A true list of Origins
and
Boundary Conditions
Emergence
Emergence and a symbol for The Big Bang
This is religion for atheists; So the first word is emergence. Emergence is a form of natural becoming. How something new comes into existence. Complex or otherwise. It has many interpretations. Some say more is different. I say everything is different. That the moment is unique. That the moment is emergent. And so is The Big Bang. And The Octagod brings these two things together. And that, in itself is yet another example of emergence.
DNA
DNA and a symbol for The Big Bang
DNA is a well known science symbol. In the context of The Octagod it stands for both the origin and unity of life. DNA is the first of three rings. The second ring is for The Brain. The third is for culture. This three ring circus generally represents feedback. Life's energy driven process of feedback can manifest itself in many ways; including reproduction, the formation of self (the ego) and a culture's self awareness. From DNA to the book, the three circles of The Octagod represent life in the Universe. They also represent feedback.
The Brain
 The Brain and a symbol for The Big Bang
The Brain has a circle all its own. Like DNA it's the central node for a complex set of feedback loops. And like DNA it's a source of memory. In this symbol the brain lies between genetics and culture. It's in the middle because we obviously live somewhere between our instincts and their cultural expressions. But less obviously the brain lies in between in many other ways as well; The brain lies between inside and outside, between billions of cells and a sense of self, between sensation and action, between past future and even between chemistry and gravity. The Brain, like The Octagod, operates on many size scales at once.
The Book
The Book and a symbol for The Big Bang
The Book symbolizes memes and culture. Which makes the Octagod a meme about memes. Memes and genes are instruction sets. Culture is an ecology of instruction sets. The Octagod is part of that ecology. It's a religious users manual for the Big Bang and all it implies. Like other religious thoughts it includes versions of birth and death. As a thought it points to the sky. As an amulet it's worn on the outside of the body reminding the wearer of the Universe in a variety of ways.
The Macrocosm
The Macrocosm and a symbol for The Big Bang
The Macrocosm is everything that's bigger than you. From society to the sky. From the moon to the earth to the sun. The Macrocosm is the galaxy, galactic clusters and voids, and the universe. It's everything that comes down to us. It's where we live.
The Microcosm
The Microcosm and a symbol for The Big Bang
The Microcosm is everything that's smaller than you; it's your body, your organs, your cells. It's molecules and atoms. And of course its quantum mechanics. If the Macrocosm is where we live. Then the Microcosm is what we are.
The Big Bang
The Big Bang and a symbol of The Big Bang
The moment of the Big Bang is a moment of ultimate simplicity. Everything that will ever be is at that moment; in the same place, and made of the same stuff. Then it became all of this. This first point of cosmic unity emerges from the quantum world. Then quickly inflates into the space and variation that preceded the web of galaxies that we have today. This web of galaxies represents contraction. The Big Bang represents expansion. In our universe there's a balance between expansion and contraction. We should honor it. It's good enough to produce galaxies. The Big bang also gave us the speed of light. The Big Bang comes with a verity of conditions. Who's to say what these may be in other universes?
And what The Big bang came from
"Before" the Big Bang and a symbol of The Big Bang
The universe could be here on purpose. But it's probably here by chance. There are probably many universes. Our universe seems uniquely right for life. To account for this by chance there would have to be a large number of lifeless universe's, to account for the one that worked. The idea that there are many dead universe's is consistent with the idea of downward causation. Where it takes a lot to make a little. The universe is a rare black swan.
Death in general and a symbol of The Big Bang
The Big Bang tells a story, the body tells a story, and they both tell the story of Birth and Death. Why these stories, in there outlines, should be so similar is not a question I can answer. I simply note that these two stories are remarkably similar. So in creating a human sized science and religion styled symbol of the Big Bang these similarities can not be ignored. So the Octagod , in its reversed form, tries to deal with the question of death.
For the Octagod symbol of the Big bang the death of the Universe takes on three forms; The death of stars. The death of galaxies. And the death of the Universe as a whole.
Star death is represented by the three kinds of dead stars being; White dwarfs, Neutron stars and small Black holes. The death of our galaxy is represented by the great black hole at our galaxy's center. And finally the death of the Universe is represented by a last line representing maximum entropy.
The Big Bang
Again, the Big Bang and a symbol of The Big Bang
In the Octagod this second version of the Big Bang is contrasted to the end of time. In this context of death, the Big Bang represents minimum entropy. Minimum entropy is maximum simplicity. Everything in the universe is known. It's in the same place; made of the same stuff. It was. And then the universe expanded. Expanding was its greatest feet. Inflation was by far the fasted expansion. And what followed, our universe, seems to be expanding faster and faster as well. The universe is expanding while what's around us is contracting. We are all pulled to the center of the earth. There are many stories to be told about expansion and contraction. the Octagod, especially as it points downward is one of them.
                      Forever Physics and a symbol of the Big Bang
The Octagod symbol of the Big Bang contrasts life with non-life. One side portrays the emergence of life from the Big Bang. While the other portrays the entire history of the universe from its beginnings in the Big Bang to its endings; in ever growing black holes, maximum entropy, and the heat death of the universe. The two sides of the Octagod amulet contrasts this ever changing world of life and its evolution to the more eternal world of physics. The amulet connects you to eternity, in the form of physics. Here our eternal nature, is the part of us that's rooted in physical law.
