Return

“You were created from the laws which governed life, conditions regarding your birth, down to every atom, and then heaven left your life to you.”

-Quetzalcoatl

Why is water traditionally used to represent time? From a physical perspective, the movement of water is represented in fluid dynamics, which is the study of water, by a formula of volume over time. When a three-dimensional solid or liquid is given a fourth dimension, movement is created in our perception. Thus, water in the form of a river, or an ocean, is the perfect medium to describe time and was chosen by the sages to be immortalized in countless writings and literature over the ages.

If the notion of steadily flowing water, like a stream of thoughts, is enticing, then a vertical waterfall, which is an accelerating volume of fluid, increasingly majestic, and a natural geyser, equally as spectacular. Both of which, have a fifth dimension, which the speed of the water changes, powered by the sheer size of the Earth in gravity. At the bottom of the waterfall, there are jagged rocks and frothing waters, that create ripples and wave motion, that bounce and interfere with each other creating a mesh-like pattern. And if flow of liquid is continuous, we can monitor the change in speed of water as the shape of its container changes, from rainwater into a funnel, or an ocean into a stream. Indeed, water is meaningless without the bounds of the container we define it with, and objects meaningless without the empty space that fills the void.

This is just the beginning of a ceaseless stream of meaning. We can add pressure, density and height of water to further add realism to the mixture. The water could be cool and relaxing, or turbulently hot, which again changes the speed and density of the water. Finally, we must remember individual things that float on the surface of the moving stream, which displace and make the water level of the river banks rise higher, just slightly. And the sun rises, illuminating these small boats and ships, as well as imbuing the water the color of the blue sky. Perhaps these objects and ships are our memories, cherished moments or difficult situations, all floating and mixing, on individual streams on different levels that cross but never meet, to no end.

This entry was posted on 20. January 2009 at 22:26 and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.