The symbol-introductions below have not been written by Martinus, but are based on his explanations in his books:
Martinus' own and complete explanations can be found in the books named: ”The Eternal Worldpicture” Vol. 1-4 and other parts of the Third Testament.
Click symbols to enlarge them:
The spirit of God upon the face of the waters
– Symbol No. 1
The living, thinking universe
The universe is an eternal, living, allencompassing organism that, through religion, we have come to know under the concept of “God”. God’s organism – like our own organism – is enlivened by consciousness.
This consciousness – God’s spirit – permeates the universe with its all-encompassing knowledge and almightiness. In the Bible, spirit is symbolised as wind and matter as water. The wind moves the waters. There is consciousness behind all Nature’s creative processes.
In the symbol we see a cross of flames symbolising the eternal Godhead’s perfect manifestation and creation. The sea of radiance symbolises the cosmic world impulses or thought impulses, some darker some lighter in character, through which the all-knowing and almighty God releases and maintains the various states of experience and the various planes of existence for the living beings, each one on its own individual evolutionary step.
Religion, politics, science, architecture, art and other cultural factors that contribute to the creation of society arise out of these world impulses.
The circles symbolise a section of the suns or planets of the universe, whether large or small, and the consciousness of their correspondingly large or small inhabitants. The circles can therefore symbolise “large” macrocosmic societies as well as “small” microcosmic worlds. (They are only “large” or “small” seen from our physical sensory perspective – see symbol 7). The double circle shows our globe and its peoples. (But The symbol can also be seen from a micro- as well as a macrocosmic perspective.) You can see that it is in contact with three world impulses. The one furthest down is disappearing; it symbolises the consciousness and cultural manifestations of primitive human beings. The field in the middle symbolises the old world impulse. It forms the basis of the world religions such as, for example, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. It has offered spiritual nourishment to people who are at the stage of being believers as well as having nourished all the cultural phenomena of the people during that period. The lighter field at the top of the circle symbolises the new world impulse of which schools, research and materialism are the first signs. Materialistic research will eventually unite with the great truths hidden within the religious mysticism of the world.
The message of neighbourly love is now being made scientific, and on the foundation of this spiritual science the new world culture will be built. A kingdom of peace and love is now about to be born on Earth.
The principle of world redemption
– Symbol No. 2
The spiritual parent-principle
The offspring of human beings and the more highly developed animals are normally lovingly cared for and brought up by their parents until they can look after themselves. A similar care also applies to spiritually immature beings and it influences the way they are guided through their earthly lives from animal to finished human being. Individuals that are ahead of us in evolution function as our teachers until we can look after ourselves. Moses is an example of a firm teacher, whose commandments or laws were intended to curb the worst barbaric anarchy.
In The Third Testament the highest moral teachers are referred to as “world redeemers”. Jesus is an example of one. The principle of retaliation or the Law of Moses: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” has been superseded by Jesus’ opposite attitude: “love thy neighbour”. With The Third Testament the words and deeds of Jesus have received logical interpretations which everyone can check for themselves through experience.
The step figure symbolises humankind’s evolution from animal to human being, and the rays symbolise humankind being led up the series of steps stimulated by the cosmic parent principle (the higher spiritually evolved beings and religions that guide us). The orange field shows the animal kingdom and the yellow field the kingdom of the perfected human being. The two lowest steps symbolise the heathen religions that stimulate the principle of retaliation and the sacrificing of humans and animals. The next step, lit up by yellow rays, symbolises the more humane world religions, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The three rays are symbols of the many world religions, not just the three that have been mentioned. The uppermost steps are white, symbolising the fact that the religions of faith is replaced by spiritual science, whose purpose it is to explain the mystery of life to all the people of the Earth.
The white star symbolises the Godhead that, by means of the various religious ideals and ways in which religion is portrayed on the various evolutionary steps, leads living beings onwards and upwards towards the perfect human kingdom.
Intolerance
– Symbol No. 3
The real cause of all wars and conflicts
Intolerance is an obstacle preventing the experience of God’s light and love and is the cause of all forms of war. It results in the world still not being characterised by peace, joy and blessing for all and everyone. If one looks upon one’s neighbour as an enemy, one will never experience real peace of mind. The only way to defeat one’s enemy is with love and forgiveness. Fighting the outer enemy results in the development of a greater number of more refined murder weapons and lethal ways of thinking. The lethal ways of thinking do in fact sabotage God’s unbounded love – the keynote of the universe.
On the evolutionary road from animal to human being, we meet fellow beings on various steps. There are those that are ahead of us in evolution, those that are behind us and those that are on the same step. The various consciousnesses belong to different evolutionary steps like children in different classes of a school. We do not expect the same degree of proficiency of a child in the first class as we do of a child in the final class. Most people can accept that small children sometimes behave in an immature way.
All of us (just like children) have to gather experience before we can use it. When we understand that the root of all evil is merely ignorance – not maliciousness – it becomes easier to forgive. Forgiveness is the way to cosmic consciousness; it is this attitude towards evil actions that leads the way straight out of ignorance and suffering. As the ability to forgive develops, all wars and unhappy fates will disappear from the Earth and the animal will be transformed into a human being.
The cross of flames on the left symbolises God’s all-penetrating and perfect consciousness that maintains the whole universe. It is this all-loving consciousness that all intolerance is in conflict with and hereby cuts itself off from, resulting in the multiplicity of unhappy fates.
Christ was morally sovereign. On the cross he gave expression to his perfect ability to be tolerant, when he forgave his executioners with the prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”.
The two stars show two beings, or two groups of beings or nations, at war with one another. The beings’ lack of agreement is symbolised by the orange rays that are in conflict and are shortcircuiting each other. The two rays can be, for example, adherents of different religious views of the way towards the light.
Intolerance and the wars that are its inevitable result (the world in flames in the symbol) prevent, as is shown by the symbol, God’s infinite love (the sea of light emanating from the cross of flames) from spreading out over the Earth.
The road towards the light
– Symbol No. 4
The evolution of cosmic consciousness
The symbol shows the cosmic road that all living beings are travelling from lesser to more evolved forms of existence. In the symbol one can see, indicated by the light indigo colour on the left, “the kingdom of bliss”. It is the last part of this kingdom that we are able to observe on the physical plane as the mineral kingdom.
Next, with the red colour, comes “the plant kingdom”, with the orange colour, “the animal kingdom” and with the yellow colour, “the kingdom of the perfect human being” of the future. The vertical line in the middle of the animal kingdom divides the pure animal kingdom from the sphere of the unfinished terrestrial human beings. Each of the three-part vertical segments symbolises
a living being. The segments which are increasing in size thus symbolise the multitude of incarnations that any one being lives through on this road. The number shown is purely symbolic. For example, there are hundreds of incarnations for ape-like organisms.
The white field at the top symbolises the I or “X1”. The violet field symbolises the being’s eternal cosmic structure, “X2”, that together with the I forms its super consciousness. The coloured field symbolises the created physical organism and consciousness, “X3”. The orange star with the green and yellowy-green rays symbolises, with the green ray, the research undertaken by natural science into that part of life that can be observed with the physical senses, and with the yellowy-green ray, philosophy that brings about an ongoing movement inwards towards what is spiritual – without certainty of knowledge. The yellow ray at the top symbolises the religious principle that leads human beings from faith and irreligiousness on to a personal experience of cosmic consciousness, marked by the five-pointed star. In its position above, the religious principle relates to the eternal and spiritual part of the human beings’ identity. Myths and symbols from terrestrial human beings’ religious past thus conceal undiscovered real cosmic truths.
The position of the Earth in the symbol relates to mankind’s evolutionary step at the end of the animal kingdom. In the little symbol at the bottom the sun symbolises the cosmically conscious being and its sensory capacity, which encompasses both the eternal and the created or temporal part of the universe. The lowest small triangle symbolises the unfinished human being and its extremely limited sensory capacity (see next symbol).
Cosmic unconsciousness
– Symbol No. 5
Having no knowledge of oneself
Whereas the atheist does not assume the existence of God and believes life to be identical to the physical body, the religious person lives in the hope of a continuing existence after “death”. Both parties are believers. The only thing that they know with any certainty is that the physical organism will perish. What they do not know is that the physical organism is merely a tool for the immaterial, eternal I.
Terrestrial human beings live alternately in a physical and a spiritual world. Following each transition to the spiritual world we are welcomed by those of our nearest and dearest who have passed over before us into the holiday paradise, which is where we all will live until we are ready to incarnate again. The birth into the spiritual world will become more and more of a celebration of happiness and light. The word “death” will become a concept belonging to the past.
The question mark in the symbol illustrates the present-day terrestrial human beings’ total ignorance with respect to their true nature, including where they have come from, their present situation and what lies ahead. The patchy, coloured areas symbolise the various basic energies or energies of consciousness, which human beings have some knowledge of without knowing
anything about how they are organised according to laws (see symbol 6). The orange circle shows the temporary physical body that terrestrial human beings are familiar with.
The cross symbolises the eternal I and its higher cosmic structure and functions. The cross is also the symbol of light, universal love and eternal life.
The living being I
– Symbol No. 6
We are all immortal
The eternal nature of the Godhead and all living beings is described here as a triune principle: an I –“X1” (shown by the white field at the top), the super consciousness and the I’s ability to create and experience – “X2”, and the body that the I has created, which is a tool enabling it to create and experience – “X3”(shown by the lowermost field).
All beings have their roots in an eternal part. We are all immortal. The violet colour symbolises the mother energy in which all the main functions of life are rooted. From here “the masculine pole” and “the feminine pole” are regulated (see symbol 33 and 35).
In the super consciousness we store all the talents that we practise and build up from one life to another. The round, coloured fields symbolise the I’s basic talent kernels or “spiral centres”.
The coloured triangles attached to them show the eternal organ structure and the ability to use the various basic energies to create in the temporal world. The six vertical coloured fields symbolise the basic energies and the bodies created by them: red for “the body of instinct”, orange for “the body of gravity”, yellow for “the body of feeling”, green for “the body of intelligence”, blue for “the body of intuition” and light indigo for “the body of memory”. The cross symbolises the being’s totally perfect, eternal, cosmic structure, regardless of which kingdom or evolutionary step it belongs to.