Expansion
Expansion and a symbol of The Big Bang
The second half of the Octagod replaces the "macrocosm" and the "microcosm" with expansion and contraction. This battle between cosmic expansion and gravitational collapse is central to any story of the Big Bang. Because when it comes to creation; the story of life and the story of the Big Bang are not the same. This second side of the Octagod contrasts the familiar worlds of our own creation with the less familiar worlds from which we emerged.
As the universe continues to expand. And as our local group of galaxies continues to contract, there will inevitably come a time in the far distant future when our locial clump of matter will find itself all alone in a universe that has expanded away. Then presumably, our little stranded island of matter, in this expanding void, will itself, eventually collapse and contract into a single black hole. This then is the "eye of death" in this upside down symbol of the Big Bang.
Contraction
Contraction and a symbol of The Big Bang
Expansion and contraction define each other. It seems impossible to imagine one without the other. Although in another universe it might be different. In our universe expansion and contraction obviously play central rolls.
From contracting galactic clusters and expanding voids. To quasars with their expanding jets and contracting disks. To stars which balance expanding heat and contracting gravity. From exploding stars that leave contracting cores. To exploding stars that trigger the collapse of gas clouds and the subsequent birth of new stars. From mountains and valleys to saw blades.
In our lives expansion and contraction can become tension and compression and we have suspension bridges. Car pistons expand and contract. Brain cells excite and inhibit. Arms and legs expand and contract. Blood contracts and expands as it enters and leaves the heart. And the most personal of all, expansion and contraction come with breathing. We are all connected to the universe in so many ways.
                          Dead Stars and a Symbol of The Big Bang
The Octagod is a symbol of the Big Bang. It compresses language in the hope of making the universe more comprehensible and psychologically manageable. Naming something gives a soft ownership. So the Octagod allows a kind of ownership of the universe. Through the magic of language the Octagod makes the universe personal. When worn as an amulet,close to the body, this sense of personal ownership grows even stronger. With one side representing cosmic birth and the other cosmic death. The universe is born and dies. Stars are born and die. People are born and die. This confluence of personal and cosmic death should be part of any symbol of the Big Bang and so it is here.
                         Three kinds of death and a symbol of the Big Bang
The Octagod is a theological construction based on the scientific observation that the universe has a beginning, a life of increasing entropy, and an end. This is the first death. The universe's escaping life, its increasing entropy, can be seen in everything that cools. Be it a cooling cup of coffee, or a fading star.
The second kind of death comes in the form of dying stars. Small stars die gently. Big stars die violently. But either way, this star death creates and then distributes the elements upon which we all depend. The well know periodic table of the elements comes to us directly from dead stars. And represents a kind of learning. Because the periodic table of the elements is an example of how the universe explors its own possibilities.
For example, at the time of the Big Bang how would the universe know that iron was nuclear ash. Or that there could only be about ninety stable elements. These facts had to emerge. And they did so with the help of death, star death.
The third form of death comes in the form of biological evolution. The Octagod symbolizes evolution in terms of memory (DNA, The Brain and The Book) And again one of the primary drivers of evolution is death. If it weren't for an onging cycle life and death evolutions process of; variation, selection and reproduction couldn't proceed.
In this system the Octagod amulet hangs around the neck and reminds us of our own personal death. If we die at an old age our death comes along with a lifetime of knowledge. So as we contemplate our death, hopefully we can put it into its larger context. From the death of the universe. To the death of stars. To the three billion years of dying organisms and successful evolution that has brought us to the present moment and then to contemplate our own death. So when we contemplate our own death we should do it with the expanded knowledge that death is absolutely essential for life.
White Dwarfs
White dwarfs and a symbol of The Big Bang
The Octagod amulet is a gateway to the cosmos. Donning and wearing it makes your allegiance the universe a matter of personal ritual. Placing metal upon flesh invokes the spirit of the elements. And the stars that made them.
With the Octagod the traditional stories of dead ancestors are supplemented with stories of matter itself. The white dwarf symbolizes the most essential atoms in our flesh.
As the sun dies its core will contract and its outer atmosphere will expand. As this solar atmosphere expands it will finally engulf and destroy the earth. And as it continues into space this expanding atmosphere will also ironically spread, the elements of life.
Medium sized stars like our sun, the ones that leave white dwarfs, create the most essential elements for life. White dwarfs give us carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.
Neutron Stars
Neutron stars and a symbol of The Big Bang
The end stages of matter. Phase change
Black Holes
Black holes and a symbol of The Big Bang
It all comes to a point
Our Galatic Black Hole
The place of the Quasar
And the Heat Death of the Universe.
The death of life and death itself.
The Octagod symbol for the The Big Bang
The Octagod came to be on the exact date of 8/8/88. It was intended as a logo for a cable TV public access television show, based in Staten island NY. It was a show about Science, Religion and Video feedback. But that was a long time ago. Since then, as an artist, I've done other projects. But even as times have changed the Octagod has never left me. Later on I discovered that it also worked in it's inverted form. Although in a very different manor.
I swear to you as an artist who's done lots of things, this thing is most definitely magical. It's an archetype for sure. For me it has provided and continues to provide inspiration, in so many ways. So I will try to present this cosmic prize of inspiration to you as best I can.
