This article considers the ways in which seemingly unrelated animals and ideas are connected in the views and magic of the Oglala Sioux. Their attention to such things as whirlwind, cocoons and bison factor into their use of magic and protective powers by the association understood to be between them. Just as the cocoon is a protective covering for the caterpillar as it is gradually receiving the power of wind and flight, so the Oglala use the power of whirlwind to inflict confusion on their enemies for the sake of obtaining victory. Joseph Epes Brown examines the symbolism of several animals, such as the elk and spider, and includes some illustrations taken from traditional Oglala drawings. He concludes with the observation that the linking of everyday creatures and phenomena with supernatural realities account for the strong sense of the sacred that is a central characteristic of traditional Indian lifeways.

Leo Schaya was perhaps the most masterful interpreter of Jewish esoterism in the light of perennialist wisdom. In this essay, Schaya offers many keys to understanding the function of the prophet Elijah (or Elias) within Jewish mystical tradition, but then Schaya expands this, still using traditional Jewish sources, to encompass a universal function for Elijah. This mysterious prophet seems to have a function that should apply to all traditional peoples, namely reinvigorating the esoteric dimensions within their respective traditions in times of need. These times of need are particularly acute as the world lurches through its modern paroxysms toward the end of this cycle of time.

The Shield of Achilles was god-fashioned for a god-man in the dawn of the age of Iron. It symbolizes, just as Achilles himself personifies, a reversal of the "downward drift of history to degeneration," a remnant of an earlier, primodial state of purity and integral wholeness. The hero and his shield show us material and man caught between two ages and natures: "It was as though for a moment the river of time flowed back on itself in brief eddies, caught up in memories of its source."

Lord Northbourne discusses extensively the various symbolic meanings of the cross, explaining how it simultaneously represents several aspects of Christian doctrine and philosophia perennis. Each of these corresponds to a unique perspective from which the symbol can be approached. Northbourne also expounds upon the necessity to present the cross under certain conditions if its symbolic intergrity is to be maintained and observes how these conditions have sometimes been forsaken in the name of aesthetic value.

It is often believed that the mythology of "primitive" peoples represents nothing more than an early effort to explain the universe rationally and is meant to be taken literally. Therefore, attention is shifted away from myth in favor of more highly developed forms of scientific investigation. This understanding, which assumes in modern man an evolutionary superiority, overlooks the symbolic message contained within the myths of such cultures. A similar form of rationalistic attack is often conducted against religious doctrine, and has contributed to such the virtual dissapearance of the metaphysicial and intellectual heritage within Christianity. Gai Eaton discusses these and other instances in which failure to comprehend the depth of a spiritual reality leads to its dismissal as irrelevant or absurd.