This image appeared in my pseudo-dream state during centering prayer (CP hereafter) this morning. I hate to admit my tendency to doze during CP, but it happens. The image in my brain's eye presented itself more black and white with markings indicating its form (i.e., related to a gastropod), but I recognized it as a question mark as well.
Seemingly, the "squishy" bits of the animal inhabiting the shell, excretes calcium carbonate which eventually hardens into the shell spiral as seen above. The shape in mathematics has some relationship with the Fibonacci Sequence (though not perfect), and after taking way-too-much of a deep dive on this math professor's website, I read the following:
"We should really think of this curve as spiraling inward forever as well as outward. It is hard to draw; you can visualize water swirling around a tiny drainhole, being drawn in closer as it spirals but never falling in."
While my imagination wants to create some meaning to this symbol materializing during my CP practice ("Will my questions be forever spiraling toward me and away from me?" or "The Eternal came to me in my dream-state symbolically" or "my spiritual path is eternal," etc.), I think most who interpret dreams would say remembering this symbol is enough. So here it is - a memory which "may" last forever on the World Wide Web.
As is often the case when I write these daily missives, I am exhausted, so not much more to share. If I end up relating this to The Eternal - how striking for God to symbolize Self with a gastropod. According to the mathematician one finds this pattern on the branches of trees, pine cones, pineapples, the center pad of flowers (asters, sunflowers, daisies) - almost like God's fingerprints - God's presence? - mark all of creation. And if God is there, so is Love.
PRACTICE
Lectio Divina: Read the following passage through after a few deep breaths and pay attention to any word or phrase which sticks out for you. Read through again and pay attention to anything further you notice about the word/phrase and how it applies to you. Read through again and spend time in prayer with the word/phrase asking God what you need to understand/know/do with the word/phrase (i.e., How might God be guiding you? What needs your further action? Where may your understanding need to be changed or expanded? How may this impact your relationship with someone else?). End with a time of thanksgiving.
1 When God began to create[a] the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
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