“Out on the desert stands the Sphinx, the Guardian of the Threshold mentioned by Bulwer Lytton. It stands for the bodies of man, and is that strange being which must be passed before the student can go on in his development. The four fixed signs of which the Sphinx is a symbol are Taurus the Bull, Leo the Lion, Scorpio the Eagle, and Aquarius the Man, or the human head.
I have already given you some work on the sacrum bone, and I told you that it was the grave digger’s spade. Here is a picture of the head of the Sphinx, and the inverted sacrum bone when it has been turned upward. We see the Sphinx in the inverted sacrum and also in it the inverted Masonic keystone. All this is very interesting, but unless we realize the inner meaning of it, its true value is lost. But it is not chance that these things should be so.
You have most of you heard of the Dweller on the Threshold, that creature built by our own actions and mistakes. Well out on Egypt’s desert it stands and bars the way to the pyramid, the temple of the higher man. And the message that it gives to the world is:
“I am the bodies. If you would go on to the temple you must master me, for I am within you.”
The Sphinx again symbolizes man, with the mind and spirit of the human rising out of the animal desires and emotions. It is the riddle of the ages, and man is once more the answer.
It is said that in ancient times the Sphinx was the gateway of the pyramid, and that there was an underground passage which led from the Sphinx to Cheops. This would make the symbolism even more perfect, for the gateway to the spirit is through the bodies according to the ancients.” [Initiates of the Flame, by Manly Palmer Hall]