Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00473)

Murray:

>Eldon <<In conditioned existence, they are "spiral". The second hand of
>the clock complete a cycle, and the minute hand has moved forward a
>notch. It is only when we step outside of conditioned time that the sense
>of "spiral" dissapears and we experience pure durtion.
>
>But I do want to let everyone know that I, at least,
>>think that they are cyclical, the circle being the ancient symbol for
>>existence, not the spiral.>>
>
>Reminds me that the 2-dimensional spiral is quite a common symbol in some
>cultures, often portrayed with 3 and a half turns or circuits around the
>center.

We can combine mathematical symbols and get others that contain more meanings.
A spiral is the combination of a circular motion combined with a movement
inward (or outward, depending upon which direction the spiral is going).

Another symbol is the three-dimensional torus. We have a circle that does
not change size, but it's center point spins around a circle in another
dimension. We end up with a "donut" shape. In this case, from the standpoint
of two dimensions, we have a circle that does not change. But looking at it
from a higher dimension, we see that the circle moves *in its entirety*
in yet another direction.

The book "Turbulent Mirror", which goes into chaos, gives a quite wonderful
collection of mathematical and geometric symbols. One that is new, that was
not popularly known in Blavatsky's time, is that of the fractal. We have a
line, for instance, that moves so much that it is no longer one-dimensional;
it takes on a fractional dimension. It might be 1.33374 dimensions. Or we have
a surface that is more than two dimensions but less than a three dimensional
solid. And things like fractals are used in science and describe real-world
processes! Considering that we use simple geometric shapes for spiritual
symbolism, certainly fractals, things like the mandelbrot set and bifurcation
curve, should prove to be even richer sources of intuitive insight into the
mathemtical (and spiritual) side of life!

-- Eldon