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Read Chapter 8 from:
Esoteric Anatomy: The Body as Consciousness
by Bruce Burger, MA
We invite you to contemplate an ancient vision of the universe as a living, breathing, conscious Being . . .
and the ubiquitous Golden Spiral as the mathematical expression of the life breath of a living universe.
and the ubiquitous Golden Spiral as the mathematical expression of the life breath of a living universe.
Chapter 8
The Golden Spiral:
a Key To Understanding Energy in Nature
All creation is the interweaving of cycles. From Galactic manifestation to subatomic waves, the universe is a vast spectrum of cycles. The cycles of birth and death, summer and winter, day and night, in-breath and out-breath weave the fabric of life. The ancient rishis (Yogi's who purified their body/minds and directly experienced the fundamental forces of creation) experienced the underlying unity of all cycles as the breath of Brahma and the ubiquitous periodicity of the universe as the rhythm of the life breath of a single harmonious Living Being.
All bodies in nature
or organized around the proportional harmonics
of the rhythms of the Earth's breath.
of the rhythms of the Earth's breath.
There is a profound body of scientific evidence that points to the fact that the universe is a single harmonious system. A key to understanding this unity is found in an aspect of natural law known variously as the “Divine Proportion,” “Golden Section,” “Golden Ratio,” or Golden Spiral.”
Bruce Rawles explains:
The Divine Proportion was closely studied by the Greek sculptor, Phidias, hence, it was given the name Phi. Also known as the Golden Mean, the Magic Ratio, the Fibonacci Series, etc., Phi can be found throughout the universe; from the spirals of galaxies to the spiral of a Nautilus seashell; from the harmony of music to the beauty in art. A botanist will find it in the growth patterns of flowers and plants, while the zoologist sees it in the breeding of rabbits. The entomologist views it in the genealogy of a bee, and the physicist observes it in the behavior of light and atoms. A Wall Street analyst finds it in the rising and falling patterns of a market, the mathematician in the examination of the pentagram. . . . The ancient Egyptians used it in the construction of the great pyramids and in the design of hieroglyphs found on tomb walls . . . . Plato in his Timaeus considered it the most binding of all mathematical relations and makes it the key to the physics of the cosmos.1
The Golden Spiral can be described mathematically through a principle known in the West as the Fibonacci progression which is named after an Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci da Pisa. Fibonacci, the father of western mathematics, learned this principle from traders of the Aryan civilizations of Asia. The Fibonacci progression is a mathematical sequence that is produced by starting with 1 and adding the last two numbers in the progression to arrive at the next. The Fibonacci sequence begins: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . . Each number is the sum of the previous two numbers.
The Fibonacci numbers, and especially ratios of two successive Fibonacci numbers, show up extensively in nature. For example, the petals of a Monterey pine cone are arranged in spirals crossing in both directions: eight spirals in one direction and thirteen in the other. Similar patterns arise in the seeds of sunflowers and in other plants whose leaves grow in a spiral around a central stem; each successive leaf may be on the opposite side (1/2 way around) or may be 2/3 of the way around, or 3/5, etc.2
The ratio of any two successive Fibonacci numbers from three on is about 1:1.618. This ratio occurs ubiquitously throughout nature, in logarithmic spirals that underlie the process of growth.
The Golden Spiral describes the radiation of energy from a center. In all natural processes energy radiates from a center in the logarithmic proportions of the Golden Spiral. One can witness the Golden Spiral in the curve of an elephant’s tusk, the horns of wild sheep, the curve of a canary’s claw, the spiral in a pineapple or daisy. The spiral of your fingerprint or curl in your eye lash follow the Divine Proportion. The planets of our solar system radiate from our Sun, and galaxies manifest following the rhythms of the Golden Spiral. The Fibonacci progression describes the law that underlies the radiation of energy in nature. “It governs, for example, the laws involved with the multiple reflections of light through mirrors, as well as the rhythmic laws of gains and losses in the radiation of energy.”3
We find the same proportional harmonics
in the average distance
of the planets from the sun as the chambers of a nautilus.
of the planets from the sun as the chambers of a nautilus.