The principle of life units – the first glimpse of the
existence of a Godhead
– Symbol No. 7
“In my Father’s house are many mansions”
According to The Third Testament, the physical part of the universe is equal to God’s physical organism, and “behind” the “empty space” of the universe is God’s consciousness and infinite I. God’s all-inclusive organism is built up of life within life without end. This once again confirms the words in the Bible: “In my Father’s house are many mansions”.
Our organism is also built up of living beings, which we call organs, cells, molecules, atoms etc. If these beings, from our sensory perspective, are very far away we call them “matter”. The Earth is also a living individual, in the same way that the life-giving sun, the solar system and the Milky Way are living beings. One could say: “As above, so below”. All living beings are cells or experiencing organs in God’s organism. This makes the everyday life of all living beings a conversation with God.
What we do to our neighbour, we do to God. “The speech of life” is God’s way of answering, which we eternally receive through our neighbour. This neighbour constitutes the beings in “our own” body as well as the planet being that we inhabit. When one understands that life in the microworld is just as living as we are ourselves, there appears a new, and hitherto unknown, area of responsibility where the message of love also applies. The way we conduct funerals will therefore also change. Cremation will be replaced by more humane methods that take into consideration the myriads of living microbeings in the “corpse”. Only when the mineral state has been reached are there no longer in the “corpse” any microbeings that are alive and experiencing physically.
Love for animals as well as for the microbeings will also bring about a change from animal to vegetarian food (see symbol 38) and cause people to think about light living conditions, fresh air, hygiene, sleep patterns and care of the body. The symbol shows a being’s organism in its entirety. (The triangle and the white circle symbolise its X1 and X2 respectively.) The figure is built up of smaller figures. This symbolises that the organism is made up of living microindividuals each one with its own ability to experience. This is repeated upwards and down-wards into infinity. In this way we are also contained within macrocosmos which consists of larger and larger organisms, for example, the Earth, the solar system, the galaxy/Milky Way – continuing for ever. The macrobeing provides us with our outer living environment (Nature) while the microbeings provide us with our physical organism. At one and the same time everything consists of a unity. “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
The triune principle
– Symbols Nos. 8, 9 and 10
The eternal, infinite, triune structure of the Godhead
In the symbol, X1, X2 and X3 are separated into 3 aspects that determines all living beings’ immortal nature and their identity with God’s eternal nature thereby confirming the old saying: “Know yourself and you know the whole universe”.
X1 – the white disk – symbolises the Godhead’s eternal, infinite I, in that way being identical to every living being’s I.
X2 – the violet disk – symbolises the Godhead’s eternal ability to create including the highest vibration that exists, which in The Third Testament is called the mother energy.
X3 – the six coloured fields – symbolises the basic
energies and God’s fields of consciousness, the area of “what is created”.
These three aspects cannot exist as separate entities; they are aspects of one eternally indivisible triune principle. As the trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is a fundamental concept in traditional Christianity, it is explained in The Third Testament in the following way:
The Father – the eternal Godhead of the universe. A totally unmoving perfect stillness constitutes all living beings’ innermost I and fixed point – X1. The creator, the originator of what is created and therefore beyond the boundaries of time and space.
The Son – the Godhead’s ability to create that divides up
God’s eternal, omnipresent, infinite I into “the many”, into an infinite number of eternal “sons of God” – X2. In the words of Christ: “the Father and the Son”.
The Holy Spirit – God’s consciousness and organism – X3.
According to The Third Testament God is identical to the eternally existing universe. God’s ability to create consists of all living beings’ abilities to create, and God’s organism consists of all living beings’ organisms. Out of this co-operation between God and the sons of God the various spheres of life come into being. For example, “the sphere of instinct”, which we know as the plant kingdom and “the sphere of gravity” which we know as the animal kingdom. In the later part of the animal kingdom the being is involved to the greatest extent in matter and believes that it is at one with it. This process of involution is a necessary link in God’s creative process, which unfailingly leads all beings to renewed perfection as “human beings in God’s image after his likeness”. After this moral refinement the way continues through the next kingdoms, which are described in symbol 13. This entire process thus takes place “in God”. God guides all beings to the point where they are able to experience and express like Jesus: “I and the Father are one”.
The eternal world picture – the living being II, the eternal Godhead and the eternal sons of God
– Symbol No. 11
God and son of God are one
This main symbol weaves together the analyses from symbols 8, 9 and 10. Here these three eternal principles appear as an indivisible unit, which is shown by the fact that the disks from symbols 8, 9 and 10 are now laid one on top of the other. The universe is an eternal living being – God – that gives expression to itself through 6 different planes of existence. These are built up of life within life as we saw in symbol 7.
The white star and the field radiating outwards from the centre symbolise the Godhead, while the many white circles and the rays that emanate from them express the individual living beings – the sons of God. One can see from the symbol how life is made up of an interaction or conversation relayed by Nature between the Godhead and the sons of God. The 6 planes of existence where this takes place (the stage of the theatre of life) are each marked with their own colour: red – the plant kingdom, orange – the animal kingdom, yellow – the true human kingdom, green – the kingdom of wisdom, blue – the divine world, light indigo – the kingdom of bliss. (These kingdoms will be described in detail in symbol 13.) The living beings journey again and again through these kingdoms in an upwards-moving spiral (see symbol 14). In the symbol the Earth is placed level with the animal kingdom. It is on its own journey to cosmic consciousness and can therefore offer mankind, which is travelling the same road, a place to live. All living beings will gain cosmic consciousness, which is indicated by the small star. This “cosmic birth” is the introduction to the true human kingdom, and we are already experiencing the first signs of the coming of this kingdom on Earth. This process will be fully completed in less than 3,000 years. After that the road continues through the higher spiritual kingdoms, which are in reality one kingdom with several sections.
The combinations of the basic energies
– Symbol No. 12
The law-bound transformation of the eternal consciousness
In the symbol one can see how the energies of consciousness are mixed in different ways over the course of one cosmic cycle. The boundaries of the cycle are marked by the slightly broader horizontal lines at the top and the bottom. Each horizontal bar symbolises a plane of existence for living beings – a kingdom.
The 6 kingdoms (described in the previous and the next symbol) repeat endlessly. On each horizontal bar we can see how the beings on the various evolutionary steps of these kingdoms are built up of a different combination of basic energies, which is constantly changing in a regular way. The energies are: the energy of instinct – red, the energy of gravity – orange, the energy of feeling – yellow, the energy of intelligence – green, the energy of intuition – blue, the energy of memory – light indigo. The higher basic energies, with intuition as the highest, penetrate the lower ones.
What the beings are able to create and experience is therefore determined by the basic energies that their evolutionary step gives them access to (see symbol 13).
The eternal world plan
– Symbol No. 13
God’s eternal method and technique of creation
This symbol goes more deeply into the explanations from symbol 11. Again we can see the eternal cycle and how the contrast between light and darkness is created through the 6 different planes of existence in the universe.
“The principle of contrast” is the eternal basic law of experience of life. An experience is something created. This takes place through “something” appearing in relation to something else. The eternal world plan is God’s method of maintaining an eternally renewed youthfulness in the eternal consciousness of both God and the sons of God.
The white triangle in the centre once again symbolises the eternal nameless “something” – God’s “I” – X1. The violet field in the centre symbolises God’s ability to create and experience – X2. The radiant cross in this field signifies the total perfection of the divine world plan.
The dark diamond shapes show how the 6 planes of existence, which repeat through the spiral cycles, are constructed. Each of these 6 planes of existence is made up of the 6 basic energies. The differing ways that the basic energies are put together from one plane of existence to another is shown by the size of the 6 coloured bodies in each of the dark diamond shapes. One whole diamond shape thus symbolises the “entire body” of the plane of existence in question.
If we look at the animal kingdom with the energy of gravity (orange) culminating, the “entire body” of this kingdom is made up also of intelligence (green) increasing, feeling (yellow) increasing, instinct (red) declining, memory (light indigo) declining and the body of intuition (blue), which is latent.
The dotted lines show how these basic energies change from kingdom to kingdom. A long series of transitional stages form the connection between the 6 states that are shown in the symbol: one culminating, two declining, one latent, and two increasing, which brings us to a new state, culminating in a higher spiral cycle (see symbol 14). The changing relationships between the basic energies is the cause of the different abilities to experience and create on each plane of existence. The basic energy that is culminating defines the plane of existence.
The red colour for the energy of instinct symbolises the plant kingdom. Here the energy of instinct culminates. The faculty of instinct promotes automatically the outward vital functions of the plant. The fact that instinct functions with such brilliance is due to previous spiritual planes of existence where the being consciously trained abilities and knowledge, which gradually turned into unconscious, automatic functioning. The instinct being lives in an inner spiritual state. A flower is thus an outward sign of this inner state of bliss. The many physical effects that plant beings are subjected to, lead them on towards day consciousness in the outer material world. Once the beings can experience consciously on the physical plane, we call them “animals”.
The orange colour for the energy of gravity, which is culminating, characterises the animal kingdom. Here the beings experience more and more an individual organism, cut off from the rest of the world, with their own free will. Through separate male and female beings – and the ensuing struggle for a mate, offspring, food and shelter – they experience the zone of the culmination of darkness. In the animal kingdom suffering, which the being creates through its own actions, is experienced day-consciously thereby causing the humane faculty to grow. In time the being will become a “true human being” and through its faculty of intuition will gain cosmic consciousness, which will enable it to experience personally that it is one with God’s consciousness.
The yellow colour for the energy of feeling, which is culminating, symbolises the true human kingdom. As a result of sufferings and a certain degree of intellect the being has reached the stage where it is able to love all and everything. Defence and all use of force are things of the past in this plane of existence. The Earth and terrestrial human beings are now rapidly on their way towards this completely finished human kingdom. The people of the Earth will be united as one people and one nation. The value of money will be replaced
by the value of the ability to work. Poverty and suffering will have ceased and everyday life will be characterised by the creation of humanity (see symbol 26).
