Patterns of life and death beneath the steel

I am wondering a lot these days. I wonder about patterns, about spirals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral)

 and screws

(https://www.princeton.edu/~maelabs/mae324/04/04mae_17.htm)  

and dendrites. I wonder about life and about death. Yes, I have a reason, but there is no reason involved, or better, more than reason it is that is involved.

 There are these curling, swirling patterns in the steel... steel I found in the woods.

Of course you can explain this metallurgically sound: These are deviations in the carbon content or - distribution. In the forging process you break up the dendrites of, say Wootz steel or crucible steel... and only then, when you submit it to fire and work, will these patterns show. Steel is not a gentle material. It is cold as death, and even more so when you look at these dendrite structures or the swirling patterns in the steel of the blade.

For some reason I have always emotionally connected dendrites and crystals with death.

There is this association of winter with death, and winter is full of flakes, of scales of ice and snow. Maybe it is because of this. But dendrites are not only found in crystals, but also elsewhere.

Some people mock at me because I am that fond of spirals. And spirals are everywhere and have become a symbol of blossoming and prosperity, of fertility and renewal with mankind. And yet, when you look at the way dendrites grow in screw dislocations, they are there, also.

And if you look at the famed Mandelbrot simulation, which is a diagram of the formula z->z²+c and is an evaluation of imaginary and concrete numbers, there you have it, too:

And what do you have there, when you look at it from a mythogrammatical or poetologic point of view, is something very weird. Reality, well, is just reality, but what is imaginary? The word derives from Latin "imago" and stands for a picture. And yet "Imago mundi" is more than just a picture of the world, as the name might imply. It is more of a view. What, then, you ask, is a view?

And then there is the different between the semantic properties of  "image" versus "picture" or depiction. The image of a person is that which is made of a summary of his real and imagined properties and the way he or she portrays him or herself in public. Sometimes it is just wishful thinking. Now, wishful thinking can be seen as negative quite easily. But sometimes you need imagination to change yourself. Say, you are a bit huge around the hips. You have to envision yourself with a sixpack (and I am not talking  Coronas here ;-)), or even a tiny bit leaner, to even start losing fat. Then you can achieve a goal in the first. So the imago, as I want to call it from now on, starts becoming reality. Just for theory modelling I want to define the imago as the properties not given concretely in reality a priori, but by will or another impetus becoming a "goal" and therefore standing a chance of becoming real. This is a constant process.

I constantly ponder the question: How does the fern know how to grow? And why is the world made from patterns of spirals, dendrites, honeycombs, flakes and structures that have an immanent logic and are capable of being reproduced mathematically? Yeah, there are a lot of short and long answers to it, from "all is Gods creation" to "everything can be explained", but that´s not the culprit.  

The "other world", the "yonder", "heaven" (or hell, if you so will), in that theoretical context, seems to be much, much more than is portrayed in all the mythologies of the world. More so, it can be mathematically and physically explained, even if the complex and real numbers and consequentially the Mandelbrot set are just one aspect of this relationship of "mind and matter";-).

How, for instance, does a tree grow out of dendrites and spirals and root and stem and crown? What do the structures in the bark tell us? No, I do not think, there is only one "plan" and the tree just follows through. The way it grows is fractal. Say, the seed is resting in the earth and "wants" to grow out of the ground. Now postulate there are several universes and in each one of them there is a tiny detail that is different. Let us just look at two of them: In one plot the sapling simply grows straight out of the ground, so it becomes straight as an arrow. In the other a heavy branch had fallen from the crown over the sapling. Now there are several more plots. One possibility is that the seed dies and the sapling never grows. Another is that it has to grow around the branch... and a lot more I cannot think of now, and each and every one opens up new possibilities. The tree follows through a course of circumstances. These circumstances are not arbitrary in themselves, but fractal. Each fractal complex is interconnected with the other. The whole unit is so complex that I can safely argue that it is not to be described.

 

And look at this: This is not a renaissance ornament. It is a pine cone. Above you can watch an inspiring video by video artist Vi Hart with a bit of humour ;-).

Turn the pine cone, and there are the scales formed by a golden ratio spiral in the third dimension.

This is what we tend to forget: That even two - dimensional diagrams and concepts can be three- or four - dimensional. When we watch Vi Hart drawing lines on paper, two-dimensional gets a third dimension that is essentially the fourth: Time.

