Sacred Geometry for Artists, Dreamers, and Philosophers

by Lieben, John Oscar

• ISBN13: 9781620557013
• ISBN10: 1620557010
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2018-08-28
• Publisher: Inner Traditions

Summary

An illustrated guide to harmonics--the sacred geometry principles that underlie the natural world--and its practical applications

• Demonstrates how the vesica piscis is a matrix from which ideas and forms emanate, connecting cosmic time cycles, measures of space, and musical tones

• Provides harmonic analyses of ancient sculpture, architecture, the solar system, the Earth-Moon relationship, and the structure of water and waves

• Explains how to apply sacred geometry to create building floor plans, pottery figures, gardens, and sacred ceremonial spaces

We are in the midst of a revival of an ancient way of looking at the world--an approach that enabled great civilizations of the past to bring forth inventions of great beauty and power. This school of thought--harmonics--envisioned the natural world and the solar system as an interlocking matrix of harmonious numbers, perfectly woven into the creative fabric of life and the surrounding universe.

Exploring the art and science of harmonics, John Oscar Lieben shows how to create harmonious forms using the ancient tools of number, geometry, and musical tone--an approach that resonates with nature’s own ways of creation. He demonstrates many practical applications that result from the study of harmonics, providing analyses of ancient sculpture and architecture, as well as original examples of building floor plans, pottery figures based on planetary proportions, gardens based on harmonic principles, and ceremonial spaces that honor cosmic harmonies and sacred geometric relationships.

Showing how harmonics can also be applied to the mysteries of time and space, the author demonstrates how the vesica piscis and many other variations of the vesica shape reveal numerical synchronicities and correspondences that connect cosmic time cycles, measures of space, and musical tones. The author applies harmonics and the “vesica construction” matrix to illustrate many of nature’s wonders, including the Earth-Moon relationship, the interactions of the Golden Number and the musical scale, and how the Flower of Life symbol connects the universal field with the pattern of raindrops falling on a pond.

Offering an approach to sacred geometry that pairs the mystical with the practical, the cosmic with the earthly, the author reveals how the art and science of harmonics should be required study for both the artist and the seeker of eternal truths as well as the scientist who seeks an entrance into the sacred foundations of nature.

Author Biography

John Oscar Lieben is a geometer who has researched sacred geometry and harmonics for over 25 years. A graduate of New York University, he also studied at Oregon School of Arts and Crafts and Roehampton College in London. A designer and builder of gardens and ceremonial spaces proportioned by sacred geometry, he lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction
A Harmony That Structures the Universe

1 The Field of Harmony
The Ring Form • The Vesica-Tone Construction • Tone

2 The Geometry of Time
The Center of Time • The Tritone • Harmonious Rectangles

3 Moon and Earth
Measures of Time and Space • The Three Masters (Part 1) • Constructing a Seven-Tone Scale • The Three Masters (Part 2) • Earth and Moon • The Inner Earth

4 The Temple of Water
Land and Water • The Shape of Raindrops • The Temple Garden • A Temple of Water

5 Musical Vessels
Planetary Pottery • The World in a Grain of Sand

6 The Spiraling Octave
The Sky Speaks • Octave Spirals • Musical Spaces

7 Harmonic Structures
The Harmonic Series • The Mean • The Reciprocal • Musical Rectangles • The Vesica-Harmonic Construction • The Minor Third

8 The Circle of Resonance
Resonance • Two from One • One from Two • The Birth of the Moon • Crossings • Harmonic Science

9 The Musical Universe
As Above, So Below • The Water of Life • The Great Central Sun • The Galactic Core

10 The Tree of Time
A Spiral of Time • The Vesica of Time • The Era Before Time • The Tree of Time • Within the Root of Time

11 The Cosmic Flower
The Symbol in the Sky • Sacred Cosmology • The Symbol Speaks • Ceremony

Appendix 1
The Vessel of Ceremony
Ceremony within Geometric Space • Classical Geometry • Creating Sacred Space • An Earth-Honoring Ceremony • A Birth of the Moon Ceremony • A Water-Honoring Ceremony • A Birth of the Cosmos Ceremony • A Sun-Honoring Ceremony

Appendix 2
A Miscellany of Numbers and Forms

Notes

Bibliography

Illustration

Credits

Index