The Eleventh House is represented by Aquarius on the human plane. Friends surround and welcome him. These friends are the pure thoughts, noble impulses, lofty ideals, and generous deeds. The bread cast upon the Waters of Life returns to nourish and sustain him in his encounter with the secret foes, symbolized by the Twelfth House and Pisces. The idols, false ideas, and vampires of his own creation, are to be cleansed and washed away by the Waters of Love, the universal solvent that is ever seeking to bring about change and new forms; born again of water to make the round of the astral Zodiac, until, having again reached the equator of the ascending are, where he is reunited to the missing half of his soul, the true friend of the Edenic state; the highest point in the arc of human progress won; the honor and glory of a perfected soul; the Lord and Master, the "I am that I am," to rest in peace in the heart of Infinite Love and Wisdom.

CHAPTER IV. ASTRO-THEOLOGY

There is one species of Divine revelation which has not, and cannot, be tampered with, one great Bible, which forms the starry original of all Bibles.

This sacred Bible is the great Astral Bible of the skies; its chapters are the twelve great signs, its pages are the innumerable glittering constellations of the heavenly vault, and its characters are the personified ideals of the radiant Sun, the silvery moon, and the shining planets, of our solar sphere.

There are three different aspects of this sacred book, and in each aspect the same characters appear, but in different roles, their dress and natural surroundings being suited to the natural play of their symbolical parts. In fact, the whole imagery may be likened unto a play, or, rather, a series of plays, performed by the same company of artists. It may be a comedy, or it may be melodrama, or it may be a tragedy; but the principles behind the scenes are ever the same, and show forth the same Divine Oneness of Nature; demonstrating the eternal axiom. ONE TRUTH, ONE LIFE, ONE PRINCIPLE, AND ONE WORD, and in their fourfold expression, is the four great chapters of the celestial book of the starry heavens.

In this aspect the visible cosmos may be represented as a kaleidoscope. The visible constellations, planets, and other heavenly bodies, are the bits of colored glass; and Deity the invisible force, which keeps the instrument in motion. Each revolution produces a different pictorial figure, which, complete in its harmony of parts, is perfect in its mathematical proportions, and beautiful in its geometrical designs. And yet each creation, each form, and each combination of forms, are produced by the same little pieces of glass; and all of them, in reality, are optical illusions; i.e., natural phenomena, which deceive the physical senses. So it is with Cosmic Nature.

It must not, however, be supposed, because of this perfect and continual illusion of Nature's playful phenomena, that all visible creation is purely an illusion of the senses, as some cranky metaphysicians would have it, because this is not so.

Going back again to our kaleidoscope, we can clearly see that without it, and its tinted beads, no such optical illusion is possible. There is, then, a basis of spiritual reality to all visible physical phenomena; but this basis lies concealed, because of the perfect illusion which the reflected image produces upon the material plane of the physical senses. The beads themselves are real. These are the basis, and the different pictures are the result, not of the beads, but of the angle from which they are reflected to our earthly vision. In other words, THE PLANE FROM WHICH WE BEHOLD THE PHENOMENA.

Hence, the nearer we approach the Divine center of our being, the less complicated Nature's original designs become, and the farther we are removed from that central source, the more weird, mysterious, complicated, and incomprehensible, does Mother Nature appear, to the finite human mind. And this is especially so, to man's theological instinct, his religiosity, that constitutes one of the fundamental factors of his being.

Nature is ever one in her original truths and their duplicate reflections; but ever conflicting and contradictory in her multiplied refractions through the minds of men. Therefore, we will present the primary concept of that grand Astro-Theology formulated by man's great progenitors; and view the simple machinery, by which they typified to the primitive mind a general outline of Nature's Divine providence.

All sacred books begin with an account of physical creation, the culmination of which, is the appearance of man and woman, as the parents of the race; and, while they will differ considerably in detail and make-up, the basic ideas embodied are essentially the same in all cosmo-genesis; so that in the Jewish Bible, accessible to all, one can read the primitive story of creation from a Jewish point of view, and, when read, rest satisfied that he has read the revelation vouchsafed to man in every age and in every clime. The only difference is one of mental peculiarity and national custom, along with climatic conditions. Hindoo, Chaldean, Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, Scandinavian, Druidic and ancient Mexican are all the same—different names and drapery, to suit the people only, but essentially the same in the fundamental ideas conveyed.

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD

The simple story of creation begins at midnight, when the Sun has reached the lowest point in the arc—Capricorn. All Nature then is in a state of coma in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter time, solar light and heat are at their lowest ebb; and the various appearances of motion, etc., are the Sun's passage from Capricorn to Pisces, 60 degrees, and from Pisces to Aries, 30 degrees, making 90 degrees, or one quadrant of the circle. Then begin in real earnest the creative powers, it is spring time. The six days are the six signs of the northern arc, beginning with the disruptive fires of Aries. Then, in their order, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo; then Libra, the seventh day and the seventh sign, whose first point is opposite Aries and is the opposite point of the sphere, the point of equilibrium, equal day and equal night, it is autumn. It is the sixth sign from Aries, the first creative action, and so the sixth day following the fiery force, wherein God created the bi-sexual man. See Genesis, 1:5-27: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them."

It is the seventh, or day of the Lord (man), the climax of material creation and Lord of all living things, and be rests in the blissful Garden of Eden. This seventh day and seventh sign is the concealed sacred Libra the perfect union of the sexes. Then comes the fall from Libra, through Scorpio, and banishment from the Garden of Eden. That is the victory of Satan, or Winter, over Summer, etc. It is useless to repeat the same old, old story. The yearly journey of the Sun around the constellated dial of Deity is the Astro basis of all primitive cosmology.

THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION

In addition to the creation of the world and the fall of man through sin, we find all people in possession of a grand scheme of redemption, and, like the former, we shall find them all essentially the same. They all require a mediator between the angry God and disobedient man, and they all require that this mediator shall be Divine, or semi-Divine. Nothing less can satisfy Deity's demands; or, rather, let us say man's own carnal imagination. It is simply another turn of our cosmic kaleidoscope, and behold! the actors have changed. Capricorn becomes the stable of the Goat, in the manger of which the young Savior of the world is born. As a type of all, we will take the Gospel Savior. It is again midnight. The Sun enters the sign Capricorn on the twenty- first of December. This is the lowest point of the arc, South, and for three days he is stationary, or in darkness. And now it is Christmas Eve. He (the Sun or Savior) begins to move, and at midnight is born as the celestial Virgo is rising upon the Eastern quadrant of the skies; hence the Sun-God is born of a Virgin. Then comes the flight to escape Kronos, or Saturn (ruling Capricorn), who kills the young babes. There is a period of silence in the God's history while the Sun is in transit through the signs Capricorn and part of Aquarius. That is, he is hidden or obscured by the clouded skies of this period. We hear of him but once again until he, the Sun-God, or Savior, is thirty years old, or has transited thirty degrees of space. He has entered the sign Aquarius (symbolical of the Man.) Now begins the period of miracles.

Let us digress for a space, and refer to our chapter on the constellations. We shall find a perfect analogy between this miracle- working period and the constellations Aquarius and Pisces, as therein given. The first miracle we read of is turning water into wine. This may be seen in a threefold aspect. The Sun-God changes by his life- forces the waters of winter into the rich vintage of the harvest, where the Virgin (Virgo) Mother again appears. Again, the wine becomes the blood—the life offered up on the vernal cross to strengthen, renew and make merry with new life our Earth and its people. The devil (or winter), with his powers of darkness, is defeated and man saved. The final triumph is the crucifixion in Aries, the vernal equinox, about the twenty-first of March, quickly followed by the resurrection, or renewal of life. Then the God rises into heaven, to sit upon the throne at the summer solstice, to bless his people. We read, that, the Savior of mankind was crucified between two thieves. Very good. The equinoctial point is the dividing line between light and darkness, winter and summer. In other words, the Sun is resuming his northern arc, to replenish the Earth with his solar force and preserve his people from death in the coming winter. The life of a Buddha, a Krishna or a Christ, are all found in their completeness in the life of Horus; while the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are Isis, Horus and Osirus. The same trinity, under different names, are found in all nations. It is the Sun, Moon and Human Soul, which is the only true mediator of Man.

There is another version of this celestial crucifixion, wherein the Sun-God-Savior, after the supper of the harvest in Virgo, is crucified at the autumnal equinox upon the equator. We read that he was dying from the sixth to the ninth hours—three hours, three signs, or from the 21st of September to the 21st of December, when he is laid in the tomb. This is the lowest point of the Sun's journey in the southern hemisphere, and darkness holds the balance in our northern hemisphere. The three days in the tomb are the three months, or three signs, before the vernal equinox, or the resurrection, the rising out of the South to bring salvation to the northern portion of our Earth.

We have now only to glance over various diverging lines of the same cosmology and the same redemption. All these allegories typified TRUTHS. They all teach the Initiate the mysteries of creation, of man's destiny and his necessary Cycle of Material Probation. Some of the most beautiful parables may be read in this light. Abraham, and the story of his wanderings in the deserts of Asia Minor; of Lot and his unfaithful wife, are to be seen still written in the heavens. Hagar and Ishmael are still there; so also are Esau and his brother Jacob; the story of Joseph and his brethren; of Sampson and his twelve labors. This is the same beautiful story. The Sun, shorn of his glory, or solar force, at the autumnal equinox, stands upon the equator between the two pillars of the temple (or light and darkness), and pulls down the temple (or signs) into the southern hemisphere. And behind this we have the eternal truth of the soul, when, giving way to the allurements of matter (Delilah), the soul is shorn of its spiritual covering, or conscience, and sinks into matter and death. And the story of David and Goliath can be read to-day as clearly as of yore.

