246. All living beings evolve from a lesser to a more complete state and this is expressed in the symbol by the large, tapering horizontal figure. This figure is divided by vertical lines into sections, each one representing a living being. These sections in the symbol are shown so that from left to right they appear in dimensions of increasing size, expressing evolution from lesser to greater forms of existence. Far to the left we see an area where the section's lowest part is coloured indigo. This area shows the living beings who are the source of the energies or forms of manifestation which are collectively sensed by terrestrial mankind as "matter" or "substance" and which constitute what we call the "mineral kingdom". Next we see an area of the tapering figure where the lowest parts of the sections are coloured red. This area shows the living beings who are the source of the energies or manifestations which are known collectively as the "plant kingdom". While mankind does not yet to any degree sense the living beings behind the mineral energies, there is a strongly rising measure of acquaintance with each plant being's identity as part of life. From the present chapter we already know that for terrestrial mankind, the visible part of the plant being (that is, on the physical plane) is in reality only its subconscious or the embryo for the physical body, while the plant's day-consciousness is on the spiritual plane and is supported by the body of instinct; in other words the body for the first basic energy in the spiral which is instinct energy. Thus the plant kingdom is termed the "kingdom of instinct". But gradually as the instinct being's subconscious - which means the plant body visible to physical sight - develops enough to be able to bear consciousness, it appears as "animal" and represents thus a new plane of existence or a new kingdom. This kingdom, which is actually the animal kingdom, is illustrated on the symbol by the area of vertical sections where the lowest part is orange-coloured. While the plant being, on account of its physical body's unfinished state, cannot experience consciously any kind of physical influence whatsoever as fact, but can experience it only in the form of a "pleasant or unpleasant vague sensing", the first beings in the animal kingdom begin to experience those influences as actual fact but naturally only in a form of "undefined pleasant or unpleasant experiences", for they have not yet had their physical senses fundamentally developed. The more advanced beings in the animal kingdom can, on account of their physical senses such as sight, smell, taste and hearing, experience pleasant and unpleasant feelings at a more defined stage, which means in the form of images of sight, of smell, of taste and of hearing.
      As conditions of life in the animal kingdom represent the killing principle, by which the flesh and blood of living beings is taken as food or nourishment for other living beings, it leads to the strongest release of feelings of horror and fear. This rigorous kind of existence brings to life primitive spiritual tendencies in the animal in the form of a steadily increasing desire for deliverance and preservation from destruction by fellow beings pursuing them in their hunger for flesh and blood. As mentioned before, the first feeble outburst of these tendencies comes in the form of a cry of terror which actually constitutes the first form of a prayer to Providence for deliverance. By slow degrees the creature becomes conscious of these spiritual tendencies and therefrom arises the religious principle. But as the religious principle is synonymous with the beginning of "humane tendencies", the animal is no longer animal in pure essence but due to those dawning tendencies of the religious principle it now constitutes a transition being between an animal and a human creature. In these transition beings we recognise terrestrial people. As already mentioned, these creatures are animals on account of the tendency - still not yet overcome - to be conditioned by the killing principle, and human beings on the basis of religious tendencies, the latter eventually completely undermining the tendency towards the former. On the symbol the beginning of terrestrial mankind's appearance is marked by the vertical white line. To the right of this we see the evolutionary zone of terrestrial mankind, while those beings we generally call animals have their area of evolution in that part of the tapering figure which stretches from the plant kingdom up to the white line.