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The overlapping centre-to-circumference of four similar circles generates eight (red) points of intersection. Their horizontal diameters also have eight endpoints. These 16 points are the generators of the 'inner Tree of Life.' Seven of them coincide with Sephiroth (Chokmah, Chesed, Netzach, Binah, Geburah, Hod & Tiphareth) and one coincides with Daath. The two vertically displaced circles create the shape (shown shaded) of the Vesica Piscis ("bladder of a fish"), which is a well-known motif of Christian art and sacred geometry. |
The centres of the four circles and the 16 ends of their horizontal and vertical diameters form four crosses and four Vesica Piscis (coloured green, blue, violet & orange) that surround the central one (shown shaded):
In this sense, the Vesica Piscis is, truly, the template for the construction of not only the outer form of the Tree of Life from four such vertically-stacked shapes, but also its inner form, as demonstrated on the next page. It is why this shape should be regarded as sacred geometry. It is not because the Vesica Piscis looks like the Ichthys, an early Christian symbol, or because it is found in medieval Christian manuscripts as the "mandoria," an aureola, or cloud of radiance, that is depicted in Christian art as surrounding Christ or the Virgin Mary. The notion of 'sacredness' may, historically speaking, have arisen from the context of a particular religion, but sacred geometry is sacred because it expresses an idea whose power transcends the historical origins and beliefs of that religion and their traditional, artistic rendition. The Vesica Piscis is sacred not because it symbolises dogmas of a particular religion, such as the divinity of Jesus claimed by Christianity, but because it embodies truths that have universal, or cosmic, significance that are at the same time acceptable to any religion. That is not to say that none of these dogmas has universal significance. All that we are saying is that the shape of the Vesica Piscis is sacred for reasons that are far more profound than what its early Christian provenance would suggest, as the following pages prove.
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