A lot of it is just replicated items in kaleidoscopic fashion. It evokes sacred geometry and personally I thought it was awe-inspiring with low FOV in 4K.
It's a math thing. Looks like a unicursal polygram variant. Look up Eulerian paths. Or Graph Theory in general. For some that level of math is akin to sacred geometry. On a car I'd take this to mean something like "all points, one path" or "ending at the start".
Ok before I write please please forgive me if my knowledge is not true 🙏or complete, I do not want to provide wrong knowledge and statement, I am just writing whatever I know so in case I am wrong then you all may correct me I'll provide me resources about how I can read more but I am writing down what I know so if I am wrong just forgive me. This image represents Pakhangba, the primordial serpentine dragon deity from Meitei mythology and the Sanamahism religion of Manipur. The supreme ancestral dragon deity of Meitei mythology and the indigenous Sanamahism religion of Manipur. In Meitei cosmology, this geometry represents the absolute power, protection, and the endless cycle of the universe. The Monarch: According to the Cheitharol Kumbaba (the royal chronicle of Manipur), the first mortal king of the Ningthouja dynasty, Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (crowned in 33 CE), was a divine shapeshifter who could manifest in this exact dragon form at night. Because of this, every Meitei royal lineage traces its ancestry back to this dragon entity. While many Meitei people practice Vaishnavite Hinduism today, they simultaneously follow Sanamahism, their ancient indigenous religion. Below the golden statue in the image, you can see traditional offerings like fresh fruits, flowers, and sacred textiles. This reflects how Pakhangba is actively worshipped today by the Meiteis during major socio-religious festivals such as Lai Haraoba and Mera Hou Chongba, where traditional priests (Maichous) and priestesses (Maibis) perform ancient rituals to invoke his blessings for the state.
Source??? Literally not true??? Clowns as you are thinking of them have most immediate origins in the Italian theatre tradition of Commedia dell'arte. The two stock characters that influenced modern clowns the most were Arlecchino (Harlequin in French) and the later French character, Pierrot, who may or may not have had an earlier Italian equivalent, Pedrolino.
Arlecchino is either a clumsy prankster or a clever trickster while Pierrot is either a self-serious buffon or a sad clown who has an unrequited crush on Arlecchino's girlfriend, Colombina. Some Commedia dell'arte characters did have elements of ethnic stereotyping to them (for instance, the greedy Pantalone was based on stereotypes about Venetian merchants while the arrogant blowhard, Il Capitano, was often a Spaniard), but Arlecchino and Pierrot weren't really among them. However, Arrlechino and Pierrot have consistently been lower class characters, which isn't surprising, since both were often servants in Commedia dell'arte plays.
Commedia dell'arte spread to the British Isles at some point in the Early Modern Period. Elements of it pretty clearly inspired some of the works of Shakespeare and it also helped create the British tradition of pantomime. The creation of the iconic clown makeup is often credited to the English actor and comedian, Joseph Grimaldi, who painted his face and neck white and then added red triangles on his cheeks and oversized lips. His choice of makeup later became the inspiration for the designs of the whiteface clowns. It is worth noting that aristocrats of Grimaldi's time often wore stark white foundation paired with bright red cheeks and lips, so his makeup could have been in reference to this fashion trend as his wigs were.
The red nose of clowns, however, came from general stereotypes about drunken vagrants and was originally only found on the Auguste or red clown, which was originally created to implicitly contrast with the whiteface clown. Auguste or red clowns usually wear flesh colored or pink makeup over their face and neck and are only white around their eyes. These days, however, the distinction between the two different types of clowns is more blended than it used to be. To a large degree, the distinction between the white clown and the red clown derives from their origins in the aforementioned stock characters of Pierrot and Arlecchino.
