1591. In that part of the spiral cycle we call the "animal kingdom" the living being appears as either a "male being" or a "female being". As the ordinary terrestrial human being belongs to this zone in the spiral cycle, its appearance as a "male being" or "female being" will naturally prevail here too. For this reason we see that the being appears here as a "man" or a "woman". As long as a being can still sense only on the physical plane, and all spheres, zones or forms of existence beyond this plane are as yet pure fantasy for it, it will inevitably regard its sexual state as being universally applicable to all forms of life and on all planes of existence throughout the universe, even if some plant and insect forms are self-fertilising and thus reveal a sexuality or sexual state that differs from that of other beings on Earth. That is why most terrestrial human beings still labour under the superstition that the particular sexual life form of the "male being" and the "female being" is the absolutely only normal and perfect form of existence that actually exists. Indeed, they would be quite unable to understand that any other form of life might be possible or could in any way lead to joy and the desire to exist. And it is of course understandable that such a view has to prevail in a sphere or zone where the individual's entire faculty for physical sensory experience is based on a bodily structure, namely an animal organism, that is constructed exclusively as an instrument for creating joy in living through the "male state" and the "female state". A being can sense or perceive life only through its particular sensory organs, which together form the combination that we call its "organism" or "body". Do we not see that it is abnormal for a dog or another four-legged animal to walk upright on two legs, while this is quite normal for a human being? Does not a fish have to swim in water because its organism and hence its faculty for experiencing is organically based on doing so? And do not birds similarly fly through the air because of the organic structure of their organisms? But when a living being has an organism that is in actual fact based on the functions of the "masculine principle", it must likewise feel or experience and act in a "masculine way", just as a being must experience and act in a "feminine way", if its organism is based only on the functions of the "feminine principle". It is therefore a matter of course that a common sexual view therefore arises among all of these "masculine" and "feminine" beings, a view that recognises only a one hundred per cent "male being" and a corresponding one hundred per cent "female being" as sexually normal. And this view is naturally also the most correct one in these beings' sphere of consciousness. And as long as a man's mental attitude is one hundred per cent "masculine", and a woman's is one hundred per cent "feminine", these two beings are "man" and "woman" respectively in their pure forms. Such naturally cannot possibly sense forms of life or states of life that are based on quite a different sexual state or structure.