THE DESIGN OF SACRED SPACE
By Robert Gulick
An Article for publication in CORONA, Montana State University, 1981
“Eastern art has a mathematical basis. It is a script with an inner and outer content. In Persia there is a room in a monastery, which makes one weep owing to mathematical combinations of different parts of its architecture. Real art is from knowledge not talent”.
Sacred space is fundamentally an environment that connects one to that dimension of being, the unified field, where all things…all life are connected, where all things are One. The basis of such environment is geometrically ordered design, the universal archetypal patterns of creational formation. These are the geometries of mind which are the expression of that fundamental unity found throughout nature. Patterns in nature express the formative principles of creation: the activity of intelligence. Such are the “patterns that connect”. Reality is an effect of geometry…a Sacred Geometry.
There is an Ancient Wisdom that embraced realities both seen and transcendent. It understood and applied the principles underlying the fundamental unity of nature to the art of building, creating a Sacred Architecture. What echo’s in old stones and mazes, sings still in myth and the mystical teachings of the worlds great traditions is a system of knowledge that crafted First Principles into matter. Through a Canon of number and proportion, geometry and measure the laws of form which relate mind and matter were encoded into the whole fabric of culture. Art and ritual, language and music, social and physical structure, all that was man-made, landscapes, cities and buildings became a Temple, a reflection of universal order and harmony…a Microcosm. Environment was a formative field, a harmonic envelope, resonating with the forces of nature and conditioning man to higher, more integrated states of being. Within this sacred ecology the mind was expanded, the emotions balanced and the body healed and made whole.
Modern science is again rediscovering this ancient wisdom. From the ordered structures and processes of nature to fields of unified force and bio-energetic life fields, physics and biology are geometry. Reality is essentially a multi-dimensional structure of energy manifesting as vibrational pattern. Just as all form is but the folding of one sine wave, the Fourier transform, the multiplicity and diversity of reality are but the expression of One principle in various forms and densities through ascending and descending orders of frequency. Manifestation is the ordered expression of energy in form governed by what the ancients knew as Universal Law and Harmonics. One provides the energetics of light, color and sound, the other the pattern-equations that order the activity and transformation of energy.
There is a relationship between energy and matter, as there is between the mind and body, called form. Every state of being from an atom, flower man, and planet to a thought, feeling, dream or even a dimension of existence occupies a characteristic plane of vibrational pattern. The interaction of energy in substance creates form through resonating field patterns. “As above, so below”, the cosmos is mirrored holographically at every level of creation. Images spring from an illumination of an interference pattern in which every part contains whole. Consciousness and emotion, like light and sound, are energy and essentially vibrational in nature. As such thought and feeling have corresponding form. In a reality understood as frequency, the activity of light, where all is form, there is no more separation between wood and water or Spirit and matter, than there is between the colors of the rainbow.. The dimensions of consciousness and being exist in octaves of vibrational energy, separated by frequency barriers whose codes are accessed by geometrical keys. Attunement or connection to any state of being, any dimension is achieved simply through a sympathetic resonance to its corresponding pattern. This is one of the most important functions of sacred space: to resonate consciousness into a higher altered state of mind, focused and receptive to spiritual vibration.
Sacred space can be natural occurring places in the landscape or man-made such as the Temple. Natural sacred spaces are places where different ecologies are juxtaposed as at shorelines, rock formations, places where the earth energy grids converge or places of such awesome grandeur as to cause one to reconnect to that vast creative intelligence beyond the self. The temple had several functions and a number of principles and aspects that contributed to the effect s sacred space. The functions include:
1. To encode/transmit the ancient wisdom or teaching; to map the path of enlightenment.*
2. To provide a place for healing, initiation and expansion of consciousness.
3. To be a portal to other dimensions, times inner earth and the stars.
4. To invite the presence of divine spirit or Deity.
5. To be a focus for spiritual activity and the spiritual community.
6. To promote personal and planetary transformation.
7. To conduct, focus and transform subtle earth and cosmic energies.
*Note: According to tradition the teaching is given either from the Mountain (Mt Meru, Sermon on the Mount) or the Tree (scripture or cross), for which the temple is a metaphor.
