More Concentric Circles

Trees provide extraordinary examples of ways in which nature uses concentric circles. Each circle reflects a year of growth providing a window into the growing conditions of that year. The wider circles show the more beneficent years, narrow ones indicate more challenging ones. What if our growth somewhat replicates trees? What if each year we add a layer of growth that reflects our physical, physiological, emotional and spiritual growth patterns of that year?

The structural integration world has long noticed correlations between holding patterns in the body and the specific ages at which the trauma first appeared. As we peel away our own layers of confusion, we might be surprised to find some interesting years, some interesting rings. As we work with concentric circles of radiant energy allow the different years to soak a bit in flow and allow the stuckness to find its way into radiation. We can track the circles outward, from center to perimeter, or inward, toward the open unbounded center point.

If we use sound, such as a crystal bowl or bell, we can follow the sound waves both in their sinusoidal movements and the circular radiation. Imagine each chakra as the center of radiating rings of sound and light. See what happens in the tissues, cells, fluids of the body. Let the sound penetrate inward through the circles of emotions, tissues, and whatever else is floating around in there. Keep exploring. Start with restorative or sitting postures. Gradually try more challenging ones until the radiant energies are all you need to sustain the pose.

Concentric Circles, Sacred Geometry and Yoga Asana

One of the fundamental expressions of nature, honored in sacred geometry, are  concentric circles radiating out from a center point. Drop a stone into a pond and watch how the wave train keeps extending on and on from the point of contact. Water is a wonderful medium for wave transition, and the human body is essentially 70% water. Recognize that, with every heart beat, waves radiate out from the heart, through your body, and on into the world around you. The heart produces a sound wave (try listening through a stethoscope!)
We can imagine concentric circles rippling out along the three major planes of the body (by rotating the surface of the pond). If we are standing, the first plane, the transverse, divides upper and lower, as if we were standing in the pond with water at heart level. Or, we can imagine floating in the pond and the circles extend out in a plane dividing front to back, the coronal plane. Finally, we can be on our sides the saggital plane dividing right and left, and follow the circles this way. Try this is any of your favorite poses. Let the concentric circles do the work.

On a larger scale we find the sun as the center of more concentric (almost) circles.

If  you are in a cosmic mood, feel that from the earth, there are circles in toward the sun, out out to mars and beyond. The planets orbiting makes the energy patterns more complex. This is of course subtle, especially for such a dense species as the modern human. But it is a glimpse of possibilities ready to awaken. If you are ready to go galactic, find the spiraling energies of the Milky Way, our home base here in the larger cosmos. This will wake up some memories.

Speaking of awakening, the concentric circles and interwoven circles play a major role in the archetypal seed of life, flower of life and fruit of life symbols. In the seed of life below, we find a center circle which becomes the intersection point of six more circles of the same radius, each tangent to the next outer concentric circle. The flower of life adds a third circle, continuing the pattern of overlapping circles of the same radius. Embedded in the Flower of Life are the Fruit of Life which gives birth to Metatrons’ Cube, which, expanded into three dimensions, gives birth to the five Platonic solids and the star tetrahedron (a stellated version of the octahedron). 

Finding these in the poses requires
a bit of imagination in the beginning as we visualize each vertex as a point of light and see how the soma, the living matrix of the body, responds. What is evoked? What opens? What confusion appears?

Find the interwoven triangles, squares and pentagons. Some poses may be more revealing, especially sitting, or restorative postures where you can rest quietly for some time. It is a treasure hunt. Good luck!