The Concept
The Sphere as Myth and Metaphor

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As a physical form, spheres and their 2D representations (circles) have been around since the beginning of time. As a symbolic image the sphere appears throughout human history and human thought with unrivalled frequency. When we look around we see the sphere in physics, biology, psychology, mythology, cosmology and just about every other ology under the sun and including the sun.

As a symbolic representation of three-dimensional space, the sphere encompasses all things knowablethe atom, the cell, the earth, the sky and the universe. The sphere is the great container of all that is available to our senses and our scientific sensors.

In the world of time, the circle represents the beginning, the end and a return to the beginning. The sphere and the circle represent both the journey and the destination.

What is it that makes the sphere so pervasive and so mighty? Why does it appear with such regularity and prominence in every culture, region, faith and epoch? Why does the sphere inhabit even our dreams?

Because, when thinking about the sphere, or when using it to describe our experience, we are contemplating the totality of interconnection. In the sphere, we see everything in relationship to everything else.

In the sphere we see the patterns of being.

“The only myth that is going to be worth thinking about in the immediate future is one that is talking about the planet, not the city, not these people [or those people], but the planet, and everybody on it. …The society that it’s got to talk about is the society of the planet. …When you see the earth from the moon, you don’t see any divisions there of nations or states .This might be the symbol, really, for the new mythology
to come.”

—JOSEPH CAMPBELLL




“There is
perhaps no
better demon-
stration of the
folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
To me, it under-
scores our responsibility
to deal more
kindly and compassion-
ately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dotthe only home we’ve ever known.”


CARL SAGAN