“To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions–an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE–such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolical forms of the sphinx.”

Levi offers the Four Powers as the words of the Magus and links them with the Sphinx. He goes on to link the Four Powers of the Sphinx with the four Elements and the four cherubic Signs of the zodiac:

“You are called to be king of air, water, earth and fire; but to reign over these four living creatures of symbolism, it is necessary to conquer and enchain them. He who aspires to be a sage and to know the Great Enigma of Nature must be the heir and despoiler of the sphinx: his the human head, in order to possess speech; his the eagle’s wings, in order to scale the heights; his the bull’s flanks, in order to furrow the depths; his the lion’s talons, to make a way on the right and the left, before and behind.”

The Sphinx is a composite creature, having the head of a Man, the torso and front paws of a Lion, the backside of a Bull and the wings of the Eagle. It symbolizes the synthesis and synergy of the Four Powers, represented by the “fourliving creatures of symbolism” (the cherubs) who have been “conquered and enchained” into one figure, the Sphinx. The aspirant is instructed to be the “heir and despoiler of the sphinx,” to both receive and to partake of the four Elements.

“You must thoroughly understand that elemental beings are souls of an imperfect type, not yet raised in the scale up to human existence, and that they can only manifest power when called into action by the adept as auxiliaries to his will, by means of that universal astral fluid in which they live. The kingdom of the Gnomes is assigned to the North, the Salamanders to the South, the Sylphs to the East, and the Undines to the West…. Their symbols are those of Taurus the Bull for Gnomes; Leo the Lion for Salamanders; the Eagle for Sylphs; and the sign of Aquarius for Undines...

“The combination of these four types of face and being represents the Created Universe, a complete aeternal entity, Man in fact, the Microcosm; and this is the first formula of the mystical explanation of the enigma of the Sphynx.”