and graphic form
the truth which otherwise would escape them. Every Sacrament, when it is
studied, should be taken first from this standpoint, that it is a
pictorial allegory; the essential things to be studied will therefore
be: the material objects which enter into the allegory, the method in
which they are employed, and the meaning which the whole is intended to
convey.

The second characteristic property of a Sacrament belongs to the facts
of the invisible worlds, and is studied by occult science. The person
who officiates in the Sacrament should possess this knowledge, as much,
though not all, of the operative power of the Sacrament depends on the
knowledge of the officiator. A Sacrament links the material world with
the subtle and invisible regions to which that world is related; it is a
link between the visible and the invisible. And it is not only a link
between this world and other worlds, but it is also a method by which
the energies of the invisible world are transmuted into action in the
physical; an actual method of changing energies of one kind into
energies of another, as literally as in the galvanic cell chemical
energies are changed into electrical. The essence of all energies is one
and the same, whether in the visible or invisible worlds; but the
energies differ according to the grades of matter through which they
manifest. A Sacrament serves as a kind of crucible in which spiritual
alchemy takes place. An energy placed in this crucible and subjected to
certain manipulations comes forth different in expression. Thus an
energy of a subtle kind, belonging to one of the higher regions of the
universe, may be brought into direct relation with people living in the
physical world, and may be made to affect them in the physical world as
well as in its own realm; the Sacrament forms the last bridge from the
invisible to the visible, and enables the energies to be directly
applied to those who fulfil the necessary conditions and who take part
in the Sacrament.

The Sacraments of the Christian Church lost much of their dignity and of
the recognition of their occult power among those who separated from the
Roman Catholic Church at the time of the "Reformation." The previous
separation between the East and the West, leaving the Greek Orthodox
Church on the one side and the Roman Church on the other, in no way
affected belief in the Sacraments. They remained in both great
communities as the recognised links bet