![]() ![]() The quality of workmanship is breathtaking. This beautiful example is a 16th-century pierced sandstone screen from India. The square is another regular tessellating shape, which is part of Islamic pattern making. Moving from three sides to four sides we have the square, symbol of the earth, with its four corners of North, East, South and West, four seasons, four elements, four states of matter. So far we have looked at the circle, a universal symbol of God, and the equilateral triangle as a Christian symbol of the Trinity. Six of equal diameter will ALWAYS fit perfectly around the circumference of the seventh. The six around one symbol can be easily illustrated by the use of seven wine glasses, or tennis balls, or any other circular items. This is a powerful symbol of creation the six days that God created being the outside circles, the inside one representing the sabbath or rest day. Note also the rule of ‘six around one’ – a central circle around which six circles are found. ![]() ![]() This image of Islamic geometry shows the tessellation of an equilateral triangle into a more complex form. There were three temptations in the desert, Christ’s first miracle at Cana happened ‘on the third day’, as did the resurrection. Three as a significant number is found throughout both Old and New Testaments – the Ark of the Covenant contained three sacred objects (a gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff, the stone tablets of the covenant). Equilateral triangles tesselate and also often form the basis in Islamic geometric designs, which can be seen in the next image. Many early Christian and byzantine images of Christ include the mandorla, a halo that encloses his entire body, though it is significant that in this example Christ’s hand breaches the mandorla to break into the world.īy joining up the points of intersection, equilateral triangles are formed, a symbol of Trinity, with its three identical sides and angles. Draw a second circle to find the lozenge known in Latin as a vesica piscis (“bladder of a fish”), in Italian mandorla (“almond”). To begin the journey into geometry, draw a line and start a new circle by placing the compass point at the intersection X. So we start with that circle, a universal symbol in so many cultures and faiths of God, Infinity, Unity and Wholeness. The persimmon shows a beautiful eight-pointed star centred around a circle. Patterns of repetition can be seen in flowers, the fractal design of a roman cauliflower, the unfurling of a fern in spring, even the way a piece of fruit rots, they all begin with patterns in a circle. ‘Geometric’ means ‘earth measure’ and this is where humanity’s connection with geometry starts. In this image tribesmen are scribing a circle in the dust using an upright stick and a horizontal stick, which as it’s drawn around the base of the upright scribes a circle on the ground. Humanity didn’t discover geometry, we uncovered it. ![]() But the geometry we’re concerned with tonight deepens our understanding of a God whose design of our universe is suffused with underlying, exquisite rhythms and proportions. We’ll look at the basis of geometric design, how it was employed in Christian tradition and conclude with examples of contemporary practice.īut what is meant by sacred geometry? Geometry is used in so many creative areas, in architecture, video games, product design, even credit cards have been designed around a geometric ideal. This blog (first presented as a lecture at Sarum College, Salisbury, England) unravels aspects of sacred geometry and how it has inspired art and architecture for millennia. ![]()
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