Dovendale Longbarrow Am duong: A Heartening Message  This amazing crop circle is agreeably beyond words!  As a version of the Yin-Yang, the Am duong or T’ai-chi, it is unprecedented! We are confronted with brand new vision of the dynamic between Masculine and Feminine, Light and Dark, Positive and Negative.  The traditional symbol is morphing into a new message for our times!  The basic symbol represents ‘Tao’ which is “the spirit that animates cosmic change…the eternal future which, like the dragon–the Taoists’ symbol–rolls up on itself…the essential spirit of the universe…the eternal principle in which the whole of life participates and at the same time transcends…It [Tao] is in the immutable principle which presides over the transformation of the world of multiplicity.” (Julien 435) The image presented by this crop circle, gives another twist to this ancient spiral circle symbol.  Thank you to Tommy Borms and to Clara Ribeiro Damasceno for the two graphic versions of Dovendale Crop Circle.  Essentially it seems to be a picture of a newborn reality, a product of the changing of the old dynamic.  Rather than two large spirals with differing backgrounds, we see two large spirals with similar backgrounds, yet the inner dot is still an opposite of the background. An opposite background remains between the two spirals. It is also a spiral, in the form of an ‘S-shape’, and it contains the newborn Yin-Yang which is contained by an inner dot that is the opposite of the S-shape background.  So we have the sense that a movement, different from the usual dynamic of the opposites, results in a newly balanced dynamic in the end. A baby Yin-Yang hatches from the life-giving movements of the changing old order!   The graphic symbol for the Zodiac sign, Cancer coincides with the internal spirals of Yin-Yang. Cancer is a symbol for the nurturing Mother Goddess.  The Yin-Yang symbol can be seen to resemble the symbol for the zodiac sign, Cancer, from which house the Sun is just leaving on July 22. The two spirals of the Cancer symbol “convey the change in the direction of the Sun’s movement, hitherto in the ascendant but now in the descendant, and represent schematically the fluctuations of life.” Cancer may be identified with Jung’s maternal archetype and all the qualities that this implies: nurturing, protection, preservation of the small, the embryonic. This sign relates to the principle of the generation and conservation of life.  It also “plays the part of intermediary, marking as it does the middle of the year, linking what is to what will be, the threshold of reincarnation, the way from zenith to nadir.” (Chevalier 150) Cancer is known as ‘the gate from the Milky Way to manifestation’ (Cooper 198), ‘the threshold through which the soul enters upon its incarnation’ (Cirlot 37).   In the crop circles, we have seen over the years, scientific information, ancient symbolic traditions and new information transmitted.  I feel that by now, we must realize that the beings who are communicating to us are working at much higher levels of consciousness and technology.  Perhaps we should also realize that the level of consciousness (i.e., spirituality), scientific knowledge and technology all go hand in hand, and that if we hope to develop into a more advanced version of the human race, then we must accept the fact that both the activities of material life, and spirituality are two real sides of our existence.  We cannot have one without the other. This beautifully powerful Yin-Yang/ Am duong/T’ai-chi formation is a clear message regarding how the two aspects of existence, material and spiritual, work as a dynamic polarity to create a new existence. We can and must seek ways, as individuals and as communities, to combine these aspects within ourselves. Instead of opposing that which is different, perhaps we can try to understand what the difference adds to our life, our understanding, or our consciousness.  This attitude of inclusiveness is how we will survive, evolve and be transformed.  It is our choice.  The responsibility for our wellbeing is ours alone.  To see oneself or one’s community as part of greater whole does not of necessity wipe out distinctive integrity or character. It is not a call for annihilation and not to be feared. On the contrary, each monad, each structure is unique and has an identity according to that uniqueness. The key to this individuality lies not with others around us, or group rules, parameters, laws or traditions. The key and source of every individual, every cell and atom, every system and every human organization lies with an association with the Great One, the Absolute.  We need only take a look at the pattern in which the hair on our heads grows.  It is a spiral, like the spiral energies of the universe, yet for each person it has a slightly different appearance.   Each individual carries the spiral mark of the creative force of the Universe, just as the galaxies’ movements are marked by gigantic spirals in space.  This is the meaning of the All in One and One in All. And this acknowledgement of our common Source/Ancestor/ Creator, no matter how She/He/It has appeared to us, is what will allow us to trust a Collective Consensus. It is surrender to the All-encompassing One, not adherence to one or another philosophy, politic, religion, or knowledge that will bring about a transformation. The work is beyond our grasp and our ability.  We only need to take that quantum step of faith, acceptance, and surrender.   It comes down to the Heart of the Matter. Our reality is based in the patterns of creative energies of which we only have the tiniest glimpse. Our science is gaining in knowledge, yet the more it accumulates, the more we seem to be lacking in knowledge. The understanding must come to us in another way.  Our hearts must beat with the Heart of the Universe.     A clairvoyant’s picture of the heart of the universe; the ultimate physical atom seen as manifestation of pure light force spinning perpetually through itself, and the human heart, showing the muscles and their spiral fibres which contract to twist the blood from its cavities. (Purce 108-109)  At the end of these times, it is not by words or concepts that we will be transformed, but in a HEARTBEAT!  Michelle Jennings   Sources: Chevalier, Jean. & Alain Gheerbrant. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. New York. 1996. Cirlot, J.E. A Dictionary of Symbols. Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd.  London. 1962. Cooper, J.C. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames & Hudson. London. 1978. Julien, Nadia. The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols. Robinson Publishing. London. 1996. Purce, Jill. The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul. Thames & Hudson. London. 1980.