The flame in the center of the circle.
The circle posseses many mysteries, and has been a focus for man's
attentions before language. Drawn in the sand, it is a symbol for
for all around. The sun, the moon. Later, the wheel, the coin.
During the renaissance, Galileo and the Church feuded over
"epicycles", the circles-within-circles that were the law of the
heavens, and ruled over planetary motions. The same era began
the first studies of the "simple harmonic oscillator", that is,
the study of circular motions and vibrations (harmony). In the
modern era, man discovered that all things
electrical and complex are ruled
by these theories of circular harmony. In our era, Quantum Mechanics
has raised the harmonic oscillator to the highest alter: that of
zero-point motion. While it is said that the theories of chaos will
soon wreck the dominance of the theories of the circle, this is simply
not true. The circle will previal, for the very mysteries of chaos
itself can be found within its center.
The flame in the center of the circle.
The scary, dark shadow under the flame, arms
outstreached, seeking embrace.
Copyright (c) 1991, 1994 Linas Vepstas
The Center of the Circle
by Linas Vepstas is licensed under a
Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.