For instance,consider involution and evolution. To the average mind, the former word conveys little or no meaning, and the latter is applied only to the physical body. But in esoteric philosophy involution describes the flight or journey of the Virgin Spirit through revolutions, periods, epochs, and aeons of time until at last it reached the Earth as we now know it and became enmeshed in the physical body. The Spirit, having reached the nadir of materiality, then began the upward and return journey. We are now upon the ascending arc, the evolutionary stage, and shall by a gradually accelerating process, reach our zenith at last, having then the added knowledge, experience, and power which we shall have acquired during this long, long journey.
Words are sacred, and many have a spiritual as well as a literal meaning.
Small and seemingly insignificant pairs of opposites, such as up and down, to and fro, back and forth, high and low, far and near, ebb and flow, all typify in their esoteric or spiritual meaning the involution and evolution of the spirit, or man's gradual unfoldment from a trance-like state to the stature of a god. For a moment, let us consider health and disease. Health we regard as one of the greatest blessings, and illness as a calamity. But in sickness, how frequently the soul of the sufferer advances by leaps and bounds. Experiences are then gained on the higher planes which influence all the remainder of life and teach as no earthly experience could.