The Spiral Archetype

In the scientific portal we look at how spirals are created in the natural world. Spiral seashells have been on the planet for millions of years. Throughout primate evolution our ancestors have eaten shellfish, gathered spiral shaped plants, and waded through spiral eddies and whirlpools. Spirals have always been part of our experience.

Fifty thousand years ago, human ancestors began to see spirals in a new and powerful way. What happened?

The Tower of Babel: Spirals of Doom

The spiral can be symbol of creation, however it is also a potent symbol of dissolution into chaos. The spiral spins both ways. Downward spirals represent the forces of entropy that are constantly working to instigate chaotic collapse. 

Inevitably, these two spirals—the generative and the destructive—turn out to be one continuous cycle. Fiddlehead ferns dry up, fold in on themselves, and collapse back into the earth. The dandelion puff  explodes outward into disorder on the wind. Seashell, long abandoned by their original builders, are gradually ground down into sand. Spiral galaxies spin out into oblivion.

But in the spring, new ferns spring up from the ground. The sand made from old shells is used to build the new, and the gas and dust of expired stars and galaxies reconverge  and spin themselves into new galactic bodies.