Selected aspects of traditional knowledge and modern scientific knowledge are discussed to see how the different approaches might converge in their understandings and explanations of phenomena. Following an outline of the two approaches, traditional ideas about the double spiral motif (takarangi) are related to homeokinetics and spiral dynamics which are theories from contemporary physics. Several parallels are identified and it is concluded that there is considerable commonality between the two knowledge traditions as exemplified by the specific examples presented herein.