In a time lapse of a fern we see it grow. And trees grow. They grow year rings, but what we see...

Are scales on the bark, and similar patterns.

It grows in dendrites, and the stem is forked...

And when we look at it, we have to keep in heart that it grows at this very moment.

 

If you look at a screw from above, you´ll see a spiral...

Snow crystals grow in dendrites... but essentially they are water.

There are patterns that repeat themselves...

Rhythms...

...

...

...

I am not a mathematician. I can barely understand the Mandelbrot set. I am a writer, a poet maybe. But to understand the beauty of these dynamics, I need not know. I just have to see.

And there is so much to see. Spirals from spirals stem to dendrites and spirals... winter from summer, and summer from winter. Oh, true, also the life of my old mother which is currently in danger. But my mother is not just what she is now, but she is everything she always was and will be. Her life is something that I cannot fathom, as I cannot fathom mine. I´d wish she would get well again, of course, but I have to remind myself that she is more than just the momentary person, but a dynamic process embedded into a complex pattern. She IS the complex pattern, and will be and was, for, if you look at a screw from above, it is a spiral. If you look at a life from outside, there is no time dimension, or more than time, so to say. Words (or even maths) are not made to describe this. But one can feel it. One can feel the spirals turning and swirling. How can that be?

Now on another occasion I have stated that I have the strong suspicion that there is a connexion between the whiplash line and a dynamic yin yang in satori, flow or eucharist: http://fimbulmyrk.blogspot.de/2013/06/the-whiplash-line-what-mountainbike.html

This connexion is an interspersion of fractal systems. Let´s talk flow for starters. Say, a climber or mountainbiker experiences flow in a natural environment... The experience is called "autotelic" in sports psychology. This means that, since Hogrebe (1995: Metaphysik und Mantik)  along the lines of Hegelian dialectic, stated that semantic orientation in the human mind is vectorial, "telic" (the term deriving from Greek: telos: missile, javelin, arrow), the semantic experience of flow is returning onto itself and similar to itself, like the Mandelbrot set is. This is a feature of fractal logic. So, one can assume that flow a priori is fractal. Flow takes place in natural environments (Williams / Harvey 2001: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027249440190204X) and is triggered by e.g. forest environments.

Now that mountainbike rider rides through a trail in the woods where he experiences flow. And, to my personal experience, flow occurs often when there are a lot of dynamics shifts of weight and balance involved and at roundabout 80% of your own capability. Now many efficient moves in mountainbiking (bunny hop, manual, wheelie, even pedal strokes) follow circular and golden ratio spiral patterns (especially the bunny hop):

Look closely at the motion of the handlebar when the rider pulls at it.

Now this is not just about riding bikes and certainly no tutorial. If you feel so inclined, feel free to practice your hopping skills no less, but even in the intro of the vid you can see when you look at the movements of the bikes and riders through the berms, that their movements are smoothly and dynamically following circular or spiralling patterns. The system of all their movements during their descent is "constructed" fractal. And, according to my experience, it is trails like that in the video that are inclined to induce flow. Now add to all this that it takes place in a forest, on a trail that is subject to constant dynamic changes, that are self-similar in themselves, and the feeling of flow is par definitionem self-similar and self-directed.

Now flow would be just a psychological feature of some superficial members of the leisure society doing some fun sport, were it not described in books and stories far older than even the bicycle, let alone the mountainbike scene. From epiphany, hierophany, bodhodaya, satori, the descriptions of this dynamic psychological status are legion and congruent. It is in epiphany (according to Christian belief) alone that one can agnize that Christ is the son of God. It is called bodhodaya, when Arjuna in Hindu myth agnizes that his charioteer Krishna indeed is the incarnation of God (Bhagavadgita), and only in this state of mind he is able to do so. Flow therefore might be the state of mind to dissolve the conflict between the tininess of our agnition capacity and the fractal vastness of the universe. It´s so simple it would be a laughing matter. Of course I would like to continue on this topic...

...but in the meantime...

...I think...

...I´ll just have a cuppa forest.

