Living Spirals

The Nature of Spirals

“Mathematics can explain the complex algorithems, sequences and equations that make up a spiral pattern, but it can't explain the lure and fascination of the spiral to the human heart.” Original Beauty Blog

The spiral pattern is my favorite. I can't tell you why it fascinates me, but whenever I see it in nature, as in the chambered nautilus, the fiddle head fern, the sunflower, it's seems like a miracle to me. Spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way are out there by the billions, and right in my garden the same pattern exists in the grubs and millipedes that I dig out of the soil. I am constantly drawing spirals and incorporating them into my quilts. I can't say that I understand the Fibonacci numbers the spiral is based upon (1-1-2-3-5...), but I know how to use them in spacing and creating patterns.

The spiral pattern is a universal symbol, not only found in nature, but in art the world over. It is the symbol for movement, for growth and evolution. I will always remember a therapist telling me that life follows a spiral path; coming around to the same point again and again but at a different level so that everything that has been experienced before is seen in a new light. I have found that to be true. I dream of spirals and always when I do, I know that the inner wheel is turning and something old and, at the same time, new is on its way up to consciousness. These are times of change and creativity.

There is a natural movement in human beings, propelled from within, to grow and change and evolve. It moves us in the direction of wholeness and self-knowledge and individual truth if we are willing to pay attention. Insights will come to us unbidden when we are prepared to receive them---knock and it will be opened to you. Seek and you will find. Notice some spirals today. They're all around you if you have eyes to see.

In the spirit,

Jane