Inner Worlds Outer Worlds, Part 2 – “The Spiral”

“To balance the power of the spiral with the stillness of your
witnessing consciousness, is to align with your full evolutionary potential.“

A thousand years before the creation of the ancient observatory at Stonehenge, the spiral was a predominant symbol on Earth. Ancient spirals can be found in all parts of the globe. Thousands of ancient spirals such as these can be found all over Europe, North American New Mexico, Utah, Australia, China, Russia, and virtually every indigenous culture on Earth. The ancient spirals symbolize growth, expansion and cosmic energy embodied within the sun and the heavens. The spiral form is mirroring the macrocosm of the unfolding universe itself. In native traditions, the spiral was the energetic source, the Primordial Mother. The Neolithic spirals at Newgrange, Ireland date back five thousand years. They are five hundred years older than the Great Pyramid at Giza and they are just as enigmatic to modern observers.
The spiral goes back to a time in history when humans were more connected to the Earth, to the cycles and spirals of nature. A time when humans were less identified with thoughts. The spiral is what we perceive to be the torque of the universe. Prana, or creative force, swirls Akasha into a continuum of solid forms. Found at all levels between the macrocosm and the microcosm, from spiral galaxies to weather systems, to the water in your bathtub, to your DNA, to the direct experience of your own energy. The Primordial Spiral is not an idea, but rather that which makes all conditions and ideas possible.

Various types of spirals and helices are found throughout the natural world. Snails. Sea coral. Spider webs. Fossils. Seahorses’ tails. And shells. Many spirals appearing in nature are observable as logarithmic spirals or growth spirals. As you move out from the center the spiral sections get exponentially larger. Like Indra’s Net of Jewels, logarithmic spirals are self-similar or holographic such that the characteristics of every part are reflected in the whole.
2400 years ago in ancient Greece, Plato considered continuous geometric proportion to be the most profound cosmic bond. The Golden Ratio, or divine proportion was nature’s greatest secret. The Golden Ratio can be expressed as the ratio of A + B to A is the same as the ratio of A to B. To Plato, the world’s soul binds together into one harmonic resonance. The same pentagonal pattern that exists in a starfish, or in a slice of okra, can be seen in the path of the planet Venus traced in the night sky over an eight year period. The intelligible world of forms above and the visible world of material objects below, through this principle of geometric self similarity. From the self-similar spiral patterns of the Romanesco broccoli to the arms of galaxies, logarithmic spirals are a ubiquitous and archetypal pattern. Our own Milky Way galaxy has several spiral arms which are logarithmic spirals with a pitch of about 12 degrees.
The greater the pitch of the spiral, the tighter the turns. When you observe a plant growing in time-lapse video you witness it dancing with the spiral of life. A golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral that grows outward by a factor of the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is a special mathematical relationship that pops up over and over in nature. The pattern that is observable follows what is called the Fibonacci series or Fibonacci sequence. The Fibonacci series unfolds such that each number is the sum of the previous two numbers.

The German mathematician and astronomer Keppler discovered that self-similar spiral patterns are observable in the way leaves are arranged on stems of plants. Or in the floret and petal arrangements of flowers. Leonardo da Vinci observed that the spacing of leaves was often in spiral patterns. These patterns are called “phyllotaxis” patterns or leaf arrangement patterns. Phyllotaxis arrangements can be seen in self-organizing DNA nucleotides and in everything from the family trees of reproducing rabbits, to pine cones, cacti, to snowflakes and in simple organisms such as diatoms. Diatoms are one of the most common types of phytoplankton; single celled organisms that provide food for countless species throughout the food chain.

How much math do you need to know to be a sunflower or a bee? Nature doesn’t consult the physics department to grow broccoli. The structuring in nature happens automatically. Scientists in the field of nanotechnology use the term self-assembly to describe the way complexes are formed such as in the initial hexagonal phase of DNA formation. In nanotechnology engineering, carbon nanotubes are comprised of a similar arrangement of materials. Nature does this type of geometry over and over, effortlessly. Automatically. Without a calculator. Nature is precise and extremely efficient. According to the famous architect and author Buckminster Fuller, these patterns are a function of time space.
DNA and honeycomb are the shape they are for the same reason a bubble is round. It is the most efficient shape for requiring the least amount of energy. Space itself has shape and allows only certain configurations for matter, always defaulting to what is most efficient. These patterns are the strongest and most efficient way to build architectural structures such as geodesic domes. Logarithmic spiral patterns allow plants maximum exposure to insects for pollination, maximum exposure to sunlight and rain and allow them to efficiently spiral water towards their roots. Birds of prey use the logarithmic spiral pattern to stalk their next meal. Flying in a spiral is the most efficient way to hunt.
One’s ability to see the spiral of life dancing Akasha into material form is related to one’s ability to see beauty and symmetry in nature. Poet William Blake said, “the vegetative universe opens like a flower from the Earth’s center, in which is eternity. It expands from stars to the mundane shell and there it meets eternity again both within and without.”

Other Films in the Series

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  Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds, Part 1 – “Akasha”

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  Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds “The Serpent and the Lotus”

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  Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds, Part 4 – “Beyond Thinking”