Why is the fine structure constant approximately 1/137? The winding number of the proton in the 2a eigenspace of the 600-cell is exactly 137 before the electromagnetic phase closes. The proton winds 137 times through the two-dimensional complex representation of 2I before returning to its starting configuration. α⁻¹ is a winding number — the number of turns required for the self-referential loop to close. This explains why α⁻¹ is an integer to first approximation (it is a count) and why its precise value involves the correction series from the spectral geometry.