THE QUICKENING SPIRIT Chapter 1
HERE has been for some time a call for a volume, simple and explanatory in style, that shall give the rudiments of what is termed Occult Science. Occult Law is simply unrevealed natural law; hidden, because until recently the world has been entirely satisfied with things as they seemed, with the external and superficial. There are many involved and expensive books dealing with this most interesting, instructive, and fascinating subject, but because they are prepared for those who have had previous instruction, they are not adapted to the needs of the thousands of people who are for the first time touched by the wing of the spirit of knowledge that now seems to be brooding and descending upon the earth. The influence of the Domains, Zodiacal Signs, Planets, and Stars has been recognized and understood by certain wise men for thousands of years, but the esoteric part of occult law has been known only to the initiated of certain nations and secret orders. The signs and wonders described by so many travellers in the East have attracted wide attention, but these phenomena have borne as small a relation to the real philosophy of occultism as the slatewriting of the modern medium bears to true Spiritualism. The quickening spirit is here. Even the usually thoughtless and indifferent open their eyes a little wider sometimes, and stop long enough in their money-grubbing and shopping to wonder what it all means. Competent teachers in mental and spiritual subjects are busy in our towns and cities, instructing great classes of students who hunger and thirst for the truths that make for peace and happiness. Dissatisfaction with old methods and theories and creeds meet us at every hand. Light has flashed upon the dark idols, and they are revealed in all their hideousness. A far-off God and a remote heaven are no longer attractive. The quickening spirit has breathed a thought to those who have ears to hear and hearts to feel, of the Eternal Now, and a God and a heaven in every human soul. The dogmatic absurdities of learned men are passing away. Every power of heaven and earth is friendly to a noble and courageous activity. To find out some of the causes previously ignored by the majority—even of the so-called educated and cultured— that affect for good or ill the lives of the inhabitants of the earth, has now become a vital necessity. To this end this volume is prepared, and it is hoped that it will give the student a basis upon which to build, as well as the ability to comprehend the sublime truths which every neophyte will more earnestly desire than anything that the world can offer. An acquaintance with the Domains and Signs of the Zodiac places in the hands of every intelligent person a strong overcoming force. The first effect of this knowledge is the birth of a new charity, not only for one's neighbors but for oneself. "Receiving a new truth is adding a new sense. Right wrongs no man." We find that there is a reason for certain traits of character, certain passions and weaknesses "which have burdened all the conflict and hindered all the fight." The friends whom one has criticised and blamed have the same reason as ourselves for their peculiarities and unsatisfactory conduct. The next effect is the assurance that, having penetrated to the cause, it is possible to find a remedy for the conditions that have formerly ruled our lives. Many of us have laughed at what we were pleased to call the superstitions of our grandparents, especially of our grandmothers, as expressed in their devotion to the Signs of the Zodiac. Fevers turned, the sick recovered or died, children were weaned, houses bought and sold, according to some arrangement of the circle with the queer beasts and the much-pierced
man that held a place in all the almanacs of the period. Some of us have found out a few things since, and one is that it is the part of wisdom not to sneer at or condemn the things which we do not understand.