147.Heliodorus Is Cast Down

A dramatic wood engraving depicting the divine expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple. A celestial horseman and two winged youths descend upon the intruder, who lies sprawled among plundered golden vessels while onlookers watch from the architectural galleries above. The scene is characterized by deep shadows and monumental classical columns, emphasizing the power of divine intervention against the profane.

The story of Heliodorus represents the inviolability of the Temple, a structure that serves as a central symbol in Kabbalistic and Hermetic traditions for the inner sanctum of the soul and the ordered universe. This 19th-century engraving by Gustave Doré interprets Raphael's Renaissance composition, illustrating the boundary between the sacred and the material world.