35.7  Why the consciousness and the organism become old and frail
As we see from the pole principles' figures at the top of the symbol, the primary state of the beings is really double-poled, since the one-poled sphere, as shown on the symbol, constitutes merely a sixth of the entire cosmic spiral cycle. The one-poled state exists only in order that darkness can be created. It is not created in order to be the completed state of consciousness, but in order that the being, through this one-poled state, can develop so as to understand what is good and what is evil, and thereby attain the consciousness that is God's image after his likeness, a state of consciousness that is in absolute, total harmony with God's primary consciousness. The one-poled state, and thereby the creation of darkness, is, so to speak, merely a brief process of renewal of the being's ability to experience life and to manifest. The cosmic state of consciousness, it must be remembered, is something that is created. It is not an eternally unchangeable something, like the being's I. If it were, it could not possibly be consciousness. If consciousness were not a changeable thing, no living being would exist in the universe, indeed no universe would exist at all. Consciousness is the same as the experience and creation of manifestation. But this in turn means movement, change and juggling with matter. The result of this is thus the living being's experience of life and its manifestation or creation. Consciousness is thus a product of creation. But a product of creation can exist only within the dimensions of time and space. This in turn means that it can exist only in time and space, not in infinity and eternity. Any created thing is therefore completely subject to a beginning and an end. And for this reason a cosmic consciousness, as we have elucidated in previous analyses, will also be transitory. We see that the same is the case with a being's physical consciousness. It too is created, grows towards a culmination and then degenerates. And we express this degenerated state of consciousness as old age. Do we not see a more or less degenerated consciousness in the very old, in 95-year-old or 100-year-old people? Why is the consciousness of these people so degenerated that they can be almost like children? Where is the lucid, physical consciousness that they had in their youth and mature years? Why does their organism become old and frail too, and the being correspondingly helpless? Here the law for created things has come into play. Absolutely no one can create anything that is permanent or unfailingly eternal. All creation thus comes under the laws governing the dimensions of time and space, because no creation can exist without being subject to change, and being thereby bound to limitation in space and time.
      Since the beings' cosmic consciousness is subject to having a beginning and an end and is thus transitory, the being's cosmic consciousness must be recreated. And this process of creation takes place through the being's passage from the kingdom of bliss, through the mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom, to the animal kingdom. In this kingdom it experiences therefore this darkness or the contrast to the light or cosmic consciousness, without which this state of consciousness could not possibly be attained. When the being has reached this cosmic consciousness, which can be borne only by its double-poled state, it has therefore reached the state that is its primary, cosmic life. In this life it is therefore absolutely fully developed and "one with God". Here it has become the finished "human being in God's image after his likeness". So with this renewal of consciousness, the being's eternal I can for all eternity, with only these short interruptions in the domain of the one-poled state or darkness, continue to renew its cosmic consciousness, and so maintain it through an infinite chain of higher and higher spiral cycles. Imagine what a divine existence is thus bestowed on the living being in the microcosmos and macrocosmos as well as in the mesocosmos! In truth, the keynote of the universe is love.