Tertium Organum

reality of the difference
in the 
noumenal world between objects which are similar in our world but which have 
different functions. 
However, if we want to approach to an understanding of the noumenal world, we 
must strive with all our might to 
notice
all those apparent, 'subjective' differences 
between objects, which occasionally strike us and which sometimes we feel so 
painfully clearly,
those differences which are expressed in the imagery of art and which 
give glimpses of the world of realities. These differences 
are
the realities of the 
noumenal world, much more real than all the 
maya of
our phenomena. 
We should strive to notice these realities and develop in ourselves the capacity to 
sense them, because it is precisely in this way (and only in this way) that we enter into 
communion with the noumenal world or the 
world of causes. 
I find a very interesting example of the understanding of the 
hidden 
meaning of 
phenomena in the book 
The Occult World 
contained in the letter of a Hindu occultist to 
the author of the book, A. P. Sinnett: 
We
see a vast difference [he writes] between the two qualities of two equal amounts 
of energy expended by two men, one of whom, let us suppose on 
his way
to his daily 
quiet work, and another 
on his way to 
denounce a fellow-creature at the police 
station, while the men of science see none; and 
we -
not they - see a specific 
difference between the energy in the 
motion of the wind 
and that of a 
revolving 
wheel. . . . 
Every thought of man upon being evolved passes into the inner world, and 
becomes an 
active entity 
by associating itself, coalescing we might term it, with an 
elemental - that is to say, with one of the semi-intelligent forces of the kingdoms.* 
* A. P. Sinnett, 
The Occult World,
London and New York, Theosophical Society, 
reprinted 1906. 

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If, for the moment, we leave aside the last pan of this quotation and take 
only the first part, we shall see that, certainly, the 'man of science' does not 
admit the difference in the quality of energy expended by two men walking ­
one to his work and the other to denounce someone. For science this 
difference is not discernible. Science does not feel it and does not recognize 
it. But perhaps in an actual fact this difference is even deeper and consists not 
only in the difference between kinds of energy but in the difference between 
the 
men,
one of whom may develop energy of one kind and another energy of 
another kind. And we possess a 
form of perception
which senses this 
difference perfectly, understands it and knows it. I am speaking of art. A 
musician, a painter, a sculptor understand perfectly that it is 
possible
to walk 
differently; more than that, that it is 
impossible
to walk in the same way. A 
workman and an informer 
walk 
differently. 
The best person to understand this, at least he should best understand it, is 
an 
actor. 
A poet understands that the mast of a ship, a gallows and a cross 
are made 
of different wood. 
He understands the difference between a stone from the 
wall of a church and a stone from the wall of a prison. He hears* the voices 
of stones', understands the language of ancient walls, of burial mounds, of 
ruins, rivers, woods and plains. He hears