32.13  Star section no. 10
As we have already seen, all living beings experience life eternally. But what is the living being's main prerequisite for experiencing anything at all? It is true that it has sensory abilities, but that is certainly not enough to enable it to sense. Objects that are to be sensed must appear in such a way that they are defined. Something that is neither defined nor constitutes some degree of contrast to other things cannot possibly be sensed. But how can a thing be defined so that it can be sensed? It becomes defined by the existence of a contrast to it. It has to differ more or less from all other things around it. If it did not differ more or less from its surroundings, but was totally one with them, then it would be correspondingly absolutely invisible. The dissimilarity of things in relation to other things belongs to what we call the "principle of contrast". This principle is best known in the form of light and darkness. We see clearly the need for these two contrasts in a photograph. A photograph consists of light and darkness, the latter meaning shade. How could a photograph be visible if it did not consist of light and shade? Anyone who is familiar with photography will know that a photograph is more or less a failure to the extent that it is overexposed. When overexposed the shady parts become more or less light and melt into the light parts, the picture being thereby more or less obliterated. The same is true of a photograph that is underexposed. Here the light parts do not come out in the picture because of insufficient light during exposure. The light parts then become correspondingly more or less dark, melting into the shady parts, whereby the picture is correspondingly obliterated. An exact balance between the light and shaded part of a picture is thus needed in order for it to be totally perfect. This in turn means that in the picture the relationship between the light and the shady parts must be exactly the same as it is in the object that the picture is to depict. If this is not so the picture will be false and inartistic. But this is true not only of black and white pictures; it is equally true of colour photographs, paintings and other coloured pictures. They are all based on the principle of light and shade. But in colour pictures the light and shady parts appear as colours, which means that they appear in other supermicrocosmic vibrations or oscillations, but these too have to be mutually in balance if the picture that they form is to be totally perfect and bear the hallmark of artistic genius.
      For a thing to be sensed it must contrast more or less with its surroundings. This contrastive relation to its surroundings results in it being distinguished from these surroundings. It hereby becomes an object that can be sensed. But a sensory object can exist only as a "picture" or "image". If this picture is experienced by sight, it becomes a visual picture. And we "see" the picture appear as light and shade. If the sensory object is experienced through the sense of hearing it becomes a "sound picture". If it is experienced through the sense of smell it becomes a "smell picture". If it is experienced through the sense of taste it becomes a "taste picture", just as it becomes a "tactile picture" if it is experienced by the sense of touch. These pictures form the basis for the creation of the being's consciousness and mental state, its experience of life and manifestation. In order to be perfect every one of these sensory pictures must, like a photograph or a picture made up of light and shade, have in every detail a balance between evil and good. If a piece of music, which is a sound picture, lacks balance, which here means lacks harmony between the keys from which it is built up, then a corresponding degree of disharmony will arise and the piece will become correspondingly imperfect, just like the overexposed or underexposed photograph or coloured picture. As the living being not only experiences sensory images but also manifests or creates sensory images, which are in turn the same as its manifestations, there must be harmony or balance here too between the details that make up these manifestations. If it is not so, the manifestations will be imperfect. The collected manifestation or mode of existence of a being is also a picture. It also consists of light and shade. But here light is the same as love, while darkness is the same as hate. We call these two contrasts "good" and "evil" respectively. In the mode of existence of every human being these two contrasts are present. Failing this there would be no mode of existence. Without the two contrasts, a mode of existence could no more constitute a sensory picture or image than a photograph without light or shade could. In some people darkness is particularly dominating, which means that the faculty of humaneness or neighbourly love is still very insignificant. The being is still overwhelmingly dominated by the killing principle; it lives largely in war and strife; it lives on animal food, so promoting to a corresponding extent its own life by the death and destruction of others. It cannot be denied that such a picture of a mode of existence corresponds to an underexposed photograph. Just as the underexposed photograph is an unrealistic or derailed picture of the object of which it should be a photograph, because the shaded parts are exaggerated and thereby false, so is the sensory image of the unfinished human being's mode of existence a false or derailed picture of the absolutely, completely perfect mode of existence, because the dark contrast, the shaded parts or "the evil", is overdimensioned and thereby false.
