Self/God/Pride

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"Be that as it may, the charioteer of the Arcanum "The Chariot" is the

victor over trials, i.e. the temptation, and if he is master, then it is

thanks to himself. He is alone, standing in his chariot; no one is

present to applaud him or to pay homage to him; he has no weapons - the

sceptre that he holds not being a weapon. If he is master, his

mastership was required in solitude and he owes it to the trials alone,

and not to anyone or anything external to himself.

 

The victory achieved in solitude...what glory and what danger it

comprises at one and the same time! It is the _real_ glory, for no way

depends on human favour and judgement; it is _intrinsic glory_ - the

real radiance of the aura become luminous.

 

It is, however, at the same time the most real and most serious

spiritual danger which exists. "Pride" and "vaingloriousness", the

traditional names which one gives to it, do not suffice to characterize

it in an adequate way. It is more than this. It is rather, a kind of

_mystical megalomania_, where one deifies the regulating centre of one's

own being, one's ego, and where one sees the divine only within oneself

and becomes blind to the divine above and outside of oneself. The

"higher self" is then experienced as the supreme and unique Self of the

world, although it is only "higher" in relation to the ordinary,

empirical self, and it is far for the _supreme_ and unique beings...far

from being God, in other words."

>From "Meditation on the Tarot, A Journey into Christian Hermeticism".

 

Antoine