LEMNISCATE - a configuration for the pattern of life
I found a new word and I rather love it, but what I love about it is the path of enquiry it took me down in order to understand and experience the word with greater depth.
That word is LEMNISCATE - an energy configuration recognised as one of the foundation patterns of all life.
Donna Farhi introduced me to the principle of figure eight as a pattern of movement last year and ever since then it has become integral to my personal practice as well as my teaching. Many of those I work with have come to know and love this form of movement. The figure eight that moves through the body as a spiral, it has no start or finish point, it simply is an expression of whatever shows up in the moment.
Over time this practice has allowed me to discern the very subtle sensations in my body; it has allowed me to pay attention to the delicate balance of effort and ease and to acknowledge when I find myself moving into rigidity or collapse. It is ultimately a practice of embodiment, drawing information from the rich and vast resource that is the body, allowing a bottom up approach to being.
I personally find the movement to be so calming but also very enlivening. It settles me when I am in overwhelm, it steadies me when I feel anxious and never fails to bring me back into my body.
I seek to move in this way daily, be on the mat or out in the world.
Then last week whilst in class with Tara Judelle she took us through a somatic immersion into the Interstitial fluid, the inner transportation system in the body, an inquiry into the inner world of our being.
It was a slow and embodied experience that had all the feels; softness, rigidity, expansion, contraction, sadness, joy, solid and spacious.
When I came to rest, as I lay down on my mats and let the residue of the movement wash over my minds and body, I noticed something, no big epiphanies or awakenings instead just something in the body, a sensation, an inner movement that caught my attention.
The only way to describe it was that it felt like fluid gently moving, as if along a stream, only in a figure eight across my heart and chest. It was just there and in that moment everything felt so still, everything felt so alive. I felt so aware of this vast network of fluids within me, communicating and mediating the dynamics of flow between rest and activity, tension and relaxation.
So I asked about it, this sensation, and I received this word - LEMNISCATE
And that sent me down a rabbit hole of enquiry and along the way I found out some interesting stuff.
LEMNISCATE
The term for a horizontal figure eight
It’s symbol represents infinity
Religious and philosophical aspects of the infinity symbol predate its mathematical origins. In Tibet, similar symbols to the infinity symbol have been found in rock carvings while the ouroboros, or infinity snake, is often depicted in this shape.
The Greek word ouroboros means "tail swallower” and the symbol is usually portrayed as a snake swallowing its tail. Although usually circular, it is also often depicted in a lemniscate shape.
In the Tarot, the sign for infinity represents the balance of forces and is often associated with the Magician card.
The lemniscate symbolises the endless, infinite nature of energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed and the Magician is intimate with this knowledge. The infinity symbol above the Magician’s head also illustrates that he understands the energy of his thoughts always leads to infinite consequence.
It has been observed that the lemniscate is evident in nature - the swirling vortices of a running stream, the whorl-like patterns described by planetary motion, the chambers of a seashell and the growth of plants — and even in the human body with the blood circulating in this way.
In fact Rudolf Steiner said
“Wheresoever we may look in the human body, we shall find the formative principle of the looped curve or lemniscate……. Even the blood circulation can be traced in this way………..The figure eight — the lemniscate… you are really dealing with geometrical figures of rotation. The forms of our inner organisation, in the nerves-and-senses system and in the metabolic and limb-system respectively, are mutually related upon the principle of a lemniscate of rotation.”
It is believed that the rhythmic flow from one circle into the next, as well as the crossing over from one side to the other is deeply harmonising. A natural counter rotation through the body, that pushes and pulls against each other in three dimensional space.
The rising and falling motion is simultaneously settling and up-lifting, the subsequent contra-lateral rotation that it produces in the body opens up the container and provides room for the diaphragms* of the body to move freely. Quite literally, this movement allows the body to breathe more fully, move more easily and function with less effort.
As bipedal structures that are inherently unstable, the motor impulse can connect the left and right side of the body, as well as the left and right brain hemispheres and help us to categorise how we move through space.
So very simply allowing this pattern to move through us can help us to feel more safe in the world.
* It is said we have diaphragms in the arches of the feet, the pelvic floor, the thoracic space, the vocal cords & the roof of the mouth.
So I guess there is more to the figure eight than meets the eye……..it is a magical & mysterious but also deeply embodied connection to the rich inner landscape of our beings, that can echo throughout every part of us and carry us through our lives.
Anyone a little curious?
As always I welcome your questions. If you wish to explore this further then do join me on the mat either in person or online.
You contact me here to book in a free 30 minute call to talk through your needs and how these practices may be of use to you.
In peace