The helix
The helix was chosen for its beauty and dynamism, and for its symbolic associations. In the context of this practice, it stands for the upward spiral of growth, a process of transformation and change away from the desperate downward spiral and from the going around in circles that gets us nowhere. In nature, we find it in the double helix of DNA, in the spiral galaxies, and in the inner structure of the nautilus and the petals of a rose. It figures in Celtic and Hopi art and on Bronze Age artifacts in Southeast Asia, in the coiled energy of the Kundalini, and in sacred and secular geometry. It appears as the caduceus in India and Mesopotamia as the symbol of harmony and balance, and in the hermetic tradition as a symbol of spiritual awakening.