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Theory of Polarities

A quick tour by Varadaan

 

1D – One Axis

        

Perhaps the most basic polarity is the theme of one and many, or self and other.  Babies cry when they need their diapers changed, or they are hungry.  They are totally focused on their own self and its needs, and then, as children grow up they begin to explore the world outside their own ego, which interestingly is also when the defensive ego structure is formed.  As a human develops, if she is lucky, she will become aware of the limitations of her ego, and how that self-identification  limits access to what is greater, to the experience of true Love and other experiences of Essential Qualities like Joy or Clarity.  Perhaps she will know the experience of union with the Divine, knowledge of a Oneness with all of Existence.  Thus the One of self eventually merges to the One of Existence through knowledge of True Self.  Ultimately the end of the path is what many call ‘enlightenment’ — a permanent resting of awareness beyond mind/body/ego, a full time experience of a Divine consciousness.

 

Oops, I digress slightly.  Or not. 

 

The basic theme of a polarity, can be expressed as a number line, of a sequence of numbers, but with the understanding that there are an infinite variety of values available between each of the numbers on the line, something like this:

 

1       2       3       4       5       6       7       8       9       . . .    to Infinity

 

Note that infinity, a mathematical concept of a value beyond anything that can actually be written, is quite suggestive of the Divine, and this is no accident.  Mystical teachings often equate the infinite with the numinous realms where consciousness can meet the totality of existence.  The mind can only point to something beyond it, beyond specific understanding.

 

Matter to Spirit and Spirit to Matter

                 

Certainly another basic polarity is the theme of a continuous progression from matter to spirit.  This can be understood as an evolutionary sequence of consciousness, such as from rocks to humans, or in the Christian tradition, from rocks to humans, to angels and then to God, . In the system that I am personally most comfortable with it would be from rocks to plants to animals to people to enlightened incarnated beings to enlightened beings no longer in the body but merged with existence and then finally to the totality of existence itself.  Thus is a continuum from matter to spirit, and this is another universal, fundamental principle, probably found in all cultures— a basic part of every human cosmology.  Ken Wilber refers to this as “The Great Nest of Being”, drawing consecutively larger concentric circles, from self to spirit.

 

But now it is time to digress from Ken Wilber and explore a dimension of reality that he largely ignores, and perhaps a reason why few Women are interested in his books.  If we go a bit beyond the basic positive integer line we get into negative numbers.

Thus:

 

Infinity         . . .    -3     -2     -1     0       1       2       3       . . .          Infinity

 

So this is a continuum from the ultimate negative to the ultimate positive, with a neutral balance point in the middle.  The math is a metaphor, a distillation of a basic principle of opposites that operate in the human realm, as matter but also as consciousness.  Between Matter and Spirit is the human realm.  We are not rocks, and at least at the body-mind level, we are not God.  In this intermediate realm we witness a play of opposites which is not just “mind”, although various traditions talk about many types of “mind” such as higher mind and lower mind, and often in Buddhist theory Heart and Mind are lumped together.

 

Doing this misses an important opportunity, a key point, in fact.  Let’s explore the polarity of positive and negative a bit, and examine the relationship of this Yin and Yang duality.  Consider Positive as a Masculine creative principle and the Negative as a Female principle.  We dive into a whole topic.  In Vedic culture there is the A-U-M, the three principles of existence: the Creative, the Maintaining, and the Destroying, all very important, all happening continuously.

 

So, contemplating the Positive and the Negative, with a Neutral balance in the middle, and ascribing Male and Female principles accordingly, we also might want to explore a basic aspect of so-called mind, because Mind and Heart are in fact two very different things, and even relate to different approaches to awareness, and even to different spiritual paths toward enlightenment.  And this duality of Mind and Heart intersects the continuum of “Matter to Spirit” right at the midline, at the point of human mind-body consciousness.  So we draw a cross, which can have various meanings in metaphysics, but proposed here is that this one is of particular importance, that it is a fundamental pattern.

