Maybe you know that I’ve been thinking and talking about the Seasons a fair bit, together with my birdy brother Louis.
My whole study, consisting of the Seasons, including Weeks and Days, the I Ching, Balance, Meditation, Natural Creativity and all that, is all about cyclicality.
Cyclicality means repetition, regeneration, renewal. It means consistency, and permanence, if not perpetuity, in motion.
As a kid I was fascinated by Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver). They use their locomotive Emma and some incredibly strong magnets from the bottom of the sea to build a perpetuum mobile. They build a contraption, kind of like a carrot rod you dangle in front of a horse, which hangs in front of Emma and as soon as they close the magnet cycle, the locomotive takes off. If I remember right, she can even fly. And now I’m fascinated again.
I want my own perpetuum mobile. I want to go wherever I want to go. I want it to be powered by a source that never loses energy. Then, I found out that a perpetuum mobile is a fantasy, because of some stupid energy laws. Who invented those?? Sad, actually.
I suppose we have to generate an approximation of the perpetuum mobile then, if those stupid physicists don’t want us to have any fun. So what does that look like?
Round, is a good start. All things that move for a long time seem to be pretty round, or at least have some sort of wheel involved. Locomotives, for instance, or cars, or balls, or planets. They are round, the are cool, they spark joy.
The circle is the original round shape. Plenty of things were round before it was cool. The sun, the moon berries, other fruit, faces, eyes, grown out trees — and beyond what we could see, the planets, their orbits, galaxies… the circle / cycle is lindy as fuck.
The shape is also present in more abstract scenarios. We sit in a circle around the fire, so we all gather its warmth, and also so we can all see each other. The repetitive nature of the day is a cycle, as is the week as we know it, as is the year. We are born, and we die, and on the way we create new life. We, that is humans, but also living beings in general. The cycle is the symbol of life itself.
My search for the perpetuum mobile was quite successful I would say, because I found it in life itself. Life itself moves quite perpetually, and perpetuates itself1. If we allow it to, I might add.
In a general sense, perceiving the world and our life cyclically, or seasonally, makes sense to me. It seems to be the best way to get a handle on time, which is one of the essences of our life. And when we understand time, and how we as living beings, humans, individuals, can use it, we might be able to understand how to live well, if this is something we’re inclined to ponder.
That must be what I am talking about. How do we allow life to flow well? How do we understand the cycles that are happening around us, which we find ourselves in (because life flows whether we like it or not)? How do we allow this awareness into our life? How do we step out of the way?
As I lay down the pen for today, my attempt at answers shall come in Cycles Pt. II, hopefully soon after this. Once it’s written, you will find it here: (it’s not written yet)
Thank you, and sending you all my Love
Simon
Except, well, life does need energy. Everything must eat something. Whichever ethics are involved in this, I won’t touch in this here piece. Thanks for your understanding.