OUR object in publishing THE ESOTERIC is to present METHODS of attainment to those persons who have by the processes of development reached a point in their experience where they feel the need of a higher order of Life, and are seeking a way by which they may come into the understanding of the object of our life in the flesh, and obtain a fuller development of all their faculties, Physical, Mental, and Spiritual. We recognize the real man to be the conscious, thinking part in us, that is the "Soul," which has two spheres of action and consciousness, viz. one interior and spiritual, the other exterior and physical. When both spheres of consciousness are obtained, man will understand the use in everything, and cease from selfish struggle and combat with his fellow, and thus help to bring about a new order of humanity to spread over, and control our earth. We know that there are many persons that look forward to this goal, and THE ESOTERIC is sent out for the purpose of uniting them in a concerted effort to form a centre of these more perfected souls, and eventually to have a locality set apart for their education and perfection, so that the highest possible ultimates may be reached. This volume, therefore, expounds the doctrine and supplies methods that, if carefully and zealously applied, develop the soul which, then, will enable all to become conscious of the Spirit wherein there is a perfect knowledge of all things necessary for man's use and true wellbeing. THE ESOTERIC. A Magazine of Advanced and Practical Esoteric Thought. THERE is a law of periodicity that prevails throughout nature, cycles of time hold a very important relation to life and human affairs. Race evolution advances in comformity with universal law, and is comparable to the revolutions, seasons, and cycles which govern our solar system. There is a hemisphere of truth in the saying "that his tory repeats itself, that what has been will be again, that there is nothing new under the sun;" and yet, while day and night repeat themselves every twentyfour hours, so like each other, they are never quite the same to mortal experience. The ceaseless round of seasons come and go, and though they do not give us the identical leaves and blossoms this spring that we had a year ago, yet the periodic forces of nature work with a similar uniformity, so that we may, of a certainty, count on bloom and verdure at an approximate period; that "April showers" will bring forth the flowers of May; that June will give its perennial wealth of roses; that summer will ripen the grain, and autumn yield its harvest. To a certain extent this law of periodicity is so self-evident as to become axiomatic, yet comparatively few realize that it is but the A B C of a cyclic law that offers interesting and almost endless field of useful study. We should first observe that seasons and cycles, as well as day and night, are dependent upon the movements of the heavenly bodies, which Genesis 1-14 declares are not only for lights, but for signs and for seasons, for days and for years." The Hebrew Bible makes frequent reference to the constellations and signs of the heavens, and is confirmatory of the evidence that has been handed down from other sources, - that in very ancient times the heavens were regarded as the grand face of a divine clock, and that the moving suns and system were the hands that marked, not merely the passage of time, but the cycles of human evolution, the coming and going of seasons both small and great. Thus the song (or story) of the stars repeats itself in the Gospels, which it antedates, as a primeval revelation of God to man. Joseph A. Seiss, D.D., pastor of the church of the Holy Communion, Philadelphia, says, "That the tremendous astronomical wisdom embodied in the Great Pyramid of Gizeh first impressed him that this ancient story of the stars must have come from a divine |