461. Thus, as we have seen here, "cosmic consciousness" constitutes a circuit. It has its latent stage, from where it increases towards culmination, and thence decreases again towards the latent stage and with this, its circuit, it forms the whole of the living being's experience of life.
      In this way, any form whatsoever of expanding consciousness within a being in reality provides a study of – or represents a relationship to – "cosmic consciousness". The eternal rhythm or movement of this consciousness from latency to culmination and forward again to a new latency and from there once more towards a new culmination and so on continuously, forms the basis of all beings' experience of life in the form of "spirals". A "spiral" actually consists only of a certain section of life-experience in which "cosmic consciousness" has traversed a single one of its circuits and has represented both its latency and its culmination in the existence of the living being. Consequently this existence is made up exclusively of these two states including the rising and falling stages in between.
      Every single living being will thus represent one or another of these stages which reveals the special position of his form of consciousness on the spiral – that is, on the complete cycle of "cosmic consciousness".
      All living beings without exception are, in reality, cosmic beings, eternal sons of God, and collectively constitute the Godhead itself, and when they appear so highly different – some as "angels", "saints" or "christs", and others as "criminals", "scoundrels" or "devils" – all this is due solely to the fact that they are attached to different stages in the circuit of "cosmic consciousness". Every single individual's particular manifestation or form of consciousness is a specific "figure" on that circuit's "dial". We can see by this where he stands, whether at "midday" or "midnight", in the "morning" or the "evening" hours on the dial of cosmic consciousness, that is to say, at its culmination or its latent stage, or in its intermediate increasing or decreasing stages. A spiral circuit is thus the very highest form in which beings can experience the principle of "day" and "night". Just as the ordinary "twenty-four hours" consists of day and night, which means daylight and darkness, so too the circuit, or spiral, of "cosmic consciousness" consists of a "light period" and a "dark" one. The "daylight" or "daytime" comprises those stages of cosmic consciousness which stretch from the culmination of the "divine kingdom" and through the "kingdom of bliss". This part of the living being's existence constitutes his cosmic "noontide hour".
      The stages of "cosmic consciousness" which stretch through the "plant kingdom" and on towards the culmination of the kingdom of "gravity" constitute the being's cosmic "afternoon" and "evening hour", while the stages of that same consciousness which stretch from the culmination of the kingdom of "gravity" (terrestrial man's existence) and through to the kingdom of "feeling" (the true human kingdom) constitute the cosmic "midnight state".
      The next stages of "cosmic consciousness" which follow on through the "kingdom of wisdom" and forward to the culmination of the "divine kingdom" constitute the living being's cosmic "early morning" and "mid-morning" hours.
      Just as a terrestrial day's "twenty-four hours" in reality correspond to the various seasons, then the cosmic "day" we have described here will also correspond in principle to all the times of year. Thus the "midday" region will correspond to summer, the afternoon and evening hours to autumn, while midnight and early morning regions correspond with the cosmic "winter" and "spring".
      Concerning the above, as is apparent from Symbol No. 10, terrestrial man thus finds himself in the winter and midnight zone of the spiral which, again, in itself constitutes the childhood stage of "cosmic consciousness". Consequently the spiral embodies a principle which divides the eternal existence of the living being into "cosmic days" and "nights", "winters" and "summers", and in this way itself constitutes a "cosmic year".