The
spiral order running through nature, human life and the creativity of
civilization reflects the primal ordering principle of the cosmos, &a,
and the cyclic nature of seasonal flux, Ritu. A cosmic symbol of perennial
significance, it is universally recognised as a natural form of growth,
continuity and constant renewal. Spiral symmetries are found everywhere in
nature: in galactic proportions, as in spiral-galaxies, and at the other
extreme of the scale, as in sub-atomic levels of manifestation. From
macrocosm to humans as microcosm, the spiral formation is found in the
shape of DNA molecule, which contains the coded master plan of the living
organ. More recently it has been discovered that some living cells group
themselves in double spiral patterns.
The
spherical vortex, known to be one of the most complete symbols, frequently
occurs in the creative expressions of all the civilisations of the world.
The spiral is associated with primal dance of healing, incantation and
prayer, as in the case of the dance of the Mevlana Dervishes whose foot
pattern develops a spiral curve to embody the celestial movements of a
planet spinning on its own axis and around the sun. Similar spiral
formations are replicated in architecture, painting, in the Islamic
arabesque patterns, down to the images found in the older layers of human
civilisation in the Mesolithic age. Even the path of the human life-cycle
is seen as a vortex, a rounded voyage which begins from the centre,
expands in well defined phases of human growth and finally returns to the
heart of the universe, the original creation.
The
new sciences are beginning to explore the cyclic order of space-time
continuum and the ways in which natural polarities of order and chaos
balance the equilibrium of our universe. When we begin to recognise that
the dinergic rhythm of expansion and contraction, order and chaos, arise
from a single source, human evolution will enter yet another evolutionary
spiral....
