word Catharos = pure) is clearly the all-pure, immaculate, and undefiled Bride of the Song of Solomon, and the toothed wheel with which she is identified is the four- or six-rayed Solar wheel. CINDERELLA is sometimes called La Bella Catarina,1 and there are monuments to Isis bearing the inscription: "Immaculate is our Lady Isis."2

One of the Gnostic philosophers has left on record the account of an alleged vision of SOPHIA. Truth," says he,

"looked upon me and opened her mouth and uttered a word, and that word became a Name; a Name which we know and speak-JESUS CHRIST: and having named Him, she held her peace." There is no doubt that the mystics of the Middle Ages identified CHRIST with SOPHIA, and this identity is reflected in the six-rayed Solar wheels herewith.

Over fig. 611 is the Holy ONE of JESUS, the True Light, and the meaning of the other examples is elucidated by the

three circles of perfection, the pastoral crook of the Good Shepherd, the Moon of Heaven, and the Crown of Glory.

The equation of CHRIST and SOPHIA as both being incarnate, "Wisdom" is rendered the more complete by Christ's claim "I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." 1 In fig. 618 the trefoiled Hand is extending a key from Heaven-doubtless the key of David referred to in Isaiah xxii. 22: "Woe unto you!" said Christ addressing the lawyers, "for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." According to a German version of

618

CINDERELLA, the heroine catches sight of a glittering something, throws a stone at it, and a golden key falls into her hand. With this key she unlocks a cupboard full of the most exquisite clothes; dons a silver dress; finds a magic steed waiting her behests, and goes to the dance.3

From the emblems herewith it is easy to see how the mystics understood this magic key. The handle of figs. 619 to 621 is the Heart of Love, and of figs. 622 and 623 it is the Pearl of Wisdom. The Serpentine waves of LABISMINA formed into the letter M constitute the base of fig. 622, and the initials SS are seen on the cross keys in fig. 624. In fig. 625 the keys of heaven are identified with the heart of Love, and the fourfold heart-shaped meander over fig. 626 is presumably the flaming rose of Love.

1 John x. 9.

2 Luke xi. 52.

3 Cinderella, p. 399.

The diamond that constitutes the handle of figs. 627 and 628 was the emblem of "light, innocence, life, and joy." Sometimes this stone was employed as a separate and distinct emblem, and on fig. 630 there appears the letter D. It is eminently likely that the Diamond was

regarded as the gem of Dionysos or Day, and that the name Diamond is affiliated with the Sanscrit dyu, "to be brilliant." The hard and indestructible character of diamond is expressed in its alternative name adamant, derived from the Greek adamas, unconquerable. A diamond surmounts fig. 631 and was no doubt the emblem of brilliant, victorious, and unconquerable Light. Note the Cross of Light on figs. 629 and 630.

1 Romance of Symbolism, S. Heath, p. 217.

Associated with the diamond-handled key of fig. 628 is the Hawk or Dove of the Holy Spirit. There is a striking

similarity between this design and the Egyptian Dove reproduced on page 104, vol. ii. The Dove was the attribute of ISHTAR and VENUS, and in The Song of Solomon is likewise

associated with the Bride: "My dove, my undefiled is but

one." 1

In the figure herewith the key of knowledge is associated not with the dove but with the Holy Goose or Ghost. In fig. 634 the Goose is crowned with the triple Perfection; in figs. 632 and 633 with the diadem of beauty, and in fig. 635 it appears in combination with the cross.

The conjunction of Goose, Dove, and Key appears to indicate that Spirit was regarded as the only opener of the Doors of Heaven. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

With poetic intuition Mrs Katherine Tynan sums up most of the time-honoured symbols or similes of Stella Maris, the Bona Dea, the immaculate Magna Mater, in her poem entitled "The Mother." The italics are mine.

"I am the pillars of the house;
The keystone of the arch am I.
Take me away, and roof and wall
Would fall to ruin utterly.

I am the fire upon the hearth,

I am the light of the good sun.

I am the heat that warms the earth,

Which else were colder than a stone.

At me the children warm their hands;
I am their light of love alive.
Without me cold the hearthstone stands,
Nor could the precious children thrive.

I am the twist that holds together

The children in its sacred ring,

Their knot of love, from whose close tether
No lost child goes a-wandering.

1 vi. 9.