even our heartbeat!
Spirals have also been used extensively in the symbolism of mythology. I have studied enough symbolic mythology to be struck by a certain correlation between ancient accounts of the birth of the universe and modern quantum mechanical explanations. Here are three accounts of the creation process, namely “The breath of Brahman”; “The Word of God”; and “Qelipot”. All three describe a physical force “blowing” the universe into existence. Qelipot is an Arabic term suggesting that matter is made of “dead” shells; this to me is an obvious analogy referring to quanta in quantum mechanics.
Another symbol synonymous with creation is the cornucopia or horn of plenty: a spiraling shell spewing forth a plethora of fauna and flora!
Before our universe came into existence, I imagine there must have been energy of some sort in a pre-Big Bang universe. If we “unfold” the energy trapped in quanta in today’s universe, we might get at least a picture of what may have caused the Big Bang. The Hebrew word for firmament is raqiya, which means “a flat expanse”. Other symbolic terms used in the moment of creation include “spirit” and “wind”. This is indicative of a much finer substance than our “matter”. Maybe the pre-Big Bang universe was composed of a flat web of energy, where there was no real substance, as we know it. Just as a child blows a bubble of soap from a flat sheet into a sphere, so a force warped the energy of this pre-Big Bang universe, until part of it broke away, forming a tangible structure ! Whether this structure was massive or small- it isn’t important. Maybe it was highly unstable and started to contract on itself. I simply don’t know. Compared to the size of superstrings, if it tried to disappear by shrinking away, the result is that it almost succeeded. Just like the symbol of the serpent eating it’s own tail! However this initial “bubble” structure formed, it was something with a mass, which meant that gravity could now assert it’s attractive force and the rest of the energy in this previous universe started to be pulled towards this “bubble” at an ever-increasing rate, until all of the energy was confined within the same microscopic point. The rest is history.
Let us not forget that physicists tell us that matter is composed of energy that has been “warped” into at least ten dimensions, so the above analogy is not just based on supposition, but it has been simplified to a 3 dimensional model!
Another thing to consider is that when there is a wind like force, it creates eddies, which are spiral in form. Eddies can rotate either clock-wise or anti-clockwise, as they are created in pairs of opposing spin. This is an example of the positive and negative aspects of the fundamental properties of nature. As I have mentioned, superstrings can be seen as “translation invariant helicoids” (or fancy spirals to you and me.) Is it just a coincidence that the spiral form seems to crop up throughout nature?
There is quite a lot of symbolism that is analogous to the Big Bang theory; The Hebrew system of knowledge called “The Kabbalah” uses the terms Binah, Chokmah and Kether for describing the creation. These are creative forces called sephiroth, of which there are ten! (For more on the parallels between superstring theory and the Kabbalah go to: http://www.sy231theory.com/Superstring Dr.Kaku, who wrote a best-selling book on superstrings entitled “Hyperspace”, was surprised by the intriguing similarity between the two: “It’s eerie how the “magic numbers” of physics and the unified field theory are found in the Kabbalah!”)
Briefly, according to the Kabbalists, the hidden God or En Soph crystallized a point which is the sephira called Kether. The En Soph “contracted”(tsimtsum) to “make room” for the creation, and the crystallized point of Kether manifested within this space. Kether is the seed planted in nothingness from which the creation springs. Kether has many titles: Existence of existences, Concealed of Concealed, Ancients of Ancients, Primordial point, the Smooth point. Taken together these titles imply that Kether is the first, the oldest, the root of existence, and according to Kabbalists, its most accurate symbol is that of a point.
Polarity is contained within Kether in the form of Binah and Chokmah, or the wisdom and understanding of God. Kabbalists have used the metaphors of male and female to represent their complimentary roles. The symbol of the Caduceus graphically illustrates the creative role of Kether, Binah and Chokmah: it shows a flaming or winged sword surrounded by two complimentary spiraling snakes!
Serpents, dragons and snakes have been interpreted as representing the initial creative energy in many mythologies. Here are but a few examples:
A CADUCEUS
