A Creative Healing Process

by Lahrinda

The following article is adapted from a piece I wrote for the Spring 2002 edition
of a magazine called ‘MOSAIC’ published in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Investigating a growling cat under my window, I recently stumbled onto a moment of rare and symbolic beauty. It was a gray, fog-laden morning and I rushed out to the rescue in my robe and slippers. The cat was apparently fine, but as I walked down the front stone path, what a sight! Spider web mandalas sparkled everywhere in the shrubs and a tree along the path. I gasped with amazement. There were dozens of them! The webs had been invisible in normal daylight, but now they were etched by the dew in silvery symmetry. I stood there embracing the beauty of the moment in gratitude for the message I was receiving.

Webs have become powerful symbols for me. I, too, create symmetrical mandalas, which I have aptly named Symbalas, and I display my work on a ‘WEB’site on the WorldWide ‘WEB.’

I use symbols not only in my artwork but as guides helping me in my daily life. The inspiration of that web moment was the catalyst that lead me to write this article. These mandalas were a startling reminder of the power of nature’s geometry which had stopped me in my tracks, cleared the mind fog and created a moment of pure magic on that gray morning in Seattle.

Inspiration, clarity, beauty and gratitude are just some of the rewards I’ve found with commitment to an artist’s path. It’s not an easy one by the standards of a materialistic world, but as Joseph Campbell reminds us, the true value of life is living your bliss! It took me fifty years to figure that out!

Over the years I have been fascinated by symbols, messengers from our deeper selves. I found the study of astrology compelling because the symbols spoke to me of archetypal patterns needing expression beyond mere words. My awareness of the interconnectedness of life and all creation was growing and whispering of an energy dance of incredible beauty.

In 1993 I had a moment of epiphany as I viewed an astrological chart created with a drawing program on a computer. There were no words or numbers – just a circle consisting of twelve colored wedges (for signs) and nine colored spokes emerging from the center (for planets) that represented a natal chart. The drawing was simple, but it impacted me with glowing appeal, lighting a fire in my belly and a vision of possibility in my soul. I knew my artistic journey had begun!

I had no choice but to teach myself how to draw on the computer in order to explore this vision and learn how to communicate what I was seeing and feeling. The early stages of my art were more colored representations of natal charts than anything else, but after several dedicated years I was working with all the basic elements that led to the evolution of the present Symbala form. All that is, except one.

Gradually I developed my drawing skills and learned to trust the validity and value of what began revealing itself as I drew. The art became a vehicle of expression for a two-way flow between me and others who wanted to explore their unique energy expressed in a different way. I worked with astrology, symbols and the musical nuance of color in these portraits. I began with the natural mandala form of a natal chart, but as my artistic curiosity grew I moved away from it.

In 1995 I returned to using a mandala configuration with a different level of intent and understanding. The inspiration came (as do many of my best ideas) as I was exercising on my mini-trampoline one morning. This new vision embraced the mandala along with a realization that I needed to work more consciously with the quality of number and frequency using Golden Proportion Geometry.

Not by chance I had begun a study of Golden Proportion Geometry while I was developing my art and, though I sensed the influence, I didn’t immediately incorporate what I was learning into the pictures. It was there, of course, but wasn’t a conscious tool until I began working with the Symbala form. The impact was startling as the work gained clarity and amplified energy.

I have a Libra midheaven’s fascination with beauty and design. I knew the Golden Proportion was a universal standard of design (from nature to architecture), but I wasn’t aware of the part it plays in our perception of beauty, harmony, balance and proportion. From the swirling arms of our galaxy to the exquisite golden spiral of a chambered nautilis shell; from a ram’s horn to the proportions of our own bodies, it speaks to us of the order of creation.

I have found resonance with the way Golden Proportion Geometry integrates the purity of math and quantum physics with the belief in a Divine Order. I have also been asked repeatedly to talk and write about it, but up to this point I have declined, referring people to other websites and recommending books. Trying to communicate my understanding of a subject of such great depth and complexity was very intimidating because my grasp has always been more intuitive than formalized. However, with a lot of encouragement, I have chosen to embrace my fears and share my perspective as an artist of the ‘Spiritual Renaissance Art Movement’ who uses the Golden Proportion to express universal law and spiritual truth.

As a spiritual seeker I have chosen Golden Proportion Geometry as a metaphor for cosmic order and a tool for understanding the process of creation itself. Ancient philosophic geometry is a meditation on Unity and an attempt to symbolize a formal order that reveals creation from the incomprehensibility of Oneness. It is the study of pure form providing a way to re-enact the creative process of one form unfolding from a preceding one. Because it is based on a quest for Divine Order it begins with a ‘One,’ a point or circle (mandala) and not, like modern or Euclidian geometries, with a Zero or null. This sets it apart from the more mundane mathematics and is the main reason why it is called ‘Sacred.’ This is also why it is not taught in secular schools.

 

 The active principle of philosophic geometry is the Golden Proportion, which is all about relationship. Referring to the line segment in figure 1 shows this proportion and a hint of the wonders unfolding from it. It is the relationship of one part, such as the line in the figure 1, to a larger part such that the smaller part is related to the larger part in exactly the same ratio or proportion as the larger part is to the whole line. The larger segment is referred to by the Greek letter ‘Phi’ instead of a number because, like ‘Pi,’ it is an irrational number approximating 1.61803… . The key quality is the immutable relationship between the two parts, which is why it is represented by a symbol instead of a number. In ancient geometry the circumference of a circle, the diagonal of a square and Phi were knowable as formalized relationship or function, not as quantified math because they did not recognize irrational numbers. They were interested in relationship with the unknowable through the geometry of form and the quality of number, not the quantity.

So what, you say? Here is an interesting implication from an understanding of this vital Golden relationship:

Any whole can be divided, but there is only one way that a whole can be divided such that the resulting two parts are uniquely in proportion to the original, undivided whole. In other words, unity in its true existential nature cannot be di-vided, it can only be tri-vided – and the Golden Mean is the technique whereby unity divides itself yet remains unified. The Golden Mean can thus be understood as a graphic description of ‘the three that are two that are one,’ (see figure 2) and this expression of the first division of unity is symbolic of the original act that created the universe of time and space. The Golden Mean Book & Caliper Set, Stephen Ian McIntosh, pg 51.

This leads to the cosmic implications of the principle of self-similarity demonstrated by the star in figure 1. The Phi ratio of a part to the whole makes it possible for the star to repeat itself in both directions, infinitely (or ‘in-PHI-knitly’) larger and smaller without losing the integrity of its form. Likewise, the self-generating Golden Rectangles producing a Golden Spiral demonstrate how that spiral thread can expand or contract infinitely to pierce other dimensions of reality, connecting the visible with the invisible, matter with spirit. Thus the Golden Proportion is the key to an understanding of the holographic nature of the universe and the evolutionary process of life. “It is through the Golden Division that we can contemplate the fact that the Creator planted a regenerative seed which will lift the mortal realms of duality and confusion back towards the image of God.” Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice, pg 37.

 

The creation process can be demonstrated in a number of ways (figure 2 being an example) which implies the philosophic quality of number and form, namely the jump from the unknowable circle source of the 1 and 2 to the fusion of opposites and emergence in a knowable 3 (considered to be the first real number by the ancients). The importance of the Vesica Piscis or ‘Christ’ form is further shown where I’ve tried to render an artistic example of the evolution of the first basic geometric forms from its womb (figure 3 below). The central focus of the drawing is the two circles in black outline coming together to form the central Vesica Piscis, eye shape. It becomes the womb from which emerge the two equilateral triangles in white outline, the four squares in gray outline, the two pentagons going up and down in darker gray outline, and the two hexagons to each side in black outline. Two additional Vesica Piscis going from side to side lend a cosmic framing. The final element, the seven smaller, interlocking circles in white, symbolize the first seven steps of creation in a figure known as the ‘Seed of Life.’

 

The art says it all for me without words and as Robert Lawlor says, “Geometric diagrams (like mandalas) can be contemplated as still moments revealing a continuous, timeless, universal action generally hidden from our sensory perception.” Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice, pg 6.

Another amazing insight I’ve discovered with the study and use of Golden Proportion Geometry is that no matter what kind of ecstasy we express by living our bliss we are in tune with the harmonics and forms of Golden Proportion Geometry. Whether it’s the beat of a loving heart, the strains of our favorite symphony, contemplating a Symbala, the curve of an ocean wave crashing to shore or the symmetry of a spider’s web, we are experiencing the pulse of Divine Order.

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What is a Symbala?