They are eternal, spiritual verities of human nature, and record, not only the history of the human race, its mutations and transmutations, but of the individual man and the suffering and delusive joys of his material life. Aye, more! It is the record of all his past existence and a type of his eternal destiny in the future.

Another turn of our cosmic kaleidoscope, and lo! the scene changes —the play extended, the angles greater, caused by the revolution of our solar parent through his celestial Zodiac. As the Sun passes out of one sign into another, or, in other words, forms a different angle to his own center of force, a new dispensation is born to the world; or, rather, re-born under a new guise. The great Sun-God appears to change his nature and manifests an entirely different set of attributes. That is the way man personified this play of Nature, through his imperfect conception of the cause of this change. But to him it was, and is, a truth, and man's effort to externalize these attributes in a Divine personality was, and is, strictly from the plane of his mental development and spiritual unfoldment.

The two pictures of this Astro-Theology, as set forth in the two divisions of the Jewish Bible, will illustrate our meaning. The Sun had entered the sign Aries some time prior to the exodus from Egypt. Aries is the constellation of Mars, the fiery, destructive and warrior element, or force, in Nature, and we find the Jewish conception of God a perfect embodiment of these attributes: The Lord of Hosts, a God mighty in battle, delighting in the shedding of blood and the smell of burnt offerings, ever marshalling the people to battle and destroying their foes and the works of his own hands; a God imbued with jealousy, anger, and revenge. This was the type set up by the Jewish savior and lawgiver, Moses.

After a period of 2,160 years, we find the Christian cosmology ushered in. The Sun has entered the sign Pisces, which is ruled by Jupiter, the beneficent father. The Christ, or mediator, of the Christian Gospel was an embodiment of the joint qualities of the sign and ruling planet. Gentle, loving and merciful, His words were messages of love and peace; His work was with the poor, oppressed and fallen; he eschewed sacrifices and burnt offerings; a contrite heart was the best offering; He taught the people that God was their Father, loving all, just, yet merciful. But a strong taint of the old conception has remained with the human race, hiding, at times, the beauty of the latter concept. These are, again, the refractions of eternal truths, viewed by man from his material plane. The elements are here presented, the alphabet and its key clearly defined. Therefore, let each one explore this tangled labyrinth of Astro-Theology for him or herself, and work out the various correspondencies at leisure. It is enough to indicate the starry originals of all this seemingly confused mass of so-called Divine revelation in sacred books.

They, one and all, pertain to the same celestial phenomena, and the various Bibles are the outcome of man's serious attempt to tabulate and externalize this heavenly order, to record his conceptions of these starry aspects and movements with their corresponding effects upon the Earth.

Probably the purest system to us is that which may yet be derived from Chaldean sources. This sacerdotal caste were the most perfect in their astral conceptions and complete in their symbolic system of recording, and if the great work found in King Sargon's library in seventy tablets is ever translated, it will prove of priceless value to the student of these weird, but sublime, astrological mysteries.

In conclusion, as we reflect upon the fourfold aspect of the subject that we have presented in outline in these pages, the whole imagery passes in review before the mental vision. We see that the radiant constellations of the heavenly vault, with the beautiful reflection and counterpart, the shining Zodiac, are the two halves of the great Cycle of Necessity, the spiral of eternal, universal life, which binds the whole into unity, and unity into infinity. It is the grand scheme of creative life. The seven principles of Nature, or Divine Activities, are the forces producing the phenomena within seven angelic states, seven kingdoms, and, by seven planets, upon the external plane; the planets being the passive mediums of the positive spiritual forces. Upon this dual spiral, which reflects the seven rays of the solar spectrum is produced seven musical notes; one half of the spiral in sound and color being the complementary of the other half. Man, the Earth, and our solar system, are revolving, each orb in its own key, and its own peculiar ray, meeting and blending with other spirals, and the whole blending into one mighty spiral Cycle of Progressive Life, revolving around the Eternal, Infinite Ego-God, ever involving and evolving the attributes, powers and possibilities of the One great central source of Being.

It is a grand orchestra, pealing out in richest melody and sublime HARMONY, the grand Anthem of Creation: "We Praise Thee, O God."

CHAPTER V. ASTRO-MYTHOLOGY

The Astro-Mythological system of the ancients, though forming the last section, so to say, of the mysteries of the Divine Urania, is, perhaps, the most beautiful of its general features, and perfect in the complete fulfillment of the purpose for which it was intended, viz.:— to convey to the human mind a lesson, a moral, a truth in Nature; and last, but not the least, to serve as a basis upon which its inner aspirations and its more external faith might rest in security.

When we come to examine the deep, philosophical principles of such a wise system, we are almost astounded at the result of our researches and the wisdom of human nature displayed in formulating such perfect analogies of truth, semi-truth, and of falsehood, according to the plane occupied by the individual.

Let us take one instance, which will clearly explain all the rest, for they are built and formulated after the same model. Aeneas, of Greek myths and fables, is reputed to be the son of Venus by a MORTAL father, upon the plane of reality. As that of actual PARENT and CHILD, of course this is an utter falsehood. To the rural population of long, long ago, and their simple, rustic conceptions, IT WAS A TRUTH.

Why so? Because they believed it, and to them it taught the required lesson of obedience to the powers that be. But if in reality it was a falsehood, how can it become a truth by the simple addition of acceptance and belief? Because it possessed a metaphysical truth, though not a physical one, in the sense accepted.

Aeneas, son of Venus, whose history is so beautifully preserved by the immortal Virgil, was (metaphysically speaking) son of the goddess, because he was, in his astral and magnetic nature, ruled and governed by Venus, born under one of her celestial signs and when she was rising upon the ascendant of the House of Life, even as Jesus Christos was born of a virgin, because Virgo was rising at His birth.

Thus Aeneas was, in strict metaphysical reality, a son of Venus. Having satisfied the rural mind, which thus, unconsciously, accepts an absolute truth under a physical disguise, the metaphysical thinker, the philosopher, also accepts the same fable, knowing and realizing its more abstract truth,

But, again, we are met with the objection that such a truth is only apparently a truth; i.e., on the plane of embodied appearances, and naturally the question arises, where (if at all) is the real truth of the mythos? That truth which is beyond the mere metaphysical thinker and commonplace philosopher; the truth which the Initiates recognize—where is it? That truth lies far beyond the purview of Astro-Mythology. It is connected with the center of angelic life. Sufficient here to say that, as there are seven races of humanity, seven divisions to the human constitution, seven active principles in Nature, typified by the seven rays of the solar spectrum, so are there seven centers of angelic life, corresponding to the seven planetary forces formulated in "The Science of the Stars," and, as each one of us must of necessity belong to one of the particular angelic centers from which we originally emanated, the Initiate can see no reason why AENEAS MAY NOT IN REALITY belong to that celestial vortex represented by Venus upon the plane of material life. This being the case, we see how beautiful the ancients' system of temple worship must have been. The simple rustic, in reverence and awe, accepting the gross and physical meaning—the only one possible to his dark, sensuous mind. The scholar and philosopher bow their wiser heads with equal humility, accepting with equally sincere faith the more abstract form of the allegory; while on the other hand, the priest and the Initiate, lifting their loftier souls above the earth and its formulas of illusion and matter, accept that higher and more spiritual application, which renders them equally as sincere and devout as their less enlightened worshipers. It is thus we find these astro-myths true for all time, true in every age of the world, and EQUALLY TRUE OF ALL NATIONS. And this is the real reason why we find every nation under the Sun possessing clear traditions relating to the same identical fables, under different names, which are simply questions of nationality. And when mythologists, archaeologists, and philologists once recognize the one central, cardinal truth, they will cease to wonder why nations, so widely separated by time and space, possess the same basic mythology. They will then no longer attempt its explanation by impossible migrations of races, carrying the rudiments with them. They will find that this mythology was a complete science with the ancient sages, a UNIVERSAL MYSTERY LANGUAGE, in which all could converse, and that it descended from the Golden Age, when there was but ONE nation on the face of the Earth, the descendants of which constituted the basic nucleus of every race which has since had an existence. In this light all is simple, clear, and easy to comprehend—all is natural.

The astronomer-priests of the hoary past, when language was figurative, and often pictorial, had recourse to a system of symbols to express abstract truths and ideas. In order to impress the minds of pupils with a true concept of the attributes of the celestial forces, we call planets, they personified their powers, qualities, and attributes. Just as the average mind of to-day cannot conceive of Deity apart from personality, so did primitive man clothe his ideas in actual forms, and in these impersonations, they combined the nature of the celestial orb with that of the zodiacal sign or signs, in which the planet exerted its chief and most potent activities. For instance, the planet Mars, whose chief constellation is Aries, was described as a great warrior, mighty in battle, fierce in anger, fearless, reckless, and destructive; while the mechanical and constructive qualities were personified as Vulcan, who forged the thunderbolts of Jove, built palaces for the gods, and made many useful and beautiful articles. Then, again, we find that Pallas Athene was the goddess of war and wisdom. She sprang from the head of Zeus. Aries rules the head, and represents intelligence. Athene overcame her brother Mars in war, which shows that intelligence is superior to brute force and reckless courage.

Here, we see three different personages employed to express the nature of the powers and phenomena produced. They were called gods and goddesses. This was quite natural, as the planets of our system are reflections of Divine principles. Esoterically, Mars symbolizes strength, victory—attributes of Deity.

