Circle of Life

We explore the power of circles and how they can help us in our everyday lives. Circles are one of nature’s true building blocks, exalted by many cultures over the millennia. Ancient cultures have used circles as powerful representations of life, as spiritual symbols in art and architecture. In the UK we have the UNESCO heritage site Stonehenge and some 6,000 years earlier the Turks built the stone circle of Gobekli Tepe. Not to be outdone the ancient romans built many circular amphitheatres, including the Colosseum in Rome.

Circles are one of nature’s true building blocks, just look around you. They can be seen in water ripples, tree trunks and their life rings. If you slice through an apple or an orange, you’ll get a circle. Or take an onion, the bottom of a sea urchin or the centre of a flower, again circles everywhere.

Interestingly, whilst mathematically you can construct a perfect circle, it can’t be replicated in the real world or in nature. But it hasn’t stopped people trying. Talking of puzzles, over the years there have been many circular brain teasers. For example, the Borromean Rings puzzler which is made up of three separate but interlinked and inseparable rings. If only one of these rings were removed, the others would be separated to.

Circles and symbology have been intertwined for centuries, and are often described in spiritual, philosophical, and mystical terms. A venerated Hindu symbol, the Ashkora Chakra meaning the “wheel of time” can be found on the national flag of India. Further examples are Hecate’s Circle, Ying and Yang, the Sacred Hoop and the Mandala to name but a few.

Circles are often seen as the embodiment of “natural balance”. Take the Heart Chakra, which is the centre of love, connection, and balance. linking the lower and upper chakras, which encompass the physical and spiritual parts of the body. Not only that, but it regulates the energy related to compassion, openness, self-actualisation, and unconditional love of others. The Sacred Hoop splits the wheel into four quadrants, earth, air, water and fire. Which also represent our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. As well as the four seasons and the four stages of life, birth, youth, adult, death. A holistic human compass if there ever was one.

This ethereal manifestation has even seeped into popular culture. For instance, in the lyrics from the Lion King, Elton John wrote “It’s the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, ’till we find our place, on the path unwinding.”

Many personal development practitioners’ use circles in their practical self-help tools. Mahatma Gandhi, once said, “Man is the centre of a circle without a circumference, except the one he creates for himself.” This is a powerful depiction of the power of circles. This concept of circles as a self-development tool becomes even more powerful, when you stack them, to create a spiral. As the rock star Maynard James Keenan espoused, “A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning, and it has no end – and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral. “

Circles are an amazing phenomenon and can provide practical support in our everyday lives. Helping us develop a form of balance between the various roles we play. Be that in work and play, rest and exercise, giving and receiving, volunteering and time for self, family and friends. Like a clock there is a time for everything. And like a clock face there is a form of natural symmetry and balance, for our lives to rotate around.

So, go on boldies think of your life in terms of a circle, delicately and purposefully balanced. Where you are the hub. Where the points around the circumference are the key areas of your life, essential for the maintenance of “natural balance.” That’s the power of circles.

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Thanks to Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

TheBoldAge looks at the Circle of Life and how it can help us in our everyday lives

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