The green colour for the energy of intelligence, which is culminating, symbolises the kingdom of wisdom. All the creative processes in the universe originate in this plane of existence, e.g. the living beings’ physical organisms. In the spiritual worlds creation takes place in the form of thought matter and through thought pictures these ideas can be transferred to engineers, technicians, chemists and other receptive individuals on the physical plane. In the same way the experience of these physical beings is transferred to the physical plane. This is how the lower kingdoms of the universe are built up and maintained. Behind everything created lie spiritual causes.
The blue colour for the energy of intuition symbolises the divine world. This is life’s highest sphere of consciousness where all ideas for creation and manifestation originate before being worked on in the kingdom of wisdom.
The light indigo colour for the energy of memory symbolises the kingdom of bliss, the last one in the cycle. Here the being moves into an inner solitary world of bliss made up of the memories accumulated throughout the cycle that has elapsed. It experiences itself as the Godhead in its own inner universe, and only after aeons of time does it begin to be satiated by this state and it begins to long for a new physical experience of life that is to come in the physical sphere of a higher spiral. Fire, electricity and the formation of suns in space are the outward signs of this transition, which will eventually take the form of what we know as the “mineral kingdom”.
This eternal alternation between involution into matter and evolution out of it again is symbolised by the black and white cycle on the outer rim. Only in the animal kingdom is darkness realistically experienced. The purpose of this eternal cycle between light and darkness is to maintain God’s consciousness. In this way the cosmic consciousness of God and the sons of God is recreated, maintained and renewed.
The cosmic spiral cycles I
– Symbol No. 14
The cosmic journey through eternity and infinity
The cosmic journey of the living beings is really a journey through higher and higher cycles with no end. For this reason they are called “spiral cycles”.
On the symbol we can see 7 of these spiral cycles marked with the letters:
A – the spiral of atoms/matter and such like.
B – the spiral of cell beings and such like.
C – the spiral of organ beings and such like.
D – our own spiral/mesocosmos.
E – the planet or globe spiral.
F – the solar system spiral.
G – the galaxy or milky way spiral.
We can see that the 6 kingdoms or zones of consciousness (the 6 different colours around the circle described in Symbol 13) repeat endlessly through various organism-principles.
The white field marks that part of the eternal universe that we perceive as living.
May bee that the symbol gives an impression of an organising factor behind this co-operation stretching between microcosmos and macrocosmos? (See symbol 7).
The law of movement
– Symbol No. 15
All creation goes in cycles
The sphere is the fundamental cosmic balance of all movements. All movement seeks balance and equilibrium, like water making its way downwards, gathering in lakes and seas. Creation is – from the cosmic point of view – the same as a release of movement, which returns to the I.
All life and the formation of all fate is bound by this law. This is symbolised by the thin lines coming out of what gives the illusion of being a square. Just as the horizon of the Earth is not straight – which it might seem to be – neither is the uppermost line in the symbol straight. It is in fact part of a circle 40 metres in diameter. The experience of “straight lines” is due to perspective.
The eternity body
– Symbol No. 16
We reap what we sow
Here we can see that all energy or movement in the universe comes from the eternal I (the white triangle) and likewise returns to it.
The cross of flames symbolises that the being’s eternity body always rests in perfect balance. The violet circles symbolise the being’s actions, thoughts, life experiences, creations and organisms. These move in cycles (see Symbol 15) of all sizes, symbolised by the size of the 4 different paths. Every moment microscopic cycles are set in motion in our organism. An earthly life is an example of a cycle. There are also cycles so great that they extend over millions and millions of years and determine for example our sexual structure.
The symbol shows that we ourselves create our fate. We reap what we sow. Nothing unjust ever happens to us – from the cosmic point of view. Everything is very good. This is the living being’s eternal cosmic ability to create and its actual body.
Reincarnation, cycles and seasons
– Symbol No. 17
The cosmic seasons
“Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. This was Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus when he was asked about rebirth. (John 3:3-8) What Jesus meant by water was a new physical organism, while spirit is synonymous with a new consciousness. On another occasion Jesus pointed out that John the Baptist in a previous life was Elijah, the prophet from The Old Testament: “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come”. (Mat. 11:14) – and Mat. 17:13, Luke 1:1-25, Mat. 11:9-15 and Mark 9:10-13.
The consciousness needs experiences from many incarnations In order to mature. Jesus told the people of that time that he had more to tell the coming generations: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now”. (John 16:12)
Without reincarnation the people of that time would be excluded from fully understanding Jesus teaching and the road to paradise. The words ”Ye cannot bear them now” shows that Jesus knew that they first had to mature in intelligence and feeling before they would be able to accept the whole wisdom.
Martinus also calls this humane state the intellectual climate, and it is shown in the symbol where the horizontal yellow and green triangular fields (the feeling climate and the intelligence climate) melt into each other. Only when people have reached this state will they be able to understand the words of the Bible concerning “eternal life”. Eternal life does not have an age calculated from a birth. Eternal life is without a beginning or an end – it is an eternal evolution.
Evolution and cycles are found everywhere in Nature. The dark night is succeeded by the light of day. Previously impure water gushes forth again, fresh from the spring. The cold, lifeless winter transforms into the warmth, colours and light of spring and summer, and from there into the fading and withering of autumn and a new winter. After the immature period of childhood comes the springtime of youth, which heralds the summer of adulthood and after that the autumn of old age. Rebirth and renewal are Nature’s way. Should terrestrial human beings be less worthy than the drop of dirty water, and thereby an exception to the extraordinary order found in Nature? Or less worthy than the Earth, which has evolved from a glowing soup of mineral matter to the beautiful scenery that Nature surrounds us with today? No, the cycle will also lead us to mentally shine like the sun. Everyone will end up giving warmth, inspiration and life to everything and everyone in their surroundings.
The symbol illustrates the principle of cycles, it also illustrates the seasons as symbols of darkness and light. The fully-coloured rectangles at the top show the planes of existence, as described in symbol 13. The black and white figure shows the growth and culmination of darkness and light. Darkness culminates in the animal kingdom and light in the divine world. The cycles are entities in which the two opposites alternately culminate and are latent. The area with the diagonal, coloured stripes symbolises the seasons of the cycle: grey for winter, green for spring, many-coloured for summer and red for autumn. We are therefore in the winter zone of the spiral cycle. Here the experience of life is at its lowest (the thin orange field at the bottom). It is not until the divine world that life culminates (the wider blue field further along). At the very top are some black/white circles, which in turn symbolise the winter solstice, the spring equinox, the summer solstice, the autumn equinox and a new winter solstice. These times are therefore also related to the spiral cycle’s varying relationship between light and darkness. It is this symbolic meaning that lies behind the celebration of the various festivals. Christmas symbolises the birth of light and love. Easter symbolises the victory of light over darkness, and Whitsuntide the spirit and almightiness of the Godhead. The new year symbolises the beginning of a new cycle and is therefore in reality the symbol of immortality.
The fate arcs of the living being
– Symbol No. 18
The eternal now
When on Good Friday the disciple, Peter, intervened to defend the world redeemer, Jesus stopped him with the words: “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Mat. 26:52). Jesus knew about the law of karma: “what you sow, you will reap”. He demonstrated the same insight and caring consideration when on the cross he prayed for his executioners with the words: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. Without knowing, the people who crucified Jesus were with their actions preparing their own forthcoming crucifixion or a comparable form of suffering. Jesus wanted to spare them this. He forgave them and would not avenge himself.
Sowing, reaping and the formation of fate are Nature’s
own way of educating and explaining the term: “eating of the tree of knowledge”. This is the road that leads terrestrial human beings to “having their eyes opened”, enabling them to differentiate, like God, between good and evil, seeing what creates happiness and what creates unhappiness. At some point one will reach the stage of only being able to act logically and lovingly and “to eat of the fruits of the tree of life”.
The terms, “Hell” and “Satan”, are therefore more expressions of the state of suffering that the imperfect beings expose hemselves to on this Earth, they do not express damnation in an eternal, non-physical Hell-fire beyond earthly existence. Existence in thespiritual world between two incarnations is, on the other hand, a period of rest in Paradise, free from unpleasant karma – apart from one phase where one has to let go of the dark thought climates that one has cultivated in the earthly
life that has just elapsed. In the symbol we can see a series of orange rectangles that become lighter and lighter towards the right. These symbolise the series of physical lives that a being lives through in the course of its reincarnations. In the middle we see the being symbolised with a triangle and a star-shaped cross, and its present physical incarnation is shown between
the two vertical white beams.
The orange rays show the being’s connection with its previous and future earthly lives, the white rays show the connection with the spiritual periods in between. The white areas express the light, beautiful states between the earthly lives. The yellow area represents the being’s past and the green its future. The violet arcs up above show how the earthly lives are linked by cause and effect, so that the way a being has lived in previous incarnations is the cause of its fate in later lives. We therefore live today very much in relation to previous and future lives.
Through the initiation of darkness – Hell or Armageddon
– Symbol No. 19
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
The Bible has predicted a “time of tribulation” with “distress”, “fear”, “wars and rumours of wars” (Mat. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, John 14-16). These words and many more, seem to be perfectly suitable to the times that we are living in. In these times the Bible’s message of love should, according to Christ, be explained: “the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
This promised “Counsellor, the Holy Spirit” is therefore a conclusive, firm, scientific explanation of Jesus’ teachings about love. It is knowledge about the spiritual reality behind the physical world revealed to the modern, humane, intellectual human being – is Martinus’ work, The Third Testament this Counsellor?
The row of orange and yellow rectangles at the bottom of the symbol show the process of reincarnation from one terrestrial life to another (orange), broken by stays in the spiritual worlds (yellow). In this case the being is receiving dark karma, symbolised by the large orange arc coming from the left and the sword through the heart (the organism). In this case the living being (the white triangle) is responding by using the sword i.e. the “principle of revenge”. It does not know that with this action it is binding itself to the zone of the culmination of darkness, where one is not so aware of the keynote of the universe, love (symbolised by the radiance behind the skeleton).
Not until one has been “defeated” a sufficient number of times will the truth behind the words of Jesus to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” begin to dawn. The sea of flames symbolises war, revolution, unrest, strikes, lockouts, political struggle, religious conflict, poverty, illness and distress. The volcano symbolises natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, floods and cyclones etc. and thereby also the state of suffering to which terrestrial human beings sometimes subject the microbeings in their own body. Through one’s actions towards one’s own microcosmos one also creates effects in one’s fate that return through macrocosmos, and vice versa.