        

 

The whiplash line-what mountainbike riding has to do with art nouveau, martial arts and a fiddlehead

I am a mountainbiker who now rides hard for 27 years, and without a question, I started just like everyone else. I bought a bike, fiddled around with components, made my own and bought pink titanium goodies just like anyone else. But at some point I realized something. I realized that I could not agree with the "bigger is better" crowd. People had given me their time and knowledge, and I realized I had the responsibility to give something back. So, I started tutoring, giving workshops for kids from a poor social background, and the like. It was then that I realized I had to learn what I was actually doing, for you teach best when learning. So I started to analyze what I was actually doing on my bike. I had always experienced flow, and "transcendent experiences in forest environments" were not at all strangers to me, either. I realized, being a writer and trying to torment my guitar and my flute, that flow can be experienced in other situations as well. So I  studied as much as I could on that topic and made some very interesting discoveries. I realized analogies and shared characteristics in the concept of flow, satori, eucharist, kairos, metakairos especially, the awareness of Chí, and shamanic exstasy. I had always studied several martial arts, with no ambition and until very recently, without instruction, and my father had trained me in our family martial art since I was a child.

When analyzing the Motions involved in mountainbike riding and slavic martial arts, I discovered a strange application of force. Being accustomed to the yin yang concept, but no expert in that matter, I was irritated that the development of force application of many movements seemed to follow a whiplash-line motion. In slavic dances with the Shashka, this becomes very evident in how the force develops. Apart from the double-circle (eight) motion, the "eight" can be diversed in whiplash lines.

This at first seemed contradictory to the Yin Yang principle, until I learned that the commonly known type of Yin - Yang is not the end of it.

Here, I found a decent explanation on the concept.

Non-polar (wuji) and yet Supreme Polarity (taiji)! The Supreme Polarity in activity generates yang; yet at the limit of activity it is still. In stillness it generates yin; yet at the limit of stillness it is also active. Activity and stillness alternate; each is the basis of the other. In distinguishing yin and yang, the Two Modes are thereby established. The alternation and combination of yang and yin generate water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. With these five [phases of] qi harmoniously arranged, the Four Seasons proceed through them. The Five Phases are simply yin and yang; yin and yang are simply the Supreme Polarity; the Supreme Polarity is fundamentally Non-polar. [Yet] in the generation of the Five Phases, each one has its nature.^[8]

 
picture source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Taijitu_Lai_Zhide.png

It is now a stunning "coincidence";-) that e.g. the motion of the hands on the handlebar when bunnyhopping an obstacle on a mountainbike follows exactly the same line, and that  the whole mess does not end there. Many everyday motions we do without thinking follow this principle in one way or the other.

It is then that I came across the Heraclitus spiral, 
the Fibonacci, or generally, the Golden Ratio spiral. The golden ratio was discovered by Adolf Zeising to reflect the growth and arrangement of plants and their limbs in nature. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do maths properly, but I found this strangely appropriate.

For instance, if you look at a fiddlehead, you will realize a striking similarity, and, of course, this is only natural, not necessarily because nature follows the golden ratio, but also because we always are obliged to follow nature, and the golden ratio has always been a means to describe nature.

That said and done, I assume that this diagram of the whiplash line is found throughout nature, and, of course, the whiplash line follows the aesthetics of the golden ratio. I then assume that a movement following the whiplash / golden spiral is a natural movement. If we assume the concept of Ch ´i expresses itself in flow or satori and follow the thesis that movement in itself is an expression of the application of force, we can now state that:

1. The whiplash line is a natural phenomenon following the golden ratio
2. The application of any force follows the whiplash line diagram, as well as the dialectic movement in polarity pairs like Yin and Yang. A similar concept are the expanding gyres of W.B.Yeats.
3. Since the concept of Ch ´i is linked to Satori (Flow), and Satori is linked to a kind of activity of either body or mind, and since this activity at least for the most part follows the whiplash line diagram and thusly the golden ratio, the development of flow / satori must also follow the whiplash line / spiral form.

Therefore, the spiral form is crucial for the understanding of flow, satori, or the Awen / AOUEIn. Since I assume an identity of flow with the Awen, and the Awen is a principle, amongst other things, of inspiration, I must assume that the process of creativity and creation must also follow these lines. Therefore, I must assume, that creation is organized in a fractal manner.

Flow/Satori/Awen therefore follows fractal ratio.


...to be continued.

