Images of Occult Seals and Columns

SEAL IV represents, among other things, two columns, one rising from the sea and the other from the earth. These columns hint at the secret of the role played by red (oxygen-rich) blood and blue-red (carbon-rich) blood in human development. The human 'I' undergoes its development in the cycle of the earth by physically expressing its life in the interaction between red blood, without which there would be no life, and the blue blood, without which there would be no knowledge. Blue blood is the physical expression of the powers that give knowledge, but which in their human form are connected with death; and red blood is the expression of life, which in its human form could not give knowledge by itself. Both in their interaction represent the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, or also the two columns on which life and the knowledge of the ego develop further to that degree of perfection where man will become one with the universal earth forces. This latter state of the future is shown on the seal by the upper body, which consists of clouds, and by the face, which has appropriated the spiritual powers of the sun. Man will then no longer absorb “knowledge” from outside into himself, but will have “swallowed” it into himself, which is indicated in the book in the middle of the seal. Only through such “devouring” on a higher level of existence do the seven seals of the book open, as they are also indicated on Seal III. In the “Revelation of St. John” we find the significant words about this: “And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it...”