DNA and a symbol for The Big Bang

THE OCTAGOD, as a symbol of The Big Bang, attempts to be a personal answer to the existential question of being. What does it mean to be alive? Indeed, what does it mean that anything exists at all?

This symbol, and the scientific truth it tries to represent, has over the years provided a certain kind of answer to this existential longing. Its scientific truth is deep enough, and the symbol is broad enough, so that indeed, as an object of contemplation, it does provide this sense of context. THE OCTAGOD is a scientific Jesus. A bit of language that connects you to the Universe.

I’m a working artist fascinated by the three-way juxtaposition of science, religion, and art. Working with heraldry and cartooning, THE OCTAGOD is the best from this work. THE OCTAGOD lasts. THE OCTAGOD deepens. THE OCTAGOD is a genuine archetype.

THE OCTAGOD becomes a symbol of The Big Bang by providing a doorway into The Big bang. It does this by assuming that The Big Bang isn’t distant. That old explosion is still happening. It’s here, right now, and we saw it. We’re that part of the universe that’s come to know itself.

Defining a relationship between “you and the largest” is one of the things religion does best. As an artist, I copy religion. So in the classic religious style, THE OCTAGOD becomes a didactic visual reference point. THE OCTAGOD symbol of The Big Bang is based on eight emergent categories inspired by science. The dogma is solid and fixed. But the interpretations flow like liquid. Like us, THE OCTAGOD lives on this boundary between solid and liquid.

These eight categories, Emergence, DNA, The Brain, The Book, The Macrocosm, The Microcosm, The Big Bang, and what The Big Bang came from are like postulates in a system of Euclidean geometry. Start with these definitions and everything follows.

Five of these; “DNA, The Brain, The Book, The Macrocosm, and The Microcosm” come directly from lived experience. You know your own body, your own mind. And then what you’ve been taught. Plus, you live in a world that’s obviously both bigger and smaller than you are. In a sense, what more is there? What more can you know? So again, inspired by science, THE OCTAGOD symbol of The Big Bang adds three more primary categories. They are Emergence, The Big Bang, and what The Big Bang came from.

Emergence is represented by the dot in THE OCTAGOD’s eye. In a symbol of The Big Bang, emergence can mean many things. It could mean the emergence of new properties. It could mean the emergence of consciousness from the brain. It could even mean the emergence of the present moment as you are currently experiencing it. It could even mean the emergence of The Big Bang itself.

From the first moment. To the present moment. We became the Universe seeing itself. THE OCTAGOD tries to show us this journey. From the beginning of time. To the beginning of life. Through evolution’s emergent steps. From plant to animal, to the present time. This is how DNA fits into our symbol of The Big Bang.