The Cosmic Dance: Finding Patterns and Pathways in a Chaotic Universe

by Stephen Ellcock

A visual journey from the minute to the infinite, exploring the relationships and harmonies between all parts of the universe and inspiring personal contemplation regarding our place within it.  In The Cosmic Dance , renowned image alchemist Stephen Ellcock presents a panglobal collection of remarkable, arresting, and surprising images drawn from the entire history of art to explore the ancient belief that the cosmos is reflected in all living things. Organized thematically, the visual journey begins with the microscopic, the particulate and the elemental; then explores the human body as a cosmos in miniature, the beauty of divine proportions and our search for spiritual enlightenment; before finally reveling in the colossal, the celestial, and the infinite. An eloquent introduction provides an overview of the central themes and expert commentaries introduce each section. Detailed captions accompanying select images provide bitesize information on key concepts―from the golden ratio to the Tree of Life and the body politic― while thought-provoking quotations and poems interspersed throughout the artworks prompt a closer, more personal engagement with the images. This stunning treasury of artworks provides the perfect guide to a deeper contemplation of the world around us, allowing readers, in the words of William Blake, to “see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.”  300 color illustrations

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Spirituality, History, Nature, Science

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Tyler Nam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best $35 I’ve ever spent. I cherished reading, absorbing, and pondering the art and ideas presented. It’s very much a starting point for so many paths of discover

[Pupak · Rating 5 out of 5]

The images and text in this book opens an infinite window into the world’s mythologies, philosophies, religions, arts, and sciences. It depicts how the whole universe is one and united, no matter the differences. Hence, exploring the ancient belief that the cosmos is reflected in all living things. The choice of images is extremely impressive and precise.
A quote from Nikola Tesla on page 121, which says “But can anyone doubt today that all the millions of individuals and all the innumerable types and characters constitute an entity, a unit? Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable.”; this reminds me of Saadi Shirazi, Persian poet of the medieval period, who says:
Human beings are members of a whole
In creation of one essence and soul
If one member is afflicted with pain
Other members uneasy will remain
بنی آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوی به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نماند قرار

[Joy Malnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful images.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hard to describe with a bit of everything-- primarily an art book with images created over hundreds of years, but with context linked to science, spirituality, history, and philosophy all in one. The kind of book you can keep on your coffee table and genuinely find yourself interested in opening to any random page.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book awakens wonder and a sheer spiritual, cosmic dance in my brain. I stumbled upon this gem by accident on Amazon recommendations and proceeded to hunt down EVERYTHING Ellcock curated in the last years. The unbelievable amount of amazing images he finds is breathtaking and me, a fellow old soul who lives in a chamber of curiosities myself... could do nothing else but fall in love with this and many other books by him. The details, print, collections, quotes, all is well orchestrated, and even ME who dives deep into public domain old art (public domain review is my favorite online journal!) And has collected many images myself.... i still find new things when Ellcock curates, also new art. One of my new FAVORITE books EVER.

[Ethan Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods"

Immaculately curated and very fun to sit down and buzz out to all these images. Almost wish there were a couple more write ups per section. There are so many rabbit holes within this book to fall down, but by far my favourite was the architect Etienne-Louis Boullee and his proposed "Cenotaph to Newton" 🤯🤯🤯

[Yiota · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely curation of images

[Aharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe deep, maybe shallow, definitely beautiful.

[Alejandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are incredible. The texts could have been a bit deeper.

[Belle Soriano · Rating 5 out of 5]

a challenging read, but very informational. the most interesting book I’ve read on metaphysics, and the most aesthetically pleasing. a beautiful piece of art on every page.

[Karen Witzler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish that this had been an oversized art book. Images were sometimes difficult for me to appreciate in smaller format, but Ellcock's curation process is outstanding.

[Alisia Ritaccio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Splendido soprattutto le illustrazioni, anche se difficile da comprendere per chi non ha ampie conoscenze scientifiche e artistiche

[Óscar Soto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una obra de arte camuflada de libro

[John Hearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I will always be "currently reading". A book to come back to and enjoy.

[Sofía · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visual masterpiece

[Lisa Pelizzon · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Mágico, inspirador, sorprendente!

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artistry was excellent. The information was not exactly what I expected. It was very interesting.

[Owen Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cosmic Dance is the latest collection of images from collector and curator Stephen Ellcock. It is a beautifully-bound scrapbook of artwork and illustrations across the centuries, primarily from Europe and Asia.
The collection is organised into seven sections, each with a brief introduction: As Above, So Below, The Infinitesimal Universe, God in Miniature, Divine Proportions, In Search of Nirvana, And So On to Infinity. The book's beauty comes from the collated diverse images and recognising the connections. These are to be studied and admired at leisure for their uniqueness, the thought processes of the original artists and observers, and to stimulate the mind to wander and extrapolate new and original ideas.

[podzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The real let down of this book lies in the quality and size of the images. There is also a dryness to the accompanying text, like reading the cards next to the art work in a gallery.

[zoé · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5—beautiful assemblage of pictures and artworks but the text and message of the book wasn’t groundbreaking or new imo

[Kajoch Kajoch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an ensō tattoo brushed on my arm; wrote a short-story collection about... Well, a lot relevant to this book, but for the sake of simplification, ends with a short story called 'O'; and I'm working on a re-write of Beowulf in the vein of Milton with William Blake archetypical characters. So, I was going to like this book. And I knew that the moment I dropped £25 for it after seeing it for the first time.

Nonetheless, it's ostensibly an artbook with brief statements aside. Many of the facts are stuffed together in a string of connected but overwhelming trivia-bytes that, sometimes, feels like a random philosophy history fact book. Which it kind of is.

But, man, it excels at that. The book is beautiful, the prints high-quality, and if you collect books of this nature (symbolism, synchronicity, symmetry, synergy, sibilance, s, etc) and looking to lose yourself in some beautiful art -
Well, yeah.

PS. I found out the title of this book used to be 'The Cosmic Dance: A Visual Journey from Microcosm to Macrocosm' and while that doesn't sound as compelling, I'd argue it's more accurate.

PSS. To those who know me and want to see the inside of my brain: this is a near amalgam of my ruminations.