Plate VI
In Anything, there is Everything
Every stair is a staircase. Each rose is a rosebush.
"The Universe is Man but larger, and Man is the Universe but smaller. There is nothing in the Divine that cannot be reflected in Man, and nothing in Man, that is not found in the Universe." - Ibn Arabi
Every stair is a staircase.
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour." - William Blake
Engraved infinitely recursive staircase of Being
Scroll or pinch to zoom at the pointer, drag to pan, double-click a tread to descend one level into it. With the figure focused: plus and minus keys zoom, arrow keys pan. Tab to the caption terms to read their definitions in the lectern; Escape clears it.
Fig. VI - the stair of Being: the four , and within every tread the same four again - : each hangs from the same height.
Design note: the stair is drawn because the form says the concept - beneath every tread hangs a smaller stair, and the treads never bottom out in either direction, because the frame re-roots at each level: the child becomes the whole, or the whole becomes one tread of a larger stair. The One is a circumpunct only, and the golden thread of ancestry rises toward a top the plate never draws.
A heaven in a wild flower
Move the pointer or arrow keys to select a floret. Press Enter or click to enter it. Scroll outward, press minus, or press Escape to ascend.
Fig. VIb - a heaven in a wild flower: the same law at every depth; enter any floret and the flower is there before you - .
Design note: the center is withheld, yet the order holds. Each floret is a possible doorway into the same flower, so the form argues that recurrence is not repetition but law persisting through depth.