William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence contains this well-known opening phrase:
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
Most sources I found online interpret this with an abstract view, as the part referencing the whole.
“Yeah, in a grain of sand there is the reminder of the entire universe, and the beauty of a simple wild flower calls to mind the majesty of heaven”.
Maybe, I guess. Mr. Blake isn’t around to ask, and I could find no reports of commentaries by Blake on the work during his lifetime. He does seem like a spiritual, visionary artist for 18th century England - if you haven’t, check out his watercolors.
In this amazing analysis, Johansen Quijano describes his insight on the above lines as “wildly speculative” - I say it’s just the right blend of rational application of the known, with mind-expanding imaginative connection to the transcendental spirit of Blake’s work. Thank you Dr. Quijano!
Quijano explains how the infinite can be “held” in the finite, and ponders if the “sight” referenced in these lines refers to a “transcendental sight that allows the individual to see beyond what is visible”.
A holographic perspective sees the entirety in each part. So, like, literally the universe visible in a grain of sand.
Gotta admit, I still don’t have my head wrapped around the multitude of holographic theories of reality, and at the same time the fractal nature of 3D is so apparent.
[“A fractal is a geometric shape that can be separated into parts, each of which is a reduced-scale version of the whole.” - Benoit Mandelbrot]
Where these concepts comes to my pondering mind is in the land of individuality versus the whole.
What does the “individual” mean, as a human? Where does one “individual” begin and end?
How to treat individuals as a part of the whole? Such different people with so many varying needs are living on the planet right now.
Do you decline to settle with your family in Florida, since the kids will be starting public grade school soon and the elderly tax base there leaves inadequate funding for education?
Does the neighbor’s autistic 3 year old son get a pass on the mask mandate?
If you start a tractor muffler barnyard band can you practice after 10pm or will it disturb the folks next door? Or the chickens?
Oh. Yeah. Roe v. Wade.
Maybe this individuality thing is a little more complicated than the model we’ve been carving out of monolithic authoritarian systems for centuries?
For example, at this time women in the US have “equal rights” to vote, and a larger number of female representatives in US Congress, so that covers it, right?
Except, when have the needs of an individual woman been represented by…well, an individual woman representing women? Who is herself just one individual woman, knowing of one female human’s lived experience on the planet (unless you buy collective consciousness and archetypes, tying that “one” female to the history of female humans on the planet….but will that come through in her floor vote next week?)
Before any further dumb examples, I must tell you the etymology for “individual” obviates the above questions. Even though the common intended meaning for the word makes those questions land, the root translates into “indivisible”.
Which means an “individual” human means “not divisible; inseparable from the whole”.
Yeah, my fave online etymology source says that denotation is “now obsolete”, the word “individual” having taken on new meaning in the early 1600s and morphing into our current understanding in the late 1800s.
Funny world we live in, when the language we use carries an opposite meaning to its original form….
How am I going to make a coherent arc with holograms, fractals, indivisible “individuals” and transcendental sight?
I don’t know…let’s see….
This hopefully quick dive is a few thoughts on the connections I’m exploring between autonomy and community, and the locus of control for human living.
Like the popular concept of the “butterfly effect” in Edward Lorenz’ 1963 “Deterministic Non-Periodic Flow” (fun and excellent commentary here), in our shared reality there is no way to separate out “individual” actions from the whole. As “individual” humans, we really are unable to be separated from the unified field of our existence on the planet Earth.
What if we each were “indivisible” from the vantage point of wholeness in ourself? Like a hologram, in which the totality of humankind was inherent in our form? A shift of the angle of light hitting the plate and we pop up as a 3D image of “us” that is different from the one made by a beam from another direction?
My aim here is not to explore the validity of this question or answer (check this cool article out if you want to, though), but to brainstorm a bit about the “what if”.
So, yeah, what if we are each “whole”? In a way we might not imagine?
Because as “individuals” according to our current use of that word we can make the tragic mistake of seeing ourselves as isolated from the whole. As if one change in our life is possible without morphing EVERYTHING. (It may be, I just felt like using caps…and Lorenz’ work with chaos theory didn’t postulate that a butterfly wing flap caused any particular outcome, just that for all of what we see, there is the inherent unpredictability that zillions of apparently moving parts naturally creates.)
