“The world is primarily the totality of everything,
Consisting of heaven and earth…
In the second mystical sense, however,
It is appropriately identified as man. For as the world has grown out of four elements
So does man consist of four humours…”
(Isadore of Seville, A.D. 560 – 636, De natura rerum)

The two figures , male and female , represented by Adam and Eve, symbolically refer to the balance of opposites, the yin/yang and duality of the material world of light/darkness; good/evil. The tree, symbolic of the Tree of Life, which is also referred to as the Axis Mundi or Universal Axis, is considered to be the connection with the spirit world, and the link between heaven and earth.

The recognision of 7 chakras or energy centres appears in many belief systems. In his Theosophia practica of 1696 Georg Gichtel describes a spiral of seven seals, corresponding to the seven planets, the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury and Saturn, which lie on the human body. In his work, the expanding spiral around the figure of Adam refers to the placement or correlation of the seven planets and the soul is considered to be a manifestation of the Divine. The Smaragdina Tablet, also known as the Emerald Tablet is an ancient text accredited to Hermes Trismegisus, the founder of Alchemy, and one of the tenets inscribed on it is as follows;

“ ‘Tis true without lying, certain and most true;
That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below….”