Some slime-surfing mountainbike ride again

 Yesterday I set out to do some road riding, and as usual, it turned out a bit different. I phoned around with my mates, and it´s funny, but in the last year noone likes to ride with me anymore. It´s that they have no time, other things to do or whatever. No, don´t get me wrong, I believe them. They simply have no time when I have, and I am short on time when they have. Riding alone, then. As I said, I PLANNED to stick to the lane, but it turned out it bored me big style, so I rode out to the hills, and, believe me, I really wanted to stick to the road;-). No, really, I wanted. Turned out the woods called on mightily, and I had some strange encounters again. Now it is December. It´s a warm one over here, okay, with 3-7 degrees, but that should not bring THIS fellow to blossom: Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium,

 in German: Schafgarbe). And not just one herb, but many of them. I was riding on and wondering thoroughly to myself... Then it just bit me and I ventured on to some technical singletrack. No pics, though, don´t want to have hordes of half-mad downhillers;-) building 7m - drops and kickers there:-), plus I had some other things to do. When I rode on, one of the  reasons I still ride happened. It is a psychophysical phenomenon commonly referred to as "flow"  after Mihalyi Cziksentmihalyi, an autotelic experience sharing many parallels to the Japanese Zen term "Satori". Anyway, this is not the space to rant on about this;-), and maybe I get my resolve to complete my scientific work on this topic, which you may read in this place then. But as I was in complete balance, a buzzard started from the side of the trail again (this happens ever so frequently to me, no clue why;-)) and, this was truly weird, flew with me down the trail in a distance of about five metres. It did not rise higher or turned. It just flew with me down that hill, and when the trail turned uphill, it turned away again and cried its cry. Somewhat esoteric experience, if you ask me, but simply good and a beautiful event I do not want to interpret, for it is good as it is. Of course, the bummer would follow soon. On the next downhill I was quite enjoying myself and having some air. Seems I messed up one landing and hit a rock. Hitting a small rock of that size is no problem normally, but I like to run my tyre pressure somewhat low, and this IS a problem with allmountain tyres as I like to run, for downhill tyres just suck on the uphills;-). So it went ffffffffffffffffffffffftBAM, and I got a slab. By that time temps were dropping, and a steady drizzle started. Now I like to be prepared, so it was no problem, I just took out my spare tube and fitted it in, but I guess this is a good example that being prepared may elongate your life. You CAN die of hypothermia, even in those domesticated woods.
It was getting dark, too, so I chose to take the low road (pun intended*g*) home.

When I got home I realized something. I realized I missed this sport. I have done much riding in the last year, but always with an intent. Foraging, commuting, and the like. But it has always been experiences like the one with the buzzard that kept me riding for 27 years now, and this is most of my life. It´s not in being better than anyone. It´s not the material, as it is with others. That may help me get out there. But what really counts is the feeling of flying with the buzzard, of being one with the tiny space of calm within the gates of the wind. Call it a religious craze, or psychological, or whatever. You can have a simple ball with your mates out in the woods. You can have a laugh riding, enjoy the scenery, and whatever. Many reilsh in being better than anyone else, or in having a great bike and riding it, in getting better and all that stuff, and I can relate to that, too.

But it all comes down to that moment in full flight, when the buzzards rises in your soul to fly with the one outside. If you are able to feel this through, you´ll know. And you can´t fit it into words anymore, and you may rant on endlessly and helplessly. This is one reason I despise the hate-preachers as much as I do.

No words, just being.

Foraging / Dayhike with philosophy on top;-)

On wednesday I had a day off and made for the hills again. The weather was great, sun was shining and it was some 26 degrees C in the sunshine. I walked over the hill behind my home and was bound to collect some edibles, for this month is a somewhat meagre one again;-). Lesser Celandine (Pilewort, german: Scharbockskraut) is in blossom, and I got some for salad, and some roots for binding sauces and dressings. Lesser Celandine is rich with Vitamin C, hence the German name "Scharbocks-Kraut", scorbut-herb, for it was used as a remedy against scorbut in ancient times. After blossom, the leaves should not be used any more, for they get bitter and are under suspicion of being poisonous. The roots can be used still.

They are great as a nourishing implement, although you have to get a lot of them, being so small. Shot no photo, but they are like little, bug-like balls and not easily mistaken.

I walked for some hours on end towards my favourite lake. This is the view from atop the hill.