The dark part of karma is, however, not a punishment from God. Through darkness, terrestrial human beings learn to differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate actions. Darkness is an initiation that renders terrestrial human beings able to feel compassion and humaneness and leads them to knowledge of God. It is in the darkness that the light is born.
The forgiveness of sins
– Symbol No. 20
“Go, and sin no more”
Jesus taught with power and authority using miracles, symbols and in particular through example. This was the only way that believers could approach the eternal truths behind life. For a very long time the ways of God had been “past understanding” to terrestrial human beings; they lacked the abilities to understand the eternal truths behind Jesus’ words. But since terrestrial human beings have eaten the “apples of knowledge”, the speech of life has made many terrestrial human beings able to begin to understand for themselves the ways of God. And how else would they “become like God, knowing good and evil”?
The Bible describes how Jesus forgave the sins of people who experienced that they had fallen from God’s grace. The symbol explains how the forgiveness of sins that Jesus spoke about actually does exist. Slowly we become freed from the dark karma that we have built up – the suffering that we have created for other beings. This takes place through the humane faculty (the yellow flame) growing from life to life (every time we reap suffering). This humane faculty protects us – in fact it is the only protection we have, from a cosmic point of view. The orange steps symbolise the being’s individual earthly lives in the past (yellow) and in the future (green). The violet field symbolises the being’s super consciousness and consequently its eternal life. The orange rectangles symbolise the succession of the being’s earthly lives – reincarnation. The orange fate wave is set in motion by a selfish action, e.g. a murder that is committed in the being’s present life (between the vertical white beams). When this action returns to its originator, this being might possibly experience being killed. The unpleasant fate develops the being’s body of feeling and it becomes more humane.
This takes many, many incarnations, but, as is symbolised by the growth of the yellow flame, the being can at a certain point no longer bear to commit the same selfish action and it will experience only the injuries that it can still bear to inflict on other beings – until it is completely cleansed and “humane”. It then no longer needs to learn about darkness. Its loving radiation protects it and the dark karma can no longer be released in the being’s life. It has therefore truly obtained the “forgiveness of sins”. The white fate waves show that fate formation also takes place in the spiritual world between lives, and that this can only be light and happy in nature.
The eternal, cosmic, organic connection between
God and the son of God I
– Symbol No. 21
The development, significance and function of prayer
The animal’s cry of anguish at the moment of its death is an automatic prayer for help. There must be spiritual receivers, and therefore there must be a meaning, behind such a prayer or instinctive, automatic function. There were also receivers of Jesus’ words from the cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. The animal’s automatic prayer concerns its own rescue whereas Jesus’ conscious prayer is about forgiving his executioners and persecutors, and is addressed directly to God. High-psychic powers – white magic – lie hidden in the conscious, unselfish prayer.
The symbol on the right is the whole universe, i.e. God. Every living being finds itself in the centre of this organism, and is always unshakeably and organically connected to God. The white circle in the centre symbolises the I, X1 (See symbol 8, 9 and 10). Round it can be seen the mother energy with the violet colour and the eternal part of the bodies of the basic energies, X2. Round these can be seen the son of God’s created eternity body, X3. The oblong coloured fields on the outside are the body of the Godhead (the created part of the universe) that the son of God relates to. The pointed ends of these figures represent the eternal part of the basic energies of the universe.
The violet field on the outside symbolises the mother energy of the universe and the white disk behind it, the I of the Godhead.
The four uppermost drawings on the left symbolise the evolution of the relationship to God.
• The first is the state of primitive human beings, with their worship of many gods and the blood sacrifices made to them.
• Next comes monotheism, i.e. the worship of one god through the humane religions.
• The third drawing illustrates the atheistic or godless state. These are people whose intelligence and sense of justice prevents them from believing in the dogma of the eternal flames of Hell awaiting those who have not been baptised, confirmed or who are born out of wedlock. They are unable to believe in the explanation of an all-loving and almighty God who sacrificed his innocent son in order that murderers could go freely to Paradise.
• The fourth drawing symbolises the finished human being’s permanent day-conscious dialogue with God.
Symbol No. 21 – detail:
The small orange triangles at the bottom on the left represent beings that are gaining help or inspiration from spiritual beings, represented by the yellow triangles in the rows above.
The uppermost row of yellow triangles symbolises Providence ie. those beings that constitute God’s primary consciousness and that have finished incarnating. The lower row of yellow triangles symbolises the discarnate beings that are able, between two earthly lives, to act as guardian angels.
In the first small section of the lowest row, the being shown as the orange triangle marked 1 asks the being marked 2 for something, but receives no help, as this being is either unable or unwilling to help. In the next small section of the lowest row one can see being 1 (orange triangle) praying to God. All prayers – even the slightest sigh – are picked up by God through the guardian angels (yellow triangles), which in this case stimulate being 3 to help being 1. This often takes place completely without any of the physical beings, symbolised in the lowest row, knowing what is happening.
It should be added that Prayers addressed directly to God: “Our Father, which art in Heaven” leaves no doubt about who is being addressed.
In the next small section one can see the process by which intellectual human beings, e.g. artists or scientists – often without knowing how – can gain inspiration or flashes of intuition.
In the next section one can see the connection made with spiritual beings through a medium, which can be dangerous for human beings that have not been initiated in this field. Without the knowledge of how to protect oneself properly there is in such a process a great danger of being possessed. In certain situations, however, the connection to the spiritual world through a medium can be justified. The last section illustrates the cosmic conscious being’s connection with Providence. Even though it is not able to see these beings with its physical eyes, it is in no way alone in its mission on the physical plane. (See the next symbol).
The eternal, cosmic, organic connection between God and the son of God II
– Symbol No. 22
“Enter into thy closet…”
The symbol explains how each living being (the little white triangle) is connected with God (the large white triangle) through a cosmic, organic structure (the grey, white and violet pyramid).
The rectangular coloured fields round the edge of the circle symbolise the living beings and kingdoms of the spiral cycle (see symbol 13). The two slanting black lines divide these coloured fields into the spiritual world, above, and the physical part of the universe, below. The part with the orange rectangular fields symbolises the animal kingdom. The two of these rectangular orange figures that are the shortest symbolise the first ape-like terrestrial human stages. Today these have become completely extinct on the Earth and they incarnate on more primitive planets in the universe. The rectangular orange figure to the right of these symbolises the stages of the primitive peoples that are in the process of dying out on Earth, and the figure to the right of this symbolises civilised human beings who more and more looses their ability to believe. Next field (orange/ yellow) the culmination of materialism and spiritual dead. After this culmination the beings are more and more evolving into true human beings, who are approaching the “great birth” and cosmic consciousness (the yellow part of this field).
Prayer is the tool that leads us all through the last problems and sufferings on this road. Every prayer to God is answered in such as way that it brings most lasting joy to the being itself as well as its surroundings. Through the genuine wish behind the prayer that “not my will, but thy will be done”, the being unites its own will with the will of God. Allied in this way with the almighty God, the being builds up its vitality and its ability to “take the rough with the smooth”. With every loving resolution there streams into the consciousness renewed joy in living. It is these “straight and narrow paths” that in time lead us to a true, organic talent for joy in living and mental balance, despite all the difficulties. This road inevitably leads the being to the point where, like Christ, it can say: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
The materialistic or incomplete world picture
– Symbol No. 22A
A lifeless universe
When the ability of believing degenerates the sons of God goes through a phase of godlessness and materialism. It has no knowledge of the living God behind the universe, and life can be experienced as an inferno of pure chance or the interplay of blind forces.
Materialistic people can of course be extremely humane and loving. They can be greater practical worshippers of God than many beings who are able to believe, due to the fact that God reveals himself through the neighbour. Atheism, however, also leads to the culmination of the culture of death. Research into ingenious murder weapons and methods of killing both humans and animals can be called neither “animal” nor “human”; it can best be described as “devil consciousness”. The beings do not know that in reality one absolutely cannot kill one’s enemies.
In the symbol we can see a part of Symbol 22. Above the jagged dark field is once again symbolised the son of God’s physical organism. The numerous rectangular rays below symbolise the many living beings that this son of God is confronted with on the material plane, whether in micro-, meso- or macrocosmos. This being knows nothing other than time and space, with the result that the existence of God and the “I” is an insoluble mystery to this being (the triangle in the I of both God and the son of God is placed behind a question mark). The triangle also symbolises the eternal, triune unification of the I, spirit and matter – X1, X2 and X3. The structure of prayer and the eternal, cosmic connection between God and the son of God, as well as knowledge of the spiritual world surrounding the being is also hidden from this being.
Through materialistic science the beings gain knowledge of the physical universe, thereby enabling them to subdue the Earth through the use of machines and tools. It lifts human beings out of material ignorance, but it cannot lead them out of the darkness. It is not able to create a sense of morality or offer cosmic guidance for one’s behaviour and way of being. The only thing that can do that is a science of the spiritual causes behind physical reality. In the perfect human kingdom physical science will be guided by the science of neighbourly love and thereby arrive at the fulfilment of its true mission: that the curse that followed Adam out of the garden of Paradise, “ in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”, be fully removed.
The fully-evolved human being in God’s image after his likeness
– Symbol No. 23
Turning the other cheek
In The Old Testament it is described how God made known to human beings the aim of creation: “Let us make man in our image after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Jesus demonstratet the behaviour and way of being of such a finished human being. His words and behaviour have been preserved in the Bible for posterity. The world has been given an example of the aim of creation and evolution. He was able to demonstrate humane behaviour towards his persecutors. While he himself was being crucified he could pray for them with the words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). These are the actions of the finished human being in the image of the allloving God.
In the symbol the two clasped hands show how such a loving being responds to darkness and “hostility” (the large orange arc) with friendship. This reaction creates the yellow, humane arc of karma, which will later return to the being itself in the form of light and joy. It is this behaviour that will lead mankind out of the darkness (symbolised by the clouds), which is supplanted by the light from God (the radiant triangle) through world redemption (the radiant star surrounding it). Through a process of evolution from one life to another, symbolised by the small orange, circular arcs that the being has created and is then given back, karma (the circular arcs) gradually gives rise to more and more humaneness (yellow colour). The yellow/orange rectangular fields symbolise the individual terrestrial lives and these are separated by periods spent in the spiritual world (the light yellow fields).