The realization of these functions depends on the application of cosmic law based on the Numbers: The Law of One: Spirit-source and emanation of all things, 2. Attraction: Duality and Fusion, 3. Manifestation: Form, 4. Materialization: Body/Volume, 5. Life: Spirit in Matter, 6. Cosmos Arena of Experience, 7. Growth: Evolution, 8. Gate/Experience, 9. Nirvana and 10. Completion. These laws are enhanced with the operation of certain principles:
• Correspondence: As Above, So Below”
• Resonance: Sympathetic Vibration or Attunement
• Reciprocity: Mutual Energy Exchange and Connection
• Symmetry: Harmony and Balance; creation is the breaking of symmetry.
• Proportion: Relationship and scale
The Temple then is a Sacred Architecture both a field of potent psychic energy conditioning an attunement to expanded states of awareness and a vessel-container…a vehicle for the full expression of the Self in body/form. Sacred being the connection to the Divine and Archi-tec-ture the crafting of first principles in matter. In ancient India this craft was known as Silpa Shastra, the knowledge of the creating of the divine image. According to the #4 Vastusutra Upanishad: Knowledge of art is called “silpas” and was considered divine knowledge leading to liberation. This is the essence of art. It was considered a practice or spiritual path and he who mastered this attained to the Essence. If the creation of “real art” (one that connects) results from knowledge not intuition then the intention here is to formulate the design principles of sacred space in a modern context. There are several criteria or aspects of sacred space by which one may understand its nature, function and design. These are:
• Macrocosm: Model of multi-dimensional or vertical reality, reflecting cosmological archetype of the universe both in process and structure of creation. Maps the spiritual path enlightenment…the journey of the soul. Since the universe is the body of the Creator, the temple is also, by reciprocity, the “image and similitude “ of the Divine. The altar functioned as a seed form the center of outer form like a cell, or fruit that resonated with the exterior envelop, generating a vibrational environment within it.
• Nexus- Sacred Geometry, Measure and Number: In these three are the fundamental codes of the structure of the universe and the relationship between spirit and matter. They also create stargates or portals to higher dimensions and star systems. Using harmonics measures based on the dimensions of the planet, that is earth commensurate measures, related man to the planet.
• Energy Environment: The temple acts as a energy field, focalizer and storage system, attracting, conducting and accumulating cosmic and telluric subtle energies for healing and consciousness expansion. Mind and body conditioning patterns were created by sacred geometries and form of the human energy body that made the temple like a spiritual antenna. Earth energies were made available by the temple’s placement and orientation on the planetary grid system, vortexes, dragon currents and leys. By virtue of the stone materials* of which the temple was constructed it also acted as a energy battery or capacitor to regulate the energy system of the planet in all probability to mediate the effects of catastrophic earth changes. This ancient science was known as geomancy.
• Anthropocosm: The temple is the body of perfected man as the microcosm of the universe, created in the image of the divine Creator. It has a system of chakras (subtle energy centers) and sheaths of the aura of the human subtle energy body, which are activated in sequence as one moves around and through the temple.
• Ceremony: The interaction of man with the temple is called ritual or liturgy which reflected the form spatialized sequential of temporal experience leading to expanded awareness, mapping path of return.
*Note Regarding Materials: Natural stone, particularly those made of crystalline minerals, holds and transmits subtle energy better than say brick masonry, hardwoods better than softwood, Steel and reinforced concrete or masonry structures created a Faraday Cage which excludes negatively charged ions necessary for a healthy and healing environment.
There are a number of ancient sacred structures such as the Great Pyramid of Egypt were actually scale models of the earth, incorporating its measure to create an earth commensurate or harmonic environment. Sacred measures were used in the design such as the geophysical foot calculated as 1/100 x the length of one second of a degree of latitude measured at its position on the planet, e.g. the Greek Parthenon. There was also a cubit defined as 1/1000 x the distance the surface of the planet rotated in one second of time. Many temples were also calendars used to calculate solstices, equinoxes and eclipses.
