Back to Basics: 1, 2, 3!
This Wiltshire
crop circle includes three very ancient symbols related to the
relationship between the divine and the material. The circle, the
diameter, and the trefoil or triple ring are symbols known to mankind
since 2500 BC at least. These three figures can be found worldwide and
into the time of the dawn of the awakening of human consciousness. They
are the beginnings of world cosmologies, of religious and scientific
thought, and the start of a conscious relationship between the material
world and the numinous, the unknown, the divine.
The circle–one
single, concentric circles, one in the centre of a larger one–is and has
been the symbol par excellence of the cosmos, the various layered realms
within it, and the source with its surrounding creation.
“The physical
and spiritual strength of this symbol are there because the perfect
circle has no beginning and no end; it is unassailable.” (Nozedar 20)
The circle is defined by the inside (‘nothing’) and its own unbroken
line (‘something’). It is the container for all existence, and is known,
according to Hermes Trismegistus and Hindu teaching as: “God is a circle
whose center is everywhere and circumference is nowhere.”
The Circle: Beginning
The circle with a dot represents the primordial
‘womb’ containing the spark of creation; a 17th century Indian
representation of the cosmos in simultaneous evolution and dissolution;
at times the circle represents the Earth as a Cosmic Egg.
“The idea of the
cosmos as an unbroken circle was repeated in the Gnostic image of the
world serpent forming a circle with its tail in its mouth [the ourbouros].”
(Walker 4) The circle also implies equality as is exemplified in the
Round Table of King Arthur and the ‘circular’ Council of the Dalai Lama.
(Nozedar 20)
The diameter, or
‘dia mater’ in creation myths, signifies the division of the world
mother into upper and lower realms ”A universal motif is the duality of
the sky and the earth.” (journalofcosmology) This symbol is often found
on rock carvings and is used in ‘at least ten different ideographic
systems of natural science’. In Scientology, it is a symbol for the
‘individual human spirit’. “It is generally associated with something
absolute, e.g., absolute time, absolute temperature, absolute
center, etc.” (Liungman 342) It could be seen as an image of the
horizon, the beginning of consciousness, as well as its limit.
The Diameter: Second Stage in Creation Manifestation
The West Woodhay Down formation of July 29, 2011
associates the diameter with the ‘snake’; in the diagram of Yygdrasil we
see that the Ourobouros around Midgard (Earth) is pretty well positioned
to bisect the circle encompassing the whole; Cosmic Egg/Creation Torus
by artist, Jamie Jones, shows activity of the torus manifesting as a
diameter; an ancient Hebrew world view gives the impression of a
division between upper and lower worlds.
As the Greek
letter ‘theta’, the diameter image was used by the ancient Egyptians. “The
Egyptians used a symbol for Kosmos in the form of theta, with a fiery
circle representing the world, and a snake spanning the middle
representing Agathos Daimon (literally: good spirit).”
(wikipedia)
The Snake: Dynamic of the Diameter
“In its original state, the universe was chaos. Pan
Gu spontaneously emerged from its centre, and after 18,000 years, Heaven
and Earth became clearly divided. In the Chinese apocryphal text, Guang
bowuzhi, natural phenomena are attributed to different activities and
physical parts of the body of Pan Gu. It is said that his body had the
shape of a snake…” (chinaknowledge)
; A dreamer’s image of the snake dividing
the fiery circle, perhaps like the Egyptian version of the Kosmos; In
Hindu mythology, a huge snake helped to create the cosmos by churning
the Milky Way.
The trefoil or
triple ring, as it is sometimes known, has been a symbol for the sacred
and the trinitarian divinity for millennia. It has been found as long
ago as 2500 B.C. in the Indus Valley civilization on statues and stone
carvings. The Celts had a god of the trefoil, Trefuilngid Tre-Eochair,
whose emblem was assimilated into the legend of Saint Patrick who used
the ‘shamrock’ to explain the Christian Trinity. “Many mystical meanings
were assigned to the triple ring: perfection in thought, word, and deed;
or love, power, and wisdom.” (Walker 38 & 41).
