Word: spiralling
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...scene ? and many a similarly bizarre one ? is being re-enacted all across the U.S. nowadays. In Oakland, Calif., when the moon is full, a group of college-educated people gather in a house in a middle-class neighborhood, remove their clothes, and whirl through the double spiral of a witches' dance. In southern New Jersey, a 30-year-old receptionist winds thread around a voodoo doll and sticks steel pins into it in a determined effort to harass a rival at the office into resigning. In Chicago, from 75 to 100 otherwise ordinary people ? mostly professionals...
...circle facing out. "Thout-tout-a-tout-tout," they sing, "throughout and about." The men put their weight only on the toes of their left feet, which gives them a hobbling gait. At a certain moment, the priestess breaks free and guides the others inward in a spiral. When she gets to the center, she kisses the man next to her and begins to unwind the spiral. Each woman then kisses each man, and the spiral opens up into a circle again...
...double-spiral dance, claims Kelly, is a 6,000-year-old symbol of reincarnation, which the witches ardently believe in. Costume, obviously, is minimal: a white waist cord for first-degree witches, a red cord for second degree, and a magic knife called an othame. So far, not even Kelly has felt prepared to go for the highest degree, the green garter. Among other things, it involves a milder version of what Gardner called the "Great Rite," an act of ritual sexual intercourse. "Nobody in our coven," says Kelly, "has felt ready to take...
...recent years, Dali has tried to give his work a quasiscientific dimension by toying with such themes as Einstein's theory of relativity and the discovery of the DNA spiral. The latest Nobel laureate to experience his attentions is Dr. Dennis Gabor, the inventor of holography. A holograph, made with laser beams, has the property of accurately reproducing an object in three dimensions. "All artists," proclaims Dali, "have been concerned with three-dimensional reality since the time of Velásquez, and in modern times the analytic Cubism of Picasso tried again to capture the three dimensions...
...reliable as the Pill, is also being improved. One version now being tested is not a loop or spiral, but a "T." It is designed to be less easily expelled and less likely to cause cramps than present models. Some women believe that men should take responsibility for birth control. The old-fashioned condom is considered a bother and a distraction by many couples, however, and the male Pill is only a far-off possibility...