As science validates the ancient wisdom…as it rediscovers these principles of Universal Law and Harmonics and the multi-dimensional nature of reality, as it seeks to understand original cause, a new synthesis is emerging. It becomes a sacred science from which principles of design may be developed and objectively applied in a modern context to literally re-design culture. In this we create transformative environment…environment that resonates us to perfect states of health, awareness and peace. In this architectural alchemy, we are related to our planet, connected to our common humanity and united with the source of our being and vitality. In this is a framework to facilitate the conscious attunement of humanity to the shifting patterns of energy, the grids of the planet in the process of evolution and renewal is facilitated. Through these inter-dimensional gateways man may take an evolutionary leap in global consciousness, taking his initiations and truly becoming co-creator in matter and steward of the planet.
The theory and practice of this sacred science develops from the synthesis of the traditions of Sacred Geometry and Geomancy with the new theories of consciousness and reality. Ultimately, however, our knowledge must become a wisdom for the temple is more than edifice, it is an architecture of the heart and results of a process of connecting with the sacred in the self and in all life. Sacred Architecture is both a field of potent psychic energy conditioning an attunement to expanded states of awareness and it is a vessel…a vehicle for the experience of self in matter. To create the temple, one must first become the Temple. Just as healing the planet begins with healing the self, one must contact the sacred in nature and oneself to manifest it outwardly into the fabric of the man-made world. In this sense Sacred Architecture is a spiritual path…a way…a Tao, essentially applied metaphysics.
Ultimately the temple of the Divine One, the true sacred space, is emptiness itself. Let all else go. Enter in.
“To make this perishable body the abode of the Imperishable… the Temple of the Mind–
Just as the flower makes its impermanent form the abode of timeless beauty–
This is the task of man.” Lama Govinda
The Project
The aspects of sacred space are developed in the context of a special project to design a Chapel for The Christian Community of Colorado in the University Park area of Denver to embody the principles of sacred space. The design evolved in stages as does the geometry, a form unfolding from the process itself. At first a simple sanctuary for 72 people expanded to eventually include classroom, community and support facilities. Original concepts for the sanctuary, which derive from the work of Rudolph Steiner, were formulated by German architect Otto Jaeger to create a space in which both body and mind could be brought into harmonious perfection through alignment with the composition of architectural elements, color and sound pattern. While there are examples of this in ancient temples and nature there are few rules to follow. The design followed from an intuitive process of sensitive alignment to the intention by both architect and client. Only later, after construction and some changes, did the full symbolic significance of the design as an embodiment of sacred space become apparent.
Geometrical patterns, particularly the golden proportion, abound in nature, mirroring universal structures in spirals and lattices. In molecules and crystals, flowers and diatoms, hurricanes and galaxies, as it is in the plan of the temple, the unifying principle is sacred geometry.
The design of the Chapel is generated by a unified system of geometry which is projected into surface and volume from primary point, line and circle using geometry, proportion number and commensurate measure to relate man to both heaven and earth. The resulting form is thus singularly attuned to the creative frequencies corresponding to the particular geometries from which it springs assuring that all its parts are harmoniously integrated into the whole.
First the seed point is fixed, located on the earth where a positive vortex of energy emerges. The energies of the site are plotted, grids, veins and spirals and related to the design. The main axis is then extended in cardinal directions, east and west, consistent within telluric current. A circle is cast with specific dimension in which man and earth are related in proportion by number and measure commensurate to both.
From this primal pattern of Unity the pentagonal geometry of the sanctuary unfolds in a design of alternating 5-pointed stars. This is the pattern of the Anthropos, the perfected man, in the cyclic process of becoming. It projects through a series of circles, symbolizing the descent of spirit into soul and matter into the body to unfold in the hexagon of the classroom, the geometry of the universe, the arena of life’s lessons. This is the phenomenal world of earth’s experience through which evolving man may finally know himself as One in Spirit. It is anchored by a puppet theater, a square in the circle stage of illusion, acting as the pole lower self in a harmonic field balanced at the opposite end by the altar. Here the Self is enlightened achieving the ultimate reunion with creative Source in the sacrifice of illusion and emerging fully conscious from the chrysalis of sacred space.
