The Celtic Art Coracle Volume 1 Issue 4
THE RAY OF GLORY -  Aidan Meehan (continued)

In the construction of a kolam or rangavallam circular knot the design is normally laid out with ritual intent from a central dot. From this point the entire grid unfolds concentrically. On this grid the coloured lines of the design are poured around, in the manner of a meander, or through the dots. The knot that unfolds is held to represent the material of the universe, the fabric of the matrix of cosmic formation on every level.

The simple grid is capable of indefinite extension, horizontally and vertically from the primal point. However, the moment the point extends, the first dimension comes into play. The unity of the zero dimension is sacrificed. This immutable consequence of expression from the first principle, analogous to the emergence of space and time, is referred to explicitly as sacrifice in many cosmogonic myths: the egg cracks, the gleaming serpent glides forth, and the universe proceeds to uncoil into manifestion. Being is distinguished from non-being.

Yet even at this primal level of manifestation, the poles of the distinction are so complementary that a clear division is only possible in symbolic terms. The manifestation of form results by the action of consciousness, or intelligence, through the motivating power of desire. Consciousness in principle is inseparable from desire, and vice versa. Desire is the mediating matrix linking Consciousness and Manifestations.

The point of itself has no existence. In linear projection into the first dimension, it multiplies itself infinitely, as any distance is divisible by an infinite number of points. This infinite reproductive, autogenerative potency is implied by the author of the Rig Veda by reference to the pregnant point. The power implied, if absolute in principle, prior to manifestation, consists of a state of extreme excitation. The polarization is an intolerable condition. Within the line stretched crosswise between absolute desire for actualization, and absolute consciousness of the possibility of manifestation, the One may be compared to a particle of light oscillating between two inseparable modalities, desire and consciousness: as a photon ricocheting back and forth inside a crystal, the power which might be said to accumulate would be coherent and magnified to the degree of the absolute. This would appear to be the implication and image of the Hymn of Creation of the Vedas.

 

Content: copyright © Aidan Meehan 1983
 

The Celtic Art Coracle Vol 1
Contents © Coracle Press 1983
ISSN 0828-8321 
All Rights Reserved
10.02.01edition
coracle@thecoracle.tripod.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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