That's Funny: The Flower of Life

NOTE:  Holiday Gift Card Flower Slideshow is visible below this post

“The most exciting of phrases to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka! I have found it’ but rather ‘That’s funny…’” - Isaac Asimov

Currently at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland/France, they are running experiments to discover the existence of the Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that can help theorists understand the building blocks of the Universe.  The popular media has dubbed it “The God Particle” although that tends to be a hyperbole that outrages scientists. However, in looking at a recent photograph of a “decay pattern” from the Collider I was immediately struck with how similar the image was to the ancient and sacred geometrical forms known as the Seed of Life and Flower of Life.

simulated decay pattern model of Higgs boson

Seed of Life

Flower of Life

I think it’s quite “funny”, and love it when modern science “discovers” things that correlate to ancient and sacred knowledge. While the verdict is of course still out on this connection, I have no problem jumping to such fun conclusions - it’s all theoretical anyway!

As a lover of all things flowering and sacred, I’ve been fascinated by the ancient Flower of Life pattern for quite some time, recently incorporating the symbol into the background of the image for my upcoming “Songs & Stories For Our Days: An Unorthodox Spiritual Cabaret” and in some of the HiveWorld icons, exactly because it holds profound meaning. The visual symmetrical pattern is believed to be a visual expression of the inter-connectedness of all life, woven together. The center of each circle lies upon the circumference of six other surrounding circles with similar diameter, creating a hexagonal pattern (another reason I love the symbol).

Forthcoming show last three weekends in January 2012!

Like many sacred geometric forms, it has had various meanings and various forms throughout many cultures across the globe.  The Seed of Life is a smaller version of the Flower, created by interlocking seven circles together, and is used to depict the seven days of creation: if you build one circle up at a time each day.

What is also fascinating to me, is that just as the Flower of Life depicts life’s inter-connectedness and inter-dependence, the process of building the Large Hadron Collider required the collaboration of over 10,000 scientists from some 100 countries! They also claim that by the end of 2012 they will have either discovered the particle or proved it doesn't exist, or perhaps in the experiment to find the building blocks of the Big Bang they will create a black hole that will suck our solar system into it (now wouldn't that be timely on Dec. 21, 2012...)!

Anyway, all these beautiful patterns make me wish I still had access to that most wonderful of childhood art toys, the Spirograph!

May the Flower of Life blossom for you as you search for connection to the God Particle within!

Flowering Princes & Princesses Series

Ian MacKinnon - Flowering Prince (Click photographs for larger images)

April Hava Shenkman - Flowering Princess (Click photographs for larger images)

In honor of the Flowering Princes and Princesses within us (see last weeks post), I present a few of the first examples of an ongoing series. It starts by photographing some of my artistic friend/peers and then over 5 panels creating a sequence where flowers emerge that create some kind of pattern that has to do with each artist. I look forward to creating some more works for this series and exploring its evolution. They take a lot more out of me than I initially imagined (to separate each individual flower is very labor intensive), but worth the investment of time to watch the creative blossoms unfurl to life -  Hope you enjoy!

For April Hava Shenkman, we discussed using "party bouquet" flowers and morning glories (both her favorite kinds). Because April (profiled in a blog post last month) uses the theme of parties in her Happy Happy show and performances, I thought creating streamers of flowers photographed from party bouquets would be appropriate. Additionally, her hair is so unique and so I thought little morning glory buds popping out would be fun. She mixes curious, wistful, classy, and exhuberant poses - just like her performances.

For Ian MacKinnon, I thought creating a rainbow of flowers would be a great representation; he identifies as a Gay-Centered Performance Artist. His stage performances and wardrobe are usually very colorful with themes of empowerment, individuality and bold self-expression. But Ian is also very rooted in psychology, in sincerity, and his works often contain educational material or meaningful messages. So I wanted to start with a very blank, white canvas, and in rushes this festive explosion of color at first quite daunting and then shaped by Ian, which he has a very spiritual pose and then a flamboyant one.

The series started with Nathalie Broizat in December. Her series utilized a single red rose falling down from the sky and repeated over and over until it creates a pattern not unlike red polka-dots, which is a signature image and look in many of Nathalie's performance pieces.  It's a very restricted color palette, which I feel lends an refined, elegant touch befitting of the beautiful Nathalie.

MORE FLOWERINGS TO COME!

Jason

The Flowering Prince - an intro to darkness & light

"Bouquet" 2008 - JJ

Spring is the perfect time to introduce the subject of flowering, metaphorically in artistic terms and in connection to our creativity. There really is no better teacher to admire for her abundant creativity than Mother Nature. Plants are among some of the greatest spiritual instructors, and I ask you now to stretch your imaginations and visualize the Flowering Prince/Princess that is within you.

The Flowering Prince is a mighty archetype found throughout the world, but by different names and in different forms. It’s connected to a concept very key to the idea of Your ReBegin, that of creative growth and rebirth, the cycles of life and death. While the name “Flowering” is very apt for the beautiful forms and manifestations that are pleasing to the senses, the archetype also deals with very dark themes as well. For there is no flowering without death. The Flowering Prince is always half alive or half dead (depending on if your glass is half full or empty). The cycle of life always includes death, but from the process of breaking down organic material, new life emerges. The key is to be fully invested in the process, honoring the necessary step that comes with any form of “death” and using it as fertilizer for the rebirth that will eventually come. The Flowering Prince always dies, again and again, but is eternal.

Perhaps the brand Ed Hardy is so popular is that its imagery taps into the Flowering Prince motif - death and flowering

So too we have creative cycles within us that go through these phases. By properly cultivating all our various forms of deaths, our troubles, our personal dramas, our defeats, our failures, our fears — we contribute to new ideas so that we can nourish ourselves and bloom again. The act of creating new work is akin to growing out new shoots and vines and the finishing of a work is unfurling a brand new flower into the light of day. 

We often confuse the creative process for something happy and charmed. On the contrary, the creative process is actually a very dark and scary thing. It’s full of angst, which is why creative blocks exist - they stop us from proceeding any further on the dangerous path. The path takes us into the realm of death and destruction. If we get lost in that space, it can be very damaging to the psyche and we refuse to go forward through any more of it. We stall and perhaps even stagnate. We need to rally our spiritual troops and figure out how to move forward through the darkness, through the process of decay and death, so we can use it as fertile material towards our creative blossoms. The HOW to proceed is the tricky part, and there are many methods, but not all of them work for everyone. Since we are individuals, we must recognize we all have different processes that work better for us than others.

You need to experiment with different methods until you find one that gives you results. A team/network of friends to support you during the process will help. Fellow artists (other Flowering Princes & Princesses) know what the dark journey is like and can be sought out to give those little pep talks and advice. It’s actually a very welcome thing, because I often find that as I share words of encouragement to friends, I am actually speaking to myself as well. So imagine yourself one of many Flowering Princes/Princesses in a beautiful garden. Just be careful you don’t compare yourself to other blooms; admire them for their intrinsic beauty of individuality (if they are being true to who they are), but avoid judgments!  This of course takes time to develop and figure out. Cross pollinate with other flowers and experience a bit of the magic that comes from being out in the world. Don’t steal ideas, but be nourished energetically by the essence of creativity shared.

And remember, "deaths" are a part of the path that will come again and again in various forms. Learn to make the most of its dark embrace. The refusal of its presence only prolongs the struggle , the proper process of cultivation can help you go deeper into the journey of life and eventually bring more aliveness to your blooms!

More to come honey-blossoms!

images of Xochipilli - the Aztec Flowering God - a fascinating figure on many levels