      But just as a photograph can also be overexposed, whereby the light parts become too light and thereby false, so can the sensory image of the unfinished human being's mode of existence also have light parts that are too light and false, whereby the above-mentioned sensory image is of course also false in relation to the complete and absolutely perfect mode of existence. These disproportionately light parts manifest themselves as illogical displays of sympathy or so-called "foolish kindness". An example of illogical sympathy is that which renders certain parents incapable of having the heart to bring up or correct their children; they allow them unimpededly to misbehave in all sorts of ways that are detrimental to themselves and others. Illogical sympathy can also manifest itself as snobbery, which means pretended kindness towards persons ranking higher than oneself in order to ingratiate oneself with them so as to share their glory or fame, if any. Sheer amorous love between the two sexes is illogical sympathy too, even though, at a certain stage of God's creation of the human being, it must be considered natural. It differs from real divine light or love in that, while love is totally unselfish, amorous love is selfish. Love demands no reciprocation whatsoever, while amorous love demands reciprocation from the other party, the object of one's amorous love. This establishes as fact for the advanced researcher that the sympathy that one feels when in love cannot be the primary end result or purpose of God's creation of the human being in his image. To the same extent the fact is established that real divine light or love, which is unconditional sympathy for other living beings, is the only absolute light in a being's conduct that can turn it into a human being in God's image after his likeness.
      The principle of contrast is thus an absolutely essential condition for the living beings' experience and manifestation of life. We have seen here that it applies just as much to sensing or experiencing the picture of the beings' conduct or mode of existence as to an ordinary photograph or any other material picture. In order that something can be a sensory image, it must consist of varying degrees of contrasts or opposites. Experiencing life is therefore the same as experiencing combinations of contrasts. Each combination of contrasts thus constitutes a sensory image. The being's manifestation or expression of itself for other living beings takes place solely through sensory images formed by such contrasts. Its speech, its writing, indeed everything it can create, manifest or produce must, in order to be perceived by the senses, be a picture made up of contrasts, whereby it becomes a sensory image. So the manifestation and experience of life of living beings is promoted by their ability to create combinations of contrasts or sensory images. The greatest creative achievement of the beings is their conduct as a whole. It forms a sensory image in which all the being's manifestations or created phenomena are details. We have now seen that this image is subject to the law of contrast, which can also be termed the law of creation. This image, created by the being, can, like all other created images, have exaggerated, and thereby unrealistic, light parts as well as far too exaggerated dark parts, which make the picture imperfect. But we have seen too that when the law of contrast is complied with because harmony and balance exist between the contrasts of the details in a picture, the totally, one hundred percent perfect picture emerges, that is, the pinnacle or the highest expression of genius a picture can show. And this pinnacle or highest expression of genius is the aim for the creation and perfecting of the living being's conduct or mode of existence. Unless a being's conduct does not constitute such a sensory image, it is an unfinished being and cannot possibly be God's image after his likeness.
      But how can a being's conduct become so perfect that it can constitute such a picture? We have mentioned previously that Nature's processes of creation are totally perfect when they reach their ultimate result or finished stage. Since all living beings – plants, animals and terrestrial human beings alike – are evolving and are on their way from primitivity to intellectuality, from inhumaneness to humaneness, at the same time as every existing experience they gain or are capable of gaining will inevitably help this evolution, then it is here too established as fact that the living beings are growing towards greater and greater perfection in order ultimately to reach the final result of this growth, namely, being totally a joy and a blessing for living beings, a mode of existence that is the same as God's. This mode of existence turns the human being into God's image after his likeness. In order to be a perfect or finished human being, every living being must undergo an epoch of life experience in the planes of existence or spheres of darkness or so-called "evil" in order, through the garnering of experience, here to become an expert at knowing what is evil and what is good. Only with this knowledge is the being capable of creating or manifesting goodness, light or love alone, so becoming an expert at the totally perfect way of being and a being in God's image after his likeness.
