Metaphysical Art Explained
"SQUIGGLES"
by Adam Blatner

Posted September 15, 2013

Order and disorder are distributed in varying ways---sometimes it seems as if it's in layers. That is to say, there may be patterns of seeming regularity, approximately, within which are patterns of rough-regularity, a little different, but roughly the same. That represents us in a seemingly regular world, yet one in which it seems chance abounds. Around and through are squiggles of spontaneity, which express not only our individuality, but also a quality of continual entrance into seemingly ordered reality of forces that tend to seem out of place, forces that force a change, an adjustment. Thus does the Divine play gently---oh, so gently---shake things up. (Sure, sometimes it shakes things up not so gently---but that's another mandala.)

  Speaking of another mandala, these are infinite in number, as is the Divine Flow, which relishes, luxuriates, enjoys the play of possibilities. It's not as if there is a single, all-purpose Truth, then, although there are many relatively more and less true whatevers depending on the criteria involved. For example, the aforementioned mandala might be "danced" (well, what word would you use?) in the following way.

The caption to these again draws on a calligraphic squiggle that I can't make out, but it's the intersection between the fine penmanship of an expert and the innocent wonder of the child who hasn't learned that letter-making needs to follow certain limitations if it is to be understandable within the limits of any particular language. It's just so, flowy-jerky with flourishes and both controlled and free. Calligraphers spend decades trying to recapture those qualities and also work within the limitations of their own writing system.