When we take two oppositional axes and justapose them perpendicular to each other, we have the foundation of Classical Physics, upon which Isaac Newton built Calculus and the mathematics of motion, acceleration and force.  This is the basic format for square forms, used today to design floorplans, work with spreadsheets, and create matrices in mathematics.   If we perform the operation of multiplication of two perpendicular axes, we obtain the surface area of the square section thus enclosed, which is no small step- there are all kinds of implications, this is a fundamental mathematical principle.  And, extending the model to three perpendicular directional axes, we have the cube and cubic geometry, which is the traditional Cartesian Geometry that enabled the Master Painters of the European Renaissace era to paint spacial perspective so realistically. It is the full framework for Classical Mechanics, within which Maxwell’s Equations of Electromagnetism operate, and this is the canvas that is literally stretched by Einstein’s theory of Relativity.

 

Returning to the theme of two perpendicular axes drawn on our flat sheet of paper, we thus return to  exploring two important dialectics:

 

Matter – Mind – Spirit

 

And

 

Mind – Heart

 

 

Now for Matter-Mind-Spirit, we can consider a continuum from gross to subtle, thus

Spirit

|

Mind

|

Matter

 

And we have the Primary Cross, an ancient symbol found in almost every culture on Earth:

 

Note that in the Qabalah there are three vertical pillars, white black and grey, representing three different approaches to enlightenment / higher mastery.  While the Qabalah has its polarities of the horizontal direction, the core of the I Ching is more closely represented fully by this basic mandala.

 

 

                                        Sky / Spiritual

 

 

 


Mind / Yang / Masculine                                Heart / Yin / Feminine

 

 

                                     

  Earth / Material

 

 

Thus it is proposed that this Primary Cross represents a fundamental metaphysical building block.  As it is used with the I-ching and various mandala forms of different traditions including Native American and aboriginal Australian, it is also the basic framework for the Seed Logos mandala.  As a fundamental, it is a building block to greater complexity.

 

From Seed Logos: Path to Unity Consciousness, by Varadaan

“The implications of this relationship between two of what we might call one dimensional variables, quickly enables fairly high degrees of complexity.  When there is a continuum of values for one variable, say from +1 through 0 to –1, then two such variables can define a plane of interaction, such as might be described by the Primary Cross above.  In the case of modern computers, with their simplified binary on-off switching, we see how binary operations can ultimately yield a digital realm of high complexity, such as the system I am using to write this text.  In the case of a variable with a continuum of values, we are considering an analog situation.  Both analog and digital types of complexities are found in the natural world, though usually, there is an analog aspect, even when the digital nature is present, as would be the case with a DNA protein strand.  The following digression should help elucidate how complexity emerges even from the most simple of initial geometries.  2x2, also 22, is the geometry shown above with the Primary Cross, while of relevance is that 25 = 32 = (2x2x2x2x2) is the order of complexity sufficient to create a self replicating polypeptide chain, define all manifestation of the first ten orders of vibration in music or physics, or describe the full Tree of Life [1] , which means the 10 Sephiroth plus the 22 paths, which correspond, incidently, to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the 22 Major Arcana of the Western Tarot.  Note 26 = (2x2x2x2)x(2x2) = 64 is the order of complexity of the I Ching, foundation to much Eastern metaphysics. [2]

 

 

 

         The Black, White and Grey pillar paths in Qabballah relate to the three paths of enlightenment identified in Vedic culture, and map to the above as shown here:

 

White Pillar              Grey Pillar                              Black Pillar

Mind                             Body                                     Heart

Masculine                      Neutral                                 Feminine

Yang                             Balance                                Yin

Path of Study                 Path of Power                       Path of Mysticism

Path of Asceticism          Path of Action                      Path of Prayer
Jnani Yoga                     Karma Yoga                         Bhakti Yoga                        

Path of Inquiry               Pranayama+Asana                 Worship and Devotion

Advaita/Zen                   Kundalini Yoga, Martial Arts   Tantra

 

For more details on this topic, refer to more of my writings including “Returning to the Fountain” found at http://www.varadaan.org and also to the section on this site devoted to a more detailed discussion of the Sacred Geometry of the Seed Logos.

http://www.sustainability.org/resources/sg_of_sc.html

 

 

Beyond two polarities is the concept, from Hegel, of a third.  In the Hegelian Dialectic there is the opposition of two and then their synthesis, yielding a third.  This is actually the theory underlying successful  consensus process, where the conflict between two or more different views are integrated and considered, and a ‘third way’ is developed, an answer for the whole that everyone can agree to or at least live with.

