1. The spiral is the ultimate symbol of non-linear, non-circular temporality. Western thought is obsessed with the line, as with linear time; with eschatology & teleology; with the notion of linear rise & fall; decadence conceived as the inversion of youth, victory, purpose.

2. Against this Christian chronology, we juxtapose the Indo-European pagan image of cyclicality; time as a recurring circle; circles within circles; great creations conditioning each divine battle; dawn & twilight bound in an eternal recurrence, a dance.

3. This is an exclusively European temporal juxtaposition—the circle & the line. We have, with adolescent arrogance, projected it upon every civilisation & primitive tribe we encountered. But elder races & primitives both know another symbol.

4. In truth, time is a spiral, reaching ever inward, ever outward. Intuition has allowed some European philosophers & artists to brush against this thought. Bergson & Lovecraft are modern instances of this intuition, but their reach is sadly limited—rarely grasped in full.

5. The logic of rise & fall, the rhythm of creation & destruction, can only get you so far because both stand in thrall to something greater, something more profound & beautiful & terrible.

6. When we see the modern predicament in these terms, when we transcend the concepts of warp & weft, linearity & cyclicality, only then do we stand under the influence of that which can both bend the line & break the circle.

Cthulhu fhtagn, my brothers