The breath of Brahma sustains the harmony of the Golden Spiral. The source of all vibration is the word of God. The song of God animates the cosmic dance of Shiva and Shakti, centrifugal and centripetal currents that undulate through every spiraling atom of creation The vibration of these spiraling yang and yin currents weaves the fabric of creation. David Tame in his valuable book, The Secret Power of Music, in a section titled “The vocal range of the one Singer,” points out the unity of the electromagnetic spectrum:
Not
only “solid” matter but all forms of energy, are composed of waves:
which is to say, vibrations. All of the different kinds of
electromagnetic energy—including radio waves, heat, X rays, cosmic
rays, visible light,
infra-red, and ultraviolet—are composed of wave like or vibratory
activity,
these vibrations traveling through the universe at 186,000 miles per
second.
The only difference between each of these phenomena is their frequency
of
vibration or wavelength. Each merges into the other at a certain
wavelength:
which obviously means, when one gets down to it, they are each one and
the
same thing.4
All vibration is aligned with the harmony of the electromagnetic spectrum. The mathematics that describe the radiation of energy throughout the vast spectrum of vibration of the universe is the Golden Spiral. Every level of macrocosm and microcosm of vibration is attuned to the harmony of the one singer.
(Picture this spiral three-dimensionally as a spiraling vortex, undulating in both directions, centrifugally, and centripetally simultaneously at the speed of life.)7
The ancient rishis (seers) purified their bodies
and concentrated
their minds. They communed with the intelligence of the cosmic being
through
prayer and devotion. They actualized micro clairvoyant powers (siddhi)
in
which they directly experienced the fundamental forces of creation.
They
witnessed “spirals, within, spirals, within spirals . . . ” as they
described
the vibratory nature of energy. They described the gunas, the
fundamental modes of nature, which they likened to a rope spun of three
threads. Centrifugal and centripetal spiraling around an unchanging
core. Spiraling through all vibration are a balance of centrifugal and
centripetal currents fractally emanating from an infinite core. These
forces radiate from the core, universally, in the proportional
harmonics defined by the Golden Spiral.5
Like wheels within wheels, fields undulate within fields in the universal
electromagnetic process of centrifugal and centripetal forces.
All energy in creation vibrates as a Logarithmic Spiral.6
Undulating through every spiral of periodicity in creation is the profound balance of the universal breath of ascending and descending currents of yang and yin, expansion and contraction, Fire and Water.
Energy fields in nature are organized following the proportional harmonics of the Golden Spiral
Understanding this undulating “dance of Shiva” is a key to the vibratory basis of creation. The infinity archetype (∞ ) embodies the key to this universal process in which balanced opposites sustain a unity. In this case the opposites are the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces whose logarithmic undulations fractally weave the fabric of creation. Following the harmonic proportions defined by the Golden Spiral, the opposite undulating forces weave a pattern of seven intervals within eight phases. Esoterically this is called The Law of Seven.
The Cosmic Octave: The Law of Seven
On every level of macrocosm and microcosm, vibration spirals as the cosmic octave. An octave describes a process with eight steps and seven intervals. Seven is a fundamental level of organization in the universe. The seven whole notes of the tones of the musical scale are a natural measure of the harmony of universal law. The musical octave is so “natural” that it defines the proportional distances between the planets in the solar system! The seven colors of the rainbow define the spectrum of light.
The physicist Hermann von Helmholtz devised a correspondence between the visible spectrum and the musical scale.8
Musical Notes Colors
G Ultraviolet
F, F# Violet
E Indiago Blue
D# Cyanogen Blue
D Greenish Blue
C# Green
C Yellow
A# Orange-red
G#, A Red
G Infrared
Tame reveals:
Nature herself also indicates the close link between sound and light, the solar spectrum of colors displaying a number of the properties of tones. The resemblance is just as though the one phenomenon—light—were a higher state of the other. Just as audible tone organizes itself naturally into the seven notes of the diatonic scale, so too does the visible solar spectrum form the seven colors of the rainbow.9In Sanskrit the letters of the alphabet that reflect the spectrum of vibration underlying creation are called varnas, or colors. Sanskrit letters varnas coordinate with universal basic principles that build and unfold creation.