      As long as the living being does not know the difference between good and evil it cannot avoid making erroneous manifestations, which means manifestations that can result only in sufferings, wars, darkness or unrest. As the being gradually experiences the effects of its erroneous manifestations and the knowledge that ensues from these, it will be increasingly capable of behaving correctly and thereby of avoiding erroneous manifestations, whereby its way of being will become increasingly perfect. It changes. This change can be expressed as a movement from darkness to light. But this movement does not end when the being has reached the light. The experience of life, it will be remembered, is an eternal function that is maintained by the great, cosmic principle of "hunger and satiation". This principle applies not only to daily food and drink; it applies no less to the being's mind and psyche. Hunger is here the same as desires and wishes. The object of these are the spheres of interest that one wants to pursue. It could be things that one wants to possess; it could be lessons in music, languages or any other subject and so on. Like physical hunger for food and drink, this mental hunger can also be satiated. If one sees a film that moves one so deeply that one wants to see it again, and perhaps even twice more, one will gradually be satiated and lose interest in seeing it again – at least for the time being. The same is true of any spheres of interest that one pursues. They lead to satiation. And then the being seeks satiation in new spheres of interest and experiences of life. The principle of hunger and satiation also applies to the totally perfect human being in God's image. This being, however, has long since become totally satiated by the dark or "evil" spheres of interest. It has, of course, acquired the very highest knowledge of what is evil and what is good, at the same time as it has acquired a habit of not being able to do "evil". Through its experience of life in the kingdoms of light, that is the spiritual worlds, it now enjoys the very highest kind of satisfaction of the hunger for love in all its divine and radiant aspects. But here too thorough satiation sets in. And the being now hungers to the same degree for the opposite of light, namely darkness. As this satiation gradually proceeds, the being's ability to experience life on the outer plane of light gradually degenerates. After this it can experience only its own inner world, which means, its sphere of memory or recollection. But here this faculty is at the very height of its development. Since the being now begins to hunger for the sphere of darkness, its developed memory can now give it the first enjoyment of darkness through its memories of the dark manifestations and experiences of its physical life. Since these memories are experienced here as feelings of bliss, we have called this sphere of memory "the kingdom of bliss". From here the desire for the dark spheres of the physical plane will lead the being on in evolution to the mineral sphere of the physical plane, to its plant kingdom and further on to the animal kingdom in which, as an unfinished human being, it will culminate as a being of darkness or the antithesis of the ultimate being of light, that is the human being in God's image after his likeness. And here it once again becomes satiated by experiences of darkness, which give rise to hunger for light and love. By virtue of this hunger it gradually evolves out of the sphere of darkness into the kingdoms of light, where it once more becomes satiated with light and again hungers for darkness, and so on for all eternity. "Cycles" is the term we have given to the living beings' passage through the spheres or kingdoms of darkness and light, a passage that consists of the experience and manifestation of life. After having completed a cycle, that is, one single passage through the spheres or kingdoms of darkness and light, the being does not, however, repeat this cycle exactly, but passes into a cycle that is a new variation of the experience of spheres of light and darkness. The being's eternal experience and manifestation of life is therefore termed a "spiral cycle". The eternal renewal of the being's ability to experience and manifest life is maintained by the eternally alternating passage of the beings through life's experiences and manifestations in the sphere of light and the sphere of darkness, a passage that is dependent on their level of hunger and satiation. Without the contrasts of darkness and light, and without the spiral cycle there would be no creation of consciousness, no manifestation or experience of life whatsoever and no eternal life whatsoever.
      In star section no. 10 we see a triangle. As usual it symbolises the living being. The rest of the figure symbolises the eternal, cosmic spiral cycle, which is thus the eternal passage of the living being through life.