b'Using Sacred Forms and Divine Proportions Philosophical geometry reenacts the unfolding of each form out of a preceding one. It is a way by which the essential creative mystery is rendered visible. . . . [Tom] Sacred geometry is not a set of rules but rather anHouse. Both give form to two of the most powerful expres- Robert Lawlor, Sacred Geometry insight into the underlying harmony of creation. Using thissions in sacred geometry: the archetypal shape of the vesica perspective in my art is a way of exploring that essentialpiscis and the way thegolden proportion relates the parts unity. My intention is always to create forms that are beau- to the whole. And both examples reveal the philosophicalBut in fact this polar tension of the dyad is the basis of tiful, forms that allow the viewer to experience the energyperspective of a geometry that is very different from the onecreation. The space where the two circles overlap, the vesica, and mystery of the wholeness that pervades everything.we studied in school. is the crucible from which we can construct all symmetrical Ill illustrate using two very different examplesone is atwo- and three-dimensional shapes (examples are shown in sculpture, the other is the observation room in the SpiralSyzygy: A Meditation on the Vesica Piscis the diagrams below). The Latin and Greek roots of the word Syzygy was the first sculpture I made after we were livingsyzygy mean to join or yoke together, and the vesica joins in the Spiral House. It takes the shape of the vesica pis- the opposites of the two separate circles from which it was cis, a geometric construction created when you draw twocreated and from that brings forth new form. identical circles so that they overlap at their centers. TheThe symbolism goes deeper still. Beyond the creation almond-shaped form shared by both circles is the vesica.of material form, the vesica piscis also provides insight The vesica is called the womb of creation, not onlyinto the nature of consciousness. The German Buddhist because it obviously suggests the portal through which wescholar Lama Anagarika Govinda explains it this way: humans are born, but also because all known geometricThe first circle represents universal consciousness and theour individual identity toward the universal, it becomes a polygons can be drawn from its points. This explains sorealm of archetypes; the second circle represents empiricalsource of the highest knowledge and liberation, integrating much about the nature of sacred geometry that it is worthconsciousness and the realm that we experience throughthe individual with the whole. discussing in some detail. our five senses. The area of the overlap, the vesica, he callsAll this from the overlap of two identical circles. This Fundamental to sacred geometry is the idea thatmanas, the balancing consciousness. The manas has no char- is how geometry expresses not only the laws governing geometry reenacts the creation of the cosmos: from theacteristics of its own, but is rather a directional energy. Iflife, but also the awakening of consciousness. This is how undifferentiated one source comes the multitude of thethe manas moves us from the universal to the individual, itgeometry is sacred. Ubiquitous in85Culture and Sciencemany. When we draw a circle using the geometers compass,binds us to the limitations of our senses; if it moves us fromThe vesica piscis (Latin meaning we start with a central, dimensionless point and then extend12 bladder of a fish) is found in the sacred art and architecture that point outward to create a line (the radius), aroundof cultures throughout time: which we swing a circumference made of infinite points.10 the Egyptian Eye of Horus, the Buddhas Eye, the floor plan of In constructing the vesica, the first circle drawnChartres Cathedral, the fish sym-8 bol of the early Christians, and represents unity in a way that is slightly different from the6 (above right) as a frame around unity of the original point: complete, unbroken, perfect,images of Jesus and Mary. One of the most striking expressions the circle is everywhere the same, without beginning or end.The Womb of Creation5 comes not from art, but from The second circle is drawn by placing the compass point onThe drawing above left shows a vesica piscis, created by overlapping4 deep in the cosmos. When Na-two identical circles at their centers. The triangles (above right) are3 tional Geographic published an the circumference of the first. Like a shadow, the seconddrawn by lines connecting the two centers and each center to theimage of the Hourglass Nebulae circle is projected from the body of the original. Withtop and bottom of the vesica. Similarly, all regular polygons (shapes(above left), the editors com-with all sides equal and all angles equal) can be generated from themented: Astronomers looked two circles, we have a dyad, symbolizing the duality thatvesica, as shown in this diagram by Keith Critchlow (right); the num- 8,000 light-years into the cosmos separates you and me, male and female, life and death, andbers in the diagram indicate the number of sides of each polygon.with the Hubble Space Tele-This is how philosophical geometry reenacts the creation, from thescope, and it seemed that the all the other polarities that we perceive as being opposites. One to the Many. eye of God was staring back.'