The Metaphor of the Nautilus @ Beyond Religion

The Metaphor of the Nautilus

[from “about us” page of Beyond Religion]

Oliver Wendell Holmes, a century and a half ago, saw the metaphorical significance of the chambered home of the Nautilus. These fascinating seashells are spiral in shape and consist of a series of ever-larger chambers in each of which the sea creature lives for a season until it outgrows that particular space. The Nautilus then enlarges its shell by the addition of a new chamber suitable for the next stage of its life.     image from Bert Martin Fine Art Photography Holmes wrote, in a poem entitled The Chambered Nautilus, “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul….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!”

more at Beyond Religion

The spiral is one of the most fundamental and beautiful parts of evolution:

Here it is in the development of the the human psyche: Spiral Dynamics (the name is indicative of the evolutionary, sequential growth the a persons “world views”.

It can be seen in everything from DNA to the formation of galaxies.