The Drawing Back of the Veil: An Explanation of Symbols in the Hierologium

The Hierologium is most sacred concerning the Mysteries. However much minds are burdened by intrusion, pause and consider. Mysteries are to be kept in silence and on no account to be enunciated. Yet where there is speech, there also is delay, and silence ceases of necessity. And now you see, as if on the edge, the contradiction known to you joined by a tight bond. Whatever joins is from God. Separation is from the Evil. What joins silence and enunciation, mystery and speech, to each other? Holiness. It is not profane but sacred speech. Truth speaks in the hidden to its elect, and divine wisdom speaks openly to the most sacred initiates, which observes profound silence and most tenacious taciturnity toward all who are outside, nor are they deemed worthy to enter into the inner sanctum of the sacred. Holy things to the holy! God committed the guardianship of His Mysteries to the priests. Where true secularity is white-haired, there cannot be a voice, but only contemplation itself. Those who are dead to the world and far from the tumult of worldly things can only be so abstinent. To them, therefore, is committed the sacred speech, who have reached the inner penetralia of the mysteries in the sanctuary, so that He may speak openly to those to whom He can safely speak. And no longer through figures. Yet the sacred speech is cast under figures, and the veil casts a shadow upon the discipline of wisdom. It casts it upon itself, I say, so that it may not be known by those who are to be kept away from its sight: yet it also casts it upon itself so that it may be better perceived by others, by whom it desires to be known and seen: it desires. For the same veil that keeps away, also provides knowledge. What did the eternal Word do? He clothed Himself in the veil of humanity. For who could have seen the splendor of divinity and lived? Yet the eternal Son was seen in the garment of humanity, and was known by all with whom He lived. But it was necessary to penetrate into the hidden and into the divine virtue concealed under the veil of human nature; otherwise this vision would have provided not an inner, not a spiritual, but only a bodily knowledge.

Behold, here also before your eyes, the divine wisdom is placed under the cover of the tablets. It is sacred speech, it speaks in bodily vision through figures. A spark indeed shines out here and there. But you will not arrive at spiritual knowledge unless the sacred speech speaks openly to you. But then you shall marvel at the Glory of the Lord. The sign which it bears on its forehead is an indication of internal truth. Through external signs we are led to that which is within. But cautiously distinguish fictitious, inconstant, and passing signs from the enduring ones. There is no acceptance of fictitious signs here, but divine wisdom offers itself to be viewed from the outside just as it is within to its beloved. Behold, therefore, also under the first sign, which appears on the forehead of the Hierologium, you have revealed and pointed out what it contains internally, concerning the mysteries of divine wisdom. You see a serpent of green color, distinguished by a gold crown and a gold ring, adjacent to a red triangle, to which a golden cross is joined below. Truly inscribed upon the serpent are the words: 'Jaoth', 'Sabaoth', 'Anbattah', 'Louthat', 'Ounes', 'Marsa', 'Atto', 'On', 'Ouriah', consider all things accurately.

[Margin: Jaoth, Jaoth, C.A.B.A.O.H. APBATHA. LOVE. TO. OYPHC. MAPCA. ADWBE.]

You will see in the curvature of the Serpent, which the lower line of the triangle dissects, the signature of Salt. Salt is the substance of all things. Salt in heaven, Salt in earth, Salt in all elements, nor is there anything, and it cannot exist, which lacks Salt. Salt is the bond of all nature; it permeates, sustains, and preserves all things, and it is the final thing which, in all things, appears only as gross materiality and remains as residue.

The triangle with the cross hanging below, if you consider it more accurately, is the signature of Sulfur. The nature of Sulfur is earthly and simultaneously igneous. But the coiling of the Serpent with the cross is the sign of Mercury. It is entirely of a spiritual nature, finite and inconstant, volatile and fixed. Here you have the principles of all things placed before your eyes in this symbol. For in the triad, all things are established, nor is there anything that lacks it. The body is nurtured by spirit and the soul which joins these together. I see, therefore, that the revelation of nature is contained here, so that you may penetrate into the entity of entities and, where you perceive in what all things consist, you may also see whence all things are and into what they may finally be resolved or reduced.

But nature cannot be known unless you simultaneously ascend to the author of nature. The same hand which leads you into the inner shrine of nature, leads you at the same time by the hand into the sanctuary of God. And this the words inscribed on the serpent hint to you. For what indeed do the words mean: Jaoth, Jabaoth, Anbattah, Louthat Ounes Marsa Alotto On our? Jova, Lord of hosts! His majesty is hidden in the light of fire. The possession of His divinity is the fortitude of Fire. The revelation would be truly halved and incomplete if the knowledge of Him, for whom every creature yearns, remained still hidden. Surely not in vain do you see the figure of the triangle depicted here for you. It points to God. But the same Triad which is in all things, is also in God: the emanation of Unity is Duality: in this unity, however, the triad consists. The triangle is the signature of Fire. God is pure fire, immaterial, clearly spiritual. You see the figure of the Serpent. Do not fear if I say that it is the symbol of Divine Virtue itself. God surrounds all things, permeates all things, contains all things, sustains all things. Wherefore, even in ancient fables, they shadowed forth the divine virtue surrounding all things under the symbol of the Serpent surrounding an egg. But where it coils itself into a circle and as it were devours itself