While waiting for my henna to dry, I thought about the circle, cycles, and all they mean in terms of life (and death) itself

 Why does the symbol of the circle recur in spiritual and religious iconography? Take for example the Medicine Wheel or the Taijitu or the Mandala or the Ouroborus. 

We as people try to categorize time and space so that we may understand our place within it and orient ourselves. However, much like the structuralists of psychology, who studied static structures of consciousness, we mustn't forget that consciousness and existence are dynamic in nature. Like stream of consciousness, life constantly flows from one point to another. Thus, by breaking down these objects of study into static structures, we lose sight of how they function naturally. There is no definite border between Autumn and Winter, nor is there a definite moment when Dawn becomes Night. These phases bleed into one another, and any attempt to divide them and categorize them so that they may be standardized is folly. 

Say the Big Bang occurred, and that all of the universe began at a single point. If everything expanded outwards from that point equally, in every conceivable direction, with the same speed, each point would be at an equal distance from the centermost point. The universe would expand in the shape of a circle, would it not?

Say all of life began with one cell, at one point, then is reproduction not simply a means to bridge the gaps that exist between ourselves? The circle is an ideal notion. Between each point, there is infinite potential for points. The circle is perfect because of this, and can thus only be conceived in the mind or on a cosmic scale. Does life and birth not replicate this perfect ideal? We as a species are constantly expanding our numbers (adding more points into the circle), and then seeking to fill the gaps between these points (the infinite potential for more points, rather, more people). All potential for life existed at one point in space and time, and as it has multiplied, so too has it divided itself. Like the Hindu notion of Brahman. We are droplets of water in the ocean.

Life begets life. Life feeds upon life. There is death in life, and there is life in death. Beginnings and endings are one and the same; they meet at the same point. When drawing a circle, where do you begin?

"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity" - Edvard Munch