Terrestrial human beings’ steadily increasing awareness of their conscience shows that they are on their way to the state of being all-loving. Eventually they will only be able to bear to do good, like the Christ being in the symbol.
The unfinished human kingdom
– Symbol No. 24
The kingdom of the sphinx
The general world situation is characterised by nationalism i.e. the animal’s instinct of self preservation manifested as collective egoism. This tendency inherited from the animal kingdom characterises the relationships between human beings as well as between nations. In the animal kingdom might is right.
Nations strive after might using both military and economic power. The symbol shows the Earth with its many nations. These are symbolised by the various red fields. These can be seen in a way of organs that have still not learnt how to cooperate ideally in the Earth’s organism. In each field there is a white circle with an arrow which represents the government of the country. The arrows are pointing in different directions.
The orange stars symbolise the materialistic and warlike ideals and actions that dominate the thinking of certain nations. A nation can create war and suffering despite declaring its intentions to have Christian ideals.
The warring parties are thus united in their warlike ideals, which belong to the principle of vengeance, described in the law of Moses as “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. In like manner, this principle of vengeance is also adopted internally in the nation’s legal system. Collectively the “killing principle” is symbolised by the orange colour (the energy of gravity). In the upper third of the symbol the arrows are more or less pointing away from these warlike ideals and up towards the rays that, together with the white star, symbolise the truly humane ideals that are already beginning to find expression in the government policies of certain countries. The number, placing or dividing up of the fields should not be interpreted literally or geographically – humane societies are now emerging in more and more places around the globe.
The karma of humankind
– Symbol No. 25
The world is transformed into one kingdom
Every living being’s fate is built up of its own actions that move through a cycle and return to the living being where they originated. This also applies to the actions of nations towards other nations and their citizens. These actions create collective karma that can be released on those of the nation’s inhabitants who
share this kind of fate. The animal tendencies are symbolised by the thick orange crust. This “sphere” attracts like a magnet dark karma (the flames), which is released when the conditions are right.
The five-pointed star symbolises the principle of world redemption that guides terrestrial human beings unscathed through this “initiation into darkness”. We can see how this guidance includes the religions and ideals that promote revenge (the orange colour) as well as the humane world religions (the yellow colour). All forms of war are “a worshipping of heathen gods”, regardless of the extent to which the beings have been baptised or confirmed or think of themselves as “Christians”. But when one has had a personal experience of being affected by war, one’s longing for peace and happiness grows, along with one’s receptiveness for the science of real, true love It is our actions, and not our allegiance to religious traditions, that determine how humane we are.. Only when the being can act in a humane way in all the situations of everyday life, is it actually, deep down, truly Christian and loving of its neighbour.
True neighbourly love is symbolised by the white field at the top of the circle. The yellow field under it symbolises the effect on humankind of the humane world religions. The light blue field symbolises the humane advantages that have already been created on Earth, such as, humane religions, worship, art, literature, technology and science, and their resultant advantages.
The dark karma of suffering has a different quality. The field on the left is about its consequences in the form of sudden “death”, which, owing to the fact that no being can die, causes less suffering, despite everything, than the effects of life-long sufferings, illness, torture and other mutilation, all of which are symbolised in the field on the right. Dark fate is the result of terrestrial human beings’ treatment of animals, human beings and nations (also in micro-cosmos).For instance through meat eating (see symbol 38). Suffering will lead people from the theory of neighbourly love (A-stage), through practice as a result of the inspiration given by the good example of other beings (B-stage), to the automatic ability of the being who is a genius in manifesting neighbourly love (C-stage).
The perfect human kingdom of the future
– Symbol No. 26
The united states of the world, “one shepherd and one flock”
The countries of the world are being brought steadily closer together. Communication, infrastructure, distribution, economics etc. is developed and adapted to global dimensions.
More and more nations realise that in order to obtain global peace, political stability and wellbeing for all people on Earth, ratifiable, international laws and agreements are needed.
We are becoming more dependent on each other. The dilemma of the great world events is this: should the interest of the nation be at the cost of the world community or should the nation be of service to the whole? Selfishness undermines itself – when seen in a cosmic light. The culmination of darkness leads to consequences that reveal it for what it is in all its aspects. This concerns not least the extensive misuse of money through the “false business principle”, which enables people, perfectly lawfully, to obtain by deception something of greater value in exchange for something of lesser value. World wars and other manifestations of fate make it clear that the happiness or misery of the whole of humankind is the same as our own happiness or misery. The constancy of eternal cosmic laws guides everyone towards unselfishness. The nations will realize that they have no other choice than to co-operate as the world state that has ostensibly already begun to function under the name of the UN. Neighbourly love and internationalism are the solution to the intense crises that are found all over the world. In this way the words in the Bible about one shepherd and one flock are fulfilled – one people with one God and one true religion. This is shown in the symbol by the fact that the Earth has moved completely into the light emanating from the new world impulse – the white colour. The previous ideas about religion (the yellow and orange) will fade away in favour of knowledge of God and thereafter the development of those faculties that make it possible to create in physical matter the kingdom of heaven on Earth. The nations of the Earth (the white circles) and their governments (the arrows) will become regions in the world state, each one with its own distinctive character (the green fields). The yellow sun in the centre symbolises the world government, that initially will be supervised by humankind’s highest representatives in their own special field of competence and responsibility, these people being elected by everyone who is old enough to vote. Eventually this government can be made up of cosmic conscious beings (the blue star). Other factors include:
• Disarmament – the world state will have no outward enemies and will need only a world police force to guarantee internal law and order.
• An open, not secret, supreme judicial system.
• A judicial system that is able to recognize the difference between criminality and abnormality and will use humane educational methods instead of punishment and sentencing.
• The abolition of money and the private ownership of natural resources.
• The introduction of receipts for having done a certain amount of work to replace money as a means of payment.
• The formation of a fund to pay for the periods of childhood, old age and illness.
• The introduction of machines to carry out the coarse work.
• The development of vegetarianism, art and spirit.
• Whereas previously might ruled over right, it is now right which settles all issues; the world state is therefore guided by intellectualised feeling and humanised intelligence, which is the same as neighbourly love.
The cosmic radiance of the Earth
– Symbol No. 27
The days and nights of eternal life
In the cosmic 24 hour period of night and day, which extends over aeons of time, the spaceship Earth with its passengers has only just passed the culmination of mental darkness and cold. We have for example had two world wars within one century and there will be more to come. So in the same way that the winter is coldest after the solstice, the Earth is now still characterised by a mental form of the coldness of winter at its culmination. But after the night comes the day and the light is now rapidly increasing. The globe being, which is the living macro-I of all the living beings of the Earth, governs and supports all manifestation of life on the globe. The increasingly bright thought climate of the Earth (the increasingly bright aura) means that, among other things, beasts of prey, venomous snakes, and certain dangerous insects will gradually disappear from the Earth, just as the dinosaurs and other reptiles at some point had to seek out planets with possibilities of evolution that were more favourable to them. Primitive human beings will relatively rapidly be able to evolve into civilised human beings thanks to the present-day, modern society of information and communication, which is able to disseminate many different kinds of knowledge. The lowest figure in the symbol shows a cosmic cycle of day and night, with the culmination of darkness alternating with the culmination of light. The width of the field is increasing which means that the experience of life is eternally growing and being renewed.
From the time of the completion of Jesus’ mission it was no longer possible for dark forces to gain permanent acceptance by the Earth globe being. The bright radiation from the aura (“the cosmic radiance”, which can only be seen with cosmic sight) is increasing, with the result that the conditions necessary for the manifestation of justice, compassion, forgiveness and love on Earth are strengthened.
The step formation at the bottom symbolises the six planes of existence that are repeated in each spiral cycle.
The white cloud shape that reaches from field No. 6 (the kingdom of bliss) right up to the border of field No. 3 (the true human kingdom) marks the limits of the consciousness of unfinished terrestrial humankind. The cloud shape symbolises that terrestrial human beings only know about the physical aspects of the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. The small representation of the Earth at the bottom is placed in the animal kingdom after the culmination of darkness. The Earth together with its human beings is now moving towards peace and love.
Eternal life or the ladder of life
– Symbol No. 28
The eternal renewal of life, “Behold, I make all things new”
Eternal life implies a never-ending renewal of the experience of life. The adventure of life requires contrasts. Without contrasts there would be no experience. Constant warmth gives rise to a longing for coolness. Hard work gives rise to a longing for rest, which is in turn normally followed by a wish for renewed activity. No one can go on enjoying their favourite meal again and again for ever. An eternal longing for new experiences is the reason why one plane of existence is replaced by the next.
The symbol shows a section of the eternal, endless ladder of life. The planes of existence in the middle of the step formation are: the plant kingdom (red), the animal kingdom (orange), the true human kingdom (yellow), the kingdom of wisdom (green), the divine world (blue), the kingdom of bliss/the mineral kingdom (light indigo). These six planes of existence or states of consciousness repeat themselves again and again in the form of greater cycles, indicated by the large violet steps on the left, the spiral cycles. Each plane of existence is made up of lesser steps such as for example “character zones” and the individual physical incarnations. The individual kingdoms are fully described in symbol 13.
Cosmic evolutionary paths
– Symbol No. 29
The origin of species
In symbol 28 we saw the living beings’ ladder of life from the side. Here we see this step construction from the front.
Throughout the spiral, various “species” are travelling up this ladder of life. Each “species” is characterised by the various physical, astronomic or microcosmic conditions that it has passed through in its evolution. Some species are related, which means they have passed the same “planets” in their cosmic journey. These “cosmic paths” are thus the real factor behind the “origin of the species”. Path No. 5 from the right symbolises our own path (that of mammals) and terrestrial human beings’ crossshaped organisms. Path No. 6 from the right symbolises the path of birds and path No. 4 from the right that of insects. Some of the beings from this path have attained to social conditions that are more advanced than the societies of certain primitive terrestrial human beings. The term “human being” describes an all-loving, humane state that applies to all living beings on a certain evolutionary step regardless of which spiral cycle it is in. All “species” are thus on their way to becoming finished human beings in God’s image after his likeness.
