This entry describes the magical image recorded as “Probably a centaur or archer.” The figure is a composite being—human torso and head joined to the body of a horse—armed with a bow. The word “probably” in the source text indicates that the scribe or compiler was uncertain of the precise tradition or being named, but the core iconography is unmistakable: a centaur drawing a bow, or a purely human archer riding a horse, both forms sharing the core symbol of the arrow aimed at a target.

Position on the Tree of Life

The image belongs to Path 18, which connects the Sephirah Geburah (Severity, sphere of Mars) to Binah (Understanding, sphere of Saturn). This path is associated with the Hebrew letter Tzaddi (צ), which in the standard deck of the Tarot corresponds to The Star (Atu XVII). In some systems, Tzaddi is also linked to The Emperor (Atu IV), but the central correspondence for this path remains the Star, and the centaur-archer image bridges the martial force of Geburah with the receptive depth of Binah.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

The path is attributed to the sign Aquarius, an air sign ruled by Saturn and co-ruled by Uranus in the modern system. Aquarius is the Water-Bearer; the centaur-archer is a related image of a figure pouring or shooting a stream of arrows, which in alchemical and astrological terms represents the focused, electric energy of the fixed air sign. The bow and arrow symbolise the direction of will (Geburah) into matter (Binah), released with the detachment of air.

Historical context

The centaur-archer is a figure drawn from classical mythology, most famously Chiron, the wise centaur who taught heroes and was placed among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius. In Greek tradition, the centaur’s archery represented the union of animal instinct and human intelligence, a state of controlled savagery. By the Renaissance, the image was absorbed into magical grimoires—particularly those of the Ars Paulina and Ars Almadel—as an angelic or spirit form appropriate for operations requiring swift action, hunting, or the completion of a distant goal.

The descriptor “Probably a centaur or archer” appears in Crowley’s Liber 777 table at column CLV, “Magical Images,” which draws from earlier sources including Barrett’s The Magus and Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy. The uncertainty suggests that a manuscript source gave an unclear or ambiguous figure; Crowley included both possibilities without resolving them, honouring the ambiguity as a functional part of the system.

In the context of pathworking or ritual visualisation, the centaur-archer is a figure of directed power—poised, ready to release a shaft of concentrated energy. It is not an image of brute force but of precise, intentional action.

In the table

At step 18 of the table, column CLV, the entry for the magical image reads simply “Probably a centaur or archer.” The row corresponds to the path of Tzaddi, which in the 777 system also governs the ritual of the Star, the number 18, and the single letter name of the path. The figure stands as the visual key for that entire set of correspondences.