All is One. One is All
pp. 28-29
In making the construction of the book, I gathered two folios together making four pages (eight sides). There was then one continuous double page spread at the centre of every eight sides. Accordingly I chose here to make a kind of carpet page across the two sides. This drawing was influenced by Islamic tiled patterns, especially in the use of the ‘under and over’ strap border, that holds the geometric shapes together. Surrounding the two main drawings are placed smaller circles divided into different numbers of divisions, and different expressions of those divisions: 1-8. The meaning behind this multiplicity is - as the text implies - All is One, and One is all: everything emerges out of Unity, and then seeks to return.
Unfortunately in this double-opening, I think I have got the scale wrong. It looks too large on the page, and therefore not in tune with the general scale of the other pages. I thought of adding ‘ All is One’ in tiny writing all over the background, but decided against the addition as it might wreck the Islamic feel of the pages. Also, I was not confident enough at this stage, to be able to imagine how the rest of the book would play out. Furthermore, as the book is written on paper, only small mistakes can be erased. So a major revision of a double-opening halfway through its completion is not to be undertaken lightly, as if it does not work out 8 sides can be ruined, because each side of the paper belongs to its own double opening, as well as implicating other pages.
The Circle and the Shapes that Arise
p.26
After opening the book with some pages outlining earlier discoveries, and perhaps setting the scene while I discovered more about the subject, I then was able to open up what had appeared to be the main elements in more detail.
I decided to concentrate first on the major symbols of the Circle and the Square, and how each of the drawings contains its own inherent fractions, inner shapes and connections. Some of these inner elements are especially important, for instance the square roots of whole numbers, as they seem to negotiate transitions from one state of being to another (this statement is more fully explained further on in the book).
The images at the top of p.26 reveal the unfolding of the circle - from One to Two: the birth of the Other. As the state of Unity is entirely self-contained, in order to procreate it must create some kind of dynamic. If One is everything, there cannot be two Ones, so One must divide itself from within - like cell division. By putting the point of the compasses on any part of the circumference of the first circle, another circle is drawn - developments are then drawn in, each arc being centred on the previous awakened point. Thus One becomes Two and generates the Many.
The almond or fish shape created between the double circles is called the Vesica Pisces. It is a precise image of the intermediate stage of creation: the One becoming the Other, and how both the Creator and Created are held together. The One creates the Other, and the other is also the One. A line drawn between the two centres divides and unites. It is a paradox: and the paradox heals the schism of duality.
In many Christian churches or cathedral buildings Christ is depicted sitting in this Vesica shape, holding together the unconscious and the conscious, spirit and matter, the invisible and visible in the marriage of opposites, the result of which fusion is birth into this realm of visible reality. It must be remembered here that Christ himself contains the paradox of being both God and man. Et Incarnatus Est: the Word becomes flesh: spirit is present in every atom of matter. The Vesica was thus seen as the channel - the birthplace of all creation, through the necessary coming together of opposites to create form.
Mathematically, it is an interesting fact that if the line joining the two centres is 1 unit, the vertical line is √3. And if a diagonal is drawn through the diagonal of a cube (a three-dimensional body), if the side is1 unit, the diagonal is also √3: a three-dimensional manifest object. Both are associated with incarnation.
p. 27
At the top of p.27, the drawings show other shapes and numbers are found to be inherent in the double circles. In the first image, it can be seen that the line that holds the two centres together unites and divides - it is a paradox, which exactly reflects the paradox of the creator and the created : they are at once the same and different.
Working across the page, if the horizontal line between the two centres is 1 unit, the vertical line of the Vesica is √3, and the following diagrams show the other square root numbers that emerge: √2,√4,√5.
The large drawing in the centre of the page shows how other two-dimensional shapes arise from the double circles: the triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon etc. The unit being the connective line between the two circles, which forms the base of the triangle. It is interesting to note that, as the images get more complex, more circles below are needed to form a foundation. It brings to mind the image of a tree, where the root system spreads to support the canopy.
The page finishes with quotation from the the Way of Life by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu:
‘Life, when it came to be, Bore one, then two, then three Elements of things; And thus the three began - Heaven and earth and man - To balance happenings.’