Mars is said to have married Venus, teaching us that the union of skill and beauty are essential in all artistic work.

Mythology tells us that the god Mars was supposed to be the father of Romulus, the reputed founder of Rome. Romulus displayed many characteristics of the planet. The mythos is no doubt a parallel to that of Aeneas. Rome was founded when the Sun in his orbit had entered the sign Aries, and Mars was the god most honored by the Romans. In time, with the degeneration of human races and their worship, to the rural mind, the subjects of the mythos became actual personalities, endowed with every human passion and godlike attribute, the former characterizing the discordant influence of the heavenly bodies upon man.

Gai, Rhea and Ceres, or Demeter (Greek), represent the triune attributes of Mother Earth. Gai signifies the Earth as a whole, Rhea the productive powers of the Earth, and Ceres utilizes and distributes the productive forces of Rhea.

In the charming story of Eros (Divine Love), son of Mars and Venus, he (Eros), we are told, brings harmony out of chaos. Here, we see the action of Aries and Taurus, ruled respectively by Mars and Venus.

The beautiful myth of Aphrodite, born of the sea foam, is Venus rising out of the waters of winter, to shine resplendent in the western skies at evening, and typifies the birth of forms, as all organic forms have their origin in water.

In all lands the Sun was known under various names, typical of solar energy, especially in reference to the equinoctial and solstitial colures.

Henry Melville, in his valuable work, "Veritas," says no reliance can be placed upon ancient dates, either of Europe, Asia, or anywhere else, and he conclusively shows that such dates are Astro-Masonic points on the celestial planisphere, the events recorded being, as it were, terrestrial reflections of the celestial symbols.

To attempt to wade through all the various systems of mythology, and explain each in its proper order, would be to write a large encyclopedia upon the subject. We have given a few examples as keys, and suggest works for study. We have here given the real key, and the student must fathom particulars for himself. The chief work, and most valuable in its line, is Ovid's "Metamorphoses." The next, also the most valuable in its line, is "The Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients," with notes (these latter are the gist and constitute the real value), by S. A. Mackey; and last, and, perhaps, in some sense, not the least, is the "Wisdom of the Ancients," by Lord Bacon. This is published in "Bacon's Essays."

A careful study of Ovid, with the key which this chapter supplies, will reveal ALL that pertains to ancient gods, demi-gods, and heroes, while a study of Mackey, and a careful comparison with "La Clef" and "La Clef Hermetique" will reveal all that pertains to cosmic cycles and astral chronology, which is the only chronology that is quite trustworthy, as far as ancient history is concerned.

While we are on this subject, we must point out some of the delusions, into which the subtle, magical teachings of the Orient would lead the student.

All the monster sphinx, half human, half animal, etc., which the ancients have preserved, are simply records of the past. They are chronological tables of cosmic time, and relate to eras of the past, of the Sun's motion, and not by any means to living creatures of antediluvian creations, as some wiseacres have imagined. Many of these ancient monuments, monstrous in form, are records of that awful period of floods and devastation known as the Iron Age, when there was a vertical Sun at the poles; or, in other words, when the pole of the Earth was ninety degrees removed from the pole of the ecliptic. To those who can read aright, every lineament tells as plainly as the written word the history of that awful past, marking the march of time, recording the revolutions of the Sun in his orbit of 25,920 years, and relating with wonderful accuracy the climatic changes, in their latitudes, which took place with each revolution of the Sun and corresponding motion of the Earth's pole of less than four degrees. All the greater myths of the dim past were formulated to express cosmic time, solar and polar motion, and the phenomena resulting therefrom. These monuments of antiquity prove that, the ancients knew a great deal more of the movements of heavenly bodies and of our planet than modern astronomers credit them with.

Madame Blavatsky, in her "Secret Doctrine," seriously states that all these monstrous forms are the types of actual, once living physical embodiments, and, with apparent sincerity, asserts that the Adepts teach such insane superstitions.

Such, however, is not the case, neither is there anything true, or even approaching the truth, in the cosmogony given in the work in question.

And, lastly, we have but one more aspect of the grand old Astro- Mythos to present to your notice. This aspect reveals the whole of the ancient classification of WORK and LABOR, and gives us a clear insight into the original designs, or pictorial representations, of the twelve signs and the twelve months of the year. It also clearly explains many things which are to-day attributed to superstitious paganism.

As each month possesses its own peculiar season, so are, or were, the various labors of the husbandman, and those of pastoral pursuits, altered and diverted. Each month, then, bad a symbol which denoted the physical characteristics of climate and the temporal characteristics of work. As the Sun entered the sign, so the temple rites varied in honor of the labors performed, and the symbol thus became the object of outward veneration and worship. So we see that the twelve signs, and principally the four cardinal ones, became Deities, and the symbols sacred, but in reality, it was the same Sun to which homage was paid.

There is a large sphere of study in this direction, as, of course, each climate varied the symbol to suit its requirements. In Egypt there were three months when the land was overflowed with water; hence, they had only nine working months out of doors, and from this fact sprang the Nine Muses, while the Three Sirens represented the three months of inactivity in work, or three months of pleasure and festivity.

Mackey tells us that the great leviathan mentioned in the Book of job was the river Nile.

In nearly all mythologies, we find that the gods assembled on some high mountain to take counsel. The Olympus of the Greeks and Mount Zion of the Hebrew Bible mean the same, the Pole-Star; and there, on the pictured planisphere, sits Cephus, the mighty Jove, with one foot on the Pole-Star and all the gods gathered below him. The Pole-Star is the symbol of the highest heaven.

With this we close, leaving the endless ramifications of this deeply interesting subject to the student's leisure and personal research, trusting the keys we have given in this chapter and their careful study may induce the reader and student of these pages to search out for himself the meaning concealed in all Astro-Mythologies.

CHAPTER VI. SYMBOLISM

At this point of our study it is necessary to make a halt; and, before proceeding further, to attempt to formulate and realize that, which, so far, we have been pursuing.

First, then, we have passed in review the Zodiac, and then the constellations. From this we mentally surveyed both Astro-Theology and Astro-Mythology; and now, it is our first duty to realize these in their real significance, and this consists in a clear comprehension of the Grand Law of Correspondences.

What is this law? It is the law of symbolism, and symbolism, rightly understood, is the one Divine language of Mother Nature, a language wherein all can read, a language that defies the united efforts of both time and space to obliterate it, for symbolism will be the language of Nature as long as spirit expresses itself to the Divine soul of man.

No matter where we turn nor where we look, there is spread out to our view a vast panorama of symbolic forms for us to read. In whatever form, angle, or color they present themselves, the true student of Nature can interpret and understand their symbolic language aright. It has been by the personification of Nature's symbols, that man has become ignorant of their language. There is no form, sound, nor color but what has its laws of expression; and only a perfect knowledge of symbolism will enable man to know the law, power, and meaning, lying behind such manifestations. The law of expression is exact, and as unalterable as Deity Himself. The physical senses cannot vibrate to these interior forces, and through them, comprehend their law. The physical senses vibrate to the spirit's expression, not to the powers, forces, and laws, which brought them into objective existence.

Countless numbers of mystics, if such they deserve to be called, among present-day students, speak and write very learnedly upon the "Law of Correspondence," and few, if any, of them really understand or know anything at all of that law. The intellect alone cannot solve the problems of this law. It cannot grasp the true, interior and spiritual meaning, except in just so far as intellect is capable of externalizing them. The inmost spiritual truths, that cannot be demonstrated to the outward senses, never have, nor never will, appeal to any one who has not the interior ability to comprehend them.

There was a time when men ruled by pure intellect, without its accompanying other half, intuition: they were looked upon as monstrosities. This state of purely intellectual development has been brought about by the positive, masculine principle, reason, absorbing its counterpart, the intuition, the feminine portion; and the result, by correspondence, is as fatal as upon the interior plane, where the positive, masculine soul denies the existence of his mate; thus setting upon his throne, only a portion of himself as his idol, and then, reasons himself into the belief that he is complete. Love has been cast out, ignored and forgotten until at last she departs, leaving a vacancy, that eternity cannot fill.

This is somewhat similar to their illusive Devachan, an ideal, a mere mystical sentiment to gush over, but a something they do not in reality comprehend. Therefore, we shall do our utmost to explain this universal law, and to point out wherein its first principles are manifest. Once these are mastered, the Golden Rule will explain all the rest: "As it is below, so it is above; as on the earth, so in the sky."

Here, then, is our first lesson on the subject of REALITY, which constitutes the Hermetic science of Correspondences.

First, realize that a line or an angle, for instance, is something more than its mere mathematical outline. It corresponds to some power, force, or principle within the great Anima-Mundi of the mysteries, that are trying to find expression, in their evolutionary journey, in forms. Let us illustrate our meaning. A point or dot is what? Well, externally it is the alpha of all mathematics. It is the first finite manifestation of the spiritual force. Within that dot lies concealed, in embryo, all the future possibilities of the manifesting principle.

This dot or point is a something to begin with, a form externalized, from which all future forms may spring forth, and they may be infinite, both in number and variety. First a primary, simple idea, from which all ideas and thoughts, intricate and complex, have their being.

A point extended is a straight line, scientifically expressed (whereas in real truth there is no such thing as a straight line); that is to say, it is a form increased or multiplied by itself, and therefore, is an extension in space that can be measured, and each extension means a new form, an additional symbol. It has taken on new aspects, new relations, hence contains the second principle of mathematics, so to say; but, besides being points, THEY ARE SYMBOLS. They are principles in Nature as clearly related to each other as the leaf and the stem of plant life.

Each monad, or point in the universe, is the beginning of something; equally so, it is also the termination of its own forces in that particular action, and will remain inert until it becomes acted upon by something else.

A point, then, is a primary, simple idea, a straight line. An angle is the same idea, rendered greater and more complex, and refers to the same forces upon a different plane, and the more we multiply the angles the more complex and far-reaching becomes the symbol and the more numerous and diverse become its planes of action. Here we will introduce an example. A trine represents three forces or angles, and, when united, form a trinity, hence harmony. Its apex (when above) is celestial, therefore represents the male forces of spirit.

A trine reversed also represents the same forces, with its apex in matter, hence it is negative. In these two complex ideas, clearly represented by these symbols, we have ALL matter and spirit; and yet they are but extensions of our point in space, rendered far-reaching and complex, by the position and the number of angles presented.

Let us turn the key once again, and we find that, both spirit and matter possess the same outline in their primal concept, except reversed (polarized).

Let us unite these two trines, and we have a still more potent form; a symbol almost infinitely complex. We have spirit and matter united, or, rather, three rays of force, positive, meeting three rays of force, negative, at a given point. Thus we have six points, also six sides, the ultimate of which is a cube. All are now equal. It is the first force of a crystallization (creation) of matter.

Once again let us turn the key, and we have our two conceptions in a metaphysical sense; the trine with its apex above is as the trine with its apex below, both the same in form, yet vibrating to very different planes, and a very different language is required to read and interpret their meaning aright. The spiritual, or the trine with its apex above, draws its influence from the celestial, and as it condenses and takes on form in the trine of matter, it transmits this same Divine force through its apex, which points below, to matter. The double trine is found upon every plane, obeying the Divine Law of Correspondences.

It is, in this sense, called "Solomon's Seal," because it is the grand hieroglyphic of the Hermetic law: "As it is above, so it is below; as on the Earth, so in the sky."

To continue this line of reasoning, or speculation, let us say, would lead us beyond the firm basis of human reason; it would escape the grasp of intellect, to which I am compelling this course of instruction to bend, but it would never take us beyond the real limits of the universe; yet, not to extend our investigations, we would ever remain in the lower trine, in the realms of effects, and lose sight entirely of the trine of spirit, from whence originated the force and potency in the form of matter.

Therefore it is, that the science of Symbolism has been evolved and formulated. The symbols, the manifestations, are ever present, and the study of effects will, to a developed soul, suggest the cause, the nature of the principle back of it, as well as the law which would produce such effects. Such is the science of symbolism; and it bounds and binds back into a religio-philosophical system, each class of symbols and each plane of manifestation; as securely as modern savants have defined the province of chemistry, magnetism, and mathematics; and, so far, these bounds are useful. But it is only a question of time and space, after all, because, when resolved back, or, let us say, evolved up into their abstract principles; chemistry, magnetism, and mathematics, are purely arbitrary terms to express special features of the same one eternal thing or science—which is EXISTENCE; and it, in turn, is CONSCIOUSNESS; not that external consciousness of existence, not that knowledge and love of living, but that interior, conscious knowledge, which tells us why and how we exist, by what force and power we are sustained and permitted to obey and carry out the law of mediumship, reception and transmission, attraction and repulsion, spiritual and material, that ultimately blend and become as one, the double trine, and, united with the Divine Ego of its being, becomes complete; seven, the perfected number of form.

The sum total, then, of all, and the value it may possess to the individual, is measured by his ability to perceive; for there is nothing external that is not in some sense mental, and there is nothing mental that is not in some sense spiritual. The sides of the triangle, physical, mental, and spiritual, and the apex where meet the mental and spiritual, forms the center of contact to higher trines in realms above.

Where mind is not, there are no symbols, no ideas, no manifestations. The spirit has not yet reached that point in its evolutionary journey where it can yet crystallize its projected force, power, or ideas, into forms; for everything that is, is the outcome of Divine thought, and expresses within itself the symbol of its being. This is the arcana of the Law of Correspondences.

Remember the above teaching, because upon its full comprehension rests the ability to read symbols aright. It will aid the soul to fully realize that, the vast universe is but the mental image of the Creator; that there is no such thing as manifested existence apart from mind; and consequently, the infinite worlds that float securely in space, blushing and scintillating with light of life and love of the Father, revealing to mortal minds some faint conception of the awful resources and recesses within Nature's star-making laboratory, are but the scintillating reflection of life, the reactions of mental phenomena. So, too, with the mental creative powers of the mind of man, for, not a vibration that proceeds from his every thought but what creates its correspondence in the creative realm of spirit. Hence, symbolism continues giving to the soul of man, throughout eternity, food for thought and contemplation.

All symbols, then, are objectified ideas, whether human or Divine; and as such possess a real meaning; and this meaning is altered, extended and rendered more complex with every additional thing or influence by which we find it surrounded, or with which, we find it correlated. For instance, $1.00 means one dollar; add six ciphers to the left 0000001., and it is still the same $1.00, and no more, because their position is previous, or before, the 1. But add the same number of ciphers to the right, $1,000000, and lo! we find a wondrous change of force, power, and consequence. We see all the mighty power of our million of money, and the possibilities and responsibilities with which, in these days, it becomes associated.

So it is with everything else in Nature. Man pays the penalty by increased responsibility, for every step in knowledge that be takes, as well as every dollar in gold be procures. Dollars, as well as talents, have to be accounted for, and their usefulness increased tenfold. The dollars must not be buried nor hoarded any more than our talents, but each, unfolded and doubled, so that we may be instrumental in helping our coworkers in their upward path, in the Cycle of Necessity. Knowledge is the basic foundation in reading Nature's language. Purity of thought, truth in motive, and unselfish benevolence, will lift the veil that now lies between the two trines, cause and effect, spirit and matter.

We have given the key and explained the alphabet of this wondrous law; therefore we close. Each must, by the same rules, work out the special links in the chain for him or herself. The angle from which each take their view determines the reading and interpretation of the symbols presented, whether that be from the apex, the sides or the base, for every symbol has its trinity in principles and form. Cause and effect are but the action and reaction; the result is the symbol which reveals the correspondence of both.

CHAPTER VII. ALCHEMY—PART I

What a weird yet strangely pleasing name the term Alchemy is. It is simple, yet so infilled and intermixed with the possible verities of exact science and the philosophical speculations on the infinite and the unknown, as to elude our mental grasp, as it were, by its own subtle essence, and defy the keenest analysis of our profoundest generalizers in science. And yet, in spite of this self-evident truth, how fascinating the sound of the word becomes to the mystic student's ear, and bow pregnant with awful and mysterious possibilities it becomes, to the immortal powers embodied within the complex human organism termed man.

Words, if we but knew it, have the same innate, magnetic influence, and possess the same power of affinity and antipathy, that the human family possesses; as well as all organic and inorganic forms and substances; and how sad, to a developed soul, to witness the inharmony existing in our midst, caused by the misapplication of names.

Most human beings are very conscious of personal, or human magnetism, and its effects. But they stop right there, and do not dream of the subtle, silent influences emanating from a name, a word, and the power existing in words, when properly used. The human mind is so absorbed in Nature's manifestations, which are only the husks, that they fail to see the true, hidden meaning and realities, concealed beneath the material shell.

We will first notice the meaning of the words which constitute our subject, viz., Alchemy, then give a brief review of its physical correspondence, chemistry, and its true relation to its spiritual counterpart, Alchemy.

"Al" and "Chemy" are Arabic-Egyptian words which have much more in them than appears upon the surface, and possess a far different meaning from the one which the terms usually convey to the average mind. Terms, and the ideas we associate with them, vary according to the age in which we live. So with those, from which the word Alchemy is derived.

Let us penetrate beneath the mere verbal husk with which linguistic usage and convenience have clothed them, and which, in the course of ages, has become nothing but the dross of decomposed verbiage, and see if we can excavate the living germ, that has become buried within. If we can do so, we shall, at the commencement of our study, have attained unto a realization of the ancient meaning and real significance of the terms employed. And this will be no small gain, and will form no unimportant part of the equipment in our present research.

The Arabians, who derived the whole of their Occult arcana from the Egyptians, are the most likely to render us the most truthful and direct significance of the word, and so we find them. Thus, "Al," meaning "the," and Kimia," which means the hidden, or secret, ergo THE OCCULT, from which are derived our modern term Alchemy, more properly Al Kimia. This is very different from the popular conception to-day, which supposes that the word relates to the art of artificially making gold by some chemical process, and viewing it only as some sort of magical chemistry, forgetting that, the science of chemistry itself is also derived from the Kimia of Arabian mystics, and was considered as one and the same thing by every writer of the Middle Ages.

At this time, the physical man was not so dense and grasping for husks; hence the soul and spiritual part had greater control, and could impart the real, the alchemical side, of Nature to him; hence the Law of Correspondences was understood, and guided the educated in their considerations, researches, and conclusions.

Do you ask why, if they were so enlightened, they have veiled their knowledge from the world at large?

The power of mind over matter was as potent in those days as now, and the masses were as correspondingly corrupt as they are today. Therefore, to put this knowledge into the hands of the multitude would have been generally disastrous. So they wrote it in mystical language, knowing that all educated students in Nature's laws, at that time, would understand; yet they little dreamed how much their language would be misunderstood in the centuries to follow, by those who look to their ancient ancestry for aid on subjects that have become at the present day so lost in mystery.

Having ascertained, beyond question, that Alchemy was, and consequently is, the secret science of Occultism—not the philosophy, mind you, but the science; let us proceed, for, we shall find that these two aspects may often differ, or appear to differ, widely from each other, though they can never do so in reality, for the latter produces and establishes the facts, while the former occupies itself in their tabulation and deductions. The science constitutes the foundation, and the philosophy, the metaphysical speculations, which rest thereon. If these important distinctions are borne in mind, all the apparent confusion, contradiction, and other intellectual debris, will either disappear or resolve themselves into their own proper groups, so that we may easily classify them.

It is at this very point, that, so many students go astray amid the labyrinths of science and philosophy. They, unconsciously, so mix and intermingle the two terms, that nine-tenths of the students present only one side of the question—philosophy, which soon runs into theory, if not supported by the science, which they have lost in their volumes of philosophy.

You may say, one subject at a time. Yes, this may be true, if its twin brother is not absorbed and forgotten.

In this chapter, we shall deal especially with organic Alchemy.

Organic Alchemy deals exclusively with living, organic things, and in this connection differs from the Alchemy of inorganic matter. These two aspects may, in this one respect, be compared to organic and inorganic chemistry, to which originally they belonged; as astrology did to astronomy. Alchemy and astrology—twin sisters—were the parents of the modern offspring, known in chemistry and astronomy as exact science. These latter, however, deal with shadows and phenomenal illusions, while the former concern the living realities, which produce them. Therefore, there can be "no new thing under the sun," saith Solomon.

First, let us deal with the most lovely form of our art, that which pertains to the floral and vegetable kingdoms. Every flower or blade of grass, every tree of the forest and stagnant weed of the swamp, is the outcome of, and ever surrounded by, its corresponding degree of spiritual life. There is not a single atom but what is the external expression of some separate, living force, within the spaces of Aeth, acting in unison with the dominant power corresponding with the type of life.

If science could only behold this wonderful laboratory within the vital storehouse of Nature, she would no longer vainly seek for THE ORIGIN OF LIFE, nor wonder, what may have become of the missing link in scientific evolution, because, she would quickly realize that, biogenesis is the one grand truth of both animate and inanimate Nature, the central, living source of which is God. Science would also, further realize that, this biune life is ever in motion throughout the manifested universe; circulating around the focii of creative activities, which we term suns, stars, and planets, awaiting the conditions which are ever present for material incarnation; and under all possible combinations of circumstances and conditions, conceivable and inconceivable, adapting itself to continuous phenomenal expression. Links, so called, in this mighty chain of evolution, may appear to be missing here and there, and, for that matter, whole types may seem to be wanting, but, this is only because of our imperfect perception, and, in any case, can make no real difference with the facts, because, if such be a reality, if there be what we may term MISSING LINKS in the scheme of evolution, it only shows that spirit, although associated with, is ever independent of matter.

But matter—what is to become of it? Is it independent of spirit? The kindness of the Divine spirit heeds not the unconscious mind of matter and its boasted independence, and works silently on, and at last, accomplishes its mission—the evolution of matter, the uplifting of the soul of man, as well as the universe. The blindness of man is dense, and the saddest part to admit is that, they will so stubbornly remain so.

If, for one instant, the penetrating eye of the soul could shine forth through the physical orbs of vision, and imprint the scenes, beheld behind the veil, upon the tablets of the brain of the physical organism, a fire would be kindled that, could never be quenched by the fascinating allurements of the material, perishable things, of matter.

That development of the real atom of biune life can, and does, go forward, irrespective of the gradation of physical types, needs no convincing proof, other than visible Nature.

MAN IS NOT THE OUTCOME OF PHYSICAL EVOLUTION, and produced by a series of blind laws, that lead him upward from protozoa to man, as a child climbs up stairs, advancing regularly, ONE STEP AS A TIME. This latter conception, we know, is the theory of exact science, but not of Alchemy, not of the science of Occultism. Man, according to Wallace, Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall, is what progressive stages of physical evolution have made him. But the very reverse is true. The fauna and flora of past geological periods are what the human soul has produced, by virtue of its gradual advancement to higher states and conditions of life, so that, so far from man being the outcome of the planet's development, such material progress is the outgrowth of man's advancement, proving again that, matter is not independent of spirit, neither can spirit be independent of matter for its expressions. They so interblend that, the dividing line cannot be detected by the untrained eye of the exact scientist. But, that time is not far distant, when the scientists will prepare and evolve their interior being to take up the spiritual thread, exactly where the visible thread ends, and carry forth the work, as far as the mortal mind of man can penetrate, while embodied in the physical form.

God hasten this day is my prayer, for then man will become more spiritual and aspiring for advancement and knowledge, thus, setting up vibrations that will create higher and loftier conditions for the physical man. Aye! then they will know that, even the birth of the world itself, owes its primal genesis to the desire of the human atom for earthly embodiment.

Here is where exact science, or the counterpart of Alchemy, becomes both profitable and helpful. Says Paracelsus: "The true use of chemistry is not to make gold, but to prepare medicines." He admits four elements—the STAR, the ROOT, the ELEMENT and the SPERM. These elements were composed of the three principles, SIDERIC SALT, SULPHUR, and MERCURY. Mercury, or spirit, sulphur, or oil, and salt, and the passive principles, water and earth. Herein we see the harmony of the two words, Alchemy and Chemistry. One is but the continuation of the other, and they blend so into each other that, they are not complete, apart.

The chemist, in his analysis of the various component parts of any form of matter, knows also the proportional combinations; and thus, by the Law of Correspondence, could, by the same use of the spiritual laws of Alchemy, analyze and combine the same elements from the atmosphere, to produce the corresponding expression of crystallized form. By the same laws, are affinities and antipathies discovered and applied, in every department of Nature's wonderful laboratory.

Chemistry is the physical expression of Alchemy, and any true knowledge of chemistry is:—not the knowing of the names of the extracts and essences, and the plants themselves, and that certain combinations produce certain results, obtained from blind experiments, yet, prompted by the Divine spirit within; but, knowledge born from knowing the why and wherefore of such effects. What is called the oil of olives is not a single, simple substance, but it is more or less combined with other essential elements, and will fuse and coalesce with other oils and essences of similar nature. The true chemist will not confine his researches for knowledge to the mere examination, analysis, and experiments, in organic life; but will inform himself equally, in physical astrology; and learn the nature, attributes, and manifested influences of the planets, that constitute our universe; and, under which, every form of organic matter is subject, and especially, controlled by. Then, by learning the influence of the planets upon the human family; and that special planetary vibration that influences the individual; he can intelligently and unerringly administer medicines to remove disease in man.

A familiarity with the mere chemical relations of the planet to man, makes still more apparent, the mutual affinity of both to the soil, from which they appear to spring, and to which, they ultimately return; so much so that, we have become conscious, that, the food we eat is valuable or otherwise as a life sustainer, in proportion to the amount of life it contains. We are so complex in our organization that, we require a great variety of the different elements to sustain all the active functions and powers within us. Man, being a microcosm, or a miniature universe, must sustain that universe, by taking into the system the various elements, which combine to make up the Infinite Universe of God. Animal flesh is necessary to certain organized forms, both animal and man. When I say necessary, I do not mean an acquired taste and habit of consuming just so much flesh a day; but a constitution, which would not be complete in its requirements, without animal flesh. I am thankful such do not constitute the masses.

Science would say, you only require certain combinations of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, to sustain all the activities of the physical body. Apparently, this is true. Upon the surface it is, but in reality it is not; because if it were really true there could be no famines. Science could make bread out of stones, as was suggested at the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. And yet, no one knows better than the academies of Science, themselves, that their learned professors would quickly starve to death, if they were compelled to produce their food from the chemical properties of the rocks. They can make a grain of wheat chemically perfect, but they cannot make the invisible germ by which it will grow, become fruitful, and reproduce itself. They can reproduce from the stones in the street the same chemical equivalents that go to compose gluten, albumen, and starch—the trinity which must always be present to sustain life; but they cannot, by any known process, make such chemical equivalents of these substances, do the same thing. Now, if not, why not? Science cannot answer this. A very mysterious shake of the head and profound silence is the only answer. Ask Science HOW THE PLANT GROWS, what causes the atoms of matter to build up root, stem, leaf, bud and flower, true to the parent species from which the germinal atom came. What is there behind the plant that stamps it with such striking individuality? And why, from the same soil, the deadly aconite and nutritious vegetable can grow, each producing qualities in harmony with its own nature, so widely different in their effects upon the human organism, YET, SO COMPLETELY IDENTICAL AS REGARDS THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THEY APPEAR TO SPRING. There must be a something to account for this, and this something, ancient Alchemy alone can scientifically reveal and expound; and, this knowledge lies just beyond that line which calls a halt to material scientists, and says: "You can go no farther; this is beyond your purview. The end of the material thread has been reached, and unless you can connect it with the thread of the next plane, your researches must stop."

Before entering upon and answering these vital questions, we must digress a little, and make ourselves perfectly familiar with the ideas and revelations of advanced physical science upon the subject, and for this purpose no more trustworthy guide can be consulted than the new edition of "The Chemistry of Common Life," by the late James F. W. Johnson, M. A., England, and revised by Arthur Herbert Church, M. A. In chapter IV on page 56 of this work, upon the anatomy of plant life, we read:

"How interesting it is to reflect on the minuteness of the organs by which the largest plants are fed and sustained. Microscopic apertures in the leaf suck in gaseous food from the air; the surfaces of microscopic hairs suck a liquid food from the soil. We are accustomed to admire, with natural and just astonishment, how huge, rocky reefs, hundreds of miles in length, can be built up by the conjoined labors of myriads of minute zoophytes, laboring together on the surface of a coral rock; but it is not less wonderful that, by the ceaseless working of similar microscopic agencies in leaf and root, the substance of vast forests should be built up and made to grow before our eyes. It is more wonderful, in fact; for whereas, in the one case, the chief result is that, dead matter extracted from the sea is transformed into a dead rock; in the other, the lifeless matter of the earth and air are converted by these minute plant-builders into living forms, lifting their heads aloft to the sky, waving with every wind that blows, and beautifying whole continents with the varying verdure of their ever-changing leaves."

