The Energetic Unfolding of Creation

The pattern of energy and energetics doesn't stop with duality and trinity.  It continues onward in a numeric unfolding of creative patterns. 

If we turn our awareness is our own breath, we can observe a fourth "element" in the cycle of creation.  This fourth aspect of energy is opposite the point of rest or equilibrium and happens at the peak of inhalation.  Here, we have a brief, fleeting point at which expansion shifts to contraction.  This is the fourth aspect of energy—change.

Change is the opposite of rest and occurs whenever expansion shifts to contraction.  It is always a momentary point of imbalance, a sudden shift or transition.  It is the bottom of the roller coaster ride as the cars moving downward, gathering increasing speed in the process, hit the bottom and are forced to move upward, discharging the built up kinetic energy as they move up the next incline.  As this energy is exhausted or spent at the top of the roller coaster ride you will notice there is a brief pause or slowing before the next downward cycle begins.

The pattern of four is the underlying basis for the traditional four elements, air, water, fire and earth.  So, we are back to seeing the world as the ancients saw it.  In fact, they probably never meant that the world was literally composed of air, water, fire and earth.  It is likely that those who originated these teachings understood that these four substances were metaphors or symbols of the basic energetic forces in the universe.

So, let's examine the metaphors of the four elements and decipher the energies that are behind them.

Water represents the feminine, yin or expanding energy.  It's opposite force, fire, represents the yang or contracting energy.  Water nourishes things and makes them grow or swell.  Fire breaks things apart and releases their stored energy.  This represents one pattern of apparently opposing forces which are really just two aspects of the same eternal cycle of life, but there is another in this model—air and earth.

Earth represents the point of balance, rest or equilibrium. Earth is another "mother" or feminine "yin" energy.  It is grounding and draws things to it through the force of gravity.  Air, on the other hand, represents the point of imbalance—the winds of change.  It is the "sky father"  energy of Native American philosophy and is another representation of the masculine "yang" energy.

These two patterns of opposites form a grid system as shown in the illustration below.  This grid system is an aspect of the Native American medicine wheel as illustrated below.

Our world has traditionally defined things primarily through the pattern of fours.  Thus, we speak of the four winds and four corners of the world.  This is because walking on the face of the earth we have the four cardinal directions—north, south, east and west.  These can also be expressed as front, back, left and right, which comprise our primary system of orientation. Thus, the four element pattern that helps us orient ourselves in the world.

This pattern of four is also clearly visible in the cycles of nature around us.  We observe the four seasons (winter, spring, fall and summer).  The opposing forces of summer and winter are juxtaposed by two transitional periods, spring and fall.  Summer is the yang or fire time when everything is pushed outward, drawn toward the sky.  Winter is the yin or water time when all live retreats inward, drawn back into the earth.  Spring is the season of change, renewal, rebirth. It is the time of air (March winds).  Fall is the time of equilibrium, the gathering of the harvest and the celebration of the abundance of the universe. It is the time of the earth.

We observe these same four forces in the cycle of the day.  Between the darkness of night and the light of the day are two periods of transition, morning and evening.  Again, day is the yang or fire force and night is the yin or water time.  We expend our energy (discharge it) during the day and renew our energy (recharge it) at night. Morning correlates with spring (air) and is the time of change.  (I personally get my best ideas in the morning.)  Evening equates to the autumn, the season of earth—a time for rest and reflection. 

One of the best explanations I ever encountered for this pattern was in the book Sons of God by Christine Mercie.  In it, the author spoke of watching the sunset and wishing that she could fly in a plane at exactly the speed of the rotation of the earth and watch the sun setting for 24 hours.  She realized that although we experience day and night, sunrise and sunset as cycles over time, that in reality they are eternal.  It is always day somewhere and night somewhere.

The most beautiful observation she made was that the sunrise and sunset are forever circling our planet like the dance of two eternal lovers.  In the sunrise and the sunset, day and night meet and embrace forever, in the never ending union of the opposites—the ecstasy of love.  Since reading her description I see the burning passion of Divine love expressed in every sunrise and every sunset.

A more complete explanation of these energy patterns will have to follow in additional articles in this series, but it is important for you to know that the pattern does not stop at four.  The four becomes the five, the five becomes the six, and so forth as we observe more and more parts to the eternal circle of the energetic universe.

For example, think of the musical scale.  As you go up the musical scale (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti) on the eighth note you are back to the beginning (do).  You have just completed one cycle and have arrived back at the beginning. This is also an expression of the eternal circle or cycle of life, only here we have seven divisions.

However, consider that the second do is not the same as the first do, because it is vibrating at exactly double the speed (or cycles per second) of the first do.  So, the cycles don't really travel in circles, they travel in spirals.  These spirals follow a specific mathematical pattern known as the Fibonacci sequence.  In fact, it is this mathematical pattern which forms the musical scale in the first place. 

These mathematical ratios of the Fibonacci sequence are found throughout all living things.  The spiral design of a sea shell follows this mathematical pattern.  Leonardo Da Vinci's famous drawing of the man (often used as a symbol in holistic healing, was drawn to demonstrate these mathematical patterns in the human body. Here again, we see testimony to the energetic unity of the universe. 

Finally, although there are seven major notes on each rotation of the piano keyboard, there are also five half-tones (sharps and flats), making a total of 12 fundamental divisions in each turn of the sacred spiral or wheel of life.  All the music that has ever been written is composed using these twelve notes, repeated over and over again in various sequences, and moving up and down the sacred spiral. 

But it isn't just music that forms this pattern.  Look at color.  Three primary colors create three secondary colors (for a total of six).  When combined again they form the twelve basic colors of the color wheel.  The seven major colors (which are present on the rainbow) are complimented by five secondary colors (the half-tones).  Every color we observe is simply a mixture of these basic colors.

This pattern is even present in the periodic table of elements.  It is called the periodic table because the pattern of the elements follows a sacred spiral in the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence.  Each column on the table is the same “note” or “color” expressing itself at a higher or lower frequency.  So, again, all the “elements” we observe in chemistry and the world we live in are composed of twelve basic vibrational states which move up and down this sacred spiral or wheel of life.

Ultimately, quantum physics is suggesting that the universe is composed of twelve vibrations.  I've read that these vibrations follow the mathematics which create the musical scale, and that this mathematic sequence is also the basis of the sacred spiral.  All of this testifies that there is a unity to the universe.  A Divine pattern of oneness permeates everything we observe.

These twelve basic forces (the twelve basic colors or notes which compose the universe) are represented by the Tree of Life model that Roylon Mortensen discovered and shared with me.  As one begins to understand these energy patterns of the Tree of Life, which I have introduced here, one will begin to see these patterns manifested everywhere.  They are present both in science and in philosophy, in physics and metaphysics.  They are as artistic as they are mathematical.  They are holographically present in everything we can observe.

With this insight, it is not hard to picture that there is a celestial song of creation vibrating from the Creator and forming all that we see.  The universe is a symphony of form and color revealing over and over again the pattern of notes that created it.  When one sees this pattern in action one begins to see and experience the unity, harmony, and wholeness that is present in all creation.  One begins to sense the quiet breath, the soft voice and the loving song emanating from the Creator and moving through the whole of creation.

I know all of this can sound pretty mystical and airy-fairy, but it's really not.  It is deep, profound, even sacred and awe-inspiring, but it is also absolutely grounded, practical and useful, as I shall attempt to demonstrate in other articles.

Once you open your mind to these principles, you will have started on a journey that will forever change the way you think.  Are you ready to discover again the path of the Tree of Life?