ESOTERISM AND SYMBOL initiates the reader into the tone, structure, and mentality of ancient Egyptian knowledge, the wellspring of all Western theology and science. Schwaller de Lubicz makes the distinction between two kinds of human intelligence, one cerebral, the other innate. The symbol is a conventional representation of cerebral intelligence. The hieroglyph, on the other hand, is a direct, non-conventional form of writing with the unique ability to transcribe the innate `intelligence-of-the-heart.` This intelligence is independent of the senses and belongs to the vast totality called life. To the ancient Egyptians it is the intelligence-of-the-heart which allows man to move toward the divine. All esoteric teaching is addressed to this intelligence. `Spirit is found only with spirit,` and esoterism is the spiritual aspect of the world, inaccessible to cerebral intelligence. It can be neither written nor spoken, nor consequently betrayed. It has nothing in common with deliberate concealment of truth. However, the preparation needed to grasp it is not a matter of learned knowledge, but of intuitive capacity. ESOTERISM AND SYMBOL explores the `process of becom- ing` as it relates to consciousness and is revealed in all of nature; the relationship of `apparent life` and the life behind appearances; the kinship between man and the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms; the mystery of the formation of substance into matter; myth, Kabbalah, and the stages of awareness leading to `Cosmic Consciousness.` De Lubicz shows us that esoterism is not a `particular mean- ing hidden in a text` but a `fusion` between the vital state of the reader and the vital state of the author. This fusion evokes the intelligence of the heart, our guide to the path of self-knowledge.