Marsday Book Review: Sacred Geometry, the Positives
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
Sacred Geometry
Deciphering the Code
Enchantments
Reading this book took some time. Every two-page spread explores a single concept, and I found myself meditating on the subject matter with every turn of the page, trying to master its concepts. In a few places, I was forced to move on, but, for the most part, Skinner gives the introductory reader everything they should need to grasp the material.
I’m a collector of Phi trivia, and this book did a great job of pointing me to many unfamiliar facts about this golden number and clarifying facts I knew, but didn’t understand.
For instance, did you know the pentagram’s five points are golden triangles? I didn’t. It’s also possible to construct golden triangles inside a pentagon. Using repeating golden triangles, it’s possible to create a sort of pentagram-fractal.
ZomeTool’s connector balls are
small rhombicosidodecahedrons
I found in the book’s section on the 13 Archimedean solids (which I had never heard of before (to my delight)), that the connector-balls in the zome construction sets are actually small rhombicosidodecahedrons.
Euclid’s Elements (with cool interactive illustrations, however questionably appropriate),
In other places, Skinner’s observations are interesting, but it feels as though he is stretching to make the connection. Like when he points out that there are 81 stable elements on Earth, and the letters in the Gnostic name for god, IAO, add up to 81, and 81 is an important number on the greek lambda, which is based on the Pythagorean tetractys, which is related to the musical scale.
Greek Lambda, Musical Scales, and Tetractys
(It all fits together somehow!)
Reading this actually makes me a little embarrassed about my interest in phi, because it shows that, if you look hard enough, you’ll find connections and synchronicities in everything.
I think this grasping for meaning in every little thing is what makes the book’s final chapters, which explore the mathematical basis of ancient architectures and works of art, the least interesting. So Leonardo Da Vinci, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Parthenon all use “sacred” proportions in their works (note the scare-quotes). All this means is that the humans building them put what they considered sacred into their art and architecture. This is not as fascinating as these numbers occurring the DNA’s double helix, jellyfish colonies, astronomy, snowflakes, and water turbulence, which the book covers in earlier chapters.
Overall, this is a very pretty book. Only time will tell if it survives on my very selective bookshelf over the years, but for right now, I really enjoy flipping through its pages and immersing myself in mathematical ideas as they are expressed in human constructs, nature, geometric figures, and abstract concepts.
Sacred Geometry Deciphering the Code |
Enchantments
Reading this book took some time. Every two-page spread explores a single concept, and I found myself meditating on the subject matter with every turn of the page, trying to master its concepts. In a few places, I was forced to move on, but, for the most part, Skinner gives the introductory reader everything they should need to grasp the material.
I’m a collector of Phi trivia, and this book did a great job of pointing me to many unfamiliar facts about this golden number and clarifying facts I knew, but didn’t understand.
For instance, did you know the pentagram’s five points are golden triangles? I didn’t. It’s also possible to construct golden triangles inside a pentagon. Using repeating golden triangles, it’s possible to create a sort of pentagram-fractal.
ZomeTool’s connector balls are small rhombicosidodecahedrons |
I found in the book’s section on the 13 Archimedean solids (which I had never heard of before (to my delight)), that the connector-balls in the zome construction sets are actually small rhombicosidodecahedrons.
Euclid’s Elements (with cool interactive illustrations, however questionably appropriate),
In other places, Skinner’s observations are interesting, but it feels as though he is stretching to make the connection. Like when he points out that there are 81 stable elements on Earth, and the letters in the Gnostic name for god, IAO, add up to 81, and 81 is an important number on the greek lambda, which is based on the Pythagorean tetractys, which is related to the musical scale.
Greek Lambda, Musical Scales, and Tetractys (It all fits together somehow!) |
Reading this actually makes me a little embarrassed about my interest in phi, because it shows that, if you look hard enough, you’ll find connections and synchronicities in everything.
I think this grasping for meaning in every little thing is what makes the book’s final chapters, which explore the mathematical basis of ancient architectures and works of art, the least interesting. So Leonardo Da Vinci, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Parthenon all use “sacred” proportions in their works (note the scare-quotes). All this means is that the humans building them put what they considered sacred into their art and architecture. This is not as fascinating as these numbers occurring the DNA’s double helix, jellyfish colonies, astronomy, snowflakes, and water turbulence, which the book covers in earlier chapters.
Overall, this is a very pretty book. Only time will tell if it survives on my very selective bookshelf over the years, but for right now, I really enjoy flipping through its pages and immersing myself in mathematical ideas as they are expressed in human constructs, nature, geometric figures, and abstract concepts.