Out of the one white light radiate the solar spectrum of the seven colors of the rainbow. Tradition holds that all of the universe is formed by and thus mirrors the seven major (and five minor) cosmic tones.
All growth in nature is ruled by the lunar cycle. “From one cell to two there is a cycle of change in eight phases with seven intervals, analogous to the musical octave, or the spectrum of light . . . The lunar month, a perfect example of graduated phases within a continuous process, is dominated by seven and its multiples.”10 The twenty-eight days of the lunar cycle, of the two fortnights of the waxing and waning Moon, map a cycle of four seven-day cycles and twenty-eight graduated steps that underlie all biological processes. The cycle spiraling through the lunar month of four-times-seven is fundamental to all growth. Cells divide in an octavian process.
The planets spiral out from the nucleus of the solar system following what in astronomy is called Bodes law, in which the distance between the planets follows the Fibonacci progression. The planets of the solar system follow the proportional harmonics of the Golden Spiral and parallel our earthly musical scale. The seven days of the week is a “natural process” of the rhythms of the cosmos. Sun-day, Moon-day, Mars-day, Mercur-day, Thors-day (Jupiter), Fri-day (Venus), and Saturn-day reflect the same cosmic octave.
The
“menorah” that was the centerpiece of the Tabernacle in the wilderness
and of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem had seven branches.
The candelabra of seven lights, of the ancient Israelites offers a model of the universe. The Sun is represented by the center light, Mars and Venus, Mercury and Earth, Saturn and Jupiter are represented in the polarity of candles on each side.
Seven is a fundamental number in nature. There are seven rows of stable elements in the periodic table of the elements, which is understood to be the scientific basis of matter. Indeed in Leadbetter’s Occult Chemistry, the periodic table is portrayed as a Golden Spiral. There are seven types of crystal systems—cubic, rhombohedral, hexagonal, triclinic, monoclinic, trigonal, and orthorhombic—the crystallization within the mineral kingdom of the seven elemental harmonics of creation. There are seven major hormonal glands in the human body and seven ventricles or cavities of the skull.11
In Sacred Geometry, Robert Lawler asserts:
“Numerous studies document the ubiquity of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Series, which describe the rhythmic laws of the gains and losses in the radiation of energy.”13 For example, Professor Amstutz of the Mineralogical Institute at the University of Heidelberg maintains: “Matter’s latticed waves are spaced at intervals corresponding to the frets on a harp or guitar with analogous sequences of overtones arising from each fundamental. The science of musical harmony is in these terms practically identical with the science of crystals.”14 Wilfried Krü ger, in his book Das Universium Singt (The Universe Sings) combines a knowledge of musical theory and atomic physics. He demonstrates that the structure of atoms contain ratios and numbers that parallel the harmonious principles of music. Through a wealth of highly detailed and painstakingly prepared notes and diagrams he demonstrates that it is impossible for chance alone to account for the consistently musical patterns of the song of the universe.15
The ancient cultures understood the profound
harmony of
the universe. Their science was based on this fundamental aspect of
universal law. Universally, energy emanates from a center in a
“step-down” process that follows the Golden Spiral of the Divine
Proportion. Seven fields of force radiate from a center, in a quantum
step-down of graduated phases, within
a continuous process. The first two steps are the inner harmonics of
the
causal and mental plane; the next five steps are the elemental
harmonics of
resonance that underlie matter: Ether, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. The
Law
of Seven is a fundamental principle in the theomorphic perspective.
"Theomorphic" stepdown of energy. All forms in Nature embody the process of creation!
The Golden Ratio and the logarithmic succession of the Fibonacci progression are fundamental expressions of universal law. The Golden Spiral is a key to looking beyond the physical to the unified field that is the substratum underlying manifestation. All physical phenomena exist in alignment with this underlying field. The fundamental features, structure, and function of all organisms are reflections of the fact that they are subsystems within the larger energy systems of nature and the cosmos from which they derive their energy and being.
Elemental Harmonics of Resonance
Throughout all creation there is a step-down in vibration from the inner spiritual essence of the Life Field outward to a material manifestation. This step-down occurs through phases that reflect the proportional harmonics defined by the Golden Spiral.