I’m not arguing for the position that as a single human being I am any more or less unique than another human, just suggesting that like in Blake’s poem above, maybe with transcendent vision we can see both the bright light of Uncle Bob’s quirky personality AND the way life could not be what it is without him.
Before the word transcendent gets you all woo’d out, it just means to “go beyond’. Not “ascend”, like go higher - the New Age (not to poke fun) newbies tryna out high vibe each other…. More like, incorporate all that is and has been and see more. Be more.
Like going to the beach all of your life and one day picking up a handful of sand and seeing more. Because of that shift, being more.
Why would that matter? Now?
What if we forgot? That not only do we have more capacity as people for wholeness within ourselves, but that the wholeness of our human species and entire planet is inescapable?
That so much of the arguing and sides-taking is like split personality disorder - and ain’t no pill gonna cure that.
How could we function in increasingly complex layers of human fractals better?
Centralization, or moving power to a body - for decision-making authority to distribute action in a more widespread way, usually involves a few individuals at the center of control.
An example of centralization would be the US Federal Government’s Judicial Branch: 9 Supreme Court Justices. “Supreme Law of the Land”-makers, interpreters of the Constitution, precedent-setting-and-overturning people that arrive at that lofty bench as a result of a political process.
Pros of this approach include standardizing work, removing redundancy, more likely specialized leadership, and theoretical lesser bias in workload assignment.
Cons are limits to creativity, flexibility, and communication. Tendency toward closed system dynamics because challenges to the established standards lessen over time as voices within the group are homogenized. And…dictatorship.
What about a centralized system that purportedly exists to reinforce diversity? An inclusivity board for college admissions process, or state-mandated CRT training for all schools?
Wouldn’t that standardized information format provide for the unique individuals in communities far from the central locus of control? Not if those community voices are unheard, and without representation in the discussions during policy creation. A process which, by virtue of the time inherent in following routines for making new policy, is slow and usually retroactive. Or proactive in a way that can’t possibly predict what will be needed. (see “butterfly effect” above)
I am not a systems analyst, public policy guru, or even a government worker.
And I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, either.
I do know a thing or two about the flip side of the dictator-making business we have going on in the world right now….
Decentralization.
Before I go further, like most complex issues able to be reduced to simpler truths, it helps me to consider centralization and decentralization as a both/and rather than either/or. And consider what balance can do.
So…decentralization.
With web 3 and cryptocurrency, the world has experienced proof-of-work computing projects developed into functioning applications finding tremendous success right now.
No, I’m not benchmarking that success with the price of Bitcoin, I’m noting that financial markets worldwide are settling transactions “on the blockchain”, as VISA has adopted an Ethereum protocol, and both irl and online retailers are selling goods in exchange for crypto.
The example of decentralization that I have experience with is in this world of “crypto” - one project has a network of “nodes” worldwide on individual participants’ computers that contain the entirety of the blockchain for the project. Since the connected computers all have the same stored information, and run the same computing algorithm to validate and enter new transactions, taking one or a few computers out of the loop won’t affect the integrity of the network. Hackers would have to somehow simultaneously access all devices to cause harm.
Each project has various ways of making decisions for the network, many with a democratic-style weigh in by each node.
This is super simplistic so please don’t shoot me for leaving out big chunks of the picture, but serves to describe a model of decentralization that is championed for its potential to replace the centralized global financial system that is inaccessible to many and punitive for most.
Here’s another model of decentralization that I believe we are already familiar with, if not very much consciously aware: our human bodies.
Each cell has the storehouse of information to create an entire human body, and most of the genetic makeup to make a variety of bodies well beyond the characteristics of the one it’s currently running in.
Powered by mitochondria, each cell can make the energy it needs to function. Has enzymes for production and breakdown processes. Tools to reproduce.
Cells function as a part of the whole, however, responding to the environment in which they are placed - dependent on that milieu for nourishment and transport of toxic waste to the landfills and recycling centers of the body.
So the human body is not only a model of decentralization, but demonstrates balance - both centralized and decentralized processes in harmony.
Most of us are well-acquainted with the centralized and specialized function of higher fractals of organization in a human body - tissues, organs, systems.
