The Interplay of Power and Structure in Nature and the Psyche

Power is a dynamic force that enables individuals to achieve their desires and shape the direction of their lives.

The dynamic forces of nature will demonstrate their powers before our very eyes. Hurricanes will uproot trees, hail will crack a windshield and a rainbow will provoke sudden awe. And each of these powers are based in structures; a rotating system of clouds, ice pellets that accumulate more layers of ice, and the bending and reflecting of light within raindrops.

The powers come from these structures that are made through various processes.

Shapes as Building Blocks

Structures are built with shapes. From an early age children can recognize the basic shapes that make up the structure of a house; a rectangle base and triangular roof. For other cultures these shapes will be different. Black Elk highlighted the importance of round shaped houses for Lakota culture and how it echoed the cyclical nature of life as well as the shape of the earth, moon and sun.

Shapes are the starting point of all structures. They can fit well together to support strong structures or they can misalign to take away structural integrity.

Buckminster Fuller saw the triangle to be nature’s strongest shape due its inherent structural stability and efficiency. He emphasized its ability to maintain its shape under pressure. Unlike squares or other polygons, which can deform under stress, triangles remain rigid. His famous invention of the geodesic dome demonstrates this beautifully as it is composed of nothing but interconnected triangles.

The Zodiac and Elemental Triangles

Triangles are well preserved in the wisdom of the zodiac. They come in the form of the elements of which there are four; fire, earth, air and water.

The twelves signs of the zodiac are grouped into four elements of three, in other words, four triangles.

The ancients noted certain upward and downward directions to these elements. A fire’s upward triangle has no limits, but air does find a limit. Such a signature denotes the limits of breathable air in our stratosphere as well as the limits of mind alone to grasp the comprehensive heights of meaning.

Similarly water’s triangle flows all the way down, without limits, like rivers to the sea or memories and feelings. Earth has a limit, a threshold, like the limits of the body or the securing boundaries that earth materials can provide.

The elemental trinities represent both flow and direction as well as limits and limitlessness.

These strong, interconnected triangles suggest a kind of blueprint for our own psychic geodesic dome. One that promises a stronger, lighter and more efficient structure that can promise true stability in an ever changing environment.

There is no separation within these elements in nature. but they can have so much more cohesive alignment when they are considered consciously.

How can we access this fundamental building block in the structures of our own psyches? If we improve the structures of our psyches, do we have access to more natural powers? I will wager that we do.

Flow and Direction in Consciousness

Flow and direction are observed in nature on any given day. A stream trickles over rocks. Birds take flight from a branch. The snow floats down and the wind blows dried leaves along a street.

But how often is it that you observe these things in your own experience? How often does time seem to flow for you? How often are you imbued with a sturdy sense of directionality? Part of the reason it feels so good to take some time in nature is that it allows us to relate to flow and let it re-establish itself in us.

Just as there is order in nature, there is order in consciousness. It makes itself known to us through a feeling of time-flow.

In his book, Flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says that one of the main forces that affects consciousness adversely is psychic disorder; information that conflicts with existing intentions or distracts you from carrying them out.

He writes,”when information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly”.

Watch a child move around in a play space with other kids and you can see how much they use information to keep them flowing. The stimulus around them, the slides, the monkey bars, the tools in a sandbox, they are all congruent with their intentions to explore, play and have fun. They will form spontaneous flocks like birds do. Their independent time-flows take an interlinked bigger shape of flow, like foot-traffic at grand central station. The adults that hurry through the station demonstrate the same beautiful order that the children in a play space do, as outer information supports the intentional stride of many free-willed beings at once.

Limits and Limitlessness

As said before, the trinities represent both flow and direction as well as limits and limitlessness. The lines that prevent earth from going all the way down and air from going all the way up represent limits, in ourselves and out in the world.

It is through limits and determinism that we can know our world enough to be effective in it. If we didn’t trust that turning our car key would start our car, how could we plan to go to the store?

It is through limitlessness that life is appropriately big. If we didn’t sense the magic and mystery of the stars, moonlight, music, great works of art, what would life be? If love were not immeasurable what would love be?

Cosmologist Arthur M Young makes the distinction that free-will (limitlessness) and determinism (limits) are not pitted against each other. Rather, determinism is the agency of free-will.  You can’t jump without footing on solid ground.

How can we engage more consciously with our natural powers? How can we connect more securely to our individual senses of direction in life as well as our relationships with limits and limitlessness?

Answering these questions and living true these answers is what fortifies the geodesic design of nature into the very fabric of being.

Happy Nature Pondering!

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