whirl, whorl

Whirl or whirl means to spin or turn about; to rotate rapidly--
Hod the pinwheel up to the breeze, and you can watch it whirl.
From here you can see the water whirl when it hits the jetty.
Let's give it a whirl!

Whirl may also mean something that spins or turns rapidly--
The water becomes a whirl when it enters this little cove.
Her life was a whirl of meetings, appointments, and seminars.

Whorl or whorl ( rhymes with whirl ) means a circular pattern or arrangement of parts, as in a flower or a fingerprint--
He wants to cut the seashell in half, so that each whorl is visible.
The largest whorl is different in this fingerprint; it was made by someone else.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"The lights were arranged in a whorl, and when the display began to whirl, my head began to whirl, too."