ome unlooked-for disaster. The
ship's sails being slack denotes a falling off of afflatus or spiritual
influx, loss of trade, misfortune, delays and bad news, or if news
is expected it will not come to hand.

Black bread denotes a famine; spotted or mottled bread, a plague.
This symbol was seen in June 1896, with other symbols which
connected it with India, and there followed a great outbreak of
bubonic plague in that country. This symbol, however, was not
properly understood until the event came to throw light upon it.
The following note is from a seance which took place in India in
the spring of 1893: "A leaf of shamrock is seen. It denotes the
United Kingdom or the Triple Alliance. It is seen to split down
the centre with a black line. It symbolizes the breaking of a treaty.
Also that Ireland, whose symbol is the shamrock, will be
separated by an autonomous government from the existing
United Kingdom and will be divided into two factions."

In this way all symbols seen in the crystal or mirror may be
interpreted by reference to their known properties and uses, as
well as by the associations existing between them and other
things, persons and places, in the mind of the seer. Nor is it
always required that the scryer should understand symbology, for
as already said, the meanings of most of the symbols will be
conveyed to the consciousness of the seer at the time of their
appearance in the field. Experience will continually throw new
light upon the screen of thought, and a symbol once known will
assume a constant signification with each seer, so that in course
of time a language will be instituted by means of which constant
revelations will be made.

It will thus be obvious, I think, that symbolism is to a large extent
subject to a personal colouring, so that the same symbol may, by
different associations, convey a different meaning to various
seers. This may arise in part from the diversities of individual
experience, of temperament, and the order to which the soul
belongs in the spiritual world. These dissimilarities between
individuals may be noted from their highest intellectual
convictions down to the lowest of their sensations, and it is
difficult to account for it. We all have the same laws of thought
and the same general constitution. Humanity comprehends us all
within the bonds of a single nature. Yet despite these facts we are
divided by differences of opinion, of emotion, of sympathy, of
taste and facul