WE find mortals who have taken up the advanced form of thought, (wondering and inquiring of every one whom they feel might give any enlightenment on the subject,) the meaning of symbols and asking: "'Why did I have a dream that seemed to be so symbolical? Why is it that so many things come to me in waking hours that seem to be symbols of something, and I cannot find it, cannot grasp it?” We hear this question all about, and many try to find out the meaning of symbols, or that which they take to be symbols.

In our opinion, a symbol is a picture: You attempt to teach your small child a great lesson from its blocks, from pictures, from birds, trying to impress upon his mind the lesson that he can always seek, that he can always bring back to himself when he sees this particular picture; and so it is that some individuals do not seem to grasp the meaning of your own language, that which should be the medium of expression between you. Many individuals are unable, are incapable of reasoning, of concentrating, of knowing the meaning behind the words. Therefore, it is often necessary to give to them a picture that will impress upon their minds the lesson that lies behind it.

We find among you mortals a tendency to speak your English language, or whatever language comes easiest to you. You speak it fluently, you discuss your world topics, the topics of the day, you think you understand one another because you understand the words to a degree that another speaks. You say you can speak such and such a language or perhaps many, and yet we find so few of you who actually know the meaning of the words that you utter, the true meaning that lies behind the simple words, such as the word remembering. When we speak the word remembering to you, it has its full meaning. To many of you, it is going back over some particular incident in your lives, or trying to find out what you thought or did - that to you would be remembering. But to us it is becoming a member again, re-membering. The word atonement, as you call it, or at-onement, becoming one again. You have always been one and yet in your minds you have separated yourselves until now you must come back and at-one yourselves with the great Universal Spirit, not in reality, but in your consciousness.

Many words that you speak you do not use in their true sense. You do not give them their full power. You use them lightly and that is why in the form of speaking slang as you term it, you use many utterances as the savage would a grunt. It means something that everyone soon forms the idea of its general meaning, and perhaps the word itself does not mean that at all. You do not use your language to become understood among yourselves. Yet you do not speak a language that you understand between yourselves. We find therefore that it is necessary to give to some of you who have lived so lightly and tried to assimilate in a somewhat meager way with language, an understanding in pictures, in symbols, because we find that you will concentrate upon a picture and that you will do little about it if it is written in your own language.

We cannot hope to express the great understanding that would come to you if you could understand one another's thoughts. Your English Language is not adequate, it is not sufficient, it has not a range of words, and yet it is being used over your country as the preferred language. For that very reason it is almost like your shorthand, and yet very few of you understand, only those of you who have studied it can use it to advantage. So, your symbols.

Do not give so much importance to dream symbols because you receive them; try to receive a lesson from them but remember that they are as blocks to you, they are given to you to help you to understand, to help you to understand your consciousness, because you will work harder if you can hold in your mind a picture. Then as you see a certain number of words on paper, it means a soulless something to you, that, unless you receive it with the spirit behind it is nothing and that is why many individuals will read again and again and receive a different meaning each time, because they did not concentrate in the first place, did not look behind it, search for its complete meaning. Therefore it took many readings, many months, perhaps years, to find the understanding, or even a partial understanding of that which has been written in plain English.

Many of you mortals, when you receive a picture in symbols, give to it so much power, feel you have attained, in that when you can read and see symbols, it must be that you are reaching the place where you can find the secret of life, you have become one of those who are receiving symbols, but we say to you, go within yourself. If you must have symbols to teach you your lesson, you will receive them. If you can learn your lesson without it being given to you in such a manner, if you can learn because the great Universal Spirit so impregnates your being that it is a part of you, when you live it, then you are receiving the true symbol, you are a part of it, it is feeding your being and a great part of the Universal Spirit is yours. Therefore, to the one who must have symbols, the same as the one who must have side lines of palmistry, or numerology, these phases are ladders, are stepping stones, and yet (tend to lead some away from the great cosmic understanding rather than toward it,) tend to build a wall around the one who should become greater and broader for the Universal Spirit to unfold it. These things are not so important; are side issues. They are well to understand, to know, because you need to know, because you need to know all that you are capable of knowing, and yet to use them to live by, to act by, to build by, sometimes imprisons an individual and keeps him from understanding.

You should seek from within out, rather than from without in. Many feel that wisdom is like seeking a gold mine; it is something to be sought in secret places, unusual places. It is difficult to find it is true, but it is not beyond. it is within the grasp of every individual who will open his own consciousness. It is around him, within him, about him. He need not go out to receive it, it is within. He need not seek in far away hidden places, it is close at hand. For that reason he does not seek, it is so close, and yet mortals will spend months, years, lifetimes, seeking that which is so unimportant, and not realizing that they hold in the hollow of their hands the all-important truth. To learn to know yourself. If you know yourself, you will know all men, for while they are different outwardly, materially, individually, yet when you find in another something that rings true to you, you find it within yourself; it is within you or you could not recognize it in another. Remember, you cannot transcend your ideals or your understanding, and it is only that which is familiar to you that you could hope to understand in another, that which is unfamiliar, you do not understand. It baffles you, you are lost, you cannot see why in another there is something that you have never experienced yourself, something that does not dwell within you, as outward attributes, but the great fundamental truth is One and you will find even your smaller attributes of expression are very like many individuals the world over, when you can know them well enough to know they exist. When you can know another individual a little you will see the traits like your own, you will find a boy in China or any place in your universe is one and the same generally, individually it is different. It is true the nationality brings them up under different rule, but fundamentally you can see the great similarity. Therefore think of it! How much alike all mortals are and how you cannot separate yourself from another in truth, for all are part of the great universal God-head, but like a drop of ocean water helps to make up the ocean, so do you help to form the great Universal Spirit.

You could not be separated from it, you could not be released from it, you could not live without it. It is life. It exists, it has ever been and will continue on into eternity. Because of the laws of the universe, it is, and because it is, you are, and because the same law makes every individual born into the world alike, under the same laws governing the same act of correlation. It is true all over the universe you cannot be separated, you all are governed alike, you all live and breathe and have your being fundamentally the same. Without air, without food, without water, without certain elements upon your universe, upon your earth, you could not exist in the form that you now take, which has been created in thought. Therefore, remember that while you are in this body, you are functioning in one way. When you leave it, you function in another, and yet your consciousness always remains yours until you reach the place that you merge and become one with the great All-cosmic consciousness. It is when you begin to understand the symbols of life, which are only pictures that you see that there is no difference in individuals, underneath it all, fundamentally, in truth there is no difference, there is no separation.