In the pyramid the red steps symbolise the kingdom of instinct or the plant kingdom, the orange steps the kingdom of gravity or the animal kingdom and the yellow steps the true human kingdom. At this point the beings are able to materialise themselves freely and to create their organism and external appearance according to their wishes. The outer differences have been ironed out and the beings can communicate to, understand and love one another. The lowest dotted line at the sides of the pyramid shows the transition from the plant to the animal kingdom. Insectivorous plants are examples of this transitional state. The shorter dotted line shows the transition between the true animal kingdom and unfinished humankind. The upper dotted line shows the transition into the kingdom of the finished human being. The white cloud symbolises the living beings’ X1. The faintly indicated violet colour symbolises the beings’ X2. These colours symbolise that the living beings’ X1 and X2 together form the Godhead’s X1 and X2. And in the same way, the coloured areas symbolise (a part of) the organism of the Godhead or the universe.
The eternal Godhead and the beings’ sensory abilities
– Symbol No. 30
What is needed in order to “see God”
The combined sensory abilities of all living beings constitute the Godhead’s sensory ability. Any meeting with our neighbour, that is everything that we come into contact with, is a meeting with God. Through this interaction the various planes of existence are maintained. This comes about through the mother energy, which regulates the changing sphere of activity of the six basic energies. The white figure symbolises the I of the Godhead that consists of the combined I’s of all living beings. The violet figure symbolises the living beings’ X2 or creative abilities that together make up the Godhead’s X2. Radiating from these figures are the coloured fields that symbolise the living beings’ X3. All together these organisms constitute the Godhead’s X3. The created part or the universe is therefore the visible body of the Godhead. From this perspective the irrational belief in “the devil” is shown to be a derailed view of God. Everything that we sense is God, and the Godhead senses through us.
The staircase figure on the left of the symbol symbolises the ladder of evolution. Each step is one plane of existence. The small triangles symbolise the I’s in the living beings on these planes of existence. The groups of rays that emit from these beings show which basic energy is prevalent in that particular plane of existence. These energies determine how the being creates and which opportunities it has of experiencing in relationship to the surrounding universe.
The senses are those realities through which the interaction between the living being’s energy and the energy of its surroundings can come about. The most predominant sensory abilities of the various beings is shown in the symbol by the fields struck by the rays.
Red (the instinct being) is able at most to have a vague inkling of pleasure and displeasure but is unable to analyse it. Orange (the gravity being) can experience and manifest by virtue of the energy of gravity, primitive feeling and the beginnings of intelligence.
Yellow (the finished human being) has feeling combined with a high degree of the energy of intelligence, which means that the energies of feeling and gravity can only manifest absolutely logically, that is to say in a way that is all-loving. This state of consciousness opens, through the faculty of intuition, the way for cosmic consciousness.
Green (the wisdom being) is characterised by culminating intelligence over and above the previously mentioned basic energies.
Blue (the intuition being in the divine world) has this highest energy of consciousness culminating. In reality, however, these two highest kingdoms should be treated as one kingdom with two sections for high cosmic beings. We can see how intuition stretches over the whole spiral cycle – as life’s very highest and all-permeating sensory energy.
After this culmination of life experience we come to light indigo (the bliss being); such a being lives in its own inner world. This being’s faculty of memory enables it to sense copies of previous experiences of being together with beings in its surroundings throughout the whole of the spiral cycle. These copies of memories in time shine like gold and confirm the old saying: “time heals all wounds”. The kingdom of bliss consists of an inner experience of these “gold copies”. The being can at will move backwards and forwards in this inner universe, which (as can be seen) stretches over all the kingdoms of the spiral cycle, not, however, as a sensing in the outer world but as an inner re-experiencing of this world. The bliss being also has a strong intuition that now acts inwardly and makes it a Godhead in this universe of previous experiences. It sees the “answers” or the “conclusions” behind all the previously experienced details, regardless of whether they were once experienced as light or darkness. It experiences in the same way as God: “all is very good”. (Each of the kingdoms of consciousness is fully described in symbol 13).
The living being’s sensory faculty and the universe
– Symbol No. 31
He that has eyes to see, let him see
The cone-shaped figure on the left symbolises the universe that stretches infinitely through micro-, meso- and macrocosmos.
The section of the staircase-shaped figure symbolises the evolutionary steps of ordinary terrestrial human beings.
The white triangle symbolises an individual living being.
The shining ray emitting from this being symbolises its sensory ability, that is to say, its ability to manifest and experience life. It can only experience what is accessible to its senses See symbol 30). The rest, which is in fact the most, lies in darkness. The more highly developed are its senses, the more perfectly will the being be able to experience.
Terrestrial human beings often each believe that their own view is unfailing and that every one else’s is wrong. They cannot see behind the outer circumstances and therefore do not see how all beings are on their own natural evolutionary step, each with its different perceptions and views of the whole. This lack of knowledge creates intolerance and war. Only when one has the faculty of intuition can one see the whole evolutionary ladder with its many steps and natural inhabitants – “above” and “below” one another.
The twelve basic answers or the solution to the mystery of life
– Symbol No. 32
“Everything is very good”
The orange circle symbolises the zone of the killing principle, which is where terrestrial human beings are still to be found. It is in this sphere of consciousness that life’s dark contrast (the unhappy fates) takes place. Here one is unaware of the cosmic reality that lies behind the physical world. It is here that the question: “why?” arises.
The answer to this question requires knowledge of eternal life, the solution to the very mystery of life. The twelve-pointed orange star illustrates that, from the perspective of eternity, life and the universe is radiantly perfect: all living beings are immortal. We reap as we sow, with respect to what we still have the heart to do to our neighbour. Pain and suffering guide us back to God, to the experience of being eternally together with him. The universe is God’s all-embracing living organism, governed and maintained by eternal, perfect laws of love. This is the only perspective that gives meaning to the divine words: “Behold, everything is very good”.
The twelve segments of the star are numbered anti-clockwise starting with the rainbow-coloured segment.
Segment 1. We have to acknowledge that we exist; this is the first conclusive answer in the solution to the mystery of life. We constitute a “something” not a “nothing”. The same applies to the universe. To deny this would be to deny our own existence and the experience of the world around us. If “nothing” was a reality there would of course be no need for an explanation of the mystery of life.
Segment 2. If we observe our organism and the universe, this “something” reveals an infinite series of causes and effects, symbolised here by the chain.
Segment 3. The chains of cause and effect reveal logic and planning. Our organism, eyes, hands, blood, musculature, skeleton and the way we grow from being an embryo to maturity, in fact all normal functions, in their final analysis, fulfil a useful purpose or a plan.
Segment 4. This planned creation reveals that consciousness is present. There is “something” that chooses and governs the creative processes. Where forces of consciousness are present there is also life.
Segment 5. Planning has revealed consciousness, con-sciousness has revealed life, and life has revealed an I that experiences and that acknowledges its existence in the form of its consciousness and organism. Thoughts and the creation of ideas are characteristics of a living being.The universe is therefore just as living as we are.
Segment 6. When we distinguish between ourselves and the chains of cause and effect of our surroundings we use the words “I” (the white triangle) and “it” (the strips of colour). This differentiation between “I” and “it” is the first encounter with the creator or our highest self.
Segment 7. The second and true encounter with our highest self takes place when we find the self or the I “outside” the infinite chains of cause and effect that make up matter. Organisms are the effects of preceding causes, while the I exists before and after the organisms. The self is an eternal causeless cause behind what is created, an eternal experiencer of the planned causes and effects, it is the creator.
Segment 8. Life constitutes an eternal triune principle. Matter has revealed thinking, thinking has revealed a creative ability, that has in turn revealed a creator. These three principles – the creator, the creative ability and what is created (consciousness and matter) – cannot be separated without them all three disappearing. All three aspects are therefore eternal realities (otherwise they would have come into existence out of nothing). This applies to ourselves as well as to the universe.
Segment 9. The universe and ourselves fulfil exactly the same criteria as those that apply to a living being. Nature’s creative processes are no less logical and planned than our own. Behind all processes there is consciousness and thereby a creative ability and a creator. The triangles (eternal life) within the triangles symbolise that the universe is built up according to the principle: life within life. All living beings are in “God’s image”, that is to say they have the same eternal existence and structure as God himself. The “lesser” being is dependent on having space and surroundings in which it can live within the “great” being. The “great” being is dependent on the small beings in order to build up organisms. They all cooperate perfectly to maintain God’s eternal and infinite organism.
Segment 10. The experience of life is marked throughout all eternity with the help of contrasts. Sensory perception requires contrasts. The fundamental contrasts are darkness and light (evil and good). One contrast cannot exist without the other and this means that the experience of life moves in a planned way between these two opposites, in the form of an endless chain of cycles, cosmic days and nights, described as spiral cycles. In this way the experience of life is continually renewed.
Segment 11. All creation emanates from the causeless cause – the I, the innermost cause of all movements – and the effects therefore return unfailingly to this source. In itself the I is unmanifested and therefore unlimited and omnipresent. The law of fate – that we reap what we sow – causes the behaviour and way of being of all living beings to be, in the final reckoning, a joy and a blessing to everything living.
Segment 12. “Everything is therefore very good”. We survive all experiences, both the dark and the light, and
derive benefit from them; they are all equally necessary in the eternal maintenance of our experience of life. All the details of life are, in their final reckoning, absolutely useful and are a joy and a blessing for everyone and everything. The only way to this knowledge and to a personal experience of the Godhead is “to love the Lord thy God above all things and thy neighbour as thyself”, thereby becoming one with the keynote of the universe: love.
In its totality the symbol thus symbolises the eternal, allloving, almighty consciousness that maintains the universe: the eternal Godhead. The Godhead is eternally double-poled (see symbol 33 and 35), whereas the sons of God during their dark epochs have male or female gender, symbolised by a primary pole (the sun in the middle of the symbol) and a secondary pole (the sun surrounding the sun in the middle).
The outermost yellow and green circle represents intellectualised feeling, which is that very love that embraces the universe and that is increasingly finding expression in the seeker after truth.
