The Infinity Symbol

[Broken Kid]

Just so we have one place to discuss it... there's a lot of discussion in the Video thread, but it might be helpful for people who don't want to browse through so many pages to have it consolidated here...

[Beckers]

found this info:

source 1: The infinity symbol in the diagram represents The "Center of Being of the Earth Spirit." The Earth Spirit is part of a larger spiritual hierarchy corresponding to other planets and the Sun. In turn, the solar system is a member of an even larger Universal Hierarchy going out to Infinity. The realm of the Earth Spirit corresponds to what Hubbard termed the 8th dynamic, represented with the same infinity symbol.

source 2: The messages dictated to Rael explain how life on Earth is not the result of random evolution, nor the work of a supernatural "God". It is a deliberate creation, using DNA, by a scientifically advanced people who made human beings literally in their image. References to these scientists and their work, as well as to their symbol of infinity can be found in the ancient texts of many cultures. For example, in Genesis, the biblical account of creation, the word "Elohim" has been mistranslated as "God" in the singular, but it is a plural, which means "those who come from the sky".

source 3:Although both the lemniscate as symbol and as concept of infinity come to us from the start of human civilisation, its introduction into modern scientific usage only dates back to medieval times. The term lemniscate refers to the shape itself, and the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) first called the shape a lemniscus (Latin for ribbon).
Use of the lemniscate and its family of related symbols can be traced back to ancient esotericism. The symbol was described by Plato in The Timaeus, with later commentaries by Latin writer and philosopher Macrobius and the Stoics, and eventually this symbol becomes the gyres (a circular or spiral motion or form) of St. Thomas Aquinas (describing the circular movement of angels) and the divination tables of English mathematician and magus John Dee.
On the origins of the lemniscate, Symbols.com state that "the most common similar medieval symbol is the snake biting its own tail, or the empty circle [...]. It is as if [the symbol] represents a double endlessness or eternity."
The snake devouring itself, the ouborous or ouroboros, also takes the form of a lizard or a dragon. The symbol is emblematic of ancient Egypt and Greece, represented with its tail in its mouth, continually devouring and being reborn from itself. A Gnostic and alchemical symbol, ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation. In the 19th century, a vision of ouroboros gave the German chemist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz the idea of linked carbon atoms forming the benzene ring.

source 4: "the infinity symbol has two meanings, the joining of two cultures and the existence of a people forever."



I think this is enough for now





sorry brokenkid...this forum is so big....I just saw the topic SYMBOL and assumed I should post there.

[Kasdeja]

Just FYI, it does not resemble any Enochian alphabet characters.

[nobackspacebutton]

A fallen or lying down 8 is used to represent infinity in mathematics. This interpretation of 8 may be related to the representation of the caduceus (where two snakes form several figure eights) as stability or balance of opposing forces.

In algebraic geometry, the word lemniscate refers to any of several figure-eight or ∞ shaped curves, of which the best known is the Lemniscate of Bernoulli. It is also sometimes used to refer to the ∞ symbol used in mathematics as a symbol for infinity.

The infinity sign was devised in 1655 by mathemetician John Wallis, and named lemniscus (latin, ribbon) by mathemetician Bernoulli about forty years later.

The lemniscate is patterned after the device known as a mobius (named after a nineteenth century mathemetician Mobius) strip. A mobius strip is a strip of paper which is twisted and attached at the ends, forming an 'endless' two dimensional surface.

The religious aspect of the infinity symbol predates its mathematical origins. Similar symbols have been found in Tibetan rock carvings; and the ouroboros, or infinitysnake, is often depicted in this shape. In the tarot, it represents the balance of forces and is often associated with the magician card.

Source: http://altreligion.about.com/library/gl ... finity.htm

Also, I just found a very good website for reference..
the Free Encyclopedia of Thelema....

http://www.egnu.org/thelema/Infinite

The symbol of an "eight on its side" is sometimes known as the lemniscate and is a glyph for infinity. The English mathematician John Wallis (1616-1703) introduced the symbol to represent mathematical infinity in his Arithmetica Infinitorum of 1655. The term lemniscate refers to the shape itself, and the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) first called the shape a lemniscus (Latin for ribbon) in an article in Acta Eruditorum in 1694.