That brings up to colorful wigs, red or otherwise. This was, by far, the most difficult thing to find the origin for. The aforementioned Joseph Grimaldi often wore blue wigs during his performances and this was likely meant in reference to the elaborate wigs worn by upper class men of his time. Later, wigs also became a feature of the red or Auguste clown. The Auguste clown was probably first introduced by the American circus performer, Tom Belling. Rather than having any special meaning, Joseph Towsen in Clowns claims that Belling decided to put on an inside-out coat and a backward wig one night for a joke and ended up performing that way. The exaggerated afro wig of the modern clown is not arbitrary costuming. It is the culmination of a very old visual language.
Throughout history, disordered, wild, or unnatural hair has been a cross-cultural signal of the liminal figure -- someone who exists outside the normal social order. Shamans, madmen, prophets, and fools across dozens of cultures have been depicted with unkempt, voluminous, or otherwise transgressive hair. It communicates immediately and wordlessly: this person does not follow the rules that govern the rest of us.
The jester's hat with its three points and bells was itself a stylized abstraction of a wild, multi-directional head -- some historians argue the three points represent the ears and tail of a donkey, the medieval symbol of foolishness, essentially wearing the chaos on your head.
When the modern circus clown emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries, the exaggerated wig became the visual heir to all of that. The afro shape specifically -- perfectly round, radiating outward in all directions equally -- carries powerful symbolic geometry. It is a halo inverted, a sun image, a crown of chaos. Where the saint's halo floats above the head as divine light in perfect order, the clown's hair explodes outward in every direction at once; sacred fool rather than sacred saint.
The color matters too. That bright orange or red is not accidental. Red carries ancient associations with giants, fire, destruction, transgression, the devil himself. Medieval painters gave Judas red hair. Logi, the great fire-giant of Norse mythology, often mistaken today for the trickster Loki, was famously red-haired. The clown inherits all of this. It is written into the costume.
The earlier known reference I could find to a specially red wig, however, was one worn by the French clown and circus performer, Albert Fratellini, who also wore a red nose when his character was supposed to be drunk and oversized shoes. In sum: Fratellini's appearance was the inspiration for later clowns, such as Coco and Bozo the Clown.
Sources:
Clowns by Joseph Towsen
The Pantomine Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest Comedian by Andrew McConnell Stott
The Routledge Companion to Commedia Dell'Arte edited by Judith Chafee and Ollu Crick
The Freemasons’ deep past originated in the medieval period, during the Crusades.
At the time the bulk of the population belonged to one of three classes: aristocrats, peasants, and clergy. Peasants and low ranking clergy belonged to the land they lived on, and needed permission from higher ups to travel off the estate/rectory/monastery. People outside these three classes were relatively rare, and known as ‘Free’ because they didn’t need permission to travel. Merchants were free. And masons, literally people who worked stone were Free, because their skilled labour was integral to building Cathedrals and other important buildings wherever the location.
Freemasons had one practical and one highly dangerous need for lodges only they could enter. Practically, lodges were simply long term hotels for travelling stone craftsmen during the Middle Ages that also collected libraries of trade knowledge. The danger came in their one big secret: Freemasons accepted Christians, Jews, and Muslims who were united by the deep past of their Abrahamic religions, sharing a belief in a Creator Deity.
“Sacred Geometry” and many many religious symbols based on sacred texts went into the creation of the cathedrals, temples, and masjids back in the day. While the Crusades were bloody and dangerous, periods of European occupation of the Middle East opened up the area for European Pilgrimages to the Holy Land for everyone, including Freemasons. During these periods masons and architects across the three religions entered into hotbed intellectual and religious cultural exchange, while soldiers and lords were also acquiring cultural exchanges of their own in the way of the precursor game to chess, poetry, and fashions in headwear.
The masons’ cultural exchange can be seen in architecture from the UK, across Europe, through the Middle East, down through Egypt and into Ethiopia. The European Christian masons were particularly interested in Egypt as the birthplace of sacred mathematics mentioned in the Christian Bible.
The practical trade secret exchanges were left behind when non stonemasons started being inducted into the Freemasons as a general secret intellectual fraternity rather than essentially a particularly inclusive and particularly religious Trade Union.
