1543. In the symbol there are two thick, vertical lines, one on the left and one on the right. Between these two lines a spiral cycle is symbolised. At the bottom of the symbol we see six steps, each with its own colour. We know from previous symbols that these steps symbolise the spiral's six kingdoms: the kingdoms of instinct, gravity, feeling, intelligence, intuition and memory. In the symbol we can clearly see that this cycle or section is merely a continuation of a previous cycle beyond the line on the left, just as it continues into a new cycle beyond the line on the right. In the uppermost section we have the main analysis of the spiral cycle, the two great contrasts, "light" and "darkness", which in turn are the same as "life" and "death". The dark section, which culminates on the second step (the orange-coloured one) of the cycle, is "cosmic death", which thus means, the "death" that was to be the consequence of "eating of the tree of knowledge" and the "curse" that, for the same reason, was to envelop the Earth. It is the sphere of pain and suffering or the zone or form of existence that is also expressed as "hell". Since the beings here are "cosmically unconscious", which means that they have lost their ability to experience "that which is eternal" and can therefore experience only "that which is temporal", they believe that everything is "temporal"; indeed, even their own I is perceived as a mere lump of perishable matter that has come into existence through the interplay of chance forces. It is this ignorance on the part of the beings of their immortal I and their identity with eternity that is their "cosmic death". No other death than this loss of "cosmic consciousness" exists. Death in the absolute sense, which means, complete annihilation or cessation of being, occurs only as an imaginary opposite to life, not as a realistic or concrete reality. The existing "cosmic death" is thus merely a reduction of the experience of life from the "eternal" to the "temporal". "Cosmic death" is thus the experience of life in a latent form or at its lowest stage. It is the night aspect of the experience of life, which can also be expressed as the winter sphere of the experience of life. Here the icy storms of the cosmic winter or the killing principle rage over beings and things. And thus the beings here are excluded from being able to experience the "eternal". They must judge everything on the basis of the "temporal". All their judgements are therefore based exclusively on "temporal" perspectives and not on the mission and place of the beings in that which is "eternal". Consequently they do not see the true answers to things. They see only the purely "temporal" or local effects and have no inkling of the divine significance of these effects in the harmony and perfection of the "eternal" or the whole. Since they thus see or experience only the painful effects or the feelings of unpleasantness, but are cut off from seeing the indispensability of these effects in their own process of awakening from the "temporal" to the "eternal", they perceive all forms of unpleasantness or the entire zone of darkness as a "curse". They thus still cannot see that the identity of these effects is light or divine love, which is the universe's eternal foundation of life. The illusion thus consists in the beings, as previously mentioned, seeing life as nothing but a "curse". It is impossible for the being to get any further away from reality, from the Godhead or from real life. Here is the turning point. It was here that the "prodigal son" began to discover the imperfection of his life, and began to long to become merely one of his father's hired servants. It is here that the "prodigal son" changes course and returns to his father, returns from "death" to "life". And it is here that we find the terrestrial human being.