Sacred Geometry and Spiritual Symbolism. Donald B. Carroll
meaning of sitting on the right hand of God infers to thinking more in the right side of the brain, the side considered more holistic and intuitive, and to manifest exactly that.
What follows here is a quest through lands, people, and symbols. The purpose is to arouse the sleeper in all of us. For once aroused such pilgrims can, with informed purpose, follow their road home, toward a home of wholeness and completeness, of Oneness. This birthright home, buried in our memories, calls to us just as the cries of seagulls over the ocean in the dark of night tell the sailor that land, though unseen, is not far off. There is that yearning to be home, that pull within us to find a course to our own mansion which is waiting for each of us in His house.
For the pilgrims looking to come home, the aim is to make clearer these signposts, which lead us on a path to our own door in a house of many mansions. Just such a pilgrim will recognize within such symbols that the journey home is through the knowing which resides within us all. This effort is a synthesis of research into many avenues, culminating in conclusions that ideally will give a fresh map to all such seekers in the world. Like many maps, the information has been collected from varied sources. Once the information is processed and integrated, a legend of symbols is created to act as guideposts for one looking for such direction.
One source of information researched is from the printed readings of Edgar Cayce—America's famous clairvoyant who came to renown in the first half of the twentieth century. These readings, numbering more than fourteen thousand, were transcribed while he lay in an altered state of consciousness brought on by a type of self-hypnotic suggestion. Among the great volume of information the readings provide is the story of our original Oneness with God, then the fall, our separation, and our ongoing journey back to a knowledgeable Unity with God. Other sources include evidence left behind in ancient Egypt, the Judeo-Christian and Hindu-Buddhist religions, early mystery schools, architecture, science, and sacred geometry.
This quest includes not only the hypothesis that the Ten Commandment tablets were triangular but also other hypotheses that this research led to as well. These suppositions include the importance of the triangle in the ancient world as supported by the triangular shape of sections of the spinal canal and the spinal column's resemblance to a serpent which led to an Egyptian royal cubit of the Great Pyramid being derived from the length of the spine. A similar type of spinal cubit can be seen in the Mayan zapal measurement for their pyramids. Moreover, evidence is shown that this “spinal” cubit could have been used at Stonehenge as well. The length of this spinal cubit was actually documented in the readings of the Edgar Cayce. What's more, evidence is presented that the shape of the ancient Egyptian crown stemmed from the form of human vertebrae and that the King's and Queen's Chambers of the Great Pyramid are symbolic of the pineal and pituitary glands of the human brain. Furthermore, headpieces, such as the cone-haped dunce's cap, a wizard's hat, and even the Pope's mitre whose symbolic purpose was to imbue the wearer with wisdom, can trace their shapes to the triangle and arc. Also postulated is the fact that the baptism of Jesus can be traced back, in symbolism, to the ancient Egyptian obelisk. The findings about the obelisks may well explain why the Roman Catholic Church had such monuments, generally considered pagan, moved and relocated in front of some of the most eminent basilicas in Rome, such as Saint Peter's, and why Rome has more standing Egyptian obelisks than anywhere else in the world.
Ultimately it will be seen that religion and science are not at odds or exclusive of each other. They are in fact united by an unseen bridge, a bridge created from the symbols and the profound meanings of the triangle and the arc in both their disciplines. It will be shown that these symbols are not only in the world around us, the stars above us, and our spiritual beliefs, but are also in the fabric of the universe and our very DNA itself. These two symbols can represent light itself—both the spiritual light immanent in heaven and earth and the technical phenomenon of light and of matter that the latest scientific theories consider to have both wave and particle aspects and functions.
Triangular Tablets of Wisdom
In researching illustrations of the Tablets of the Law, we find that they are invariably shown as rectangular in shape or rectangular with rounded tops. Many of us remember Charlton Heston, in the Cecile B. DeMille movie The Ten Commandments, coming down the Holy Mountain as Moses with these depicted tables. I did come across two interesting presentations where the tables of the law were rectangular, but with a triangular cut top.1
Those portrayals stirred in me the memories of wisdom writings and symbolism represented in triangular formats—the triangular formats of the Tetractys of the Pythagoreans, the Tetragrammaton of the Judaic Kabbalah mystics, and the Ennead of the ancient Egyptians. It makes one consider if these could have derived their shape and symbolism from one or the other, or perhaps they all share the same divine inspiration.
The Pythagorean Tetractys was represented by the shape of a triangle with ten symbols (commas) arranged as one would picture bowling pins. Pythagoras, born in the fifth century BCE, taught that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality. He taught that through mathematics everything could be measured in rhythmic patterns, geometry, or cycles. You may be familiar with his name from the Pythagorean Theorem, used for finding the lengths of the sides of a right triangle: A2 + B2 = C2.
About Pythagoras and the Tetractys author Manley P. Hall writes:
The teachings of Pythagoras indicate that he was thoroughly conversant with the precepts of Oriental and Occidental esotericism. He traveled among the Jews and was instructed by the Rabbins concerning the secret traditions of Moses, the lawgiver of Israel…Pythagoras was initiated into the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chaldean Mysteries.2 [Author's emphasis]
Theon of Smyrna declares that the ten dots, or Tetractys of Pythagoras, was a symbol of the greatest importance, for to the discerning mind it revealed the mystery of universal nature.3
Fig. 2.1—Tetractys
The Judaic Kabbalists, who follow mystical rabbinic teachings based on an esoteric interpretation of Hebrew scripture, study the Tetragrammaton. The Tetragrammaton plainly means “four-letter word.” The four-letter word it addresses is the Hebrew name for God, Yod Heh Waw Heh, again represented in a triangular format. P.D. Ouspensky goes into detail on the study of the Tetragrammaton:
The study of the Name of God in its manifestations constitutes the basis of the Cabala…These four letters have been given a symbolic meaning…According to the Cabalists the four principles permeate and compose each and everything…The idea is quite clear. If the Name of God is really in everything (if God is present in everything), then everything should be analogous to everything else, the smallest part should be analogous to the whole, the speck of dust analogous to the Universe and all analogous to God. “As above, so below.”…In Alchemy the four principles of which the world consist are called the four elements. These are fire, water, air, and earth, which exactly correspond in their meaning to the four letters of the name Jehovah.4
Fig. 2.2—Tetragrammaton
This treatise will show that Ouspensky's description is exactly the case—a case for Oneness. The Cayce reading 288-27 concurs with Ouspensky, the alchemists, and Plato as to the four principles that make up the world:
Q-4. What are “the forces of the natural elements?” A-4. Fire, earth, air, and water. These are the natural elements in the physical plane, and—as the forces of these have influences—as the spirit of the air…the spirit of each! See?
The Ennead, Greek for nine, is a group of nine related Egyptian gods and is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts which are a collection of ancient Egyptian