Parabola's Winter 1991 issue: The Golden Mean Human fascination with the Divine Proportion since Neolithic times is at least partly due to its remarkable mathematical properties, but its more essential attraction comes from inherent beauty and harmony. Human consciousness resounds to these proportions in the presence of the Parthenon in Athens, the pyramids in Egypt, and the Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The rectangle which informs these structures not only "looks right" and somehow "feels right," it also appeals at a deeper level to the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual planes of our being. It is inherently beautiful in its proportion in the way it reveals its mysteries, its infinite relationships, and its whirling squares. The Golden Proportion symbolizes regeneration, which is why it is embodied in all structures having to do with divinity and our relationship to God. --from "Harmony by Design" Cover: "Scroll of Heaven" Fresco on a vault in the Kariye Museum, Istanbul Photograph copyright 1991 Merih Akogul/Fox, Istanbul In this issue:

• "Restoring the Imago Dei" by Philip Zaleski
  - A search for the Golden Mean within
• "The Measure of Difference" by Robert Lawlor - Ratio, proportion, and analogy in mathematics and life
• "The Dance of Libra" by Rob Baker
  - An ancient symbol of the active state of balance
• "The Golden Proportion"
  - A conversation between Richard Temple and Keith Critchlow
• "Harmony by Design" by Astrid Fitzgerald
  - Unity in art and architecture
• "The Bird and the Word" by P. L. Travers
  - Reconciliation metaphors in myth and fairy tale
• "Three Harmonies" by Eknath Easwaran
  - The path to peace of Gandhi and Badshah Khan
• "Combing the Snakes from Atatarho's Hair" by Joseph Bruchac
  - The Native American view of balance
• "Overcoming Differences" by H. H. the Dalai Lama
  - A speech on anger, compassion, and world peace
• "Peace Is Every Step" by Thich Nhat Hanh
  - Mindfulness and the roots of war
• "Humility" by Helen M. Luke
  - The human point linking active sun and passive earth
• "Music's Discipline of the Means"
  - An interview with Ernest McClain

Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world

• "Walking on the Moon-path" / American - by Howard Pyle
• "Phaeton" / Greek - retold by Tom White
• "The Frogs Who Desired a King" / Greek - retold by Paul Roche
• "Man's Justice and God's Justice" / Turkish - retold by Paul Jordan-Smith
• "Three Miracles of St. Neot" / English - retold by Paul Jordan-Smith