The Trefoil: All
The Indus Valley civilization used trefoils to
decorate many statues and images such as a priest king and a bull; The
trefoil is found in Gothic architecture representing the Christian
Trinity, as St. Patrick explained using a the shamrock; “Ancient Indian
mythology associates the mythical makara with the creation of the world,
and they are often depicted disgorging human heads, deities, lotuses or
other elements of creation. The makara, caiman and related Mayan kawak (cauac)
or ‘earth monster’ sometimes have a curved, upturned snout, and also a
trefoil, which has been interpreted as representing the triune qualities
of ‘divine breath.” (davidpratt)
So, we have in
this amazingly succinct, compact and universal crop circle symbol, a
Creation Story: One Two Three! One is the Circle, Two emerges from the
Diameter, and Three moves in the Trefoil.
In Cooper we see:
“One means:
Primordial unity; the beginning; the Creator; the First Mover; the sum
of all possibilities; essence; the Centre; the indivisible; the
germinal; isolation, etc.
Two means:
Duality; alternation; diversity; conflict; dependence; otherness; the
static condition; the rooted, hence balance, stability; reflection; the
opposite poles, etc.
Three means:
Mulitiplicity; creative power; growth; forward movement overcoming
duality; expression; synthesis. ‘Three is the first number to which the
word “all” has been appropriated’. “(Cooper 113 & 114)
In this
unobtrusive formation we have the presentation of Creation as it is,
was, and will be. From within the Undifferentiated Great Void, the
Ineffable Seed germinated to produce opposite energies; Light/Dark;
Heat/Cold; Positive/Negative which, in turn, reunited to produce the
All, the Active, the Creative, the Growth of New Life, New Consciousness
moving into a Future. AND THIS CONTINUES EACH DAY ON EARTH!
This synthesis
of symbols from around the world and from different time periods in
human history reminds me of the earlier formation this year at Badbury
Rings nr Wimborne Minster, Dorset of June 17th. Both have
references to various periods of time and parts of the world; both are
concerned with the story of human consciousness as a goal and as a
crucial aspect of Evolution and Creation; both infer that the REALITIES
symbolized by the crop circles have been extant from the dawn of
Creation, in OUR TIME and shall be in the FUTURE. The message for us
modern humans is that we be reminded of what our role as a species is in
the greater picture. It is a wake up call to our more profound sense of
being, living and thriving on the Earth and in the Cosmos. It is a
reminder of WHAT WE MEAN TO LIFE and WHAT LIFE MEANS TO US. The origin
of these marvelous formations could almost be irrelevant. Is it not
enough that they are mysterious, ingenious, universal, informative, etc.
for us to heed what they are trying to communicate–whether they are the
Earth’s pleas, guidance from ETs, man-made inspirations or our own
unconscious reaching out?
Stuart Kauffman,
in the preface to his book, Reinventing the Sacred, sums up what
perhaps all these fantastic events are pointing to for us:
“I believe we
need a domain for our lives as wide as reality. If half of us believe in
a supernatural God, science will not disprove that belief. We need a
place for our spirituality, and a Creator God is one such place. I hold
that it is we [my emphasis] who have invented God, to serve as
our most powerful symbol. It is our choice how wisely to use our own
symbol to orient our lives and our civilizations. I believe we can
reinvent the sacred. We can invent a global ethic, in a shared space,
safe to all of us, with one view of God as the natural creativity in the
universe.” (Kauffman xiii)
Michelle Jennings (
https://michelle-jennings.squarespace.com/blog )
Sources:
Bayley, Harold. The Lost Language of Symbolism. Dover Publications,
Inc., Mineola, NY. 2006.
Cooper, J.C. An Illustrated
Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames & Hudson. London. 1978.
Kauffman, Stuart A. Reinventing
the Sacred: a New View of Science, Reason, And Religion. Basic Books.
New York. 2008.
Liungman, Carl G. Dictionary of
Symbols. W.W. Norton & Co. New York. 1994.
Nozedar, Adele. The Illustrated
Signs & Symbols Sourcebook. Harper/Collins. London. 2010.
Sacred Symbols. Robert Adkinson,
ed. Thames & Hudson Ltd. London. 2009.
Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s
Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects.Castle Books. Edison, NJ. 1988.
http://journalofcosmology.com/AncientAstronomy105.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/boe/boe16.htm
http://www.pinterest.com/jaime1519/fractal-cosmic-egg/
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/personspangu.html
http://www.newyorkcarver.com/geometry/Trifoil.htm
http://davidpratt.info/2012.htm
http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati/html/Trefoil1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta |