36 § The Exit from the Cave

ACCORDING to what we have already said, the final exit from the initiatic cave, considered as the 'exit from the cosmos', would seem to be necessarily, in the normal course, through an opening at the very zenith of the vault. It should be remembered that this upper gateway, which traditionally is sometimes designated as the 'solar hub' and also as the 'cosmic eye', corresponds in the human microcosm to the _Brahma-randhra_ and to the crown of the head. Nevertheless, despite the references to solar symbolism which are to be found in such a connection, this 'axial' and 'zenithal' position can be said to relate more directly and doubtless more primitively to a polar symbolism. According to certain 'operative' rituals, the point in question is that from which the 'plumb line of the Great Architect' is suspended, marking the direction of the World Axis, and it is then identified with the pole star itself^[7] Let it be noted also that for the exit to be made in this way it is necessary that a stone of the vault be removed from this very point; and this stone, by the fact that it is at the summit, has a special and even unique function in the architectural structure, for it is of course a 'keystone'—a point that is not without its importance, though this is not a context in which it can be dwelt on.^[2]

It seems that what we have just mentioned has only seldom been observed to the letter in initiatic rituals, though a few examples of it can nevertheless be found.^[3] Moreover, this rarity can be explained, at least in part, by certain practical difficulties and also by the need to avoid confusion, which is a risk in such a case.^[4] In fact, if the cave has no way out other than this, it must serve as an entry as well as an exit, which does not conform to its symbolism. Logically, the entrance ought rather to be at a point opposite the exit, along the axis, that is, in the ground at the very centre of the cave, which would be reached by an underground route. But such a means of entry would not be suitable for the 'Greater Mysteries', corresponding as it does only to the initial stage which has already long since been passed. It must be supposed, rather, that the recipient, who has entered by this underground route to receive initiation into the 'Lesser Mysteries', remains in the cave thenceforth until the moment of his 'third birth' when he leaves it once and for all by the upper opening. This is admissible theoretically, but it clearly cannot be put into actual practice.^[5] There is in reality another solution, which implies considerations in which solar symbolism is this time predominant, although the traces of polar symbolism are still quite distinctly in evidence. We have here a kind of combination and almost a fusion of these two modalities, as we indicated at the close of the previous study. It is essential to note in this respect that the vertical axis, insofar as it joins the two poles, is obviously a north-south axis; in the passage from polar to solar symbolism, this axis must somehow be projected onto the zodiacal plane, but in a way that maintains a certain correspondence, we might even say as exact an equivalence as possible, with the primitive polar axis.^[6] Now, in the annual cycle the solstices of winter and summer are the two points which correspond respectively to North and South in the spatial order, just as the equinoxes of spring and of autumn correspond to East and West. The axis which fulfills the desired condition, therefore, is that which joins the two solstitial points; and it could be said that this solstitial axis will then play the part of a relatively vertical axis.^[7] The solstices are truly what may be called the poles of the year, and these poles of the temporal world (if we may use such an expression) take the place here, in virtue of a correspondence that is real and in no way arbitrary, of the poles of the spatial world. They are, moreover, naturally in direct relation with the course of the sun, whose poles (in the ordinary sense of this word) are, on the contrary, entirely independent; and so the two symbolic modalities in question are linked, as clearly as possible, one with the other.

This being so, the cosmic 'cave' will have two 'zodiacal' gates, set over against one another along the axis that we have just been considering, and they will thus correspond respectively to the two solstitial points of which the one will serve as entry and the other as exit. In fact, the notion of these two 'solstitial gates' is to be found explicitly in most traditions, even to the point of having a considerable symbolic importance generally attached to it. The gate of entry is sometimes designated as the 'gate of men', who are no doubt to be taken in this case as the initiates into the Lesser Mysteries as well as the profane, since they have not yet gone beyond the human state; and the gate of exit is then designated, in contradistinction, as the 'gate of the gods', namely that gate through which pass only those beings who have access to supra-individual states. All that remains to be considered now is which of these two gates corresponds to which solstice; but to be given