Patterns - The Wonder of it All

There are patterns that naturally occur in The Universe, patterns we’ve discovered in life, galaxies, star formations, evolution, and almost all natural systems. Some of these patterns are The Golden Ratio and Sacred Geometry.

Many years ago, I used to have the most amazing dreams involving music. Not your typical dreams - very present and aware dreams with my senses in hyper-mode. For example, one particular dream was a full orchestral piece - the most beautiful music I had ever heard in which I could hear each and every instrument independently yet together. It was pretty enlightening to say the least. Different voices all at once. I was not only experiencing a heightened sense of hearing, but also this kind of omnipresent sense of feeling the music. This would continue for many years and span all genres of music (even just a solitary human voice) and each time, I thought it was the most beautiful music I had ever heard.

By far the biggest thing I would come away with in these dreams was that this music was somehow interconnected with God, the Universe, etc. A little breadcrumb of expanded awareness. I started repeating the sentiment, "We are music" because that was the feeling that was left with me.

This started me on a path of studying and paying attention to the music all around me...the sounds of birds, the wind, people's voices, the way different types of music made me feel - Even the history of music with ancient peoples and the ways in which music was used in ceremony. The music sung by the nuns in churches, the way in which the Buddhists used throat singing to invoke an altered state and the way in which certain ancient instruments in India could do the same or the rhythms in African or Native American drumming. Sound, clearly, had some special connection with us and spiritual connection. And it didn't appear to be some insignificant expression.

At the very least, it served to validate that nothing was random and quite possibly that music (sound) was the language of the universe.

Then came the next chapter - PATTERNS

After many years of the music dreams, they switched to geometric patterns. I'll never forget that first one because it was just as powerful as the music dreams. There I was standing on a mountain side and a small child pointed up at the sky. I looked up and there was this 'living' geometric pattern that resembled something like 'lace'. I describe it as 'living' because it was glistening in rainbow colors and for some very odd reason, I instantly knew that this had something to do with music or sound. Then a neon glowing box appeared with what looked like an X in the middle.

I didn't know what any of this meant exactly. I knew it was important and related to music and communication but hadn't a clue where to look for something like this. I was just left with this additional breadcrumb and because this dream was so powerful, the images were imprinted in my mind so I knew that if it existed somewhere in digital form on the internet, I could gather more information - give these geometric shapes a name and perhaps dive into a really interesting journey of discovery.

Interesting journey turned into a mind-blowing next chapter

It didn't take me long to find that first image from the dream. It is called, "The Flower of Life" which is a topic in and of itself mind-blowing. Once I found the name however, I was able to reproduce (somewhat) what I saw:

The image that I saw did not have the circle around it, however, I wasn't proficient in Photoshop enough to reproduce it exactly. But this should give you an idea of it at least.

It appeared to me that this geometric pattern was very ancient which was a trip. Did the ancients dream of this, too? Where did it come from and how did they receive this image? This still blows my mind! Origins of the geometric pattern dates back to at least to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia.

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From Ephesus, Turkey

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A window at the southern apsis of the church of Preveli Monastery (Moni Preveli), Crete

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Temple of Osiris at Abydos, Egypt

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Gate of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City, Beijing, China, showing the geometrical pattern on its surface

And even Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated with this pattern. hmmm

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I could literally find many, many more ancient reproductions of this pattern, however, you get the idea.

Da Vinci was interested in the proportions of this grid for it's occurrence in nature, for example bumble bee cells, turtle’s carapace and snowflakes. The theory of lunes - geometric figures formed by the intersection of two circular arcs, was invented by the Greek mathematician Hippocrates and both Leonardo and Hippocrates were doing this to unveil the ancient “squaring the circle” enigma.

What I learned is that this pattern along with others fall into the category of 'sacred geometry'. I do not profess to be 'New Agey' in any way, but this seems to have been taken over by this movement.

What I am interested in is 'why' these patterns are important and why they are so ancient and what do they have to do with music or sound?

A modern theory states that reality is created by harmonics following the patterns of sacred geometry and that these might possibly be The Blueprint of God.

A moment of realization

As I often do, I was on one of my hikes with my kids and camera when I first realized that nature was full of patterns. For some strange reason, I recalled those dreams with heightened interest. Was Music/Sound and geometry somehow related? Why did nature seem to have the same repeating patterns?

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." ~ Nikola Tesla

I discovered the Golden Ratio in so much of nature and became very interested in this as well. Something clicked!

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The Vitruvian Man is a drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man.

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Snowflakes have sixfold symmetry (flower of life!)

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My journey of patterns and music, led me back to the beginning - WE ARE MUSIC! Cymatics!

Enter in, Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni - 30 November 1756 – 3 April 1827

He was a German physicist and musician. His most important work, for which he is sometimes labeled the father of acoustics, included research on vibrating plates and the calculation of the speed of sound for different gases.
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One of Chladni's best-known achievements was inventing a technique to show the various modes of vibration on a rigid surface. When resonating, a plate or membrane is divided into regions that vibrate in opposite directions, bounded by lines where no vibration occurs (nodal lines). This is now called the Chladni's Plate.

Nodal Lines:

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The following experiment is using Chladni's plate experiment (he used a violin bow to accomplish the same thing) - As the frequency increases in pitch the patterns become more complex.

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Literally everything is a matter of vibration:

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One of the most compelling videos on this topic of cymatics involves the Rosslyn Chapel in France. For many, many years, the patterns embedded in the sculptures throughout it's architecture were a mystery until it was discovered that they matched up perfectly with specific tones using the Chladni's Plate.

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I didn't plan on going into so much detail in this post. It is a rather deep topic and I only scratched the surface. However, I do hope that this post leaves you with a little added mystery to explore. And the next time you're out in nature you will have the added comfort in knowing that maybe there is something no so random at work in the life we see around us.

This is also why I found the "Perception" post especially interesting with the discovery of E8 ;)
https://steemit.com/dropintheocean/@youhavewings/perception-is-everything

Life truly is amazing. Embracing the wonder of it all.

Patterns are just another Drop in the Ocean. To find out more about participating in @buddyup 's next topic, you can find out more -----> HERE