Before one can enter intelligently into an understanding of Cosmic Symbolism, which underlies all occult science, it is necessary that he should have some well-defined conception of the meaning and purpose of Occultism. Otherwise he will occupy the position of one who moves in the dark, a slave to formularies and dogmas, following blindly where others lead and without any definite idea as to his destination.
Misconceptions regarding Occultism are very prevalent and are found to affect the thought of many who in their own walks are exceedingly learned. Occultism is a broad and comprehensive system of thought; a synthetic philosophy aiming at self-realization, and as much concerned in the practical development of the psychical and spiritual powers latent in man as in the study of those wider cosmical laws which hitherto have escaped scientific observation, but which are found to afford a ready explanation of man’s embodied existence, and the wide and varied range of his faculties, aptitudes and individual characteristics.