The spiral of life, this time a natural one. The spiral is an ancient symbol of the Goddess, of the reoccurring endlessness of life, of eternity. Serpents were associated with her, which also crawl into a spiral as they rest.
Perhaps the entire universe is a spiral or a fractal... wouldn't it be nice to know? (Please read my comment posted below for more.)
Thanks to psu80e for this spiral!
1 comment:
Some more thoughts on serpents and spirals, which I'm putting here so as not to distract from the photos too much...
Some say that the Biblical story of the serpent in The Garden of Eden was a refutation of earlier Goddess-based religions and their rites, which may have icluded taking hallucenogenic plants so as to see a 'higher reality', embodied in the wisdom of creatures such as serpants, and dragons that were then considered sacred.
For me, though, it's more likely that the particular serpent in the story was a deceiver, abusing the wisdom he had learned in an attempt at 'mind control'- trying to get Adam and Eve to trust him more than God- whereas this wisdom should be seen in the context that God intends for us.
It kind of reminds me of religious cult leaders- sometimes they say things that are true, but they do so to get power over their followers rather, than to really help them to get closer to God. Perhaps the spirals with 'deceit', below, are something like that- controlling rather than soothing and healing.
It's certainly the case that in Eastern religions serpents receive much better press, and are seen coiled around Siva and unfurled around the Buddha's crown. Dragons are also seen very differently, as symbols of luck rather than of greed.
Ultimately, spirals are something we can see everywhere in the universe, from flowers to galaxies. They are hints of the endless nature of things... As William Blake said, "When the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear as it is... infinite."
Post a Comment