Are You Square? Signs of Life Revealed
Just as symbols mean many things in many cultures, shapes also have their place. Through seven years of research by Angeles Arrien, she discovered that five basic shapes appeared in the art of all the cultures she studied and has described them in her book, “Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them.” These include the square, the circle, the triangle, the cross and the spiral. She found that people in different cultures give similar meanings to these shapes.
The circle symbolizes wholeness; the square stability, the triangle goals and dreams, the cross relationships, and the spiral means growth. Angeles also discovered that these shapes stand for a process of human growth. From these studies, she developed the “Preferential Shapes Test” to determine the connection between a person’s preferences for a certain shape and their inner state of growth.
The test is very simple. You draw the shapes on a piece of paper in the order you prefer or the order you feel is important. Then the book describes the meaning based on both the shape and the order you placed it in. For example, I chose the spiral as my first shape. According to the book, this means that “the process of growth is the one you believe to be the most important for you at this time. You want to develop flexibility, to handle situations differently from the way you have in the past, and to implement tangible changes in your life.” This rang very true to me.
I’m not sure that I would base my life decisions on is said in the book, but it did really make me think about where I am in my personal growth and where I want to be. It was a fun, easy read.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:06 am
any changes coming ?
August 6th, 2009 at 2:10 am
hmm. attractive ))