Further on in the same chapter, on pages 62-3, the same eloquent writer continues:

"But the special chemical changes that go on within the plant, could we follow them, would appear not less wonderful than the rapid production of entire microscopic vegetables from the raw food contained in the juice of the grape. It is as yet altogether incomprehensible, even to the most refined physiological chemistry, how, from the same food taken in from the air, and from generally similar food drawn up from the soil, different plants, and different parts of plants, should be able to extract or produce substances so very different from each other in composition and in all of their properties. From the seed-vessels of one (the poppy) we collect a juice which dries up into our commercial opium; from the bark of another (cinchona) we extract the quinine with which we assuage the raging fever; from the leaves of others, like those of hemlock and tobacco, we distil deadly poisons, often of rare value for their medicinal uses. The flowers and leaves of some yield volatile oils, which we delight in for their odors and their aromatic qualities; the seeds of others give fixed oils, which are prized for the table or use in the arts * * * These, and a thousand other similar facts, tell us how wonderfully varied are the changes which the same original forms of matter undergo in the interior of living plants. Indeed, whether we regard the vegetable as a whole, or examine its minutest part, we find equal evidence of the same diversity of changes and of the same production, in comparatively minute quantities, of very different, yet often characteristic forms of matter."

From the whole of the foregoing, we observe the exact position to be the one we have previously stated. If such wondrous things can be revealed to us through the physical science of chemistry, what think you must be hidden from our physical sight and knowledge by the veil which hangs between matter and spirit? Think you not, it is worth the effort to penetrate beyond that point where the atom disappears from the view of the scientist?

If plants produce such wonderful phenomena in their life and influence, what must the Divine organism of man have concealed within his microscopic universe, to study and comprehend? Plant life is merely the alphabet of the complex, intricate, and multitudinous processes, going on in the human body.

And, as the mechanical microscope of physical science cannot reveal the why and the wherefore, let us, for a brief moment, disclose some of the wonders that declare their existence, when subjected to the penetrating alchemical lens, of the inward spirit. The first thing that intrudes itself upon our notice, by virtue of its primary importance, is the grand fact of biogenesis—life emanating from life. We perceive every external form to be the physical symbol of a corresponding degree of spiritual life; that each complete plant represents a complete cycle, state, or degree of interior existence; that it is made up and consists of countless millions of separate atoms of life; that these atoms of spiritual activity are the real instigators of the life and motion of corresponding material atoms; that they ever obey the Divine impulse of co-operative unity, in their chemical, as well as their spiritual affinity. Consequently, everything in the form of material substance must be, and is, but the means for the phenomenal expression of incarnating spirit; the organism of man, a tree, a plant, or an animal, being no exception to this Divine, omnipresent law of creative life.

To the true Alchemist there can be no mystery surrounding the wonderful phenomena mentioned in the work we have quoted, in plants extracting from the same rocks, soil, and air, qualities so manifestly different—deadly poisons, healing balsams, and pleasant aromas, or the reverse, from the same identical plant foods. Nothing is more wonderful or mysterious, than, the same alchemical processes, which, are hourly being enacted within our own bodies. From the same breath of air and the same crust of bread do we concoct the blood, the bile, the gastric juice, and various other secretions; and distil the finer nervous fluids, that go to build up and sustain the whole of our mental and dynamic machinery. It is the same ancient story of the atoms; each part and each function endowing the same inorganic chemicals with their own spiritual, magnetic, and physical life-qualities, by what appears, to the uninitiated observer, a miraculous transmutation of matter, but which is, in reality, the evolution of organic form from inorganic materials, in obedience to the Divine law of spiritual progression. Who could stop with exact science? For, when we come to consider the apparent mysteries of life and growth by the aid of this alchemical light, the shadows flee, and all the illusions of Nature's phenomenal kaleidoscope vanish before the revelation of the underlying spiritual realities. We know that the plant, being the physical expression upon the material plane of a more interior life, endows its outward atoms with their peculiar qualities. THESE QUALITIES ARE NOT DRAWN DIRECTLY FROM THE SOIL; the soil only becoming the medium for their complete or incomplete expression, as the case may be; i.e., supplying the necessary inorganic atoms. Hence, the deadly qualities of aconite, and the generous life-sustaining qualities of the nutritious vegetable, BEING SPIRITUAL LIFE ENDOWMENTS, conveyed to the material substance, abstracted from the soil and withdrawn from the atmosphere, are no mystery; their effect upon the human organism being exactly that, which is produced by their spiritual affinity or antipathy, as the case may be. And this also shows and explains, why purely inorganic chemical atoms, though they be exactly the same as the organic substances, from a strictly scientific standpoint, YET FAIL TO SUPPORT LIFE, because such chemical equivalents lack the organic spirituality of the interior life, which alone, gives them the power and function to support the same. They fail to fulfill the requirements of the alchemical law of life for the support of life—in other words, biogenesis.

And, too, this inorganic life may be parted from the plant or vegetable, if it be too long severed from the medium which transmits the spiritual life, from the inorganic world to that of organic matter. Vegetables, fresh from the ground, or parent stem, retain this life if at once prepared for food, if not overcooked, which is so often ignorantly done. This is the secret of sustenance from foods. Nature's perfected fruits and vegetables are overflowing with the life-giving essences, and, if eaten direct from the tree or parent stem, that life is not lost, but transmitted to our organisms, and replenishes the wasting system with a living life. Much less of such food is required to completely satisfy and nourish the body than if the life had partly departed or been destroyed.

Briefly stated, then, everything within organic Nature is the expressional symbolic manifestation of spirit; every form being a congregation of innumerable atoms of life, revealing their presence in material states; each organic form, or, rather, organism, evolving under the central control of some dominating Deific atom or soul, which, by virtue of past incarnations and labors in its cycle of evolution, from the mineral up to man, has achieved the royal prerogative to rule within its own state. Man being the highest representative form—the grand finale in the earthly drama—sums up and contains within himself everything below, and THE GERMS OF EVERYTHING BEYOND, THIS STATE. He is truly a microcosm, and represents in miniature the grand Cosmic Man of the Heavens. Every living force beneath him corresponds to some state, part, or function, which he has graduated through and conquered, and which, in him, has now become embodied, as a part of his universal kingdom. Consequently, all things are directly related to him, in the grand universal unity of spiritual life.

This cannot be realized and comprehended by the physical man, nor conveyed to his outer senses by the physical sciences. He must bring into active use the inner man, the real being, which inhabits and controls the outer organism, and through its instrumentality, understand the interior source and workings behind the phenomena of manifested being. So we see that, exact science cannot take us far, yet, it is a mighty factor, in the evolution of the microcosm Man, and in consciously relating him to the Infinite Macrocosm—God, Spirit, All.

CHAPTER VIII. ALCHEMY-PART II

Paracelsus, the most celebrated of the alchemists of the Middle Ages, thus mystically speaks of his art:

"If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from heaven. Melissa is not only in the garden, but also in the air and in heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in the ocean and Earth. What is Venus but the artemisia that grows in your garden, and what is iron but the planet Mars? That is to say, Venus and Artemisia are both products of the same essence, while Mars and iron are manifestations of the same cause. What is the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky? He who knows Mars knows the qualities of iron, and he who knows what iron is knows the attributes of Mars. What would become of your heart if there were no Sun in the Universe? What would be the use of your 'Vasa Spermatica'[*] if there were no Venus? To grasp the invisible elements, to attract them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, and transmute, them by the ever-moving powers of the living spirit—this is true Alchemy."

[*] Astral germs of subjective life forms:—it is the latent, "to be".

Thus, in a very few simple words, we find this master of the art revealing the whole arcana of that mysterious science, which has for its chief object and goal, the discovery of the "philosopher's stone," which confers upon its fortunate possessor the blessings of immortal youth. Therefore, we cannot possibly do better in the commencement of our present study than, to minutely examine each particular sentence and endeavor to discover his true meaning, which, like all mystical writing, is so apparent, yet cunningly concealed, as to excite the student's admiration.

"If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from Heaven." The manna here spoken of does not specify any particular thing, but is of universal application, and is simply used as an unknown quantity, like x, y, z in mathematics. But, ever since the days of Paracelsus, half-initiated mystics and bookworm occultists, have endeavored to discover what this manna really was. Some, the more spiritual, were of the opinion that, it was spiritual power, or purity of spirit; others imagined it to mean special magnetic qualifications, similar in nature to the so-called gifts of modern spiritualistic media. The concealment of the truth is unique, and consists in its very simplicity; and, when correctly expounded, should read: "I am the microcosm, and all the visible and invisible universe dwells within me, so that whatsoever power I have in my constitution, I can attract its correspondence from Heaven." Paracelsus must have smiled to himself when he wrote "If I have manna," etc., because his whole writings strive to prove man the miniature of Deity. Further along, he explains himself by pointing out the real Law of Correspondence, thus: "Melissa is not only in the garden, but also in the air, and in Heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in the ocean, and Earth." The illustrations are beautiful, The life of the plant, the "anima floralis," pervades the atmosphere and the interior states of spiritual life, where it becomes in the highest degree beautiful, and beneficial to the soul. A reference upon this point to "The Light of Egypt" Vol., I, may not be considered out of place. Upon page 74 it is written: "The flower that blooms in beauty, breathing forth to the air its fragrance, which is at once grateful to the senses and stimulating to the nerves, is a perfect specimen of Nature's faultless mediumship. The flower is a medium for the transmission to the human body of those finer essences, and of THEIR SPIRITUAL PORTION TO THE SOUL; for the aroma of the flower is spiritualized to such a degree as to act upon the life currents of the system, imparting to the spiritual body a nutriment of the finest quality."

