego. Only from the Ego can we receive life eternal and make immortality a fact. Obeying this spiritual life-force, the human monad is but an attribute, a reflection, of the Divine Ego, and if it fails to awake to a consciousness of this union, it withers and dies like a flower plucked from the parent tree of life. O child of Adam, in reverence and awe do thou meditate upon this Tablet, for it is a thing of beauty, a being of light, life and love, manifesting its creative mission. It is the Vicegerent of God, flaming forth His splendors in the sky. TABLET THE SECOND Mercury SYMBOL An elephant, kneeling between two square columns; on one an eagle, on the other a vulture. At the side a boy, with bow and arrows, standing in doubt which to shoot. Below these a human face, composed of various flowers, whose roots are snakes, a poppy, forming an eye, which winks. II REFLECTION TABLET THE SECOND A vision revealing the earthly drama of the microcosm. The elephant represents the highest expression of intelligence, minus the spirit; kneeling between the square columns of matter, i.e., guarded by them. The external mind is sleeping, or, at most, dreaming of the things of the spirit. Above sleeping mind sit the two birds, who represent spirit and matter, each waiting for the slowly preparing feast. The boy, the soul with its weapons, has a choice. Shall it be the sensuality of the flesh that he shall destroy, or the possibilities of the spiritual life on earth. The problem awaits solution. The eagle sits ready to bear aloft the spirit of the sleeper. The vulture hopes for sleep to end in death, that he may live upon the carrion thereof. The flowers of the external mind have for their roots the snakes; and, in a larger sense, the flowers of immortality have the serpent of wisdom for their roots. And the poppy winks. It knows its own power of illusion, and the double significance of the snake; the necessity of evil in the evolution of good. It is the Tablet of Wisdom. O child of Adam! "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." TABLET THE THIRD Venus SYMBOL An altar: on it two cups, one full, the other spilled; near them two bleeding hearts, in one a snake, in the other a dagger.