Samekh, spelled in full: Samekh Mem Kaph

Samekh is the prop, attributed to Sagittarius and Art or Temperance.
Mem is water, attributed to Water and The Hanged Man.
Kaph is the fist or closed hand, attributed to Jupiter and The Wheel of Fortune.

The paths of Samekh, Mem and Kaph (in that particular order) lead from the Outer Order grades (barring Zelator) to those of the Inner Order. Samekh leads from Yesod to Tiphareth, Mem from Hod to Geburah and Kaph from Netzach to Chesed. In the Golden Dawn Portal ritual, the paths of Mem and Kaph are barred, while the aspirant is permitted partial entry onto the paths of Ayin and Nun, and is particularly directed to the path of Samekh.

The paths Samekh, Mem and Kaph each pertain to a different relationship between the aspirant and the Macrocosm. On the path of Samekh, the elements of the aspirant's Microcosm are synthesized, while the rejected parts of the self are brought into the light. The aspirant is brought to a greater level of wholeness so that their Microcosm might reflect the Macrocosm (hence 5=6; pentagram = hexagram; Microcosm = Macrocosm). The path of Mem requires a surrender to the higher, repeated submersion in the vast sea of universal consciousness, the regular attainment of samadhi. The Microcosm on this path is dissolved in the Macrocosm. The path of Kaph pertains to the mastery of the Macrocosm through the attainment of the center of the Wheel. All of this is reflected into the path of Samekh, which contains the entire Inner Order process in seed form.

Taken as a succession of simple glyphs, the full spelling of Samekh indicates that this is a path of surrender to the central sun of spirit. Crowley's Fortune card shows ten spokes, but Waite's shows eight, a glyph of spirit. The path of Samekh corresponds to the Portal grade (in the Golden Dawn) and Dominus Liminus (in the A∴A∴), both of which represent spirit as the synthesis of the four elements (represented by the Outer Order grades). Once the elements have been separated, developed, equilibrated and refined, the process by which they are brought together as one is not under the control of the aspirant. Here, control must be surrendered. The bow of QShTh has been drawn back, the process has been set in motion and like it or not the arrow must fly. The proper course for the aspirant at this point is to surrender (Mem) to the higher (Kaph).

The transition from the Outer Order to the Inner Order involves the crossing of a significant threshold (this is true in both the GD and the A∴A∴; in the former, the threshold is the Veil of the Firmament, separating Assiah from Yetzirah; in the latter, the threshold is the Veil of Paroketh, separating Yetzirah from Briah). Every major threshold (there are three) involves a reversal of perspectives (symbolized by the Hanged Man) as the aspirant encounters a new, more expansive basis from which to work (the Wheel of Fortune). This is the general dynamic of the experience of Tiphareth. The ground disappears from beneath the aspirant's feet; what was thought to be the center of the world is found to be simply a satellite on the circumference as a new and greater center is found.

The letters Samekh Mem Kaph total 120. The door of the tomb of Christian Rosencruetz bore the inscription: POST 120 ANNOS PATEBO ("in 120 years, I will be opened"). This tomb is the basis of the Vault of the Adepti, in which the second half of the Golden Dawn Adeptus Minor (Tiphareth) initiation takes place. Paul Foster Case argues that the number 120 represents, symbolically, the number of years it takes for an aspirant to mature to full adepthood.

120 is the sum of the numbers 1 - 15, relating it to the 15th path of Ayin, or the Devil (switching the paths of Ayin and Samekh, interestingly enough, balances the distribution of the Zodiacal signs around Tiphareth with their ruling planets as attributed to the Sephiroth - just a curiosity). One attribution of The Devil is Baphomet, who brings together Sun and Moon, male and female.

In Genesis, God gives humanity 120 years before the flood (Mem?). Moses is said to have lived 120 years. The 360 degrees of the Zodiacal wheel, divided by 3, yields 120. Any given third of the wheel represents the four elements (given one sign per element), which seems quite fitting for a path in which the four elements are synthesized under spirit.