Tarot Orat
Are you implying that the Holy of Holies קדש הקדשים is immediately inside the eastern entrance to the building?
I definitely didn't mean to imply that she was near the entrance to the temple itself - just that her back was to the east where the entrance was.
Tarot, I'm curious why you wonder if the GD made a mistake. I was looking in Regardie's Golden Dawn book and found this in the "Fifth Knowledge Lecture," under the "Diagrams" section.
"That is, the white Mercy or Jachin Pillar is on your right hand as you approach the Altar from the West and from the Hiereus."
From this it sounds like Waite/Smith followed the GD colors & orientation, and the GD's in agreement with the Old Testament.
I agree THP is inside, the only thing that doesn't make sense is the veil isn't where you'd expect it to be. It may have been put there out of necessity.
I admittedly don't have a lot of Golden Dawn resources around, so I hadn't seen that before.
In any event, if she's deliberately placed facing inward, with the veil at her back, why do so many commentaries talk about her as being between us and the Holy of Holies/Mystery/etc.?
Maybe the Golden Dawn did know exactly what they were doing, but later commentaries didn't get it?