Symbols \u00b7 Four
The Eternal Circle \u2014 Consequences You Will Not See
A circle has no point to arrive at and no place to begin. It holds the Order's plainest claim: that a man's actions alter a future he will never be shown.
The Meaning
The World Before And After You
The world was in progress before you arrived and will continue after you leave. That is not a melancholy observation; it is the only useful context for a serious decision.
The circle says that a man is a component rather than a terminus. His actions propagate past him into conditions he will not witness — sometimes for good, sometimes not, and almost never with his name attached.
The Common Error
It Is Not Fate
A circle can be misread as inevitability — everything returns, nothing is chosen. The Order means the opposite.
The symbol's force comes from the fact that the future is genuinely undetermined and is being altered constantly by ordinary decisions. If the outcome were fixed there would be no reason to consider the symbol at all.
The Practice
What It Asks Of A Man
The circle is used to lengthen a man's sense of time, which is the scarcest quality in any decision-maker.
- Judge the decision by what it creates in ten years, not by what it returns this quarter.
- Assume you will not be present to correct it, and build accordingly.
- Accept that you will be judged by consequences you cannot control and did not foresee.
Questions
What Is Asked Of Us
What does the eternal circle symbol mean?
It signifies that a man's actions alter the future of the world beyond his own lifetime, whether or not he intends it or is credited for it. It is a symbol about consequence and time.
Is the circle a symbol of reincarnation or cycles of rebirth?
No. The Order attaches no doctrine of rebirth to it. The circle concerns the continuity of the world after a person, not the return of the person.
Why does a secret society use a circle?
For the same reason the word is used of a gathering: equals arranged around a centre rather than up a ladder. It has no beginning and no seat of rank, which is precisely why men who command all day find it useful.
The Doctrine In Full
The symbols are the Order's outward face. The tenets state its positions plainly, and they are the harder reading.