he foreground, middle distance, and background, mark
off the present, the approximate, and the distant future. In tracing
the succession of events, we have found it convenient to think of
time-measure at the outset, bending the sight upon, each month or
year separately and in succession, noting the visions that arise with
each in order. And as regards the past or future, we distinguish
between them by an intuitive sense rather than by any other
means, and very rarely is this sense deceived, for it is part of the
psychic faculty we had in training.

Therefore, if the vision appears in the foreground and, as it were,
at the feet of the seer, then it may be taken as relating to the
present or a quite recent date. In the same way, the middle distance
indicates the near past or future, and the background denotes the
more distant past or future. The other difficulty we have
mentioned is that of interpretation of such symbols as may arise.
The following pages will indicate some of the symbols and their
meanings. The rest must be left to the intuition of the seer.

CHAPTER VI.

SYMBOLS

Symbols are thought-forms which convey, by the association of
ideas, a definite meaning in regard to the mind that generates
them. They depend wholly upon the laws of thought, and the
correspondence that exists between the spiritual and material
worlds, between the subject and the object of our consciousness.

Among the ancients symbols were the original form of record, of
communicating ideas, and of writing. The hieroglyphs of the
Egyptians, the word-pictures of the aborigines of Central America,
the ideographic writing of ancient Mongolia, are all forms
of symbolic writing, drawn from natural objects. The Hebrew
alphabet, the names of its 22 letters, clearly indicate the nomadic
and simple life of those "dwellers in tents." Thus the names of the
letters include such objects as ox, tent, tent-door, tent-peg, camel,
fish, fish-hook, an eye, a hand, a basket, a rope-coil, a head, an
ox-goad, water, etc. From the combination of these simple forms the
words are constructed. Thus the word used to signify "knowledge"
is derived from three letters, Yod, Daleth, Oin, which mean a
hand, a door, an eye. The _hand_ denotes action, power, etc.; the
_door_ denotes entering, initiation, etc.; the _eye_ denotes seeing,
vision. Therefore the three ideograph; when combined, denote
"opening the door to see," which is a very graphic way of
conveying t