 

But this ‘synthesis’ actually is hinting at an entirely different type of geometric construction of a two dimensional world.  It is quite relevant that the strongest two dimensional structure is an equilateral triangle, the shape of the teeth of the great white shark. So in the physical world, equilateral triangles are found to be the most economical form.  A sheet of paper can be neatly divided into tiling patterns of two uniform regular geometric shapes: squares or hexagons, and hexagons are groupings of equilateral triangles.  In the physical chemistry of solids, we see sheets of hexagons in the graphite of the pencil I’m not using to write at the moment. Layered dense packs of sheet structures, either in cubic or hexagonal forms are the basic structure of metals.  For more about this try the internet of go right to -

http://www.ncl.ox.ac.uk/icl/heyes/structure_of_solids/Lecture1/Lec1.html

Here is a local version of this page, if the link above does not work

/RE-solidstructure.html

And thus we see the dense packing in sheets goes right into dense packing in 3D, so we have materials in cubic geometry and also tetrahedral geometry.  And for the metaphysics buffs, note that as the tetrahedron emerges, so too does the “flower/seed of life image from Egypt presented by Drunvalo Melchizedek and others

                  http://www.floweroflife.org/

 

 

And in addition, on the subject of triangles, tetredrons and the like, note that Buckminster Fuller’s Synergetics proposes a new mathematical model based on a triangular system for relating items to each other.  While his approach did not directly revolutionize mathematics, it is true that a more versatile and open mathematics has taken physics by storm.  Modern String theory proposes between 11 and 13 different dimensions which are believed sufficient to describe all phenomona relativistic and quantum from the most macrocosmic to the most microcosmic.  Meanwhile, as an amateur, Varadaan during his last year of identification with mind, found that the additional coupled dimensions of  the “imaginary” planes which are invoked with the equations of electromagnetism and quantum field mechanics suggest a linkage of cubic and tetrahedral space, which suggests the geometry of how photons arise from the collapsing fields of electron orbitals.  The details are beyond the scope of this material, but should become available through Varadaan’s home page http://www/varadaan.org at some point in the future.

 

In two dimensions, note the profound synergy of tri and quad, in the twelve around one found in the zodiac, the clock face, and the Seed Logos Mandala.  3x4=12.

 

So let’s review the seed logos mandala one more time:

8:00 is also
Media & Communication

 

Each axis has particular meaning, representing a particular polarity.  The Seed Logos with its twelve sectors, was created by Varadaan, and then incorporated into the "Peace Room" project. Note how Marshall Lefferts and friends working on the Barbara Marx Hubbard's Evolve project in Santa Barbara have chosen to merge point 8 with point 2, the axis associated with communication, planning and earth stewardship.  The additional association of communication and media with point 8 seems a welcome enhancement. Although for me, the act of community land use planning feels more appropriate in the lower left quadrant, relating closely to resources, mind and government; and the values that should drive a healthy version of this activity certainly are appropriate in the upper right quadrant.  Thus Earth Stewardship is the activity of those who campaign for their governments to do the right thing and buy open space, select suitable conservation/development plans, etc.  Enlightened government will engage its land use activities cohered by a clear value of Earth Stewardship, which may be a cultural value of that society, informed by even more clear and more lofty spiritual principles.  Note especially the polarity of “values, ethics and spirit” with “economics”, and contemplate for just a moment on how it is that modern banks often resemble Greek temples. . . Does modern civilization worship money?

 

Review the Seed Logos diagram and contemplate each axis, and then, learn more about the Primary cross but also how the equilateral triangles in the diagram are there for a reason. See the Sacred Geometry of the Seed Logos material.

http://www.sustainability.org/resources/sg-of-sdlogos.html

 

 

 

• • • • • • • • •

Multiple Dimensions of the Seed Logos

The Seed Logos 12 Sectors diagram

The Eight Levels of Spiral Dynamics

The Seed Logos Mandala - 12 Sectors of Sustainable Culture



[1] The Tree of Life

[2] More on the details of how this numerical basis for complexity arises, and specifically greater detail about our DNA, self replicating polypeptides, the first ten orders of vibration in physics and music, the I Ching and the Qaballah will be presented in Appendix G: Underlying Structure of the Universe.