Article #4 in a series about New Thought
The Nautilus as Spiritual Metaphor
Metaphors Be With You…
It all started with cover design for my book. I did my due diligence in researching book covers in my genre: colors, design, fonts, style. The goal is to fit in, but stand out. I wanted a single image in the center of the cover, “perhaps a shell” I thought. There were lots of options of shells on the internet that I sent to my cover designer. She responded with the image of a nautilus, ironically the exact image as in the photo above. She said I could pay for an image if I wanted something specific but “this one is free.” I said, “Great. If it’s free, it’s for me.” I had no idea what a nautilus was, but I liked its spiral-like quality. It reminded me of a labyrinth. Spirals indicate movement and direction, a journey forward and toward.
Once the nautilus was on my radar it began popping up frequently. I discovered that New Thought author Elizabeth Towne had successfully published a magazine in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for fifty years. The title of the publication was Nautilus, taken from the Oliver Wendell Holmes 1858 poem, The Chambered Nautilus. So, an unexpected connection was made between the nautilus, my book The Deliberate Thinker, and the New Thought authors whose ideas fill it.
This connection to the shell on my book cover led me to research this fascinating and capable sea creature for further insight. I learned not only about its amazing natural growth in accordance with the Golden Ratio of mathematics, its capacity to withstand immense oceanic pressure, and its 500 million-year history, but also about its beautiful pearlescent and iridescent interior color, perfect spiral balance, and symbolism of multiple qualities such as spiritual growth, resilience, beauty, perfection, elegance, strength, buoyancy, and perseverance. Who knew, right?
With each new discovery about the nautilus I started to think its appearance on the cover of my book was more than coincidental. It turned out to be the perfect visual representation of the method I wanted to teach.
“The nautilus shell is symbolic of the inner beauty and harmony of nature. We can see in the internal chambers of the shell a metaphor for the stages each individual passes through in life. The spiral growth represents creation, movement, fluidity and evolution, always from the inside out.”
Patricia Daly
From there I knew I had been led to the perfect metaphor for the message I intended to share with anyone who read my book: spiritual growth is gradual and slow; you don’t see much difference on the outer shell, but on the inside there is an exquisite pattern developing that is perfectly balanced and iridescent. If you follow the path, the method, you too will become an amazing creature.
Elizabeth Towne was an admirable New Thought publisher. For more than 50 years, from 1898 to 1953, she and her husband William devoted much of their time to publishing their timeless New Thought personal development magazine Nautilus. The slogan of their magazine was Self-Help Through Self-Knowledge.
Nautilus was printed monthly in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The first run in June of 1900 was 4,500 copies, and the printer’s bill was just $36.93, including the wrapping. Within a short time this little four-page paper had grown into a popular illustrated magazine. In time, 50,000 copies of Nautilus were mailed out of Holyoke each month to subscribers who looked forward to the inspirational boost that Nautilus provided to them.
Many famous New Thought writers contributed to Nautilus at one time or another. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Edwin Markham, Anne Warner, Edward B. Warman, Horatio W. Dresser, Orison Swett Marden, Brown Landone, Wallace Wattles, Paul Ellsworth and Genevieve Behrend are among the well-known writers and thinkers who contributed some of their best work to Nautilus. William Walker Atkinson, one of the leading New Thought writers of the time, also joined the staff of writers.
“The nautilus is a cephalopod mollusk belonging to the sole surviving genus (Nautilus) of a subclass that flourished 200 million years ago, known as the nautiloids. The spirally coiled shell consists of a series of chambers; as the nautilus grows it secretes larger chambers, sealing off the old ones. A lifeline connects one chamber to the next, so previous rooms are left behind but not forgotten.” Wikipedia
I have not found the reason why Elizabeth Towne chose to name her publication Nautilus, but she certainly seems to have connected with the deeper meaning of Holmes’ poem, and his use of metaphor. Here is how Holmes tells the story of the nautilus, and of our spiritual evolution:
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings—
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
(This poem is in the public domain)
