It may be important to note that in the VM the dots on the spindles are not very precise. They appear to be less important than the actual object and the way it is held.
What struck me about the image I posted was that it combines all the elements required. It's the first image I see of a spindle with cosmic markings on it. And it has the right shape, and the whorl even appears to have some kind of indentations/serrations. And like R.Sale noted, the proximity of a cosmic boundary. It's just way too much to be a coincidence.
The pair in the VM likely isn't exactly reflecting Platonic theory either, though the idea of the cosmic spindle may have originated from Plato. In Plato, there is one spindle which turns, symbolizing the rotation of the heavens. But in the VM there are two, held like a distaff-spindle pair. Hence I believe this is a somewhat adapted form of the Platonic thought, where a distaff/spindle is placed at each pole. The dots seem to merely mark that the spindle has to be read in a cosmic sense, as Linda noted earlier in this thread.
However, it seems certain that the VM illustrator had access to this type of illustration. So to me it seems like a matter of finding a common ancestor, which may well be impossible.
What struck me about the image I posted was that it combines all the elements required. It's the first image I see of a spindle with cosmic markings on it. And it has the right shape, and the whorl even appears to have some kind of indentations/serrations. And like R.Sale noted, the proximity of a cosmic boundary. It's just way too much to be a coincidence.
The pair in the VM likely isn't exactly reflecting Platonic theory either, though the idea of the cosmic spindle may have originated from Plato. In Plato, there is one spindle which turns, symbolizing the rotation of the heavens. But in the VM there are two, held like a distaff-spindle pair. Hence I believe this is a somewhat adapted form of the Platonic thought, where a distaff/spindle is placed at each pole. The dots seem to merely mark that the spindle has to be read in a cosmic sense, as Linda noted earlier in this thread.
However, it seems certain that the VM illustrator had access to this type of illustration. So to me it seems like a matter of finding a common ancestor, which may well be impossible.