representational inquiry regarding meaning » concrete conditions
This is the bottom line, plane of presence, set of concrete conditions constraining possible experiences. L-nodes can be conceived of and represented in a couple of different ways: 1) as six horizontally oriented disks, related to each other as if six pieces in one pie; and 2) as a spiral marking out six stages in a developmental progression. These in turn get interpreted according to different terms, including as concentric circles of concern (each wider in scope), as different levels in a growth (not dominance) hierarchy, as timespans of different durations, as degrees of the tree's unfolding/folding up, and possibly others; where the inner circle = simplest/basic level = shortest timespan = flattest tree; and the outer circle = integration of complexities = long-term timespan = most-opened tree.
The images to the left attempt to symbolically capture the various ways the L-phase can be conceived. First, recall that the images represent two views of the same 3D figure. The top image is the figure as viewed from one side, while the bottom image is the same figure as viewed from above. In the top image, the interpretation of L-nodes as different levels in a developmental progression is depicted as the tree is shown in various stages of its unfolding/folding up. Levels toward the axis are simpler but more abstract, while levels toward the horizon are more complex but more concrete. Connecting the levels with color, the more abstract levels tend toward magenta and white, while the concrete levels tend toward red and black. Looking now at the bottom image to the left, the overlapping circles are meant to occur as the flattened horizon, appearing as an horizontal line along the middle of the top image. Some creative license has been taken in depicting the horizon in this way. The overlapping circles do not result from the tree flattening at the horizon; rather, they are together a symbolic extension of the pattern seen in the corresponding view of the A-phase symbol. The colors in the bottom image depict the six nodes of the L-phase as six pieces in one pie. Finally, the spiral in the top image is meant to indicate the horizonal disk as wobbling, where the wobbling corresponds to degrees of the tree's unfolding along a developmental progression.
The correspondence between the colors and the degrees of the tree's unfolding can be seen in this simplified progression (left to right: L, D, G, C, E, B, F):
The L-nodes together form an interconnected network—a single disk that wobbles as it travels along the system's axis, tracing out a spiral of progression.
The letter L is used to represent this phase primarily for two reasons: 1) the letter's shape, combining the horizontal element at its base (representing the ideally opaque materio-causal continuum of what we call the physical universe) with the vertical element (representing time and so development); and 2) the letter's original meaning as goad (or, more generally, training instrument). Ox (letter A) and goad (letter L) go together insofar as it's the goad that transforms a mere bovine into an ox capable of doing work. The ox has been trained; it has learned how to work. It is by the goad that the bovine's primal energy has been harnessed. There's a dual connection here between goad and the Project's L-phase. a) The conditions of one's life goad one to pursue certain possibilites and not others. A synonym for goad is constrain. The L-phase investigates the concrete conditions which constrain experience—limiting it concretely and thereby making it possible. b) As goad, the L-phase has a pedagogical connotation. It's the education of the ox. It conditions development and the stages in that development. This Project's L-phase addresses not only the concrete conditions for experience, but also levels of conditions as stages of development—levels arranged in a growth (not dominance) hierarchy.
Like the A-phase nodes, L-phase nodes are assigned the letters they are—in this case B through G—primarily because of their numerical values, again in the spirit of this Project's balanced, self-cancelling terms. Opposites sum to 9 and, given color, cancel to white:
