COSMIC SYMBOLISM COSMIC SYMBOLISM BEING A DISCUSSION AND EXPOSITION OF SOME RECONDITE AND OBSCURE POINTS IN THE ART OF THE KABALISTS, THE MYSTERIES OF SOUND, FORM AND NUMBER, AND THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF COSMIC SYMBOLISM BY SEPHARIAL AUTHOR OF “A MANUAL OF OCCULTISM,” “THE KABALA OF NUMBERS,” “KABALISTIC ASTROLOGY,” “A NEW MANUAL OF ASTROLOGY,” “SECOND SIGHT,” ETC., ETC. LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1912 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 I THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF OCCULTISM 4 II THE PROBLEMS OF SCIENCE 15 III THE MODERN MIRACLE 26 IV THERAPY—ANCIENT AND MODERN 33 V THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM 44 VI COSMIC SYMBOLOGY 56 VII READING THE SYMBOLS 65 VIII ANCIENT AND MODERN EXAMPLES 75 IX A TYPICAL CASE 86 X THE LAW OF CYCLES 96 XI THE TIME FACTOR IN KABALISM 109 XII INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION 118 XIII PLANETARY NUMBERS 127 XIV SOME FURTHER KABALAS 139 XV PLANETARY SOUNDS 153 XVI PLANETARY HOURS 161 XVII CELESTIAL MAGNETIC POLARITIES 171 XVIII VULCAN THE CHAIN MAKER 179 XIX ALFRIDARIES 190 XX IN THE LUMBER ROOM 199 XXI THE LAW OF VIBRATIONS 201 XXII THE EQUALIZATION OF EPOCHS 219 XXIII LUNAR INFLUENCE 229 XXIV SOLAR INFLUENCE 241 XXV ASTROLOGY 251 XXVI CHARACTER AND ENVIRONMENT 264 XXVII THE LAW OF SEX 274 XXVIII A TEST OF VALUE 285 INTRODUCTION “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.