The Shrine of the Book, a wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is built to symbolize the scroll – The shrine is built as a white dome symbolizing the Sons of Light, and a black basalt wall – symbolizing the Sons of Darkness.

The shrine holds one of the Dead Sea scrolls found near Qumran. The War Scroll is an apocalyptic work describing the conflict at the end of time between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.

Although this war is said to extend over forty years, the writer of the scroll was particularly concerned with the details of the very final day of battle. After six bloody engagements during this last battle, the Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness are deadlocked in a 3-3 tie. In the seventh and final confrontation “the great hand of God shall overcome Belial and all the angels of his dominion, and all men of his forces shall be destroyed forever” (1QM 1:14-15).

In the end, all of Darkness is to be destroyed and Light will live in peace for all eternity.

I noticed that this war is hidden in the high priestess tarot. Adherents of the Mysteries have long held the idea that the Tarot has its origins in the arcane system of the Kabbalah. The job of the High Priestess, to offer secret knowledge, like the moon on a dark night, so that the querent can find their path. She sits between the pillars of dark and light, existance and negation, wax and wane. All secret knowledge is hers.

In The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Freemason Manly Hall (1901 – 1990) explained:

“Jachin–the white pillar of light…Boaz–the shadowy pillar of darkness. …These two pillars respectively connote also the active and the passive…the sun and the moon…good and bad, light and darkness.” iv