But I don’t think most people consider on a daily basis how beautifully our human form exemplifies Blake’s poem above - with a wee bit of transcendent sight we can gaze on our own bodies with eyes that see the whole in every part - the wisdom of humanity in every cell.
But, you say, obviously by the time a random cell takes a job assignment in the retina of the eye, for example, or the lining of a blood vessel, it has become “specialized”…maybe lost potential?
You might think that somewhere along the line, crossroads were taken and eggs were broken, omelets made - ok, you’re right.
AND, since we have little idea what actually drives that process, how do we know there is not a cellular mechanism to transcend what has gone before?
Actually, there is.
Repeatedly the body takes in new information, filters and files useful from “nope, get rid of it”. Changing the filters changes the filing system, and the downstream flow of resources serving as stimulus for cellular processes can create novel activity.
We have no idea the full capacity for “new” in the bodies we travel our world mostly taking for granted or complaining about.
We do know that without balance, we suffer.
If the central system processes, like heart pumping oxygenated blood throughout the tissues, went haywire, the body would suffer.
The heart does send messages through nerve networks to the cells of the entire body - and if that information is flawed, the body suffers.
If the heart attempted to take the energy production away from the cells, or say for instance tell the cells where to send their kids to school, the body would suffer.
If a group of cells went rogue, becoming a cancer in the limb marching towards central overtake, the body would suffer.
Or the cells of the foot, having a vital job in stability but lacking the perspective of the fingertips, tried to make the body’s decisions about how to hold a newborn, that wouldn’t work out so well.
Most days, I bet you don’t give much conscious attention to the delicate, trillions per second processes going on in your body. When you consider your “intelligence”, you likely aren’t thinking about the incomprehensible intelligence that is somehow 24/7 keeping you alive.
So I wonder, with so much innate wisdom in our bodies, and absolutely miraculous wisdom in the natural world we share, what would happen if we see the “universe in a grain of sand”?
Maybe there is so much more within each of ourselves that can be seen with transcendent eyes - what would happen if we got to know ourselves a little bit better?
Maybe the wisdom available to us now, when we are past the brink of collapse for generations-old centralized systems of authority, is that in knowing ourselves fully we know humanity fully.
What if the key to unlock the next level of the game is already available - and may be like an epic quest, scattered in pieces inside of each of us?
So the job for each of us fractal Indiana Joneses is finding the key to ourselves - what do we love to do? What makes our heart say “yes - this is why I am here, now”?
Instead of fighting our desire to write, or captain a ship, or manage a forested piece of land, we could follow our internal wisdom more.
Strengthen the power houses within, get back to making stuff, and cleaning up the space within our own walls, take time to rest and go offline to sleep now and then.
So we can dream, and wake refreshed and connected to the whole, with clear voices to give feedback to the layers of higher organization that are us.
Our body of humanity is struggling with a lopsided centralized global system that will not survive in its current form - if it does, like a brain cancer that metastasizes and sucks the life energy out of all the healthy cells…we will die.
Brain transplant is not an option, and unless the aliens show up soon with some cosmic chemotherapy, it’s up to us - the collective of humanity on the planet - to be creative making changes, to bring optimal health to every cell in the body.
Before you go all “there aren’t aliens” or “yeah! the aliens!” on me, I am neither supporting nor refuting the claim that Elon Musk is from Mars.
So, humans:
Who are you? What do you see? Who are we?
In the last lines of Blake’s poem he states:
“We are led to Believe a Lie When we see not Thro’ the Eye Which was Born in a Night to Perish in a Night when the Soul Slept in Beams of Light.”
and
“God Appears & God is Light To those poor Souls who dwell in the Night, But does a Human Form Display To those who Dwell in Realms of day.”
Maybe Blake is saying when we wake from our slumber - lies of limited vision and “individuality” as separateness - we will see more, deeper into ourselves, each other and the world around us.
Will we see God in our Human Form? A Universe in a Grain of Sand? The whole of humanity in each “individual” inseparable person on the planet Earth?
We have all experienced massive change since 2020, and hard to fathom what is to come. Maybe with our vision corrected, it will only take the blink of an eye.