Every level of macrocosm and microcosm reflects the polarity dynamic of energy radiating outward from a nucleus and being received again into that neutral center. Fields of force are organized in a quantum process of keynotes of entrainment. Thus, in the cosmology of the ancients we picture quantum zones of force emanating from the center of the universal energy field, each zone representing a specific resonant frequency of the step-down from Spirit into materiality.
Golden Spiral: Life breath of a living universe . . .
The ancient wisdom describes these fields of resonance emanating from the center as elements. The elements are the vibratory archetypes of Cosmic Intelligence that underlie creation. Ether, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. These five patterns of vibration are at the core of the sciences of the ancients. Dr. Stone writes: “Patterns are mind energy fields. [underlined in the original] Each type of energy has a vibratory speed and wave length which determines its function and affinity to other similar units of energy functioning in the body, or outside in the cosmos."17 They are the fundamental resonances that are the inner vibrational basis of all phenomena. The elemental harmonics are understood as four phases of radiation (Air, Fire, Water, and Earth) from one center (Ether). Each of the elements represents a progressively denser, more material radiation of a single force, a harmonic of the underlying singular harmony. The elements are archetypal harmonics corresponding to the phases of materialization in the Polarity Evolutionary Cycle.
Cross section of logarithmic spiral pictured
above.
Ether
Ether + Air sustain Air
Ether + Air + Fire sustain Fire Ether +Air + Fire sustain Water
Ether +Air + Fire + Water sustain Earth
Energy Fields radiate from a center and step-down in quantum fashion from higher to lower rates of vibration from the core to the periphery. The radiation of energy fields is universally ruled by the Golden Spiral.
Like wheels within wheels, these whirling vortices of force emanate from the center of every energy field in a quantum fashion of discrete zones of resonance that provide the step-down mechanism from Spirit to matter. The Etheric center radiates a series of fields in a quantum step-down mechanism through which spirit crystallizes into matter. The elements represent progressive stages in the cycle of movement of this energy from Spirit into matter. They form the outward, involutionary cycle from within to without, from above to below, from Ether to Earth, from subtle Spirit to the crystallization of consciousness into matter. This movement then becomes an inward-moving evolutionary cycle from below to above and from without to within, as energy cycles back through matter to Spirit.
In the Tantric darsan (a vision of God) nature (prakriti) is differentiated into five forms of motion. Ether (Akasa) fills space with the “Hairs of Shiva,” nonobstructive motion radiating lines of force in all directions, sustaining the space in which the other forces operate. Air (Vayu) is a transverse motion and the source of locomotion in space (from the sanskrit root Va, “to move”). Fire (Tejas) is an upward motion giving rise to expansion. Water (Apas) is a downward motion giving rise to contraction. Earth (Prithivi) is a motion which produces cohesion and obstruction, the opposite of the nonobstructive Ether.18
All vibration is entrained, through sympathetic vibration, with the resonance of these universal fields of force. All solidity, regardless of the phenomenon, resonates with the Earth harmonic; all fluidity with Water; all heat with Fire; all movement with Air; and all space with Ether.
The ancient seers articulated a distinction between the universal elements prior to manifestation which they called “subtle elements” and the “gross” pentamirus combination of the elements that sustained manifestation. Thus the subtle tanmatras, or essences, combining and recombining, produce the five gross elements of the external universe the Mahabhutas or Panchabhautikas.
It is important to remember that this is a sacred model of creation. While a scientific perspective would hold that “mythology” points to a realm that is less than “real,” sacred “mythology” asserts a transcendental dimension that is more than “real.” The elements are not things . . . but are Primordial Being. The elements are aspects of the Divine Logos and are the root archetypes out of which Cosmic Intelligence manifests creation.
