ravenest
Could this be the reason for the "sinister" smile of the Hierophant who seems to "be enjoying a very secret joke at somebody's expense"?
No ... thats for another reason. A different 'private joke' ;
That the whole modern western magical occult order thing was invented by British secret service agents who bought the German Order of the Gold and Rosy Cross to Egypt and created The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor ( Paulos Metamon, P.B. Randolph, Blavatsky {pre 'India days'}, etc) to indoctrinate revolutionaries into the early Islamic Brotherhood ( to help overthrow the Ottoman Empire pre WWI ) that unfortunately eventually transmogrified into Al Qaeda ..... oooopsa !
... oh sorry ... wrong thread ! I thought I was in the new 'history' forum .