The sanctuary and classroom are connected by support facilities: foyer, galley, vestry and restrooms above a basement community room that all emerge from a net of woven geometries at the intersection of two spheres or worlds. This area is like the Soul connecting spirit and matter, providing access and communication to each. The whole becomes the pattern of the DNA molecule, the geometrical code of life. The plan is drawn out of the resulting net of symbolic form according to the ancient traditions, and spun creating a 3-dimensional crystalline mandala. A pyscho-active field is thus created that reflects both the pattern of the cosmos, the Macrocosm and the body and chakra system of man, the Microcosm.
Floor Plan
The mandala pattern that underlie the plan of the Chapel abound in nature re-flecting universal structures in spirals, lattices and geometry.
The Macrocosm
The Temple is a Macrocosm, a model of the cosmos as structure, as process and as a relationship of creative principles-universal law in action. It is a reflection of Universal order and harmony…of diversity organized in Unity. It proceeds as a pattern of number and geometry. In its design both the structure and evolution of reality and the path to enlightenment are experienced directly. It is a hologram in which each part is related to the whole and the pattern of the whole is reflected in even the smallest part. Within its pattern dualities are balanced…male and female, yin and yang, good and evil expansion and contraction, mind and feeling, all dancing in the rhythm of cosmic cycles. In this balance a gateway to higher dimension is opened.
The ancient temples were based on the cosmological diagrams of the ancient geometers. Mandalas, yantras, medicine wheels and magic squares, these were essentially schemes of number, relationships of principles within a geometrical field. “Numbers represent creative principles-they are the source of form and energy” (Theon of Smyrana). This reflected the Pythagorean idea that number preceded manifestation. The Temple therefore reflects the divine mathematical thought of creation and activates a corresponding pattern in the minds of those who experience its vibration causing an alignment to the totality which the Temple represented.
Exterior Elevation
The crystalline form of the Chapel is set like a jewel against the pyramids of Egypt, which like Stonehenge, where models of galactic activity and correlation…cosmic calendars. It sets in the planetary grid like a crystal in an electromagnetic radio receiver attuning the various dimensions of the planet. In the measure of the cycles of heaven and earth the rhythm of the life of the ancients was harmonized to the pulse of the universe and cosmic consciousness.
The Temple then is archetypal pattern projected into volume and time. It is 3-dimensional mandala which one could enter into through meditation and ritual mentally and emotionally, as well as physically. The power of symbol embodied in sacred space as the objectification of mind itself evoked a state of consciousness in which the knower and the known were one and thus an intuitive cognition of knowledge and identification with Higher Intelligence. Awareness of totality occurs in the identification with the symbol which exists in unity with that which is symbolized. As mandala/symbol sacred space contains power…it focuses mind. It amplifies the energy of thought creating an increasingly potent psychic environment that connects, a sacred space…Temenos. The Temple is modeled on the structure of the Universe, one stream of manifestation or timeline emanating from the One Creator…thus one journey of the Soul…the Path of Return
Sacred Geometry
Sacred environment connects body to Spirit…world to world. In the macrocosm-mandala of sacred space the dimensions or planes of consciousness, are represented by interwoven volume, surface and line, configuration within configuration, informed by color and patterned in number, geometry and proportion…all experienced in light, sound and touch. Contact between realities is made in terms of energy states requiring a change in the form and amplitude (power) of vibration. This connection of one world to another, of spirit to matter is the function of nexus, of Soul. This is the principle of the Christ which, as perfect being, androgyny, embodies both masculine and feminine aspects 1) gateway-womb, the vehicle-chrysalis for re-birth in consciousness and 2) mediation-proportion-“means” of connection-relationship
The Temple is the embodiment of this relationship. It is that which relates macrocosm to microcosm…the principle of mediation between heaven and earth. It is the lens or gateway… through which Spirit projects into matter…the womb, the chrysalis, the alchemical Philosopher’s Stone that catalyzes a sacred metamorphosis. Its design is created through geometry, number and proportion.
Sacred Geometry as archetypal pattern reconciles material (rational) values with Spiritual (irrational) values. It reveals the pattern and process of natural law: Correspondence, Resonance, Karma, Attraction and Synthesis, the creative principles governing the configuration of energy and consciousness into dense manifestation.
