A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO CONSTRUCTING THE UNIVERSE: THE MATHEMATICAL ARCHETYPES OF NATURE, ART & SCIENCE
Michael S. Schneider
Explores the mathematical principles made visible in flowers, shells, crystals, plants, and the human body, and expressed in the symbolic language of myths and fairytales, in religion, art and architecture.
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"In what way can a mathematical ratio permeate our souls? Through beauty. A deep part of ourselves recognizes in flowers and dancers the beauty of the mathematical infinite and sees in it the endlessness of our own depths. Natural beauty resonates with the archetypal nature within us."
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"Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were…. and so it is in everything where Power moves." Black Elk, Native American elder
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"Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once." Johann Lavater (1741-1801), Swiss poet, mystic and philosopher
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"Scientists confirm with formulas what ancient seers knew through revelation: that the world's patterns and cycles are harmonious when seen as mathematical relationships…Where we see 'things', nouns and discrete objects, the ancient mathematical philosophers saw PROCESSES, verbs, transforming patterns meshed harmoniously."
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"The eye is the first circle, the horizon which it forms is the second: and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American essayist and poet
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"The ancients were aware of nature's geometric language and purposefully employed it in their arts, crafts, architecture, philosophy, myth, natural science, religion, and structures of society from prehistoric times through the Renaissance. The world today needs scholars and researchers who give the ancients credit for their intelligence and understanding, to view their art and entire cultures in light of its mathematical symbolism."
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"The harmony of the world is made manifest in Form and Number, and the heart and soul and all the poetry of Natural Philosophy are embodied in the concept of mathematical beauty." Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948), Scottish zoologist, classical scholar
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"At the center of our Self, deep within our consciousness, is a calm 'I.' Like the calm 'eye' within a storm, our center is untouched by psychological turbulence. Peaceful, it observes all from the vantage of wisdom. Placid, it is unmoved by the turbulent weather of the surrounding psyche. When you're feeling connected with your center it seems very familiar. It feels like the Self you know best, like who and what you know your Self to be, calm in knowing without thinking. To be centered is not the same as being 'self-centered' or selfish. Instead, it is identity with the deep, divine power that motivates us."
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"Geometric construction can be used as a form of meditation. Ponder the point as a seed enfolding a sacred mystery."
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"Whence shall he have grief, how shall he be deluded who sees everywhere the Oneness?" Isha Upanishad
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"It is as if the universe is one single organism, motivated by a single power, developing in many ways to gradually become aware of itself through the awareness of the creatures and forces it produces."
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"What nature creates has eternity in it." Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), American author
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"It is stirring to realize that each of the physical structures of the universe is a repackaging of the others. We hold the proportions of the solar system in our hands, face, and whole body."
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"Through meditation and self-contemplation we can seek a more subtle center, our higher or deeper self, the power that motivates the actions, emotions, thoughts, and desires. This center of gravity is not in space but in pure awareness, the 'place' in you now aware of these very words."
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"The one Godhead, secret in all beings, all-pervading, the inner Self of all, presiding over all action, witness, conscious knower and absolute….the One in control over the many,… fashions one seed in many ways." Swetaswatara Upanishad
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"In nature the One circle gives rise to the Many, in the shapes and orbits of the planets, in the roundness of berries, nests, eyeballs, and the cycles of time."
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"We experience resonance on a very personal level in our rapport with the people we know and meet… Each of us unconsciously broadcasts the energy of our inner life and receives that with which we are in tune."
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"Everything seeks unity. The goal of many religions and mythic ordeals is to return to a lost state of Divine Oneness. But we have no need to return to a state of oneness because unity is axiomatic and we already are integrated in it."
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"That's why the world is called a UNIverse (Latin for 'one turn'). No other universes exist except within this One, which Plato refers to as the 'whole of wholes'."
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"Numbers, as archetypal structural constants of the collective unconscious, possess a dynamic, active aspect which is especially important to keep in mind. It is not what we can do with numbers but what they do to our consciousness that is essential." Marie-Louise vonFranz, Jungian psychologist and writer
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"Human nature mirrors outer nature."
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"Worldwide tradition acknowledges humans as being composed in accord with natural principles and made in the image of the cosmos."
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"Islamic tradition holds that there are one hundred names of God but only ninety-nine are knowable and speakable, and they are called the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah. The highest pronounceable name is 'The Compassionate.'"
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"The world is single and it came into being from the center outwards." Joannes Stobaeus (5th century), Greek anthologist
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"A circle [is] the traditional symbol of heaven, wholeness, and unity."
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We are gathering together the primary insights of spirituality and bringing them together into one place.
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