Sunday, September 14, 2008

Spiraling In / Out


I blogged my spiral thoughts here and played with the spirals this morning. One spirals in and one spirals out... as a divination, Greer says:
Unfolding: "The spiral suggests that the design you have begun to draw upon your tracing board has much to unfold, if you allow it to follow the directions and dynamics it has already set in motion. Just as the oak unfolds from the acorn, the smallest portion of a spiral's arc already contains the full outward sweep of the finished spiral in potential; follow that potential, and your design will unfold as it should.... the spiral councils patience, attentiveness, and a sensitivity to context, so that the spiral patterns of the future can unfold in their own way."
I took this as a message to move the painting along... giving birth, rather than staying in the "cocoon" stage.
Diminishing: The spiral suggests that the design is spiralling inwards, tracing ever smaller arcs around the point where it will finally come to rest. The same inner dynamics that once sent it spinning outward in expanding curves now bring it back again, and attempting to force it around into a circle will only break the continuity of the pattern and leave something artificial in place of the natural dance of spiralling force."
A reminder that things cycle around... birth and death.. nothing lasts forever. Sometimes it is better to rest for awhile and then pick up the brush and move on......
The quotes are from John Michael Greer in Techniques for Geometric Transformation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this Doreen. Spirals and swirls have been finding their way to me, first in the Spring..and now in the Autumn via your blog. I just made a mandala w/swirling sprirals last night. Author, JM Greer -thanks for introducing him. I'm gonna check him out.

I'm so glad you're a part of the Oasis : )
cheers,
Cheryl