7. The snake as a tempter

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Seven hearts trapped behind bars. The serpent wants to seal the human heart and lure it into sin. Here Adam and Eve have exchanged colors with each other. The woman defends her male self, the man his female. Feelings and thoughts are united in both. Hilma precedes C.G. Jung and his ideas about the male and female in each - anima and animus. Paul says: But in the Lord there is not woman without man, nor man without woman. For as the woman came from the man, so also the man comes into being through the woman. Further: Now no one is Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. You are all one in Christ, Jesus. To integrate the 'other' into oneself is to make one's fellow man the object of one's love. It is the discovery that I am You and You are I. Hilma shows us this with the focus of the blue and yellow St. Andrew's Cross in the center of the white circle.