Seeking Magic

Here for more Ethereal Art

What is it that makes us want the world to be un-ordinary.  I have been reading a lot of blogs online recently and the ones that most appeal are those where someone is seeking beauty through the un-ordinary... through the world of magic.  It seems to me that people seem to deal with the world around the by seeking the humour in it but what they really want is not reality but that which is beyond them. We find it inordinately appealing when something from the world that is tangible combines with something from us to create something intangible.  For example, when I hear the howls of coyotes out in the night, it sets the hair on the back of my neck to standing on end. There are shivers that pass up and down my spine. It is the intangible connected-ness of coyotes howling and my reaction of hairs standing on end that creates the world of the ethereal.

A few years ago I began doing the research on mathematical models in the natural world and what I discovered was that there was a connection between math (the absolute abstract) and nature which is tangible.  In it's simplicity, mathematical models are random numbers that equate to create recurring patterns. In other words, no two snow flakes are the same yet all snowflakes possess six-fold symmetry. In the plant world, this interprets as leaves, petals, daisy heads etc... with patterns that can be duplicated in common mathematical equations, particularly the "golden number"[(1 + the square root of 5)/2 =1.618 which the Greeks studied so long ago.  The curl of a drying fern, the spiral of the seeds growing in the head of a daisy are also to be found in the spiral of nautilus shell.

Patterns in leopard skins and some forms of insects as well as Giraffes and Cheetahs have patterns that can also be duplicated by mathematical properties. Even cracks in mud or the way fur lies on an animal are reflected by mathematical properties.

Thousands of years ago there was a Greek philosopher that said that "all things are number" and perhaps he was closer to the truth than we can know. In the end, it is the connected-ness of all things to each other that gives this world it's ethereal quality. Perhaps that is why we tend to be drawn to the ethereal, perhaps we have a desire to return to our roots which is somewhere between mathematics and number and our skin cell's patterns. Perhaps we are not as unique in the world as one may thing... perhaps we need to look at math more closely to understand ourselves better. Perhaps we can use math to cure cancer. We just need to find the identical patterns to helps us understand what is underlying all life.

Who could believe that something so definite as mathematics, so absolute,  could be so intricately entwined in something so elusive as life.

When I hear a coyote howling in the night and the hairs on the back of my neck is beginning to rise, then I will know.... and not just wonder... that the ethereal is at work in our world.

Here for more Ethereal Art