Animal and human thought climates
– Symbol No. 33
The transformation of the psyche from animal to human being
Terrestrial human beings live like sphinx beings in the transitional stage between animal and human being. The animal part of the consciousness is the cause of everything that we call “evil”, while the human part of the consciousness is the cause of everything that we call “good”.
The animal state, with its rivalry and struggle to obtain the favours of the partner – is the background to all forms of darkness. In this zone darkness culminates. But the greater the degree of darkness, the quicker the being becomes satiated with the traditions of the animal kingdom, and this expulsion from the animal paradise continues right up to the point where the human being is perfectly humane or loving towards its neighbour. This transformation of the consciousness takes place through many reincarnations (the steps on the violet ladder-shaped figure).
The orange and yellow steps to the very left of the symbol symbolise various stages. The pure animal stages at the very bottom, above that the transformation from the animal to the human being and the true human stages at the top (see the same yellow wedge in symbol 36). It is symbolised that the human consciousnes is born in the animal kingdom as a result of suffering and what Martinus calls ”the pole transformation” which is described here and in symbol 35. All living beings have a “masculine pole” and a “feminine pole”. In the animal kingdom the being to appear as either a male or a female being while the finished all-loving human being is without gender. The shifting of the balance between the poles is called the pole transformation.
The symbol is explained starting from the right. By its side can be seen a vertical figure with a green stripe (the masculine pole) and a yellow stripe (the feminine pole). Where the feminine pole (yellow) is latent we are dealing with a purely male being. After this culmination the feminine pole develops to an equal balance with the masculine pole. What was previously an “animal” is now a “human being” without gender. This state of being a true human being is symbolised above the thick horizontal violet strip.
Next to this figure there is a yellow/green figure which represents the transformation of the female being of the animal kingdom. Here it is the development of the masculine pole (green) that makes the “animal” into a “human being”.
This new state is an inner ability of sympathy, that grows organically in the individual until it include all individuals irrespective of gender. In the perfect finished human kingdom (above the yellow-green horizontal line) the all-loving humans does not appear in masculine or feminine organisms.
“Friendship” is an example of the beginnings of neighbourly love that gloves between people.
This increasing ability to feel sympathy also has to be cultivated to the point of neighbourly love. In the beginning it is easily confused – in not so fortunate ways – with the moral of marriage. The many unhappy marriages, the many deserted partners and children and other painful sexual states of today do not express moral genius.
But creation continues and when the new ability to feel sympathy has reached its finished state it can only bring joy and blessing to the being itself and its neighbour – irrespective of gender. Then the being is protected from suffering and loosing its way – also in the sexual matters. Only happiness and blessing follow in the trail of the all-loving godlike human being.
The birth of the human consciousness - the evolution from animal to human being – is symbolised by the 12 vertical figures. We can follow the initial stage, the culmination and the degeneration of these thought climates and see how they connect with each other.
From the right, the figures symbolise the following:
1. The terrestrial human organism. From an ape-like, coarse, physical body the organism is transformed into an increasingly refined human external appearance.
2. The killing principle. From sacrifices and killing, to war and meat-eating.
3. Ways of thinking that kill, such as the struggle to procure food and a mate, hatred and jealousy.
4. Arrogance, ambition, boastfulness, megalomania and other forms of self-conceit – also in spiritual areas.
5. The consequences of the pole transformation in the form of the degeneration of marriage and other forms of suffering due to the sexual effects of the pole transformation. Together these are called “the birth pains leading to the great birth”.
6. Neighbourly love beginning with the humane religions and ending with pure spiritual science.
7. Art in the animal kingdom. The celebration of hunting, fertility and war-like ideals and later the worship of marriage, heroes and religions based on belief. There then follows a degeneration in the form of the transition into the art of living (universal love).
8. The religious principle. The lighter the yellow, the more it is characterised by the pursuit of genuine humanity. The light that guides us.
9. Psychic sensory abilities. Clairvoyant abilities etc. develop out of the highly sensitised ability to sense what is about to happen that is found among animals. Black magic etc. also comes into this category. In the West these abilities were primarily blocked out by the inquisition. We can learn to differentiate between low- and high-psychic abilities. The correct use of prayer is a high-psychic power – white magic (see symbol 22).
10. The great birth. With cosmic consciousness terrestrial human beings become conscious of the universe and all its kingdoms, symbolised by the colours surrounding the fivepointed star.
11. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit in the form of cosmic beings, and with the uppermost cross, high-cosmic beings such as Christ. With universal love as an organic faculty, there will no longer be any need for humans to be born of women, they will increasingly gain the ability to materialise themselves. Jesus materialised himself several times for his disciples after he was crucified. He was also in this regard in the image of his Father, as it is said: “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” (Psalms 33:9)
12. The double-poled true human body of the future through which every meeting with another finished human being is experienced as a sexual pleasure and bliss – an experience of “the highest fire” (symbolised by the flames at the very top).
The flames symbolise the highest fire, God’s all-determining will, spirit and power behind all manifestations. As can be seen from the very small size of the flames between the male and the female being, the highest fire in the animal kingdom is reduced to its minimal stage of development (see the next symbol).
The act of copulation or the spirit of God in the darkness
– Symbol No. 34
“How can a man be born when he is old?”
The spirit of God pervades all life in the form of the highest fire. This is the organic power that promotes lust for life in the living being’s physical and psychic organisms. This force is distributed in such a way that each spiral cycle is divided into a light and a dark area. In the dark area (the animal kingdom) God’s shining spirit can be experienced only in glimpses and unconsciously through the sexual organs in the act of copulation. This artificial act of love in the animal kingdom, which is not unselfish, makes it possible for disincarnated beings in the spiritual world to attach themselves to two physical guardian angels (a mother and a father) and incarnate in the midst of the deadly zone of the animal kingdom.
The triangle at the top symbolises a being visiting the kingdom of bliss between two terrestrial lives. It is ready to incarnate again into physical matter. The red circle symbolises the energy of instinct that together with the fertilised egg automatically leads the process towards the formation of an embryo. The embryonic stage, the birth, childhood and youth constitute a repetition of previously experienced existences. On reaching adulthood the new organism is a completed tool for the living being itself, dependent, for better or worse, on the good and bad habits and experiences of previous lives. At the age of 30 the being is from a mental point of view ”fully born” into this incarnation. The two white triangles at the bottom symbolise the I’s of the father and the mother. The two orange circles and the yellow rays coming from them symbolise the fact that they are engaging in the act of copulation. The male being on the left and the female being on the right are shown with an enlarged feeling (yellow circle) because of the state of being in love. (The remaining circles symbolise the other basic energies.)
The act of copulation releases the same spiritual sense of intoxication as that which the discarnate beings finds itself in. This state of bliss (indigo colour) thus constitutes the ”bridge between” the physical and the spiritual planes of existence that makes reincarnation a possibility.
The cosmic cycle of the pole principle
– Symbol No. 35
The magic wand in the fairy tale of eternal life
Our consciousness, just like our physical organism, belongs to the area of the created (X3). Everything that is created is changed and renewed eternally. The primal force behind the renewal of the eternal experience of life is the pole transformation (see also symbol 33). In the symbol we can see two horizontal fields each made up of a yellow and a green field. The yellow field symbolises the feminine pole, and the green one the masculine pole. All living beings have both of these poles, but during the passage through the spiral cycle’s animal kingdom one of these poles is held back so that the being appears as either male or female. The uppermost of these horizontal fields thus symbolises the being that appears as a male being in the spiral cycle’s animal kingdom. In the horizontal field beneath it the masculine pole (green) is completely latent when the being is passing through the animal kingdom, and the being is therefore female.
At the same time that these beings are culminating as male and female beings in the animal kingdom, darkness is also at its culmination. But their unloving actions return as pain and suffering and thereby teach the being what is “evil” and what is “good” (see symbol 18 and 20). So through “eating of the fruits of the tree of knowledge” the beings would reach the stage of being like God – one with the Father – and know the difference between good and evil.
All evolution of consciousness in terrestrial human beings is due to the growth of the opposite pole. This affords access to universal love, art and science – at the expense of marital love. When the poles come into balance once again we are no longer male or female but finished human beings in God’s image after his likeness (see symbol 23).
The entire pole transformation is regulated by the “mother kernel” in the being’s super consciousness and determines the being’s experience of pleasure and displeasure.
The green and yellow horizontal fields show that the sexual cycle stretches over two cosmic spiral cycles. The roles change and the living being that is a female in the present animal kingdom (the orange step) becomes a male in next spiral cycle’s animal kingdom. (The steps at the bottom symbolise the kingdoms as explained in symbol 13). The orange circle above the animal kingdom (the orange step) with the two crosses in it symbolises that two beings are in love and engaging in the act of copulation. The one-poled, hormonebased state of being in love belongs to the animal kingdom; in the other kingdoms the poles are in balance.
The perfect, finished human beings have universal love as the foundation of their lives in all situations. The unconscious experience of Gods spirit by glimpses in the animal kingdom (see symbol 34) has now become a permanent conscious state. Jesus said: “In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage” and he taught this way of being all-loving. This Christ-consciousness is indicated by the blue circle. Here light is at its culmination (shown at the very top).
The structure of eternal life
– Symbol No. 36
The transition from one kingdom to another
In the symbol’s step formation we can see the six kingdoms of one spiral cycle delineated by two wide vertical lines. The colour of the field above the steps shows the main energy of consciousness in that plane of existence. Red for instinct (plant kingdom), orange for gravity (animal kingdom), yellow for feeling (true human kingdom), green for intelligence (kingdom of wisdom), blue for intuition (the divine world) and light indigo for memory (the kingdom of bliss). This last kingdom has been given this name because the experiences in this plane of existence are pure light and joy, and they arise by recalling memories from the previous spiral cycle. This kingdom makes its first appearance in the physical world in the form of ice flowers on windows, the formation of suns and the manifestations of the mineral kingdom. The white cloud-shaped figure above the steps indicates that part of the universe that can be sensed using the physical senses that terrestrial human beings have at present, that is to say, the area stretching from the mineral part of the kingdom of bliss to the beginning of the true human kingdom. The spiritual worlds further on can be sensed only through intuition and the faculty of real love.The white and the shaded circles in each kingdom indicate that each kingdom has a primary and a secondary area. After the point of culmination of a plane of existence the beings begin to feel satiated with the traditions of that plane of existence and this leads to the transition to the next kingdom. This transition takes place very gently and unnoticeably, like a branch growing out of the trunk of a tree. There is one exception and that is the transition from the animal kingdom to the true human kingdom; this marks the very turning point from darkness to light symbolised by the large shaded field at the very top of the symbol. This culmination and turning point cannot take place without tears and pain. But only in this kingdom is darkness truly experienced. The triangles in the circles at the top symbolise the living beings – the sons of God – that live through each kingdom. The coloured circles symbolise the ever higher energies of consciousness that the beings acquire as they move towards the culmination of the light.