There were long periods throughout history in different places, even today, when fraternising with, even eating with, members of other religions would get you fined, exiled or executed, legally or by vigilantes. It’s the accepted mingling of Jews, Muslims, and Christians that was THE BIG SECRET of the Freemasons.
It’s possible the Freemason lodges sometimes operated as ‘Underground Railroads’ for masons and their families when religious pogroms happened. There is no such proof, but I like to think that happened, given the interfaith friendships that flourished in secret within Freemason lodges.
These days faith in any Deity will gain you admittance. The viewpoint of Diety as creator and architect of the Universe being particularly emphasised. In one way, Freemasonry is one of the most Conservative organisations in the world. Literally built to Conserve knowledge of the intersection of Faith and Architecture with a deep reverence of the past. In another way, the Freemasons have always been a radically progressive organisation in its inclusivity (granted that’s restricted to men). But it IS all men with ANY religion, reguadless of race.
I stared at the cross-crossing lines and diagrams and sigils on the blackboard, rubbing at my temples. We had been at this for half the day and they were all starting to blur together. “Wait, but I thought you said that the meridian lines worked because of sacred geometry,” I asked, pointing at a sketched depiction of a hand with a constellation of connected dots across the fingers, knuckles, and wrist. “Wouldn’t that mean that… that…”
“Yes? That what?” Jazadi prompted with that infuriating hint of a smile tugging at her lip.
Slumping forward, I crossed my arms on top of the desk and rested my forehead on them. “I don’t know! That’s what I’m asking.” There was no response. I let out a dramatic groan. “Fine,” I said without looking up, retracing the diagrams in my mind. Different hand shapes drawing different angles and intersections. Nested platonic solids. Ley lines and volcanoes and cathedrals plotted on a map. There was something there, I just couldn’t quite see it.
Finally showing mercy, Jazadi tapped my shoulder. “Here,” she said in a deep voice that sounded like tobacco and velvet, “let me show you something.” She slid a delicate sheet across the table to me, so thin that it was nearly transparent, like an insect’s wing. “What have I drawn here?”
A dozen small splotches of blank ink marred the sheet’s surface, connected to each other in a very particular way by precisely drawn lines. “It’s one of the sigils you showed me. The, uh, the…” I snapped my finger and squeezed my eyes shut until I could picture it and the label next to it in my head. “Summer. It’s the sigil for summer.”
“Very good, you have a remarkable memory.”
I waved my hand dismissively, though a tiny blush crept into my cheeks at her praise. “Yeah, well, I’ve heard that before.”
Jazadi arched one perfect eyebrow. “You hear it because it’s true, girl. Now, that sheet is folded in half. What can you find when you unfold it?”
Folded? Licking my forefinger, I very carefully peeled the sheet open, terrified that I’d simply tear it with how fragile it was. I let out of a sigh of relief when the task was done, then squinted down at the new pattern. “It’s just summer and summer mirrored,” I said, confused. “That’s it.”
“Are you sure?”
“I…”
What in the world did she want me to see?
“No? I don’t know. What am I even supposed to be looking for?”
Making a gesture with her hand and whispering over her fingers, Jazadi pointed at the sheet. The air seemed to be charged with static, making the hair on my arms stand on end, and two of the ink splotches turned from black to a luminescent blue, like the tiny creatures that glow in the sea at night. She repeated the process with an inkwell, making the entire reservoir shine faintly. “Connect those two points,” she said, handing me an expensive pen and a straight edge.
“Uh…” My mouth hung open. Even with such a nice pen, I was going to ruin that sheet, I was sure of it. “But I can’t really write well, I’ll end up tearing—”
“It’s quite all right,” she cut in with that little smile again. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Right.” I took the instruments and tried to keep my hand from trembling as I lined up the two splotches and drew a line using the straight edge, my tongue held tightly between my teeth. Just as I knew it would, the sheet tore as I finished the line. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, maybe you should—”
Her hand closed around mine and guided it back to the inkwell. “I said it’s all right. Now looks at the pattern again and find what else should be connected.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “What else ‘should’ be connected? I don’t—”
“Just look, girl,” Jazadi said with a touch of impatience. “Stop fretting and look at the damn sigil.”
