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, but 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; 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 works through contrasts. The fundamental contrasts of life 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. 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. “Everything is therefore very good”. 

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.

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