Form Crystallizes from Flow of Time

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Form Crystallizes from Flow of Time by Noah Yates 2/9/09

~ “Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes…” Elizabeth Barret Browning (1801-1861)

Juxtaposed to the translucent, sapphire sky, and irradiated by incandescent daylight, brightly luminous clouds sail in majestic unison across the horizon, soaring beyond the monolithic butte of Hergest Ridge. As twilight approaches, the streaming cascade of amber photons illuminates the super-ordered, fractal-like tangle of diverse flowers, trees, and crawling vines whose roots weave through and reach into the rusted soil that blankets this convoluted topography.

When Earth turns her face from the sun, crystalline emanations from the blazing moon transfigure the panorama into an enchanted dreamscape, elucidating kaleidoscopic forms, which vibrate in the tree-tops, evolving with each dynamic eruption of the wind. As the moon wanes past visibility, heavenly bodies seep into complexion, twinkling like glittering jewels; they peer into our globe, fixedly studying the cosmic-symphony which unfolds upon the terrestrial planes of Earth- a precious gem, uncommon in the expanse of the universe. Unbeknownst to swirling stars and gleaming galaxies, limestone caverns tunnel extensive veins through the heart of this ancient dune, sculpted by the steady course of waters way and molded by the surging flow of time.

~

I christened this place “Hergest Ridge” in reverence for a sublime piece of instrumental music by Mike Oldfield. Oldfield’s unfolding melody depicts to my minds-eye a lucid synesthesia of illustrious patterns and complex, colorful forms that undulate in wavering reverberation of the elegant beauty engendered by the intricate geography of Hergest Ridge.

~ “The word “geography” derives from the Greek words earth and writing…”(1.*)
Hergest Ridge drapes across the Ohio River valley like a slumbering totem; separated from the other knobs by lowland farms that span hundreds of acres. Atop the highest peak, overlooking my home-town, I have witnessed the nighttime scene take on the surreal appearance of Van Gough’s “Starry Night”-electrified and skewed across the valley landscape, from one end of the visible horizon to the other; technicolor lights of silver, blue, gold, and red flickering, as they beam from distant sources. In precise intervals, small, searing pulses of neon-green pierce my peripheral vision; they originate from a rotating radar-dish located in the mysterious Fort Knox Airbase, approximately fifteen miles to the North East.

~

Not far from where dense woodland borders a gently sloping cow-pasture, I meditate- poised atop a steeply angled promontory, painted with colorful lichens and mosses. This boulder rests among several, statuesque limestone bluffs, comprising a corrugated rock garden, nestled between a three to four hundred-year-old white oak and a primordial tree of heaven grove. The oak possesses a barrel shaped burl that stretches over the lower, obtuse end of my stone perch. The subtle scent of fertile cow-dung percolates up from the moist earth, providing a trace of perfume that delicately furnishes the atmosphere; indeed it has become a sentiment-inspiring quality after many romantic wandering of this hallowed ground.

Embellished by the morning sunlight that slips through the forest canopy, a poetic scene is positioned directly ahead in my view. In the foreground, a complete skeleton reposes in counter-point to the ferns and mosses springing from between the ribs- a single, wild morning glory raises its head from beneath the jaw-bone. As rellics representative of past generations and the cycling of matter/energy, scenes like this one lie scattered about the east face of Hergest Ridge.

~

Mathematicians, who study fractal geometry, use computer imaging to graph the iterations generated by simple equations that feed into themselves- the result of one calculation determining the outcome of the other, and vice-versa. The graphic products of these permutations are beautiful and complex geometric forms that recede infinitely into greater and greater novelty- revealing contiguous forms, which are always similar to each other, but never the same, because each element is integrated as a function of every other element- all interdependent- yet held together by the same ordering force. In order to differentiate ‘levels’ in a fractal landscape, each layer can be assigned a color. These colors can then be cycled through the image to create a cascading effect, where the variation of structure in the evolving forms can be more easily discerned.

~ “To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour” William Blake (1757-1827)

During the course of my frequent introspective walks on the ridge, my gaze sometimes becomes fixed upon the hollow eyes of a cow skull, and my mind is beckoned to muse on the reverberation between the mathematician’s fractal maps and the super-ordered forms/events that cascade through time here on Earth and in the vast Cosmos. I sense that there exists a congruence that runs parallel in a fractal’s struggle between positive and negative space, and the dialectic play between form and void which slowly evolves here in our reality: The process responsible for the ‘metamorphosis of matter’/‘transference of energy’ that shapes the crystallization of sand into stone hinges on the same dynamic force, which, upon that very stone-dune, shepherded the cow from its birth to a final resting place, and recycled its elements to fruit the laced labyrinth of delicate plant-life abound.

