Asia’s symbol is the all-encompassing sea, the circle - Europe’s symbol is the forward-looking power, the straight line. Here, the deepest meaning of the cosmic symbols, the Alpha and Omega, is revealed. It conveys to us the mystical, recurrent polarity, of force and form, time and space, man and cosmos, that hides behind the souls of Europe and Asia; the capital Omega, the circle, that opens the gate to the cosmos, is a symbol of the divine harmony of Asia; the capital Alpha, a sharp upwards-pointing arrow that pierces through the circle, is a symbol of the action and determination Europe’s which breaks the eternal calmness of Asia. A and O are also in the Freudian sense unmistakable symbols of masculinity and femininity: the union of these symbols signifies conception and life, as well as reveals the eternal dualism of the world. The same symbolism probably exists in the numbers 1 and 0, as the finite 1 against the infinite 0 – “yes” against “no”."

~ Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi - Practical Idealism