The Witches' Pyramid

 "To Know, to Will, to Dare and to Keep Silent" what does this mean and where does this phrase come from? The origins are obscure as practically nothing is written on the subject outside of the works of Eliphas Levi and Aleister Crowley. Levi introduces us to the Witches' Pyramid in his most popular work, Transcendental Magic: "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 refers to the words of the Magus as  The Four Powers of the Sphinx and links them with the four Elements and the four Kerubic 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 combination of animals, symbolising the fixed astrology signs of the zodiac. The Man represents Aquarius, the Eagle represents Scorpio, the Bull represents Taurus, and the Lion represents Leo.

He goes on to link them with the Cardinal Directions and Elemental Spirits: "The special kingdom of the gnomes is at the north, that of the salamanders at the south, that of the sylphs at the east, and that of the undines at the west.... Their signs are - the hieroglyphs of the bull for the gnomes, who are commanded with the sword; those of the lion for the salamanders, who are commanded with the bifurcated rod or the magic trident; those of the eagle for the sylphs, who are commanded by the holy pantacles; finally, those of the water-carrier for the undines, who are commanded by the cup of libations."

Man (water-carrier)  - Water - West - Undines - Cup

Eagle - Air - East - Sylphs - Pantacles

Bull  - Earth - North - Gnomes - Sword 
Lion  - Fire - South - Salamanders - Rod
 

"The combination of these four types of face and being represents the Created Universe, a complete and eternal entity, Man in fact, the Microcosm; and this is the first formula of the mystical explanation of the enigma of the Sphynx." Eliphas Levi, in The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum. The sphinx represents the perfected man, the Magus. In his final work, The Great Secret, Levi explains: "The great secret of magic, the unique and incommunicable Arcana, has for its purpose the placing of supernatural power at the service of the human will in some way. To attain such an achievement it is necessary to KNOW what has to be done, to WILL what is required, to DARE what must be attempted and to KEEP SILENT with discernment." And he recommends: "When one does not know, one should will to learn. To the extent that one does not know it is foolhardy to dare, but it is always well to keep silent." 

There is no doubt that Levi had a profound influence on Crowley. In Magick in Theory and Practice, Aleister Crowley declared himself the reincarnation of Eliphas Levi, and translated Levi's The Key of the Mysteries as his own Adeptus Minor thesis. Crowley explains, "It is now expedient that I instruct thee concerning the Four Powers of the Sphinx, the Strangler, and firstly, that this most arcane of the Mysteries of Antiquity was never at any Period the Tool of the Slave-Gods, but a Witness of Horus through the dark Aeon of Osiris to His Light and Truth, His Force and Fire. Thou canst by no means interpret the Sphinx in Terms of the Formula of the Slain God. This I did comprehend even when as Eliphaz Levi Zahed I walked up and down the Earth, seeking a Reconciliation of these Antagonists, which was a Task impossible, for in that Plane they have Antipathy. (Even so may no Man form a Square Magical of Four Units.) But the Light of the New Aeon revealeth this Sphinx as the True Symbol of this our Holy Art of Magick under the Law of Thelema. In Her is the Equal Development and Disposition of the Forces of Nature, each in its Balanced Strength." in chapter 151 of Liber Aleph. Crowley continues to describe the Sphinx in chapter 152: "This then is the Adept, who doth Will with solid Energy as the Bull, doth Dare with fierce Courage as the Lion, doth Know with swift Intelligence as the Man, and doth Keep Silence with soaring Subtlety as the Eagle or Dragon. Moreover, this Sphinx is an Eidolon of the Law, for the Bull is Life, the Lion is Light, the Man is Liberty, the Serpent is Love."

To Know - Man - Intelligence - Liberty

To Dare - Lion - Courage - Light

To Will - Bull - Energy - Life

Keep Silence - Eagle - Subtlety - Love

A few years after Liber Aleph, Crowley wrote Magick Without Tears, introducing a Fifth Power of the Sphinx: "You are familiar with the Four Powers of the Sphinx, attributed by the Adepts of old time to their Four Elements. Air is to Know, Scire; Fire is to Will, Velle; Water is to Dare, Audere; and Earth is to Keep Silence, Tacere. But now that a fifth Element, Spirit, is generally recognized in the Qabalah, I have deemed it proper to add a Fifth Power corresponding: to Go, Ire. Then, as Spirit is the Origin, the Essence, and the Sum of the other four, so is to Go in relation to those powers. And to Go is the very meaning of the name God, as elsewhere shewn in these letters; hence the Egyptian Gods were signalized as such by their bearing the Ankh, which is a Sandal-strap, and in its form the Crux Ansata, the Rosy Cross, the means whereby we demonstrate the Godhead of our Nature."

To Know - Air

To Dare - Water

To Will - Fire

Keep Silence - Earth

To Go - Spirit

Crowley describes the relationship between the Four Powers and the Fifth Power in The Book of Thoth: "The Kerubic sign in any Element exhibits the most powerful and balanced form of that Element. Attached to these are the names of the four Virtues of the Adept, those which enable him to overcome the resistance of the elements; they are: to Will, to Dare, to Know and to Keep Silence. By the harmonious exercise of these, the fifth Element of Spirit is formulated in the being of the Adept. It is the god within, the sun, which is the centre of the Universe from the human point of view, with its own particular virtue, which is to Go."

The Fifth Power represents the power of the perfected magus who unites with Godhead. It is for this reason that Crowley refers to the Sphinx as "the True Symbol of this our Holy Art of Magick under the Law of Thelema" and "a Glyph of the Satisfaction and Perfection of the Will and of the Work, the Completion of the True Man as the Reconciler of the Highest with the Lowest." I don't know when people started calling the Powers of the Sphinx "The Witches' Pyramid" but I suspect that the trend does not predate Wicca. To help you see why the Powers are refered to as a pyramid, I have created this diagram: