640. In Symbol no. 10 I have shown the principle of the cycle in such a way that the reader can have the opportunity to see how his own life with all its details constitutes nothing other than just such a cycle.
      The largest cycle I would like to draw attention to here is that which comprises the domain of the six basic energies. Of these, the terrestrial human being is in direct, physical contact with three, namely those we call the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom. With a more exacting intellectual scrutiny of these three kingdoms of consciousness the advanced researcher cannot avoid seeing that the life forms in these domains represent a gradually rising state of development or creation. Thus, the beings in the zones in question are shown to constitute, in a logical sequence, a rising scale of perfection of consciousness. The most primitive life forms thus appear in the mineral kingdom. Indeed, to the ordinary purely materialistically minded researcher they are so primitive here that they cannot even be accepted as manifestations of life, but are simply categorised as "movements" or "energy".
      Next represented on the scale are the life forms of plants. Here life is already so far advanced that it can begin to be observed and recognised as life by ordinary, present-day, material science.
      The animal life forms, that is to say, animals and terrestrial human beings, are regarded by that same science, to an even greater extent, as expressions of life and consciousness. Since these beings appear on a gradually rising scale of perfection in their manifestation of consciousness, it becomes clear that they reveal in reality a kind of growth. We can observe the various steps of this entire growth. These steps are naturally most visible at the level of terrestrial human beings. One is therefore forced to concede that there is no human being who can justifiably claim to be the most developed or the cleverest in existence, just as on this same level there of course exists no being that can justifiably be described as the least clever. Every being thus finds itself on a step on a scale stretching from primitiveness to intellectuality. It cannot be disputed that beings are on a journey, that is to say, are evolving from primitiveness to intellectuality. A being cannot exist without living through experiences. And as living through experiences can exist only as an enrichment of consciousness, and as this is the same as evolution, it then becomes evident that no being can exist without journeying up the steps on that scale. This "journey" or "movement" will therefore have the effect that the animals, once they have acquired sufficient experiences, will reach the level of terrestrial human beings. That this takes millions of years in time and thousands of rebirths or terrestrial lives does not alter the principle.
      This "movement" upwards through the steps represented by the beings of these three zones constitutes that part of the cycle that is accessible to the physical senses. That the "movement" continues upwards through the levels of plants, animals and terrestrial human beings towards even much higher kinds of states of experience is substantiated by the fact that the steps of these three zones cannot complete the cycle. A cycle consists of the culmination of two contrasts.