Heaven’s Fractal Net

Heaven’s Fractal Net explores the uniquely useful geometrical forms found in nature and in cultures of the world. The visual shapes of fractals attract eyes with their fascinating beauty. They appear in images and designs with reiterated patterns whose parts are self-similar to the whole pattern--just as a fern frond is structured with smaller and smaller self-similar branches. The fractal-like imagery in religious architecture has been used to symbolize infinity, consciousness, vertigo, and wonder. In nature fractals serve as dynamic configurations for circulation, including the branching shapes of trees and lungs, rivers and nerves. A wealth of fractal examples is found in arts, symbols, and decorations. Heaven’s Fractal Net is a book which explores self-similarities in worldwide cultures, providing a rich background for examining many geometrical shapes used by humanity, exploring processes of creativity in wisdom traditions, and delving into archetypal images in depth psychology. Fractals offer an organizing principle for many different kinds of hierarchies and composites, and in recent years ＂fractal＂ has become a familiar household word for a new yet ancient geometry.

William J. Jackson, after winning a Danforth graduate school fellowship in 1975, earned his PhD from Harvard University in the comparative study of religion, which involves language study, history of religion, and exploration of literature. He was a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University, and published biographies and translations of South Indian singer-saints’ songs in such books as Tyagaraja--Life and Lyrics; Songs of Three Great South Indian Saints; and Vijayanagara Visions, all of which were published by Oxford University Press.

In 2000 he was awarded a sabbatical fellowship at the Rockefeller Research Center in Bellagio, Italy, where he worked on Heaven’s Fractal Net, a book about fractal-like geometrical patterns found in the world’s cultures (published by Indiana University Press, 2004). He also published The Wisdom of Generosity, about America’s history of acts of compassion and volunteerism (Baylor University Press, 2008), and American Tricksters (published by Cascade, 2015).