The knight with a lance and banner, with a serpent, is a composite magical image that merges the chivalric iconography of the medieval knight with the primal, chthonic symbolism of the serpent. The lance and banner signify directed will and the proclamation of a fixed ideal; the serpent, often coiled or attendant, represents the raw, undifferentiated life-force or the coiled wisdom of the earth. This figure embodies the tension between the nobly aspiring human will and the serpentine, instinctual energies that underlie all manifestation on the Tree of Life.

Position on the Tree of Life

This image is assigned to the 19th Path of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, the connecting pathway between Hod (Splendor, the sphere of Mercury, intellect, and forms) and Netzach (Victory, the sphere of Venus, emotion, and natural vitality). As such, the knight-and-serpent image functions as a gate between the structured, analytical mind of Hod and the flowing, receptive energies of Netzach. The knight’s upright bearing and weaponry reflect the formal, directed quality of Hod; the serpent’s presence indicates the living, instinctual current that must be channeled, not denied. The banner, often emblazoned with a sigil, marks the Path as both a heraldic statement and a boundary between worlds.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

The Path of the knight with the serpent falls under the astrological influence of the letter Tet (corresponding to the zodiacal sign Leo). This placement lends the image a solar, regal, and generative quality: Leo is the sign of the Lion, a symbol of the royal will, the heart, and the creative fire. The serpent, however, tempers the solar bravado with the wisdom of the lunar and telluric currents. The knight thus rides between the blazing sun of the self and the dark earth of the serpent, a warrior who must learn when to strike with the lance and when to yield to the serpent’s coiled patience.

Historical context

The knight with a lance and banner, accompanied by a serpent, appears as a spirit- or angelic-form image in several Renaissance and later grimoire traditions that influenced the compilers of Liber 777. In the Heptameron, spirits of the planetary hours are often described as kings, knights, or soldiers bearing banners, while the serpent is a common attribute of spirits bound to the element of earth or to the lunar mansions. In the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, the “knight” form appears as one of the principal symbolic shapes for the “Great Spirits” of the second order, with the lance and banner representing the magician’s intent and the serpent the material world to be subdued or transmuted.

Notably, the image also echoes the Tarot trump known as the Universe (or the World in some decks), where a central figure (often an androgynous dancer or a crowned woman) holds a wand or staff and is encircled by a serpentine wreath. The knight-and-serpent figure may therefore be read as a more chivalric, active variant of that same cosmic formula: the magician as the rider of the zodiacal dragon, turning the wheel of the elements. In Qabalistic literature, the image for the 19th Path draws upon this fusion of courtly and bestial imagery to emblemize the Path’s role in harmonizing the fiery intellect of Hod with the passionate, instinctual vitality of Netzach—an alchemical marriage of the solar and the serpentine.

In Liber 777, this image is listed in the column of Magical Images for the 19th Path (symbolically corresponding to the Tarot trump The Sun). It stands as a visual key for the practitioner: a knight bearing both the lance of directed consciousness and the serpent of latent power, heralding the integration of the human will with the natural, undivided forces of life.