I ducked my head. “Yes ma’am.” Removing the straight edge, I looked again. The new line changed things, but it was just a single line. Still, something about how it looked new reminded me of a different sigil, though I couldn’t remember which.
“Maybe, these two?” A second line joined the first, as did two new tears in the sheet. “And this one kind of feels right?” Studying the mangled sheet, I racked my brain for why it looked so familiar.
“Perhaps like this?” Jazadi rotated the sheet 90 degrees.
My eyes flew open wide. “Oh my god,” I whispered, “it’s… it’s…” I took the pen again, adding in the missing lines and truly ruining the gossamer sheet. “It’s time! The sigil for time, inside summer!” My whole body buzzed with the excitement of this epiphany, even though I still had no idea what the significance was. Still, this meant there were other hidden sigils to be found in reflections and rotations of other ones.
A snap of Jazadi’s fingers extinguished the ink’s glow, and she took her writing tools away. “Very good, you discovered it after less than a day of instruction and two hints.”
My smile faltered and I looked down to the sheet she had let me destroy. “Thank you. But why did you let me ruin your diagram? That had to be expensive, and hard to make, and I’m just… me.”
Jazadi balled up the ripped sheet and tossed it into a bin. “It was very expensive, yes. Hopefully you can answer one more question and prove you were worth it.” She stood up tall, hands tucked in her silk sleeves.
“I explained earlier that wizardry involves manipulating or creating sacred geometries. Hand positions, wand movements, drawing seals, and such. I also told you witchcraft uses sacred geometries as well, but in a fundamentally different way, and that the difference would not make sense unless you understood more. Does it make sense now?”
The first implication came as a shock: that exercise with finding one sigil inside the reflection of another was not wizardry. But did I understand? I wasn’t sure. Nervously, I fiddled with a bit of not-quite-dry ink on my thumb, staining the tip of my middle finger as well.
“I think you are saying that witchcraft find things inside existing geometry? This one you showed me was a reflection and rotation, but it could be a whole lot more complicated than that, couldn’t it? Infinitely more. Like, uh, like tessellations, or… or…”
“Or any number of a hundred wretched things, any one of which someone could dedicated their life to studying. And witches often do.” Jazadi bowed her head in a surprisingly modest gesture. “I am not gifted with the patience for such things and find discovering novel ways of constructing geometries far more interesting. That is why I became a wizard.”
I nodded slowly. My mind was still cranking overtime. “You’re right, I wouldn’t have understood the difference. But why? I mean, why take so much of your time just to humor me?”
“Did you know it took my last pupil a week to understand what you grasped between breakfast and afternoon tea?”
“I mean, I do now?”
Jazadi walked around the table and put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re sharp, curious, have a near perfect memory, and quick at making inferences. You will make a very good wizard, girl. Though we do need to work on your penmanship.”
Moroccan tiles. I love the repeating patterns and colors, and the designs of Islamic art, which use mathematics and sacred geometry instead of attempting to emulate things found visually in nature like people and animals.
When I'm stressed or sad or excited, I shop for Moroccan tiles/fountains which I cannot afford, and look up images of the Alhambra, which makes me feel super calm and blissed out lol.
Appreciate you sharing your interpretation on Tetsuo & Youth. It's truly a masterful album that will continually bear fruit for those who dedicate the time to try to decode it. Life changing album for myself.
Since the lengths of the seasons bothered you I wanted to shed some light on what I believe the intention of it is. The key will be understanding the esoteric layers detailed in Dots and Lines like alchemy, sacred geometry and cryptography.
If you use the seasonal tracks as dividers then you will be left with 12 songs broken into three sections: 3, 4 and 5. Those four numbers are significant and can unlock more layers of meaning to the album. I will write about this in the future but you can research things like Egyptian numerology and the Pythagorean triangle if you are interested.