The Ether Elemental Harmonic of Resonance
The center of the spiral of every energy field resonates with the neutral, Etheric harmonic. Ether is the first elemental resonance to evolve from the oneness of universal intelligence (Mahat). Ether is often referred to as the element of "space": “The characteristic of the Ether element is all-pervasiveness. It provides the space in that further creation takes place.”19 It provides the space which limits and contains the energy field. “Air is completely mobile, whereas Ether is completely inert. Air always wants to move and expand; Ether contains it.”20 Ether relates to the sonic, vibrational dimension of cosmic intelligence, which is the medium of creation. The overall space of the body, the sonic environments of the body cavities, the organ of hearing and sounds are formed from the space element.21
The classical glyph for Ether in the West is a circle. The circle defines a space. Ether defines the fields of the body. Manifestation is an appearance in an empty space within the infinite fullness, the plenum of cosmic being. Ether holds this space. The whirling atoms of manifestation sustain a vortex of emptiness. “Ultimately the seemingly solid body is composed of subatomic particles and empty space. What is more, even the subatomic particles have no real solidity; the existence span of one of them is much less than a trillionth of a second. Particles continuously arise and vanish passing into and out of existence.”22 Creation is a play of unconsciousness within the omniscient consciousness of cosmic Being.
Ether is the matrix through which thought forms are brought into etheric patterns which then crystallize into physical expression. Ether resonates with prana, the life breath of the cosmos and sonic medium of the Divine will to create. Ether is the principle in consciousness that draws from the universal medium of prana, cosmic breath, to project into physicality the intelligent patterns that sustain matter. The other elements radiate outward from within this all-pervasive subtle inner medium as they step-down into more and more solid matter. The potency of the emanation drops as the energy moves away from the center and steps down from Spirit to matter. The etheric body is a high vibrational matrix which steps energy down from the subtle universal elements into materiality. Ether is the womb through which the subtle inner quintessence of the universal elements combine into the pentamirus combination of the five gross elements which sustains matter.23
Air rules the pentamorous
interplay of the elements.
The Air Element
The Air Elemental Harmonic of Resonance
The potency of the Etheric core sustains the field of the Air elemental harmonic. In Air we move from the “o” of oneness into the polarity of the in- and out-breaths, the positive and negative fields. S. Radhakrishnan, explains: “Vibration by itself cannot create forms unless it meets with obstruction. The interaction of vibrations is possible in air.”24
All movement in nature is ruled by Air. All energy in manifestation moves in a double helix of centrifugal and centripetal orbs pulsating from a center in a whirling vortex of a fountain spray of manifestation. On the atomic level fields are a balance of proton and electron, positive and negative charges, centrifugal and centripetal vortices. The undulating interference pattern of these spirals is the basis of all vibration/movement in nature. All movement takes place within a balance of wholeness as an expression of universal law. Air rules all movement in manifestation as an expression of universal law. Air rules the gestalt of the pentamirus combination of the elements.
Air rules the relationship between the periphery of the body and the core, entraining the energy field with the infinite wholeness at the core. Thus air fills space with the harmony of universal law. In the Chinese cosmology the Air element is known as Metal, pointing to the strength of Universal law. Air is understood as the servant of Fire and Water, as Air always holds a balance of wholeness between the centrifugal and centripetal vortices, the periphery and the core.
Air radiates from the central axis
to unite the core and the periphery
to unite the core and the periphery
The glyph for Air is the equal sign (=), the double parallel lines representing Fire/Heaven and Water/Earth in balance. Air rules the East/West currents in the body which define the body from side to side and balance the periphery with the core. It is the bridge between the unified field and the polarity of involution/evolution. Air is the physical carrier of the prana, the universal life breath, in its dual polarity.
In the Pythagorean system the pentagram symbolizes the Air humor. The pentagram embodies the pentamirus relationship amongst the gross elements and the reciprocity of the play of the elements in wholeness. The pentagram is the crystallized expression of the relationship amongst the elements. It also represents the reciprocity between Fire and Water, Air and Earth which vibrate in polarity relationships. The resonance of the elements are harmonious relationships within wholeness. The resonance of each element takes place within the profound pentamirus balance of these relationships. The pentagram is the crystallized expression of a spectrum of elemental attunement that universally undulates through every spiraling cycle of vibration.