In spiritual terms, the lemniscate represents eternity, the numinous and the higher spiritual powers. The Magus, the first card in the Major Arcana of the Tarot, is often depicted with the lemniscate above his head or incorporated into a wide-brimmed hat, signifying the divine forces he is attempting to control.

The use of a figure eight to represent infinity is an interesting choice, as eight is linked to pre-creational infinity through the Ogdoad and to the cyclical sense of infinity through the eight pagan festivals of the year and the octagram.

link: http://www.byzant.com/Mystical/Symbols/Lemniscate.aspx

[sororyzbl]

It's not an infinity symbol. An infinity symbol is one continuous line that never ends. This one is broken at the head and tail. It sorta reminds me of a snake.

I've never seen the symbol like this, at least as far as I can recall. Infinity symbols are a dime a dozen, and are so overused they're part of the human lexicon. I dunno about this one. I have a good knowledge of many symbols and alphabets, but I'm stumped.

I dunno about what the creators have in mind, for all I know, it could be a stylized infinity symbol, but if this were a Magickal ceremony I'd crumple up the paper and throw it in the wastebasket if someone gave it to me as an infinity symbol.

agape

[Broken Kid]

sorry brokenkid...this forum is so big....I just saw the topic SYMBOL and assumed I should post there.

That's what I figured. No problem!

[Broken Kid]

I dunno about what the creators have in mind, for all I know, it could be a stylized infinity symbol, but if this were a Magickal ceremony I'd crumple up the paper and throw it in the wastebasket if someone gave it to me as an infinity symbol.

Well, if it's a company logo, it wouldn't be surprising if they wanted a stylized symbol. It sort of looks like a typical infinity symbol done in calligraphy style to make it more aesthetically pleasing... but you're right, hard to tell what's intended.

[nobackspacebutton]

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/25/251.html

Symbols.com

please read.

[Beckers]

It's not an infinity symbol. An infinity symbol is one continuous line that never ends. This one is broken at the head and tail. It sorta reminds me of a snake.

On the origins of the lemniscate, Symbols.com state that "the most common similar medieval symbol is the snake biting its own tail, or the empty circle [...]. It is as if [the symbol] represents a double endlessness or eternity."
The snake devouring itself, the ouborous or ouroboros, also takes the form of a lizard or a dragon. The symbol is emblematic of ancient Egypt and Greece, represented with its tail in its mouth, continually devouring and being reborn from itself. A Gnostic and alchemical symbol, ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.

Just wanted to point that out for you from my previous post.

[storyteller]

It's not an infinity symbol. An infinity symbol is one continuous line that never ends. This one is broken at the head and tail. It sorta reminds me of a snake.

I have to agree with you. When you look closely, it isn't level (it's hard to tell because he's holding the box at an angle) and one of the circles (the one closer to us) looks smaller to me. It looks more like a caligraphied "S" than a figure 8.

[Languorous Lass]

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/25/251.html

Symbols.com

please read.

So what do you think the significance of that information is, nobackspacebutton?

[PinkoLady]

A fallen or lying down 8 is used to represent infinity in mathematics. This interpretation of 8 may be related to the representation of the caduceus (where two snakes form several figure eights) as stability or balance of opposing forces.

The caduceus on a staff is a medical symbol...
and Bree was getting injections and taking pills and all that.

Though it doesn't look completely unlike an isolated segment of it: http://www.drake.edu/artsci/biology/BioSci/caduceus.jpg

the connection there is probably quite a stretch, ha.

[SharpI]

Here's the symbol, as recorded by milowent and posted in the video thread. I agree, doesn't look like infinity symbol to me - too boxy, not loopy. I don't know that Daniel necessarily is showing us which way is up, BTW. Wild idea: could it be a brand? (a la branding iron?) Warehouses for a ranch? Oooo, Daniel, don't you go B&E into a meat packing plant... <shudder>

[yoruba]

Why can't it just be number 8? Maybe the felt the need to numerize their cameras.

[storyteller]

AH HA! it's not an infinity symbol but two cleft cells! see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribozyme

Bree enlightens us int helast video....

Now what was her dad doing.... unless he was cloning something.