Spiralling upwards

Walking through the streets of Vienna some years ago, a friend of mine reminded me to “always look upwards” as the different storeys of the buildings there often have different styles of architecture.

I have maintained this practice when visiting new places, and yesterday as I walked through the Dubai Mall I was struck by the number of domes that have been incorporated into the building. Stopping to take note of them (walking looking upwards would have proved too perilous amidst the multitude of shoppers hunting for bargains during the Dubai Shopping Festival ), I was able to appreciate their variety and beauty.

One in particular caught my eye.  Its design and the shadows cast by the light at the time of viewing added to its spiralling effect.  My perspective obviously also influenced what I was seeing  but it spoke to me in a special way.

The poem “The Chambered  Nautilus” by Oliver Wendall Holmes has these wonderful lines:

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

Written in the 19th century, these words today speak of the development that takes place as we evolve and grow. Each stage of development spirals above the previous one and each stage is seen to have a dome more vast than the one before. While each dome forms its own boundaries, it at the same time is closer to boundarylessness or no-boundaries.

Some of the domes in the mall change colour every few minutes – another reminder for me of the growth described by integral theory. They reminded me too of the fact that there is so much beauty around us that we often don’t see, simply because we don’t look.

Domes have always been a symbol of transcendence in cultures and religions throughout the world, calling us ever upwards and reminding us of the pull of Eros.  

In the world today there is talk of the geodesic dome being a metaphor for interconnectedness and the unleashing of creativity and spontaneity as the collective intelligence of a group is utilized.

We spiral upwards – it is unavoidable.