Leonardo said it best: "The outstretched arms and legs of a man form a square and a circle: the square symbolizes the solid physical world and the circle the spiritual and eternal. Man bridges the gap between these two worlds."



-Leonardo Da Vinci, "The Magical Proportions of Man"

Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (the Da Vinci Man with four arms and four legs in a square and circle) is the most popular secular symbol in the world. My ten years of research suggests that the Vitruvian Man is a universal symbol for greater love, relationships, success, health and the new age 21st century paradigm of indivisible wholeness, the paradigm for world peace. A New Renaissance!

The Da Vinci Man is a universal translator between scientific models (represented by the Da Vinci Man in the square) and religious symbols (represented by the Da Vinci Man in the circle). Therefore, the Vitruvian Man (Da Vinci Man) is a bridge between science and religion. There are amazing similarities between the sacred geometry of the Da Vinci Man, Yin-Yang, Star of David, Tree of Life, Christian Cross, Angels and Kabbalah.

The Da Vinci Man in the square represents our authentic survival needs. The Da Vinci Man in the circle represents our authentic needs for love, self-actualization and spiritual growth.

Authenticity

The Art of Venting (with Kindness and Permission):

We often place armor around our feelings to protect ourselves. This is represented by the Da Vinci Man in the square. However, by sharing our feelings with a caring person in a loving way, we are released from negative emotions and experience greater understanding and compassion. This is represented by the Da Vinci Man in the circle. Opposites work together harmoniously in an evolutionary way (as evidenced in the two cojoined Da Vinci forms).

Authentic communication allows you to express yourself fully. Expressing unconscious emotions consciously allows you to release them. This includes learning skills to express your shadow emotions (anger, sadness, fears, guilt and shame), in order to keep your relationship loving, authentic, clear and real. The goal is to always express yourself, or let enough time pass by, in order to return to your unconditional love.

It is okay to give and receive. It is like breathing in and out. This is like the interplay between the Da Vinci Man in the square and circle. How we are able to receive from others indicates our ability to receive success and wealth in the world.

Successful people are not victims. They receive deeply and give deeply. Communication exercises help us get in touch with what we really want--what we want to give and receive from others.

Be authentic about your feelings and your preferences. Feelings are closest to God. If you are authentic and willing to express your emotions, you can be more open to your loving emotions. If you are willing to be more vulnerable, you have less armor towards others and God. Then you do not pretend you are better than anyone. If you are humble and empty, God can fill you up.

Be authentic about your needs. Authenticity is about "getting real." If you let yourself be vulnerable about what you really want, there is more chance of getting your needs met. You are less stiff, more natural and flowing. It also gives the other person permission to be authentic about their needs.

Don't mood-make to cover up how you really feel. Be authentic. If you cover up your feelings, you are covering up an opportunity to get to some deeper truth that will provide a more loving and purposeful direction in your life. We are filled up when we can fill up others. In an airplane a mother is instructed to put on the oxygen mask first.

Authenticity and Spirituality

A spiritually aware person is fully conscious of their thoughts, feelings and awareness. They always try to stay at the feeling level because this level is closest to God. Because they want to be at this level, close to God, they are willing to be vulnerable about all their emotions--their fear and love, their grief and joy, their anger and clarity.

Shadow emotions in themselves can be positive. Like the gauges on a car, they tell us if something is off. Only by being aware of shadow emotions can one process them and move them, allowing the more loving emotions to shine through. This is the Hero's Journey.

If one is spiritually aware, they desire to release all shadow emotions that come up which do not feel enlightened. This means they need to be aware of their anger, sadness, fear and shame, and be willing to express it in order to release it. Once the shadow emotion is expressed, with the attitude of releasing it, it has a chance to disappear. The shadow mountain then becomes a molehill; the whale becomes a minnow; the air is let out of their anger balloon and the fear that is filling it up dissipates. The clouds blocking the full sunshine of our love dissipate, so the love we naturally are can shine through.

A spiritually aware person does not feel better than anyone else. They feel like they hardly exist. They are like a vessel for God. They see God in everyone. Since God has taken over their very Self, they see themselves in everyone. The world is their family because they naturally feel one with everyone. They are so grateful to God for His bounty of light and being living in the altar of their heart that they want to always be on their knees before Him, like a tree fully laden with fruit that just wants to bow down.

One sign of enlightenment is the person's level of unconditional love. When you see a person who naturally loves no matter how he is being treated, you see enlightenment--even if they have to express and release shadow emotions to get back to their loving state.

Leonardo experienced that we are inseparably connected to Nature. The Da Vinci Man with arms uplifted reminds one of an angel with wings. You could place the Da Vinci form on a famous drawing of the Seraphim and see a remarkable resemblance. There is also a remarkable similarity between the Da Vinci form and the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States.

Marianne Williamson said that we are more afraid of our greatness than our smallness. We have been taught to believe that we are separate from nature.

Now scientists indicate that the very nature of the atom and subatomic particles are universal and omnipresent. This means that the physical body, at its subtlest level, is also omnipresent. This is why the inner person is cosmic.

We are waking up from the dream of classical physics that the human is limited. Yet we are also human angels, with one foot on the ground and the other on the pedestal.

It is our very humanness that makes our Divine Nature more real. When we are able to vent and release the emotions that bind us, we come to experience our own angelic nature. When we are authentically human, we drop the armor around us. This allows us to experience our angelic nature.