Number, being both quality and quantity, renders meaning and dimension to the pattern. Each is a complementary aspect of the whole representing both structure and process of creation. As principle number generates pattern corresponding to the ordering function of Law. As measure number defines the limits of energy/harmonics in the context of dimensional density. Cubits and feet, commensurate to both man and earth, relate one to the other.
Proportion applied in the temple as Sacred Canon, is the function of relating essential form to diversity, giving scale to the pattern and harmonic resonance to the field. It expands fundamental shape into multiplicity providing the key to understanding the mystery of diversity of the universe. The Golden Ratio of the Fibonacci series defines the growth pattern of many forms in nature and is the fundamental geometry of the Great Pyramid, relating its base horizontal plane of matter to the vertical plane of spirit.
Note: There is a flaw in the design of this building fortunately discovered before it was built. Sacred space is always entered through the square or golden rectangle representing perfection in physical reality. This requirement was fulfilled by the golden rectangle dimensions of the entry doors.
The Temple is designed according to universal laws. “If everything about the Temple is perfect then there will be perfection in Heaven as well.” The Mayamata
End Elevations
The transfiguration of man through interpenetrating geometries of the temple are reflected in the relationship of 3-dimensional forms of the classroom and the sanctuary, one expanding into the other. Each becomes crystal volume, partly as vertical projection directly from the plan and partly through a 90º rotation or a phase shift of the pattern along several axes. The reality of the building is quite literally a movement of pattern in space and time.
Energy Field
Sacred environment is a resonating field pattern of energies. Temple acts as an antenna, a receptor or wave guide, to assimilate, combine store and re-transmit subtle natural energies in many frequency bands due to its special configuration of geometries, proportions and measures. As the eye and ear are formed to sense light and sound, so the Temple is designed to resonate to certain energies. The application of the secret knowledge of the energies of the earth and body is known as geomancy, a practice in which mans activities and structures where placed in balance with grid, vortex and field patterns harmonizing him with the forces of nature. Ancient temples all over the globe were aligned with these patterns of ley and dragon currents and designed to accumulate and transform these energies for healing of both planet and body.
The temple then is the Grail.. the sacred vessel in which a mystical energy potion induced a transmutation of matter into spirit. Like the Grail of legend it is the receptor and equilibriator of cosmic and terrestrial forces, which within its form, were fused into a radiant elixir and re-emitted for the vitalization of the land and life.
The resonant environment is generated from the harmonic projection of a seed form or code. As the cell is a projection of the DNA into membrane so the temple is a harmonic projection of the altar form. Their interaction creates a harmonic envelope, an energy field wave pattern that maintains a communication to all parts much as all life is vitalized within the energy grids of the planet. In this aspect the temple has an important function in the body of the planet, acting as a node in a circuit to assist the flow of energies to, from and within the grids of both man and the planet. The knowledge of the subtle energies of the planet have been applied in design of sacred places in the practice of geomancy. In this the orientation and placement within these grids are an important component in the functioning of the temple as energy field.
The section through the building shows the building construction and the projection of the plan into complementary geometries of the roof and foundations. Pyramidal piers support floor beams at main intersection points of plan geometry in the sanctuary and classroom thereby reinforcing the energies at nodes directly below the apices of the roof. The energy field generated in geometry is enhanced in the type of structural systems and materials selected for their natural resonances for each part of the building. The timber framing varies according to the properties and functions of each space. In the sanctuary it is a triangulated stressed skin panel system forming a lattice of triangles which contrast to the square-based post and beam structure of the classroom. Careful attention was even paid to the layout of electrical and mechanical distribution systems to compliment the field patterns of the spaces. All building systems, including framing, minimize the use of ferrous metals which would disrupt natural electromagnetic fields and cause an unnatural, and therefore, unhealthy positively charged ion atmosphere.