In the Air element there is a lengthening of the arc of vibration from the stillness of the supraphysical unified field of space into the elliptical orbit (the cosmic egg) which characterizes all phenomena. The Air resonance is sattvic (sat means “absolute being”), receptive to the Absolute, the Unitive Field. In Air, both fields of force, centrifugal and centripetal, are equal and in a dynamic balance, and thus sustain a neutral field that resonates with the source. The parallel lines of the astrological glyphs for Air (C, G, K) point to the dynamic energy fields of positive and negative whose interference pattern underlies all vibration in nature. Air sustains the fulcrum, the bindu around which Fire and Water emanate. Air is the bridge between the infinite sky and the finite world, the unity of space and diversity of time.
We can understand Air by contemplating Spring, the season which is Air-predominant. In Spring the northern hemisphere of the Earth moves into resonance with the centrifugal spiral of Spirit. All forms that resonate with life are entrained through sympathetic vibration with this spiraling of life force from the “center.” Through sympathetic vibration with the omnipresent center, life springs out of the “emptiness” of space into manifestation in time.
Air sustains the spiraling transverse motion between the fields of Ether and Earth. In “re-spir-ation” the force of the Air element re-spires the more material elements through its potent inner resonance of attunement with the Life Field. All movement, breath, and the organ of touch and physical sensation are formed from the "wind" element Air. The essence of Air is movement as an expression of living cosmic intelligence.
Fire radiates from the "Hara" deep in the pelvis.
The Fire Elemental Harmonic of Resonance
The radiation from the nucleus of the Sun predominates in the involutionary currents which rule the step-down from Spirit to matter of the positive phase. As an oscillating wave moves through the spiral, there is a point where the spiral’s fields of force sustain an arc in harmony with the solar influence—the arc of radiance. This is the Fire phase, where the positive, centrifugal, ascending fields come into entrainment. The Fire arc predominates, and the field is influenced by the universal positive harmonic. Fire is a radiation of the field of force of the Sun. It is a positive resonance in harmony with the universal electric harmonic of solar force. The classical alchemical glyph for Fire ( ∆ ) captures its essence as a radiation of the sun’s field of force, as Fire always burns upward in tune with its source. The combined radiance of Ether and Air sustains the ring of Fire. Warmth, clear coloration, the organ of sight, and form are formed from the Fire element.
The Water Elemental Harmonic of Resonance
As the wave undulates through the spiral, there is a phase that resonates with and is energized by the lunar harmonic of influence. This phase is Water-predominant, and the arc is centripetal, descending, magnetic and attuned with the moon’s influence, which sustains fluidity and form. The combined potency of Ether, Air, and Fire sustain the resonant frequency of the field of Water.
Water gives birth to form. The glyph for Water is a downward-pointing triangle ( ). Water always sinks downward. This triangle is the receptacle of Spirit as the field of force drops in vibration to assume substantial solidity in this more material fluid phase of the cycle. Water and Earth are centripetal fields of force.
The Earth Element
The Earth Elemental Harmonic of Resonance
The potency of all four inner fields of force sustain the gross Earth elemental resonant frequency. This next phase in the process of materialization is one that becomes dominated by the Earth’s energy field, which sustains crystallization and elimination. At Earth the surface tension and resistance at the periphery of the energy field sustain a boundary. Earth is a most material expression of currents emanating from the nucleus. The glyph for Earth is the square ( p) In Earth we have the crystallization of the holomovement of Ether and the play of the five forces, “the squaring of the circle.” The pull of gravity materializes these forces.
Dr. Stone writes: "Energy is a living thing when approached from the Center flowing outward as currents and circuits. On the circumference it loses these qualities and becomes a sedimentation of energy whirls known as matter, through surface resistance and tension.
Qualitie Of The Elements
| ELEMENT
|
EMOTION |
MOVEMENT |
FUNCTION |
LIQUID |
SOLID |
| ETHER |
Grief |
Lengthening |
Sleep |
Saliva |
Hair |
| AIR |
Desire |
Speed |
Thirst |
Sweat |
Skin |
| FIRE |
Anger |
Shaking |
Hunger |
Urine |
Blood Vessels |
| WATER |
Attachment |
Movement |
Luster |
Semen/Ovum |
Flesh/Fat |
| EARTH |
Fear |
Contraction |
Laziness |
Blood |
Bone |