Collected some birch sap, but as it was, it was cool from the dew, and soooo refreshing, I drank it up for the most part, sitting on my favourite stump, which has a live birch protruding out of it.;-) Like an armchair, actually. I basked in the sun for an hour or so, had some more swigs of birch sap. Then I continued on my way.

Some more impressions on the way.

This is the woodbine sprouting. I have yet to try bushcraft basketry and this would be my material of choice.

I especially liked these woods for their light, yet twilit atmosphere. There is a certain heavy peace to them, breathing ever so slowly, so that your own heart beats slower there. There were birds singing and enjoying the warm weather like me. Again I did some stumpsitting and sunbasking;-). I did not sleep, but my conscience drifted away slowly, and I felt as if the blood of the trees ran through my veins, slowly and patient. My eyes drooped, and some strange calm took possession of my soul, ever so gently. It was like a green light shining behind my eyes. It is very hard to describe, for words are not made for this. My interpreting just stopped, my worries and ambitions subsided. I certainly heard the birds still, and saw the trees, and was aware where I was, even when I was, and why, but it did not matter. I felt like a part of it all, of sun and trees and life and death. Sounds esoteric, eh? It is. But then words are not made for this. The secret is, that there is nothing semantic to this feeling. It happens in a state of mind, where our constant construction of the world slowly and gently is faded out, where all of our mechanisms of interpretation fail. Because of the fact, that sign and significance might still be not identical, but that does not matter any more. because there is little, but slow and thorough movement, our everyday hectic vectorial orientation in a subsemantic complex subsides. There is a healing effect to this. The experinece, for being self-referred (autotelic) and solitary in a peaceful surrounding creates a side-effect of "Flow" (Cziksentmihalyi 2008). The phenomenon has been only recently researched in a study (transcendent experiences in forest environments:

Won Sop Shin,¹ Poung Sik Yeoun,¹ Rhi Wha Yoo,² and Chang Seob Shin¹(2009):

Forest experience and psychological health benefits: the state of the art and future prospect in Korea

 

KATHRYN WILLIAMS^a and DAVID HARVEY^{b (2002)}:TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCE IN FOREST ENVIRONMENTS

and many more;-). I personally hold in high esteem Wolfgang Hogrebe. As a first read you can perceive the essay "Mantics and Semantics" (1994, 1995, 2006). )

I often critisize the society we live in as insane. This society is often characterized as "rapidfire society", concerning the rapidity of information flow we all are confronted with. This leads to a somewhat onesided balance in the individual. Semantics are all that is asked from the individual, but mantics cannot be switched off. There are many millions of bits our brain perceives in everyday situations. A mentally normal individual filters this information by only processing and interpreting a small part of it. Now, in modern society, it is demanded, that many more informations are processed, at once. And the problem might not even be the mass of the informations to be semantically interpreted, but the impossiblity to train the mind to it and the connection between life-essentiality of interpretation and the resulting stress without a positive reinforcement as a bargain.(after the model: Don´t be slow, do not dream / rest etc or you´ll lose your job, plus the fact that no positive reinforcement is given by executives, but more requirements still ). The system is complex.

Flow can transcend this vicious cycle (or system even), and might be the reason this is entirely dissolved in forest environments, giving recreation and happiness and a healing effect to the individual by breaking the conctant need for (semantic) informational processing. 

After this much healing trance;-) I went on and came across this birch offering me its bark for tinder. Boy, do I need a tinder pouch, for it vanished in the depths of my rucksack. Found on the cheese afterwards;-) but no harm done, cheese was cleaned, and the bark still in order;-). Have to make myself a pouch, though.

Still more scenery to be mantically processed;-).

Found this dead tinder conk and took part of it home for tinder. I even heard it say you can make sheaths, caps, and bags from it. I´ll keep you informed!

The sun was sinking, and provided for magic moments under the forests roof again. I saw some roe deer and some wild pigs, and something in the distance that might have been a badger. As usual, my clumsy fingers did mess up with the camera, so no pics of any wildstock whatsoever;-). I walked for some seven hours on end, and was beginning to feel a bit fatigued. Had some cheese and bread with birchbark on;-) and some apples, an onion and the last swig from my birchsap bottle, drank some tea, and on I went. It was becoming colder, as the sun sank. I came to the road after another hour´s walking and took the bus home.