Why the experience of paradise is transformed into an experience of unpleasantness or depression
1580. The fact that light and darkness or a sphere of pleasantness and a sphere of unpleasantness can thus occur in each of the six kingdoms of the cycle, is, as mentioned previously, due entirely to the principle of hunger and satiation. As long as the being hungers to comply with the laws and ideals of the particular kingdom in the spiral cycle in which it temporarily lives, it lives in a real state of satisfaction, and is happy about its life and its place in this kingdom. It harbours not the least longing or desire for any other way of life. The kind of life the being is living is the absolutely most ideal and most perfect that it can imagine. As long as the being has this attitude to its existence and zone of life, it is in "paradise" and experiences the bliss or joy in living that is suited to its step. The first half of each kingdom in the spiral cycle thus constitutes a kind of "paradise" for the being, a sphere of happiness. But as the "highest fire" or the main stem of the sexual principle, through the being's organic structure, gradually creates its satiation with the ideals and forms of manifestation of the kingdom concerned, a corresponding repulsion towards these arises. The life that was previously a pleasure now becomes an experience of unpleasantness; it becomes something that one feels increasingly averse or loathe to having anything to do with. The contrast to the ideals of this kingdom, however, becomes the inspiring goal for the individual's desires or longings. And immersing oneself in these ideals and ways of life then becomes the incipient or growing new "feeling of paradise".
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