The Emblem of a Winged Dragon
Following the enigmatic introduction, there is an illustration of a dragon, a most unusual and curious example of this creature. It has a small snarling face on its tail, a lack of hind legs, and its posture suggests a Lion rampant rather than the typical fire-breathing wyrm.
Its tongue has a triangle tip, it has distinct five claws of a Japanese vs. Chinese dragon, and amidst its colored plumage can be seen a remarkably well-painted human eye.
The introduction to the work describes it provenance: “Holy Magic, revealed to Moses, found in an Egyptian monument, & carefully preserved in Asia under the emblem of a winged dragon.”
Somehow, a secret handed to Moses made its way back to Egypt, where it would then be taken to Asia and concealed under the emblem of a winged dragon? This seems a little far-fetched even for magical literature. As with the Latin text, there is probably a hidden meaning.
First, the magic of the book is holy, which is to say that it serves a noble purpose. It is more like a prayer than a diabolic pact. It uses Hebrew names from the books of Moses, cabalistic titles such as would have been found in the Heptameron, from which the names are derived. These things are simple to grasp, but the remainder of the sentence requires imagination to appreciate. The so-called Egyptian monument is not some random hieroglyphic relic, or the hall of initiation beneath the Sphinx. Instead, it needs to be interpreted on a grand scale, as this monument refers to the Great Pyramid, as shall be described later.
That this magic was “carefully preserved in Asia” may refer not only to the continent, but also to yet another cryptographic puzzle in the text. The words of the benediction include Alpha-Omega, Sabaoth, Izra, and Akorab, whose first letters together spell out the word A-S-I-A all in black ink. These are preceded by the names Adonay in yellow ink, Elohim and Agla in black, O Theos in yellow, and Ischyros in black. This highlights the A and the O, or Alpha and Omega. If one takes the composite word AGLA as the letter U, these names might indicate the five vowels. Just before all of these is the name Tetragrammaton in red. Whatever secret cipher key is carefully preserved in the word Asia, it is well kept.
-Contributed by John King