this design i called ‘American Eagle’ (fig. 71, chart 47). This eagle has a realistic head, two feet, a prominent feathered breast, and two fully extended wings, much like the eagle seen on numerous U.S. coins and government emblems. In this figure i combine mixed loop passages with dominant switches. The corresponding 5-loop figure (index, middle, and ring left dominant switched) is likewise impressive (fig. 72, chart 48).

Left-Dominant Index Switch

• Transfer the left index loop to the top of the right index, inserting the right index from below and from the near side; pass the left index down through the right upper index loop, then insert it, from below and from the near side, into the right lower index loop; lift this loop off the right index, rawing it up through the right upper index loop as you return the left index to its original position.

chirality and the american eagle

we live in a chiral world, a 4 dimensional world. mathematicians tell me that any even numbered dimensional system is chiral: it has handedness. our dimensions are up, down, sideways and forward in time.

this truncated dimension of only a forward movement causes consequence within a dynamic system, cause and effect. i took a college course as a freshman and was told of how learned men had dealt with the concept of cause and effect. i prefer to concentrate on consequence.

directional time twists all things in a dance which changes all, and cannot be undone. it also means our hands don’t match if we press the palm of one to the back of the other. the thumbs poke out.

imagine drawing a circle on this paper. i tend to start at the bottom and sweep up left and then circle to my right and back to the beginning. i think this is probably because i was taught palmer pennmanship in my texas school long ago and i start my signature with a capital j whose upper oval is formed as if i started a circle and then my pen does a complex dance. to draw a circle one must do a balanced dance. ask anyone who has tried to free-hand draw or paint a zen circle.

i tend to start my string figures with the ldna opening of however many loops are to be interwoven. life on earth tends to form left handed molecules. nobody knows exactly why, but it does indicate a directional bias.