Cosmic symbolism

“There is no end to the writing of books,” we are told. Certainly it seems to be the fact that one book leads to another, and the many demands made upon me for explanations of points, problems and paradoxes, contained in some of my recent works, have induced me to a comprehensive effort in the present volume. Whether I shall have succeeded in throwing more light upon the dark problems of Occultism, or only in making confusion worse confounded, it is for the reader to judge. “All truth is paradoxical,” says Laotze, the great philosopher of Quietism. In such case it were hard indeed to offer any argument which may be regarded as final and conclusive, and especially is this the case in reference to the debatable ground of Occultism.

Yet a very wise writer has said that nothing can be accepted as true which does not submit to a mathematical statement. This is a tacit confession of faith in the law of numerical ratios, the geometry of the universe which underlies all revelation. We cannot truly be said to know a thing until we have reduced it to a mathematical concept.

We may conveniently regard life as manifesting in three stages or degrees, namely, Principles, Causes and Effects. Our conscious relation to these three stages of life gives rise to Ethic, Philosophy and Science.

Science is what we know of the universe; philosophy what we think of it; ethic, how that thought affects our conduct. Thus the final appeal is to utility. The virtue of everything is in its use. Science, philosophy and ethic must eventually submit to the test of utility.

It is not for the sake of the mathematical statement, nor yet for the pleasure of abstract argument, but chiefly for the sake of utility that I have attempted this popular exposition of Occultism, for I think it deserves more attention than has hitherto been given to it.

The idea that Occultism serves any useful end in life may not at once appeal to the casual reader. The deeper thinker will, however, discern in any coherent system of thought, in any orderly statement of fact, a possible means of self-adjustment to the problems of life, howsoever dimly apprehended. To the categorical imperative of Kant—I must because I ought, but why ought I?—Occultism offers a very definite answer. It gives a cogent reason for all action, and may indeed be finally judged on its ethical value. It will not be found inadequate.

Purposive action has no value without free will in man. That “free will in man is necessity in play” is true only of those who are not divine conspirators. We are fated to the extent that we are ignorant of the cosmical and spiritual laws—the one order is a reflex of the other—by which the universe is upheld. We are culpable to the extent that we neglect those laws we know. Science has succeeded in harnessing many of the forces of Nature to the service of mankind. Philosophy will bring man into conscious relations with the laws governing his existence, and ethic will instruct him concerning their employment for the good of the race.

To the extent that we understand the laws of our being and use them for our personal benefit, and through ourselves for the good of all mankind, we become conspirators with the Divine Will, conscious co-operators towards “that one divine far-off event to which the whole creation moves,” an apotheosis warranted by the trend of the physical and spiritual evolution of humanity, and prophetically indicated by the words: “Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and worship.”