The unrevealed and the revealed eternal truth
– Symbol No. 37
The veil of Maya
Over the course of evolution terrestrial human beings are able to acquire an ever higher understanding of the truth. The truth about life is adapted to each evolutionary step so that it is continuously in contact with the beings’ sensory faculty and does not give the impression of being either too “naive” or too “fantastic”. Primitive beings’ faculty of instinct allows them to have a vague sense that there are higher powers or that there is a Godhead behind existence. With their weak faculty of intelligence they create images of gods in their own image and are able to believe only in gods as great warriors. Every culture has its own mythologies. But warlike ideals create karma and suffering and as a result of this also humaneness and the longing for a bright understanding of God and the meaning of life. Not until there is a combination of welldeveloped intelligence and higher humane feeling is the being ready to receive the completely revealed truth about life.
At the very bottom of the symbol we can see a white field that is increasing in size as it moves towards the right, this shows how the light (love) increases in the beings’ consciousness with each stage in evolution. The skull and crossbones is a symbol of the stages where the being culminates in devil consciousness and the worship of darkness. The town bathed in light symbolises the light religious or atheistic ideals. We can see how the light is “concealed” from the animal beings’ senses, but we can also see how they gain access to experiencing more and more of this light gradually as the veil of Maya falls away from their consciousness.
With the faculty of universal love the being is able to sense the vibrations of love of the Godhead (the white triangle and the rays emanating from it). It does not need explanations anymore.
Human beings and animal and vegetable food
– Symbol No. 38
”You shall have them for food”
“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food”.
Very little attention has been given to this guidance given in the Bible (Gen. 1:29). For many people it is a tradition to eat animal food. For beasts of prey it is natural, but for civilised human beings who have left behind the more primitive and robust evolutionary stages of the animal it is unnatural. It is a great strain on the modern, refined and civilised human body to take in the same food as the beast of prey, and the cost is organic illness in the body.
Our eating habits are also to do with respecting the right to life of animals. Animals are confined, tortured and killed, but the sixth commandment: “Thou shalt not kill” and the law of fate: “You reap as you sow” also apply in our relationship to animals. From a cosmic point of view, our persecution of animals creates a constant risk of death, accidents, lack of freedom and other outer difficulties. We are protected only to the degree that we protect other living beings. To consume other living beings’ organisms, muscles, livers, kidneys, hearts and intestines is a tradition that is dying out.
It should be added that developed human beings will similarly also give up the traditions of consuming alcohol, tobacco, narcotics and other substances that are poisonous to the spirit and the body’s living microbeings. In this respect terrestrial human beings are still a long way from loving God and their neighbour as themselves.
The ideal food for terrestrial human beings’ present evolutionary step consists of vegetables and fruit – possibly supplemented with dairy products at the beginning. Later on only the ripe fruit flesh surrounding the seed will be considered the right kind of food. In this individual process each person should adopt that particular diet that causes them no trouble and which they find easy to digest.
The lowest step of the staircase symbolises the pure form of the animal kingdom and the food of the beast of prey or carnivore. The zigzag line shows the coarse vibration from the living microbeings in the microworld of meat. In the process of digestion the killing of these living “meat life-units” in microcosmos (the circle with the triangle in the middle and, on this lowest step, the yellow and green circles) releases the real nourishment (the red particles). Apart from the karma as a result of the killing, this animal process also brings about a loss
of energy for the organism.
The next step (orange/yellow) symbolises the transitional phase between the animal kingdom and the true human kingdom and its mixture of animal and vegetarian food, and eventually only vegetarian food.
The third step symbolises the food in the perfect human kingdom, initially mainly nourishment from fruit and thereafter increasingly nourishment from air.
The uppermost steps symbolise the completely spiritual kingdoms where food is mental and consists of thoughts and actions that create light and joy. The circle at the top on the left symbolise an unfinished terrestrial human being and the way it relates to the various groups of foods.
The categories of the consciousness of terrestrial human beings
– Symbol No. 39
“The good soil”
In the symbol the combined consciousness of terrestrial humankind is divided into two main groups: one that is under the influence of the new world impulse (symbolised by the upper star) and one that is under the influence of the old world impulse (the lower star) We also can recognize the white belt from symbol 1.
Terrestrial human beings have different spiritual ages, which causes them to be on different evolutionary steps. Some are content with their faith and relate more or less to the old world impulse and its traditions. Others are more receptive to the various manifestations of the new world impulse (see symbol 1). Receptiveness is not a question of will – it depends on the experiences the individuel has lived through in the past. This is the deciding factor in the exercising of its will, its partiality and its impartiality towards the old or the new impulse. This reveals how unreasonable it is to be intolerant of and to bear ill-will towards beings that are different.
In the symbol the two groups are further illustrated by the 6 oval figures that symbolise the various categories of terrestrial human beings according to the different balances between intelligence (green) and feeling (yellow). The following three categories are found within both of the main groups: beings with a balance between feeling and intelligence, beings with a predominance of feeling and beings with a predominance of intelligence. These, in all, 6 categories are in “Livets Bog” divided into further sections according to how well-developed their intelligence and humane feeling is. What follows is a very brief description of the 6 categories (the coloured, oval figures – described from left to right).
Group A – Beings for whom the religious aspect of their lives can only be furthered through the new world impulse:
1. Beings with a balance of feeling and intelligence. The forecourt of the great birth. The most advanced and spiritually developed terrestrial human beings that have come through most of their karmic suffering and have a well-developed sense of logic.
2. Beings with a predominance of feeling. From true spiritual researchers, artists and reformers to sectarian fanatics. From a slightly weak to an extremely weak sense of logic.
3. Beings with a predominance of intelligence, such as spiritual researchers, politicians, scientists and business people. From a slightly weak to an extremely weak faculty for empathy.
Group B – Beings who are mainly influenced by the old world impulse:
4. Beings with a balance of feeling and intelligence. The true believers in the old world impulse, who are the source of inspiration behind the creation of much of the humaneness in the world.
5. Here the predominance of feeling is given expression in, among other things, holy wrath, inquisition and fanaticism.
6. A predominance of intelligence and primitive feeling. Beings without much conscience. The ”youngest” within civilization.
The sign of the cross
– Symbol No. 40
Knowledge from above and knowledge from below
One can look at the universe from two fundamentally different points of view. Natural science describes the world through the physical senses, below. Spiritual science looks at the world from the viewpoint of the eternal and infinite non-created I, above here symbolised by the vertical line of the cross.
The viewpoint of natural science is symbolised by the horizontal line going “across” matter – from the grey field of light on the left (stellar mist in microcosmos) to the right (stellar mist in macrocosmos). Both forms of knowledge are equally necessary, but serve different purposes in the realization of the perfect human kingdom that is to come.
Whereas the one source of knowledge gives us information about the forces of Nature, the other gives us information about the nature of our eternal, innermost being. With its help we can create peace in our consciousness, so that we use it solely to bring joy and blessing to all and everything.
Christ’s example of love and his death on the cross confirms it as the eternal symbol of light and goodness.
The star symbol
– Symbol No. 41
The symbol of universal love
The symbol expresses the universe itself. The triangle symbolises the basic analysis of the universe: the triune principle: the eternal I, the faculty to manifest and the organism (X1, X2 and X3).
The triangle surrounded by a sun shows that life or existence in its highest analysis is absolutely perfect. The rays appearing in the shape of a cross symbolise universal love, the most perfect manifestation, where one would rather sacrifice oneself than allow others to suffer.
The structure of the flag
– Symbol No. 42
Peace
The symbol on this flag is intended to express the whole universe and is therefore the symbol of “the holy spirit”.
It can rightfully wave only in an atmosphere of forgiveness, tolerance and love. The triangle in the middle expresses the divine something that experiences life (X1) in all living beings, the divine creative ability (X2), and what is created (X3). The triangle can also be seen as X1, the violet colour round the triangle as the mother energy or the divine creative ability, X2, and the coloured fields, the 6 basic energies each with its plane of existence, as X3.
The symbol of “Livets Bog” (The Book of Life)
– Symbol No. 43
“He will bring glory to me…”
The lit-up area symbolises the content of the first volume of “Livets Bog” (that part of Martinus’ main work that had been completed in 1932). The work’s seven volumes can be seen divided up into five sections: Preface, Introduction (Volume 1), the main part of the treatise in the form of the chapters: “Cosmic Chemistry” and “Eternal Life” (Volumes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7), a summary of the analyses and the postscript: “The Son of God at one with the Father” (also in Volume 7).
The triangle on the left symbolises Martinus’ initiation and the triangle on the right symbolises the Godhead. The eternal sons of God and the Godhead have the same analysis, namely eternity and infinity, that is to say, X1, X2 and X3, and this can be seen as a the three figures that stretch through the whole of the large figure.
The purpose of The Third Testament work is the reunion between the eternal sons of God and the Godhead which will reveal itself to the reader through the cosmic analyses. Martinus’ mission was to show human beings God and to justify Jesus’ mission.
The law of existence – Love one another!
– Symbol No. 44
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts”
This picture is not, in the proper sense of the word, a cosmic symbol. It is found at the end of the fourth Symbol Book, which was, unlike the other 3 volumes, not edited and published by Martinus himself.
The picture shows the rise of the Christ-consciousness over the world. The danish words ”Elsker hverandre” means: ”Love one another”, a mental state where people love one another irrespective of gender – illustrated by the three different couples. The thread running through The Third Testament is the love for God and all living beings, whether in micro-, meso- or macrocosmos.
With The Third Testament terrestrial human beings have been given, as Jesus promised, the explanation of the commandment of love: “Thou shalt love thy God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself”.
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