Thus, here is where the knowledge of the alchemical attributes of plants, as applicable to man, can be most beneficially utilized. Plants and flowers, whose attributes and aromas harmonize with the complex organism of man, should be selected for the house and garden, for, they are mediums to transmit the finer essences and aromas to the spiritual constitution of man; the plant to the physical, and the aromas and essences of the flowers to the soul.

Antipathies in plants and flowers would bring a similar evil influence, as the discords of the antagonistic human magnetism. It would not be so apparent, but more subtle, yet nevertheless effective in result.

Our attention is next drawn to the planet Saturn, which, we are informed, is not only shining in his starry sphere of the heavens, but is also buried in the ocean depths and embodied in the stratas of the earth. It is almost needless to add that, our author refers to those substances naturally Saturnine in their quality of life and expression, such as lead, clay, and coal, among the minerals, and various deadly plants among the flora, the chief of which is the aconite or monkshood, so significant of Saturn and the isolated, monkish hermit. After some repetition, in order to impress the truth of correspondences, our author exclaims: "What is the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky?" Truly, what else? for, "he who knows Mars knows the qualities of iron, and he who knows what iron is knows the attributes of Mars." Could anything be plainer? We think not.

From the foregoing, which a long experience and much critical investigation and research have demonstrated as true, we cannot avoid the conclusion that Alchemy, equally as well as every other science, religion, or system of philosophy formulated by man, resolves itself, ultimately, in all its final conclusions, into the one universal parent of all wisdom.

ASTROLOGY, the Science of the Stars, in unison with the Science of the Soul, was, and still is, the one sublime center of real learning. It constituted the sacred fountain of living waters, from whose placid depths there rayed forth the Divine revelations of man, his whence, where, and whither; and under the careful conservation of a long line of gifted seers, it shone forth to the sons of men, as the sacred Hermetic light in the Astro-Masonic wisdom of Egypt's ancient priesthood.

It is not lost to us to-day. The same book lies open before us that faced our ancient forefathers. It is standing out clear and distinct, waiting to be read by the sons of men. We can learn its language, and from its pages, we ourselves can read our relation to God and our fellowman. Shall we not heed the whispering intuitions of the soul and place ourselves in conscious rapport with the whole?

This sublime Book of Wisdom was written by God Himself, to convey to His children the knowledge of His powers, attributes, and relation to all creative life. We cannot see that Divine Spirit which we call God. No; but as long as the finite form exists as such, we will have the spirit's manifestations to learn from. Never will the Book of God be closed to the searching eye of the soul. There will always be presented to his vision lessons to study, and practical experiments to perform, to lead the soul into deeper mysteries. Until man fathoms his own universe, he cannot understand God. "Know thyself" is as applicable to-day as when the famous, immortal and mystic utterance was inscribed on the porch of the temple at Delphi.

Before this wonderful, divinely elaborated, but complex system can be fully realized, it is necessary that the student should comprehend, very distinctly, the two states of existence, the internal and the external, and become familiar with the laws of correspondences. And it seems strange that of all Sciences, that of medicine should have so completely failed to grasp this living truth, since every atom of medicine administered, invariably acts upon this alchemical principle. When the human organism has become discordant in some of its parts, it is because the interstellar vibrations have aroused various states within the human kingdom into a condition of rebellion against the supreme will. Man's ignorance favors such seditious movements, and his general habits and code of morals stimulate them to undue activity. The final result is disease—disorganization of the parts and functions, and those medicines corresponding TO THE SAME FUNCTIONAL DEGREE OF LIFE WITHIN THE GRAND MAN, cure the disorder, when administered properly and IN TIME, whereas, if given to the perfectly healthy organism, THE ATOMS PRODUCE SIMILAR SYMPTOMS TO THE DISEASES THEY ALLEVIATE, because it is their mission to either subdue or be subdued, and when disease prevails the medicinal atoms, acting in unison with the natural parts and functions they affect, conquer or subdue the inharmony, and vice versa, as before stated. In all cases of disease and medicine, it is a simple question of A WAR BETWEEN THE ATOMS, and, therefore, the most potential forces within Nature are always at the command of the true Alchemist, because he knows bow and when to select his fighting forces, and when to set them in motion, for the best results.

Hahnemann, the founder of the Homeopathic system, has approached THE NEAREST to this alchemical truth, and as a consequence, we find it is in actual practice, the most natural, scientific, and successful system of medicine, yet given to the world; based, as it is, upon the well-known law of affinites, "Similia similibus curantur," "like cures like," being a very ancient axiom in the astrological practice of physic.

Bulwer Lytton, who had become thoroughly convinced of the great value and importance of uniting ancient Alchemy with modern medicine, makes the hero of his immortal story declare: "All that we propose to do is this: To find out the secrets of the human frame, to know why the parts ossify and the blood stagnates, and to apply continual preventives to the effects of time. THIS IS NOT MAGIC; IT IS THE ART OF MEDICINE, RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD."

It is a fact that, the molecules of the body are all changed within twelve months; that every cell in the human organism is born and grows to maturity within that space of time. Nature is absolutely impartial. She draws from the atmosphere that she may reproduce a fac-simile of everything she finds upon the surface of the body. So, if there be a sore, or festering ulcer, the atoms which are thrown off attract similar atoms, so as to reproduce the ulcer or sore, and thus prevent the disease from getting well of itself until it has worn itself out.

Further, every vein and canal throughout the entire body, from youth to maturity, is being coated with carbonate of lime, or lime in some form. The coating of the walls of the veins in such a manner, prevents the free circulation of the living matter; then, the real vitality of the food which we eat, is simply passed off through the pores, or through the bowels, or through the system, because it is unable to penetrate through the lime.

If that prevention which produces old age can be attained, then physical youth will continue.

The first step to take is to dissolve the lime in the body. Drink nothing but distilled water, in either tea, coffee, or any other form, and drink freely of the sweet juices of the grape and apple.

The food that we eat contains lime in a living form, and it is the living lime we need to build up the living bones, for the lime and the magnesia that we take in the water is crystallized dead mineral, possessing no responsibility of life, and the lime in our food is quite sufficient for all purposes. For everything we take in excess, Nature makes us pay the penalty.

The first principle of long living is to keep all channels of the body perfect and free from coatings of lime.

The second is that of youthful ideals of the mind. The soul never grows old.

The third principle is dynamic breathing, which is storing up the oxygen in sufficient quantities, to supply the tissues with sufficient fuel, for combustion.

These three principles, acting in unison, contain the true basis of physical life and a means of long living. Old age is simply the petrifaction of the body through lime, and the incorporating of erroneous thoughts into the organism.

It is the true Alchemy of human existence, and the preventives, in each and every case must contain the spiritual correspondence to the cause they seek to remedy; and, though the followers of Hahnemann base the whole of their procedure of treatment upon their master's fundamental law of "Similia similibus curantur," yet, there may be a few rare cases wherein, this undeviating method would not apply with the required effect. In such a case, the Alchemist would resort to the well-known law of opposites, and base his treatment upon the dogma of "Contraria contrariis curantur," so long the pet theory of the Allopathic school. They work upon the hypothesis that, like attracts like, and, if disease exist, those elements must be administered to set up the vibrations that will produce the polar opposite. If the body was racked with pain, those medicines would not be given that would create or increase similar conditions, but, their antipathy would be introduced into the system or applied locally to extinguish the foe.

So long as mankind remain within the semicrystallized state of soul development, so as to require the aid of external forces to support the human throne within its earthly temple, mercenary troops will exist to supply these supposed supports.

Unquestionably, the astrological law is the true system of medicine, which treats disease by sympathy or by antipathy, according to the nature of the case, and the efficacy of the remedies at hand. This method is the only natural one, and has been thoroughly demonstrated by the numerous "provings of drugs" under Hahnemann's law.

Happily, the time is not far distant when, the incarnated spirit will be able to use its own slumbering forces, and subdue all suffering and symptoms of disease in their very first inception, by virtue of its purer life and the dynamic potencies of its own interior, spiritual thought. Already, mental therapeutics is taking an advanced position among liberal, progressive minds, and nothing demonstrates so clearly and forcibly the grand, alchemical law of life-growth and decay, as the imponderable, invisible forces, which, constitute the materia medica, or remedial agents, of mental, magnetic, and spiritual healing.

Perhaps the most recondite subject connected with the healing art divine is, the modus operandi of medicinal action, upon the human body. A subject so simple and self-evident to the Alchemist, remains a profound mystery to the educated physician of the medical college; so much so that, we are tempted to ask of them: "Can you explain the modus operandi of drugs?" Dr. William Sharp, one of the most advanced physicians of the Homeopathic school, in one of his well- known "Essays on Medicine," says: "In respect to the manner of action of drugs we are in total darkness, and we are so blind that the darkness is not felt. KNOWLEDGE OF THIS KIND CANNOT BE ATTAINED; it is labor lost and TIME wasted to go in search of it. True, hypotheses may be easily conceived; so may straws be gathered from the surface of the stream. But what are either of them worth? There is this difference between them—straws may amuse children, and hypotheses are sure to mislead physicians."

