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DECEMBER 2006 • VOLUME 16 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Divine Proportions
By Nadja King

In the recent best-selling book The DaVinci Code, we are introduced or reintroduced to the concept of PHI. Not to be confused with PI.

1.618 is the number of PHI. “PHI is generally considered the most beautiful number in the universe.”

In the 12th century, Leonardo Fibonacci discovered a simple numerical series that is the foundation for an incredible mathematical relationship behind phi.

Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the series is simply the sum of the two before it.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . .

The number PHI was derived from the Fibonacci sequence, a progression famous not only because the sum of adjacent terms equal to the next term, but because the quotient (if you divide the one number by the other) is an adjacent terms, possessed the astonishing property of approaching the number 1.618 or PHI.

“PHI’s ubiquity in nature, clearly exceeds coincidence, and so the ancients assumed the number PHI, must have been preordained by the creator of the universe.

Early scientists heralded 1.618 as the Divine Proportion."

” We know that in any honey bee hive that the female bees always outnumber the male bees. Did you know that if you divide the number of female bees by the number of male bees in any beehive in the world you always get the same number?" The numer PHI.

"When we look at a spiral seashell a nautilist, and we look at the ratio of each spiral’s diameter to the next number we come up with is 1.618 PHI or the Divine proportion. From pinecone petals to these arrangements on plant stocks to insect segmentation all display astonishing obedience to the Divine proportion."

The Divine proportion can be found everywhere throughout the human body. Measure the distance from the tip of your head to the floor, then divide that by the distance from your belly button to the floor. And the number you will come up with…?

Measure the distance from your shoulder to your fingertips, and divide by the distance from your elbow to your fingertips. PHI again. Hip to floor divided by knee to floor. PHI again. The chaos of the world has an underlying order.

“When the ancients discovered PHI they were certain they had stumbled across gods building block for the world.”

We all are familiar with the sight of five intersecting lines that form of five pointed star. A symbol formerly known as the pentagram, or pentacle as the ancients called, this symbol is considered both divine and magical by many cultures. In the book Langdon points out that the lines of the pentagram automatically divide themselves into segments according to the Divine proportion. That the ratio of line segments in the pentacle all equal PHI, making this the symbol the ultimate expression of the divine proportion.

This hundreds and hundreds of years before we ever have the opportunity to examine the basic code of life are DNA. When we look at cross-section view at the top of the DNA double helix we can see that the form shapes decagon. A decagon is in essence two Pentagon’s, with one rotated by 36° from the other, so we can see that each spiral of the double helix must trace out the shape of the pentagon.

For each full cycle of its double helix spiral the DNA molecule, the program pro-life, measures 34 Å long by 21 Å wide. 34 and 21, of course, our numbers in the Fibonacci series and their ratio, 1.6190476 closely approximates PHI, 1.6180339.

When we look from the smallest segment of life the DNA code, to our own solar system for that the very universe that we live in we will find the Divine proportion of 1.618. In October 2003, based on NASA's release of cosmic background radiation, mathematicians developed a model of the shape of the universe. The study analyzed a range of different models including finite versus infinite, flat negatively curved or saddle shaped, positively curved or spherical or cylindrical. The study revealed that the math adds up if the universe is finite and shaped like a dodecahedron. And a dodecahedron consists of 12 Pentagon's. While it is yet unproven, the theory is exciting as it is not idle speculation and comes with real data to look at.

So what does any of this have to do with horses? Well if the Divine proportion can be found in everything from seashell to humans to the very universe itself, it may not be too surprising that when we examine any number of horses we will find the Divine proportion as well. Measure the length of the head of the length of the neck and you will find Divine proportion. The more we look, the more proportions of 1.618 defined in our equine partner. The Divine proportion that ensures that no horse will have a neck too short so that he will not be able to eat the grass.

How can we judge conformation. The answer sitting in our very own bodies, and our very own DNA. The Divine Proportion. The proportion of life.

When you apply the Divine Proportion to horses it is completely astonishing.

To apply the Divine Proportion, or Phi if you will, we begin with the basic concept of phi as the golden section, golden ratio or sometimes called the golden mean. Others have taken this concept and provided us with tools that make it easy for anyone to apply the divine proportion to their horses, or to the picture of any horse standing still or even in movement. That we can apply these tools to horses in motion just shows how much the divine proportion is inherent and maybe even required to good conformation, and good movement.

Join us in a world of discovery and then send us your own discoveries of how the divine proportion applies to your horses.

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