The Anthropocosm with Chakras
Man is the Microcosm… the measure of all things. The Human being embodies the cosmos and carries within its energetics the codes for the universe. Man is the link mediating between matter and Spirit. He is Spirit in matter. In another light humanity is matter becoming self conscious and evolving the perfect expression of spirit in physical form, the vehicle for the Creator to experience creation. Man is thus the “summarizing product of evolution and the original seed potential out of which the universe is germinated” (R. Lawlor). Consciousness interacts with substance through archetypal form to create the body of man on one level as it does a Universe on another. Both are vehicles for the experience of an indwelling being. As the universe is the body of God, so the human body is the vessel of the perfect, divine being…the Anthropos. Temple is the abode and therefore the Body, of the Divine.
“Man Know Thyself” the Oracle of Delphi instructs, for in this one acquires the wisdom of the universe. Every living function, every process, organ and limb, is the symbol of an organically realized cosmic function. All divine functions are represented in the functions, parts and processes of the human body. The body is a temple, a pattern that synergizes the parts into the whole, cells into organisms and individuals into community…relating all differences and identities into a living Unity.
The universe is represented in the body in its proportions, patterns and measures. Idealized in the Cosmic man these become the basis of a Sacred Canon, which is applied to the creation of art and music and is the basis for the plan of the great cathedrals and the temples of ancient Egypt and India. The design of sacred environment incorporates the pattern of perfected being in which the parts and chakras of the body are related to the whole as is the physical body to the dimensions of emotion, mind and spirit.
Plan with Chakras
The three circles unfolding in progression in the Chapel plan correspond to the bodies of incarnating man. the mental, emotional and physical sheaths descend in order from world of spirit through soul into matter. The projection of the human form over the floor plan reveals a geometry relating to the meridians of the body’s energy system with the chakras, vortices of energy in the subtle etheric body, coinciding with key intersections of the pattern. Structure rises at these points to support the 3-dimensional volume of the space and piers anchor the foundations into earth just as the centers within the etheric body support and vitalize the physical body from multiple levels of energy. The locations of these points correspond to actual functions symbolized within the building. The Polarity and Root Chakras, centers respectively of creativity and the life force, lie in the classroom corresponding to the lower world or body. In the connecting concourse the Solar Plexus and Heart centers link the higher and lower aspect of the self; one at the main entrance to the building and classroom, the other at the gateway to the sanctuary. Here symbolically in the upper world are found the higher centers: the Throat and 3rd-Eye Chakras at the spring points for the geometry informing and communicating with all parts of the plan and the Crown at the altar, where in the sacrifice of personality, release from the body is achieved.
Ceremony/Ritual
Temple embodies the patterns of cosmic process reflected in ritual and ceremony. Ritual is the expression of geometry in both time and space. The experience of sacred space as a sequence of events and forms, evokes an attunement to the divine drama and thus a spiritual integration. The expansion of consciousness is an attunement of the mind in coherent thought through the enactment of ceremony or ritual within an environment whose pattern is a 3-dimensionalized form of that process. Contacting a sequence of geometries within sacred environment is like a meditation upon a sacred mandala. Combined with sounds or chants in the physical activity of moving or dance, which enacts the process of creation and evolution, an integration of the Self with the higher levels of being was effected. As the geometer circles the square so the activity in sacred space leads to a spiritual awakening.
Ceremony is an enactment of the process of creation, ritualized into form and embodied in a pattern of movement in time and space. Known variously as sacrament and liturgy, procession and pilgrimage, communion and initiation, the activity in sacred environment could open the chakras and balance the subtle energies of the body. Art and music, celebration and dance, even the daily acts of living and loving performed with intent are consciousness conditioning patterns. When ceremony enacts the process of creation or evolution, however, the reintegration of the body with the divine self, a yoga, is achieved.
Both in physical and social structure, the temple embodied the pattern of the calendars. These were patterns of cosmological activity that ordered the activity and celebration of both individual and group, thus maintaining a social matrix and aligning culture to the cyclic appearance cosmic events and energies. In the context of the temple ceremony generates a community thought-form, uniting the vibrational patterns of the individual with the group. In the process it stimulated an evolutionary advancement seen as increasingly complex but harmonious organization of individuals.
