17 § A Hieroglyph of the Pole

To come back to some of the considerations relating to the figure of the 'pointed cubic stone' which has just been mentioned, let us begin by saying that in ancient documents this figure is completed—rather unexpectedly—by the addition of an axe that seems to be poised in equilibrium on the very summit of the pyramid. This feature has often intrigued specialists in Masonic symbolism, the greater number of whom have been unable to offer any satisfactory explanation whatsoever. It has been suggested, however, that in this context the axe might really be nothing other than a hieroglyph of the Hebrew letter caph; and in fact it is there that the real solution is to be found. But the comparisons that can be made in this respect are of much more significance if one considers the corresponding Arabic letter _qaf_.

The most general sense attached to the letter in question, either in Hebrew or in Arabic, is that of strength or power (in Arabic, _quwwah_) which may be either of the physical or spiritual order as the case may be; and it is to this meaning, very directly, that the symbolism of a weapon such as the axe corresponds. In the present instance it is obviously a spiritual power that is symbolised, for the axe is placed in direct relationship, not with the cube, but with the pyramid; and this brings to mind what we have already explained elsewhere about the equivalence of the axe and the _vajra_ (lightning) which is likewise above all a sign of the spiritual power. Furthermore the axe is placed not just at any point but at the pyramid's summit which is often considered as representing the summit of a spiritual or initiatic hierarchy. This position, therefore, seems to indicate the highest spiritual power active in the world, that is, what all traditions designate as the Pole; and in the same connection let us not forget the axial significance of symbolic arms in general and of the axe in particular, which is manifestly in perfect accord with such an interpretation.

What is especially to be noted is that the very name of the letter _qāf_ is also, in the Arabic tradition, the name of the sacred or polar Mountain. Its image, the pyramid, thus bears, in this letter or in the axe that stands for it, its own designation as the sacred Mountain, as if to leave no doubt as to the meaning which it is traditionally given. Moreover, if the symbol of the mountain or of the pyramid is referred to the World Axis, its summit, where this letter is placed, becomes identified more precisely with the Pole itself. Now _qaf_ is the numeric equivalent of _maqām_, (holy place or station), an equivalence that defines this point as the 'Place', _par excellence_, that is, the single point that remains fixed and invariable in all the revolutions of the world.

The letter _qāf_ is moreover the first letter of the Arabic name of the Pole, _Qutb_, and as such it can stand for the whole word, as initials are often made to do;^[3] but there are still other concordances which are no less striking. Thus the seat (the Arabic word is _markaz_, which strictly means