The Triple Spiral

The Triple Spiral

I have doodled the triple spiral since I was very young. I don’t know why. When I cleaned out my parent’s house in 1998  I found a test paper where I scored 100. (My mother saved everything.) There in the margin, evidence of my distracted fifth grade mind was the triple spiral. I threw the paper out because I didn’t feel the need of remembering my proficiency at fractions, but now I wish I had saved it as the earliest record of my affinity for the triple spiral.

Spirals are an old symbol for change, dynamism, objects, thoughts, or events descending into chaos or ascending to higher order. Spirals have decorated pottery and freezes on buildings for thousands of years. Now studies of chaos and fractals have shown that what we thought were just copies of sea shells or whirlpools are the actual physical representation of the way things change.

The triple spiral is very ancient. In 500 BC, the triskelion shows up on Periclean Greek pottery, the triskelle on La Tene Iron Age Celt metal work, and the triple spiral in the glazes of Confucian and Taoist porcelain in China. 

But the oldest extant example of the triple spiral is at the door to the Neolithic tomb at New Grange, Ireland.

This impressive structure was built in 3200 BC by means we are still uncertain of, and oriented such that a single beam of sunlight passes through a tiny slit in the wall and lights the altar inside at the Winter Solstice.

Archeologists have speculated on the meaning of the intersection of the three dynamic spheres: Sun-Moon-Earth, Past-Present-Future, Life-Death-Afterlife, Idealism of Youth -Practicality of Maturity- Wisdom of Old Age.

When I got

married in 2001 the wedding ring my wife put on my finger has the triple spiral.  It is a little worn after twenty plus years, but still shines and I see it representing our relationship and our blended families.

In 2014, when I founded Results-Alliance, a confederation of independent consultants and small firms, I used the triple spiral as a logo. I described the business as a seamless collaboration between consultants and clients.

“We all grow. And the alliance produces results for us all. We have chosen the triple spiral logo to represent that relationship.”

Now as I think about this symbol, I wonder where it fits in the last quarter of my life. I still have some of the idealism of youth, not enough maturity and I’m perpetually seeking  the wisdom of old age. (I have discovered the old age part -still looking for the wisdom bit.)

I see the changes in the world – descending into chaos and hopefully ascending into a new order. Perhaps, I should focus on head, heart, and spirit, strength of body, mind and soul.

Perhaps breathing in joy, breathing out love for all the world, and leaving a between-breaths-opening for serendipity, wonder, and magic.

Now that is a triple spiral.