Thanks… It’s actually incredibly simple… despite the following wall of text, ha…
I have a mountain of books on Sacred Geometry and it’s a convoluted mess, which leads to a lot of confusion. A recent example of this lack of understanding can be found in a video by Robert Sepehr. He does great work on all sorts of mysterious topics and recently made a few videos about Sacred Geometry. In the latest, he states that the Vesica Piscis contains the basis of the Golden Ratio and goes on with this assertion, which is fundamentally incorrect. I wrote a long comment explaining why this is wrong in an effort to provide better information, going into the history of this particular symbol, thinking he would appreciate it as an anthropologist in the search for truth. Apparently, he took my helpfulness as an insult and told me to look up the word “basis” in the dictionary, then deleted my comment. He also linked to a video explaining he is right. Except that the video was also wrong, which I proved as well. I didn’t hear back from that one. And his video is still out there with tens of thousands of views. The point is, people are generally confused because the information provided is often outright false, even from the experts (mistakes can also be found in books from people like Robert Lawlor).
Another, more general example is the Flower of Life. Of course, it is highly relevant. But it is often said that it is the basis of Sacred Geometry… and even everything in the universe. This is also a distortion. Sure, it makes pretty pictures. The vast majority of books on the topic are gorgeous. Some are even highly informative, such as The Secrets of Ancient Geometry and its use, by Tons Brunés, which I’m not dismissing at all. But really, all it is, is one thing… everything derives from the circle.
The Pentagram, Yin and Yang, Vesica Pisces, Seed of Life, Flower of Life, Tree of Life, Star of David, Dharma Wheel, Medicine Wheel (Sacred Hoop), Merkabah, Metatron’s Cube, New Jerusalem Diagram, and Shri Yantra are well-known examples of Sacred Geometry. But there are an infinite number of equally beautiful symbols that can be generated by understanding a simple concept. That is, dividing a circle equally and connecting its points, continuously. That’s it. That’s all you need to know. From this idea you can study geometry independently for years… which I did. Pure geometry… not occult symbolism given meaning by people.
That’s not to say there isn’t much to learn from history. Of course there is, and it is quite interesting.
Starting with a dot and expanding to a circle, creating the Circumpunct, then dividing equally and connecting these new points we create the symbols of ancient religion and philosophy. The Pythagoreans used the circled dot to represent the first metaphysical being, the Monad (or The Absolute) and in Neoplatonism the universe emanated from this (The One), also named Bindu, “the sacred symbol of the cosmos in its unmanifested state”. This is the “true” basis for Sacred Geometry (still my opinion, but I make a strong argument, I think).
Again, everything derives from the circle. Everything is a Mandala (the ancient Sanskrit word synonymous with ‘circle’), which the Tibetan Buddhists define as "an integrated structure organized around a unifying center. This is the “true” Sacred Geometry. Think of everything from an atom all the way to a whole galaxy (and even the universe, I believe). Each structure is a torus. The torus (or toroid) is the geometry of magnetism, the pattern created by electromagnetism, the field of bioelectromagnetics. According to Todd R. Deviney, in Expansion for Ascending Consciousness: Understanding the Universe, Consciousness, and Ascension, this is also what consciousness looks like, which you can see on the HeartMath Institute’s website.
When you divide a circle equally and connect its points you find the mathematical constants, or ratios (ir-ratio-nal numbers), found in nature and art. Two creates pi (circle and symmetry). Three creates Theodorus’ constant, the square root of 3 (triangle). Four creates Pythagoras’s constant, the square root of 2 (square). And five creates the Golden Ratio (pentagon and pentagram). You can continue, but it’s mostly repetition, such as 6 being an expansion of 3 (hexagram or Star of David, Seed of Life, etc.) for example, eventually leading to the Flower of Life. These are all patterns that can be drawn with a square (or straight-edge) and compass, which together is the symbol of the Freemasons (once occult symbolism, which was necessary because incredibly this sort of knowledge could get you killed).
There is a reason mathematicians say all roads lead to pi and that trigonometry is the worst named topic in mathematics. Because everything derives from the circle (as a two-dimensional drawing, obviously; of course reality is multi-dimensional and this is represented by 2D fractals, spirals, tori, etc.). Simply divide it equally and connect. As it turns out (pun intended), it’s possible to draw the resulting geometry with a single line starting and ending at the same point. From this concept I developed Mandala String Art, a book which teaches the language of “Sacred” Geometry in a clear way without all the hidden meaning for people of all ages and cultures. Most of us are aware of, and can appreciate, interlocking circles (Flower of Life). But few know that you can do similar things with triangles, squares, and all regular polygons. I would like to show the world how, by creating art.