It is when the Occult Initiate observes to what helpless conditions the practice of medicine has fallen, that, he would, if be could with any possibility of success, implore the angelic guardian of the human race to open the spiritual sight of men, that they might see, as he sees, the Divine relationship, and spiritual correspondence, of everything in the wide universe to man.

Nature's laws move slowly and imperceptibly, yet surely and exact, and the time will certainly come when man will be forced into consciousness of these laws, whether he will or no. Nature is no respecter of persons, and those who will not move and progress, in harmony with her laws of advancement, must, of necessity, pass out with the old.

Alchemy, as it relates to the healing art, is the most noble in its object and beneficial in its effects, of all the many subdivisions of the sciences, because, it alleviates the pains and morbid afflictions of suffering humanity. We have given quite sufficient of its astrological aspect in the second part of "The Light of Egypt," Vol. I, wherein the four ancient elements are translated into their chemical correspondences of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon, which still constitute the four primary elements of the most advanced chemistry to-day. They enter more or less into every organic form and substance, which is known, in various combinations and proportions. The human organism is principally composed of them; so, likewise, is the food that supports physical life, and the air we breathe is but modifications of the same atoms.

As man's constitution embraces a microscopic atom of all the essences and elements, corresponding to the whole; so does the air; and much, that we depend upon our food to supply, can be extracted from the atmosphere by breathing. Every breath we breathe is new life, or death.

Herein is the secret of success or failure, in certain localities, and under certain conditions. If we have iron within us, could we extract or attract iron from Saturn's district? Or, if the element within us could attract gold, could we obtain it from the coal fields?

Therefore, it is only natural that the medical remedies we employ to restore the organism, when afflicted with disease, should group themselves into similar correspondences, and so, in a general sense, we find them; for we note that the brain, the circulation, the lungs, and the stomach, are the four chief citadels of the body; the heart, of course, representing the center of circulation. And this also explains, further, if that were necessary, why the principal remedies of the homeopathic system are so speedy and direct in their action. The four principal drugs, which stand as representatives of their class, are aconite, belladonna, phosphorus, and pulsatilla. These represent the quadrant, for light is not more nicely adjusted to the eye, nor sound to the ear, than aconite to the circulation, belladonna to the brain, phosphorus to the lungs, and pulsatilla to the stomach; while ramifying in the seven directions indicated by the seven primary planets, we find stimulants, tonics, narcotics, nervines, alteratives, cathartics and diuretics, as the natural material correspondences thereof.

That we assign phosphorus to the lungs may appear startling to the orthodox student, especially when, he calls to mind the fact that phosphorus has long been recognized in medical science as a brain food and medicine. Anticipating such mental questions, we reply that in medicine, from the alchemical view, we are occupying a wholly different standpoint; i.e., the power of controlling the functional action of the body, in this view of the case, and the fact that, the lungs and the brain are in the most perfect affinity, there will remain no mystery upon the subject.

The Alchemy of stones and gems attracts our next attention. Affinites and antipathies to the human constitution, are to be found in these crystallized representatives of the subtle, invisible influences emanating from our planetary system. They are the mediums for the transmission of corresponding attributes and influences of existing powers and potencies, and if carried or worn upon the person, they will bring the person in direct rapport with the invisible forces within the universal system.

Here again Hahnemann's scientific philosophy would prove effectual, that "Similia similibus curantur." Would the fiery influence of a topaz attract much from the realms of a chrysolite? Or, the crystallized, airy forces of a sapphire be a suitable medium for the earthly forces of a jasper?

Gems and stones are dead or living realities. They live, slumber and die, and have their potent existence as do the organic forms of matter. They are, usually, imbued with the vivifying spark of Divinity, and shine forth and exert their influence through the magical powers attracted to them from the forces of Nature. A real, living entity abides within them that can be seen by the clairvoyant vision, and to the trained student in Occult lore, this entity can be made to become an obedient servant, giving warning of the approach of danger, impressions of men and things, and warding off discordant influences surrounding us; or that, which we may contact from the magnetic and personal environments in our relations in the social world; or that which may be projected to us from the invisible realms of life.

Think you the pryamids would be intact to-day, if the stones from which they were built had been promiscuously selected? They were chosen by Adepts in the knowledge of the Laws of Correspondence and antipathy and affinity. The sphinx also stand as monuments to the heights of wisdom that man can attain.

Metals also can be followed out on the same lines as the gems and stones.

Much as we would like to continue, we are compelled to bring this discourse to a close, even though in doing so we must of necessity omit much of vital interest to the student. We will, therefore, only add that the seven basic metals stand as the crystallized representatives of their respective groups: Gold for the Sun, Silver for the Moon, Tin for Jupiter, Copper for Venus, Quicksilver for Mercury and Lead for Saturn. Each finds it own sphere of action within the temporary abiding place of the human soul on earth—the physical body. So, likewise, the twelve constellations and their corresponding talismanic gems, representing in their glittering array the anatomical Zodiac of the human frame, and typifying the spiritual quality of the atoms, there congregated, in every degree of life. These, and a thousand other mysteries, had we the time, might be unfolded to the student's view with considerable advantage, but we are compelled to refrain. The philosopher's stone is near at hand. Seek it not in remote spheres or distant parts of the earth, for it is ever around you and within, and becomes the golden key of true wisdom, which prepares the soul for its higher life and brighter destiny. It is the still, small voice of the awakened soul, that purges the conscience from suffering, and the spiritual body from earthy dross. It is that, which treasures not the corrupting, delusive wealth of Earth, nor the transient powers of mammon, but garners the fruits which spring from the pure life, and treasures the jewels of heaven. Vainly will you seek for this stone of the wise philosopher amid the turmoils, sufferings, and selfishness of life, unless you accept your mission upon earth as a duty, delegated to the soul, from Heaven. Eschew the evil thereof, and hold fast that which is good. To do this, means to expand with the inward truth and become one of the "pure in heart," in which blessed state, the magical white stone, conveying A NEW NAME, reveals the living angel within, to the outward man. Then, and then alone, doth he know the Adonai.

Such are the Divine, spiritual principles upon which the higher Alchemy of life is based. They seek only to establish a Divine, conscious at-one-ment between the angel, the man, and the universe, and to this end, we conclude with the words of the immortal Paracelsus:

"To grasp these invisible elements, to attract them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, and transmute them by the ever-moving powers of the living spirit, THIS IS TRUE ALCHEMY."

CHAPTER IX. TALISMANS

Words are the symbols of ideas, and bear the same correspondence to the physical brain as matter does to spirit, a medium of expression, and are subject to continual change in their application and meaning, in exact proportion to the changing mental and moral condition of the people. As the planet, as well as man, is continually progressing, so must there be a higher and nobler conception of ideas. Hence, words or expressions must change, to convey the progressive spirit, that is constantly taking place. Therefore, it is always interesting, as well as valuable, for the Occult student to go to the root of each word connected with his philosophy, in order to learn the real sense in which the word was used by the ancients, from whom his mystic lore has descended. The true meaning, as well as the words themselves, have become as mystical as the lore itself. Hence, each student must commence as a beginner in any foreign language, which he does not at present understand. In following this method of procedure he will, at least, escape the dense and interminable confusion of modern opinions upon subjects of which the writers thereof, are partially or wholly ignorant.

No better illustration of this can be afforded than by the word "Talisman," derived from the Greek verb "teleo," which means, primarily, to accomplish, or bring into effect. But, in its real, and therefore higher, sense, it means to dedicate, consecrate, and initiate into the arcana of the temple mysteries. But, in the present day it means a piece of imposture, connected with some magical hocus pocus of the ignorant and superstitious mind, a vulgar charm, that is supposed to bring the owner thereof some material benefit, irrespective of his mental, magnetic, and moral condition, "and," says the learned Webster, after describing his idea of such things, "they consist of three sorts, astronomical, magical and mixed." But in what sense the "astronomical" differed from the "magical" we are not informed, nor is any light thrown upon the peculiar nature of that class designated as "mixed." In fact, the lexicographer so mixes up his definitions that, we are unable to distinguish anything in particular, but his own individual ignorance.

So it has become, in every branch of learning. Words and their meanings have become so mixed in their use and application, that, the world is full of discords and misunderstandings, which lead into dissensions and contention, among all schools of thought, sects, and isms; and lastly, though not the least serious, it has reached into the close relations of the human family.

All writers and speakers, as well as the readers and listeners, should acquaint themselves with the derivation and meaning of words.

The fact stands very clearly defined that, Talismans are confused in the minds of the present generation with magical charms, which depend for their effects, upon the power of the idea or thought, which the formulating magician impresses upon the substance of which they are composed. If the magical artist be expert, and endowed with an exceedingly potent will, his charm may become very powerful, when worn by the person for whom it was prepared. But, if this one grand essential be lacking, no amount of cabalistical figures and sacred names will have any effect, because, there can be no potency in symbols apart from the ideas and mental force they are capable of arousing in the mind of the maker. Solomon's Seal is no more powerful, when drawn upon virgin parchment, with a weak will, or in a mechanical state of mind, than a child's innocent scribbling upon its slate. But, if the artist realizes the mysteries symbolized by the interlacing triangles, and can place his soul en rapport with the invisible elements they outwardly represent; then, powerful effects are often produced.