The temple then reflects ceremony in dimensional form. It is a stage giving spatial definition and reinforcement to activity and mapping the sequence of movement in ascending states on a path to self-realization
Traditionally the ritual began with a circumambulation around the temple, through its streets and gardens, as a reflection of moving through experience in the world, a recapitulation of life. This brought the seeker to the main gate or portal through which a shift in consciousness was effected by its geometry separating secular from sacred space. One then stepped upon a new, sacred path into the temple, through its architecture, replicating the “Journey of the Soul”. This is the “path of return” brings one to the central sacred space, the altar or shrine, where one is initiated into higher consciousness or enlightenment. In the Temple in the House, Anthony Lawlor calls this sequence the “Gate, the Path and the Lotus Seat”. In effect the entire temple becomes the portal into higher dimension.
Form of the Ceremony
Each tradition symbolizes the creative process of evolution in its own unique patterns. Mandala, spiraling mazes, yantras, medicine wheels, Pythagorean tetractys, all are seed forms for the Temple giving order to a sequence of mind expanding experience. Here the Sefirotic Tree of Life of the Kabbalah is superimposed on the plan of the Chapel, demonstrating the coincidence of the underlying geometries. The pattern of the ten Sefiroth, the divine creative emanations, proceeds from the same generative circles as does the form of the building. On one level these correspond to the Four Worlds, each having an extended tree within. Descending form the formless world of Emanation, to Creation, Formation and Action, each bringing forth the next in order marking a zig-zag lightning “path of power” through the creative principles informing manifestation. On another level the circles represent the revelation of spirit informing the various vehicles of the experience of consciousness: monad, soul and body, united in one perfect being.
“To enter a temple constructed wholly of invariable geometric proportion is to enter an abode of eternal truth.” Robert Lawlor
Symbolism in the Geometrical Progression
The process of the sacred geometry can be expressed in seven stanzas or sutras.
From the point of emanation, Bindu, where creative energy in spirals emerge, extend the axis of symmetry, a polarity aligned East and West and cast the first circle. Make the radius ten, twice five, the number of the Man Divine, measured in earth commensurate feet. Man in proportion to the planet thus relate, a conscious cell in the body of the Logos.
Project the diameter into pentagon with sides of twenty, five times four, the numbers of man in matter incarnate. In the sanctuary unfold the five-petalled flower. Inscribe then a circle, to be the stage of initiation and increase by two, making an octave with 12 notes latent. The greater world thus create, the harmonic expansion of equilateral Triplicity.
Multiply the circles both large and small by two and three, in sequence the triad descends, Spirit through Soul into Matter. Reveal the three qualities of substance and mind. Fuse the Worlds, Creation to Formation and Action, in mystical synthesis through the vesica gates. From the crystallized star 5-pointed, the power of man enshrined and involved, project into the lower arena and fix the hexagon there about. Vitalize form thus in the number six and write the music of the spheres in all .
Now turn the star of five into ten, the Laws of Creation evoke. On the eastern point center the communion circle with its rim uniting the seed of power. As Above, So Below… turn six into twelve, setting all experience on the stage of life in the turning of the zodiacal wheel. Manifest the physical universe, matter in the geometry, time-space infused form, all creation thus embraced, in Nava-yoni nine cosmic wombs.
Alternate the harmonic stars five-fold and six into potential and diversity. Veil reality with webs obscuring the path. Bedazzle with triads expanding and evolving, up and down the Fibonacci pattern, they fulfill cosmo-genesis and conjugate duality. Consecrate man in pentagram now reversed and inform dense world with spirit in hexagram. Connect these now with parallel lines, the Pillars of Life, thus in the central rectangle reveal the essential molecule (DNA).
Establish poles of activity in the vibrating field, place a stage in the east and an altar in the west, one at the base and one at the crown. Now spin the design, inverting geometry and reveal the principles of five and six, each within the other, one altogether dancing-unfolding in cosmic drama-karma. The future point of emanation, seed of the Kingdom to come one cycle removed, thus is found hidden in the center of the the theater of illusion.
In the golden geometry of the Phi woven plan anti-matter is enjoined, Siva-Shakti embodied and infinity is set. Fuse pattern into volume, line into surface, and intersection into support. Create the crystal 3-dimensional and with seven centers in a row the microcosm is completed in numbers. In point-line-plane and form all grided and spiraled, with love and with wisdom, the Temple thus erect. Enter in and….Become.