~

Scientists propose that roughly thirteen billion years ago the universe irrupted into space and time from a mysterious singularity. In relatively short time, the ballooning universe cooled significantly, homogeneous matter condensing into ordered structures, i.e. stars and galaxies. These fusion reactors cooked heavier elements into existence. Those new heterogeneous elements aggregated to form more complex structures, such as planets and new stars. Following many thousands of generations of stars, which burned out and cast their spent material into space, our sun, along with our planet, came into being approximately five billion years ago.

On Earth, geologic processes unraveled, which brought about super-conductive atmospheric conditions conducive to the onset of organic chemistry. Soon, self-replicating cellular life-forms emerged. A chain reaction was initiated, which, up to this point, four and a half billion years later, has culminated in the existence of high-order, self-reflecting organisms- the entire macrocosm of the roaring cosmos compressed into the manifest microcosm of vibrating human form/consciousness/spirituality/social interaction/and artistic expression. The flow of causality moves toward concrescence, drawing through time in an on-rushing current that seeks a goal (Telos.) The product of each successive process provides the platform from which the next progression will proceed.

~”To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language…” from Thanatopsis, by William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

In 1971, the great Buddhism/Taoism interpreter, Alan Watts, conducted a thought experiment, which was documented for the purpose of exploring the possible orientation of man’s position in nature. While humbly treading through the wilderness outside the San Francisco city limits, Alan had a conversation with himself. Through the course of his contemplation, he deduced a theme pertaining to the mystical nature of being; and although such a realization may seem intuitively obvious, the fecundity of its meaning is not so easily grasped; at the heart of his postulation lays this fundamental observation: “In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.” (2.*)

~

Nature transcribes form from time, as water carves a hill-side through the process of subtle erosion- what sediment that has been displaced from one source is deposited in another, fabricating the inscription of a new geography. Time is the infinite architect that erects the spirit of things that come into being as the contrivance of the Telos. During one of his lectures entitled “Understanding and Imagination in the Light of Nature,” the poet-philosopher- Terence Mckenna- was asked to elaborate on his views concerning the nature of spirit: “I think [Spirit] is the thing which mediates the coming into being of the actual out of the possible… it is the invisible hand, if you will- the guiding force. It is the invisible landscape over which becoming flows like a river… it defines, it creates… it is the Telos.” “[Spirit] is a field phenomenon- an energy… it’s the appetition for being that drives organic evolution into [a] dance of relatedness to this other thing that is transduced from another dimension.” (3.*)

When the Earth completes its revolution around the sun again-- the wind vibrant with warm energy- the yawing limbs of the sun soaked maples blossoming their silken silver fronds anew, and the grasses, steeped in dew, swell with emerald glitter, I will trek up the mountain to be an elf spirit, waltzing with the seeding dandelions, at home with spiraled grape vines; and while at play on Newton’s shore, I shall have discourse with tree spirits forevermore.

~ “To myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Isaac Newton (1642-1727) [among his last words]




Bibliography
1.*) Norris, Kathleen. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. 2001st ed. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Mariner Books, 1993 ;2001. Google Books. Google.com. 12 Feb. 2009 <http://books.google.com/books?id=1oobPFfrLr4C&dq=dakota+a+spiritual+geography&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=B-2USZ_UC4zgMICMqOUL&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result>.

2.*) Conversation with Myself. Prod. Alan W. Watts. Perf. Alan Watts. Alanwatts.com, 1971. Google Videos. 2 Feb. 2008. 9 Feb. 2009 <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8688992796818009166>
3.*) Mckenna, Terence K. "Understanding and Imagination in the Light of Nature." Understanding and Imagination in the Light of Nature. Los Angeles, California. 17-18 Oct. 1987. 12 Feb. 2009 <http://magog.se/files/mckenna/>.
{from audio recording}
Sources in the public domain include:
Quotes by:
Elizabeth Barret Browning
William Cullen Bryant
William Blake
Sir Isaac Newton

Suppose you could look at all motion as the application of force; some from places we're familiar with, some we're less so. As for trying to read backward into the blueprints that's exceptionally difficult, bit like trying to mentally reconstruct a 5,000 piece Ravensburger puzzle from ten filler pieces. Lots of people have devoted their lives to trying and, as your quotes and footnotes would suggest, we've come to owe them much.