The Macrocosm and the Microcosm. & the significance of ⏀ the Golden Proportion.
pp 68-69
The double page spread here is devoted to the linking of the ancient idea of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm with the structure and significance of the Golden Proportion. The following texts in italic are taken from Jacob Needleman’s book A Sense of the Cosmos.
As above, so below. This concept is attributed to many different sources, but mainly to the ancient and legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus: a fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.
In the double-page spread of the book, just below the main heading introducing the Microcosm and the Macrocosm I have written out the mathematical sequence of the Golden Proportion; and underneath that there is a small central panel that explores the essential paradox in this context ‘How does man see himself’.
To start with the first concept, Needleman writes‘ In the ancient teachings it was held that the same patterns, forces and structures were present in all levels of the Cosmos - from the very largest scale to the smallest sub-atomic element, and into the metaphysical domain. In the system the mid-point is Man….Man’s exploration of the universe was never separated from his quest for self-knowledge, as both enterprises were part of a seamless whole’…..’And the continuum was consciousness’.
To continue linking the two ideas. The Golden Proportion is a mathematical sequence that flows seamlessly with faultless integrity from Oneness in the centre towards expansion on the right hand side and diminution on the left; though this refers not only to scale but also towards an inner contemplation, (as this section of the sequence is less than One, and also within One: 1/⏀).
As the Golden Proportion seemed to reflect the pattern of the continuum that flows through the macrocosm and the microcosm, when assembling the material for this page I followed Needleman’s concept in placing Man at the centre of the sequence. ‘Man was seen as a mirror of the Universe, and the same laws and forces were equally at work in both’.And Needleman continues: ‘The universe is vast and awesome, crushing to man. But ancient man’s sense of the universe is different. Here man stands at the centre of the universe with surrounding spheres which permeate everything - a network of purposeful intentions and energies. A universe of unimaginable size crushes man, but a universe that is an expression of consciousness places man and therefore calls to him: he is part of a greater consciousness. And it seems that only when I am completely included in something does the need arise in me to understand my relationship to it. Whatever man expects from external reality reflects what he asks or fails to ask of himself’.
Below the main headings there is a smaller central panel symbolising two interpretations of man standing at the centre of the surrounding spheres and asks the question: How does man see himself ? ( ‘Man is the measure of all things’ is an ambiguous sentence). Both halves of this small panel show nearly identical star-shaped images, each surrounded by encompassing circles symbolising Man and the Universe. On the left hand side paraphrasing Needleman: This can be interpreted as man being at the centre of, and in the lowest position of the great forces of nature. This calls him to search for a finer understanding of what shapes him and his world. Or, on the right-hand side, this can be interpreted as Man being at the centre and thinking himself superior to the great forces of nature. And - he has the capacity to harness nature and make use of it for his own ends.
In the writings of the Hermetic tradition, there was developed a concept of Man as a mirror of the cosmos; and there are hints of a personal discipline through which man gains the power to know - through direct experience - all the laws of the universe.
For several centuries, Western civilisation has assumed that man can understand the universe without understanding himself, and the exploration of Nature became wrongly separated from the quest for self-knowledge: there is always something in man that seeks only to believe, explain and manipulate rather than to understand. There is a difference between the wish for knowledge and the wish to satisfy desire, which is the basis of pragmatism.
This ancient distinction tells us that what we feel to be the best in us as human beings is only part of the total structure. Therefore our search for consciousness - the quality of mind beyond thought - is a constant necessity for mankind, as thoughts and emotions immediately absorb all our attention, and automatically become transformed into contents around which gather opinions and distorted sensations that support our second-hand sense of personal identity. It is all too easy to think we can bridge this difference of levels, rather than seeking the higher level to enter our minds as a guide to our unknown selves.
Man is the Universe in miniature. ‘Man is the measure of all things’ This can be interpreted as man being at the centre of - and in the lowest position of - the great forces of nature that surround him. This humbles him; and calls him to search for a finer understanding as to what shapes his life and his world. Or it can be interpreted that man is at the hub, and thinks himself superior; and that he has the capacity to harness nature in order to make use of them for his own purposes.
The problem with the latter perception is that man’s vision of his reality, and therefore how he chooses to act will reflect his present state of consciousness: the desires and fears of his everyday mind, the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. (The microcosm of being a possibility to which he might aspire is subtly altered to be a description of man as he already is.)
The quality of his thinking has its influence upon the experiences he searches for, which in turn influence the way the forces of the universe work in him. The science that we now pursue would bring us to be at the mercy of powers we do not recognise, carrying us to a destination far below our inherent capabilities.
The desires our science serves are themselves part of nature, and these activate equivalent energies and forces. We activate processes that miniaturise us.
Ordinary thought is in the service of the ego. Sacred ideas are a force against the ego. Great teachings, in recognition of this tendency of thought to serve everyday existence, speak on many levels simultaneously. It is not that man is asked to deny his customary daily life, but to recognise it as being part of a greater whole. From this perspective he must surely understand that he lives in ignorance of the levels of conscious order in the universe, and are hidden in himself.
In science, the question most generally asked is not Why things are, but How things are; but the essential task of all spiritual paths is to communicate the purposes of existence in such a way that a man can hope to experience them both in himself and in the universe.
Sacred language acts to evoke an echo in the psyche of man so that he glimpses a deeper level of reality. This is fundamental to understanding that sacred language is symbolic.’
The Power of Symbolism
Symbols act to change my state of consciousness; and only in this changed state can I ‘understand them. I have to make the effort to tune myself to the level required. A symbol is like a sound that causes certain psychological chords to vibrate without actually playing on the keys of the discursive intellect. The proper response to a symbol is therefore through an altogether new attention which can simultaneously move outward towards the object and inward toward the responses in myself. Therefore the world of nature can never become symbolic - meaningful - to the ordinary attention. If the universe is like a teaching, it also makes demands upon the pupil.
The laws of the universe that spiritual traditions speak of may be laws that can only be observed in a new state of consciousness.That is to say they can only be observed when a man is aware of the movements of energy within in himself. It is a call for a new quality of observation.
The whole panel ends with Needleman’s thoughts ‘A problem is something I must solve: a question is something I must experience. Through the experience of questioning, another faculty begins to stir and evolve in man; a faculty that is potentially higher than mental or emotional functions. This potential faculty begins as a sense of wonder. As such it is as a child powerless. Developed it is Man. And only man can resolve the problems of man. Therefore we need to enter again the stream of great ideas in order to magnetise the heart, the Eros, the sense of wonder, but not to solve our problems; and yet only in this way will our problems be solved. This is a staggering paradox that we face. Behind the problem lies the question, and behind the question lies the answer. We cannot resolve our problems without the development of a new power of mind within ourselves. Yet this begins as wonder, with Eros, with our becoming as little children’.
Some Thoughts and Reflections, & The Importance of Paradox.
pp.70-71
At the beginning of this book - in the introduction (though this was written much later) I described how I started this enterprise in response to questions that had occurred to me about calligraphic form and design.This led me on to exploring archetypal forms and principles in Nature, and later in Sacred Geometry (the study of Number in Space}.
On p. 70 I have written in brown writing:-
‘As I come to the end of the writing of this Journal ( now 16 years on from the start), I need to look back through the pages and make some kind of summary, though of course it can never attempt to be that as the subject matter itself is too vast; anyway I was never seeking to resolve the Grand Theory of Everything! My journey through the book is personal one. So my task here is purely to review these pages, to consider what I have written, and to notice what has come to light: what threads have emerged, what discoveries have been made? What is the book about - and what meaning has it for me?’
To begin with I had a very rough plan. I would start with the archetypal figures of the Circle and the Square, and then move on to the first three prime numbers numbers of 2.3.5 & their irrational counterparts √2,√3,⏀.
These pages could be interspersed with various texts: some written by myself, and others drawn from other sources. And perhaps there could be compilations of drawings, poems, mathematical equations, and writings of all kinds. And scope for some decorative pages as well’.
The brown writing continues across the page and introduces the section on Myths.
‘Myths to live by. If, as it seemed, the mathematics were the expressions of the deeper principles at work in the universe, then these principles might also be found in Myths, the great stories of mankind. I looked at the primary figures of the Circle, Square and Golden Proportion, and found they all responded to this view’.
Continuing along the top on to the next page.
The Circles: The Primal Division of Unity.
This suggests the story of the Fall from Paradise. In modern scientific terms this describes the breaking of perfect symmetry into duality. The interplay of difference that fuels all life: Yin & Yang, black and white - these define the opposing elements of polarity. There are many interpretations of the Genesis story where man ate of the Tree of the Knowledge, and was expelled from Paradise. But the geometric drawing gives us another view; the two circles are different and the same, and the radius that joins the centres paradoxically unites and divides: Both/And rather than Either/Or. So perhaps we can find our way back into harmony - by seeing duality not as being exclusively opposed and divided, but as being paradoxically united’.
The Squares: The Principle of Growth and Resurrection.
The same kind of paradox appears in the division and growth of the figure of the Square. The diagonal that destroys the integrity of the original square is itself the foundation of the new square, which is double the size. Death and resurrection themes are played out in Myths all over the world: Osiris, Jesus, Quetzalcoatl and the Phoenix that rises again from its own ashes. This theme was related to the great cycles of Nature, in the seasonal death and renewal of the year. And it is true in other contexts: in politics, science, where new ideas can emerge from the breakdown of the old; and psychologically too, where the same element that shatters a worldview is that which engenders new growth. We encounter this truth often in our daily lives.
⏀ : the Golden Proportion.
‘In ancient times there arose the legend of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm: the idea that man was a mirror of the Universe: and the same consciousness that moved in the Universe also moved in him. Thus consciousness was not found in man, rather that man was in consciousness. there was a sense that creation was a seamless whole. The Golden Proportion fits this idea perfectly . Its unique property being - whether it is unfolding or infolding from Unity, it always retains its own essence and integrity. It represents indisputable proportional evidence of the possibility of a conscious evolution, as well as an evolution of consciousness.
Man and the Universe are still evolving. Mind and Matter are not separate. All is One.
The text reads on:
‘The most significant and surprising thing that surfaced was Paradox, where two elements are held together: both/and rather than either/or. Constancy in Change: Sameness and Difference’.
‘What happened during the making processes that sometimes I would have a flash of insight, and then some pages would be devoted to the exploration of that material. For instance see pages 40-41. I had a sudden realisation that many things were expressions of alternation, reciprocity and mediation’.
‘And some years in I realised that I had accidentally tapped into ideas explored by the Greek philosophers: Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato, so my discoveries of Sameness and Difference were a tiny part of a world view of much grander and larger dimensions which were written about many centuries earlier’.
Underneath this text the double page spread continues with a boxed framework of examples of Sameness and Difference carried out in drawings, symbols and text. The panel begins:
‘Here are some instances of the Paradox where sameness and difference are held together. For example: ‘the experience of the octave played clearly embodied this mystery’. And Lawlor’s‘ The quality of perceiving Sameness and Difference is part of the poise of mind that Sacred Geometry means to cultivate: one which is precisely discerning yet harmoniously integrating’.
The double-page spread ends mostly with my own texts written in two long grey lines, with smaller diagonal writing below them.
A long text by Needleman.
‘Far from being an arcane and esoteric subject remote from the world around us and our daily lives: I have found it to be vibrantly alive, profoundly relevant, and of infinite importance in my life’.
The smaller angled text.
‘The first thread belongs to the outer world: In my practice as a calligrapher I had become very interested in the creative process of making a piece of work. In gathering together a whole variety of elements: ideas, texts, drawings. And how we arrange them on a page creating a harmonic whole.
After some time and experiences we find that the design is formed - not just of the visible elements included, but of the energetic relationships between them.How they play together. Each mark carries the paradox of Constancy in Change - so essence is preserved as the same time as negotiation with all the other elements’.
A long text.
‘In answer to the deeper questions as to what this book is about, and what meaning it has for me, I need to consider these two enquires separately, as they each belong to a different kind of world’.
The smaller angled text
‘The second thread belongs to my inner world. Why did I choose some texts and not others? As I started this book without a clear idea of where it would take me, my choices must reflect a deeper unconscious enquiry. For some years looking back at the larger pieces of work done for myself, I have been aware - in retrospect - that there was a deeper hidden agenda. What I seemed to be doing in all these earlier works is to gather together apparently opposing principles and bring them into harmony. Though the subject matter was always different: a Bible text, a Nursery Rhyme, the I Ching, or the Chinese Book of Changes for instance. So this must reflect some inner need within myself as I seem to have to do it again and again’.