JILL PURCE
The spiral tendency within each one of us is the longing for and growth towards wholeness.
The universe and the man´s consciousness (the macrocosm and the microcosm) constist in a continuum and a dynamic whole; this can be expressed by a spiral when, instead of ending, it is drawn either around a sphere or a doughnut ring, so that it joins up with itself by spiralling through its own middle.
All our experiencies are like a spiral: situations recur with almost boring familiarity until we have mastered them in the light of the previous time round. The more we do this, the steeper the radient, which is the measure of our growth. The spiral we travel round life is the means we have to compare ourselves with ourselves and discover how much we have changed since we were last in the city, met our brother or celebrated Christmas.
Time itself is cyclic, and by the spiral of its returning seasons we review the progress and growth of our own understanding. The macrocosmic movements and cycles of the galaxies are mirrored in man in microcosm, which provide him with the model for all things cyclic from sleep and emotions to time itself. The same vortical laws govern the movements of water which composes nearly three-cuarters of our physical bodies.
The spiral is the breathing of the cosmos: with the exhalations the spirit contracts, creates and involves or winds into matter. This is the creation of the world by the breath of God. With the inhalations, matter expands and evolves or unwinds into spirit. Man returns breath to God by becoming conscious. It is for this reason that conscious breathing plays such an important role in every meditation. Man is echoing the cosmic rhythms, the eternal creation and dissolution of the universe.
