Circling the Square

Platonic Solids

Platonic solids/ The five elements.

A platonic solid has equal edges, every face is the same perfect polygon and every point is the same distance from the centre. Known as the five platonic solids, they were recognised in the British isles 2,000 years before Plato. 

The first solid is a tetrahedron, with four vertices and four equilateral triangle, traditionally representing the elements of fire. The second solid is the octahedron, representing air. The cube is the third solid, eight vertices and six square faces, representing Earth. The fourth representing water. 

The last and fifth element is the dodecahedron representing the mysterious fifth element aether. Aether in shorthand means spirit, but has lots of connotations. Philosophers say its an in-between element used to explain natural phenomena, such as gravity and the movement of light. 

Plato

Plato was a philosopher, as well as a mathematician, in classical Greece. Plato considered geometry and number as the most reduced and essential and therefore the ideal, philosophical language. 

Sacred Geometry/The Practice of Geometry

Sacred geometry involves sacred universal patterns used in design of everything in our reality, most often seen in sacred architecture and sacred art. The basic belief is that geometry and mathematical ratios, harmonics and proportion are also found in music, light, cosmology. This value system is seen as widespread even in pre-history, a cultural universal of the human condition. 

It is considered foundational to building sacred structures such as temples, mosques, monuments and churches; sacred spaces such as altars, village greens, holy wells and the creation of religious art and using 'divine' proportions. Alternatively, sacred geometry based arts may be ephemeral (short-lived) such as visualisation, sand painting and medicine wheels. 

Sacred geometry may be understood as a worldview of pattern recognition, a complex system of religious symbols and structures involving space, time and form. According to this view the basic patterns of existence are perceived as sacred. By connecting with these, a believer contemplates the great mysteries, and the great design. By studying the nature of these patterns, forms and relationships and their connections, insight may be gained into the mysteries - the laws of the universe. 

Below some photos I took of sacred places whilst I was in Hong Kong early this month. 

The Practice of Geometry

'what is God? He is length, width, height and depth'

'Geometry' means 'measure of the earth'. The activity of measuring the earth became the basis for a science of natural law as it is embodied in the architectural forms of circle, square and triangle. Geometry is the study of spatial order through the measure and relationships of forms. Geometry deals with pure form, and philosophical.