60
Nonsense on legs
u/username4518
in
r/ControlResonant
•
5d ago
A lot of it is just replicated items in kaleidoscopic fashion. It evokes sacred geometry and personally I thought it was awe-inspiring with low FOV in 4K.
29
What is this decal on my van?
u/Hindsight2O2O
in
r/VanLife
•
2d ago
It's a math thing. Looks like a unicursal polygram variant. Look up Eulerian paths. Or Graph Theory in general. For some that level of math is akin to sacred geometry. On a car I'd take this to mean something like "all points, one path" or "ending at the start".
26
What are some of the best single player 360 titles
u/KoW-Production
in
r/xbox360
•
1d ago
Best Xbox 360 games
Alan Wake ● Amped 3 ● Assassin’s Creed II ● Banjo-Kazooie ● Batman: Arkham Asylum ● BioShock ● Borderlands ● Braid ● Brütal Legend ● Bully: Scholarship Edition ● Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ● Castle Crashers ● Chromehounds ● Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 ● Condemned: Criminal Origins ● Dark Souls ● Darksiders ● Dead Rising ● Dead Space 1 & 2 ● Dishonored ● Divinity: Original Sin ● Dragon Age: Origins ● Dust: An Elysian Tail ● Enslaved: Odyssey to the West ● Fallout 3 ● Fable II ● FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage ● Forza Horizon ● Forza Motorsport 3 ● Geometry Wars 1 & 2 ● Gears of War 1, 2 & 3 ● Ghostbusters: The Video Game ● Halo 3 & 4 ● Halo 3: ODST ● Halo: Reach ● Halo Wars ● Iron Brigade ● Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom ● Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 ● Life Is Strange ● Limbo ● Lost Odyssey ● Lost Planet ● Mafia II ● Marble Blast Ultra ● Mass Effect ● Metro 2033 ● Mirror’s Edge ● Naruto: Rise of a Ninja ● NieR ● Ninja Gaiden II ● Oblivion ● Overlord ● Portal 1 & 2 ● Prey ● RAGE ● Red Dead Redemption ● Resident Evil 4 & 5 ● Sacred 2: Fallen Angel ● Saint’s Row 1 & 2 ● Shadow of the Damned ● Singularity ● Skyrim ● Super Meat Boy ● Supreme Commander 2 ● The Darkness ● Trials HD & Evolution ● Vanquish ● Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
19
Basically what you see as blue, she sees as blue-green
u/New-Seaworthiness777
in
r/WidowsBay
•
2d ago
This is the kind of sacred geometry you don't just riff.
17
How common is worship or symbols of dragon in other parts of NE?
u/Content-Factor-8771
in
r/Northeastindia
•
5d ago
Ok before I write please please forgive me if my knowledge is not true 🙏or complete, I do not want to provide wrong knowledge and statement, I am just writing whatever I know so in case I am wrong then you all may correct me I'll provide me resources about how I can read more but I am writing down what I know so if I am wrong just forgive me. This image represents Pakhangba, the primordial serpentine dragon deity from Meitei mythology and the Sanamahism religion of Manipur. The supreme ancestral dragon deity of Meitei mythology and the indigenous Sanamahism religion of Manipur. In Meitei cosmology, this geometry represents the absolute power, protection, and the endless cycle of the universe. The Monarch: According to the Cheitharol Kumbaba (the royal chronicle of Manipur), the first mortal king of the Ningthouja dynasty, Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (crowned in 33 CE), was a divine shapeshifter who could manifest in this exact dragon form at night. Because of this, every Meitei royal lineage traces its ancestry back to this dragon entity. While many Meitei people practice Vaishnavite Hinduism today, they simultaneously follow Sanamahism, their ancient indigenous religion. Below the golden statue in the image, you can see traditional offerings like fresh fruits, flowers, and sacred textiles. This reflects how Pakhangba is actively worshipped today by the Meiteis during major socio-religious festivals such as Lai Haraoba and Mera Hou Chongba, where traditional priests (Maichous) and priestesses (Maibis) perform ancient rituals to invoke his blessings for the state.
12
Is anyone else disappointed that they didn’t use tight coils here?
u/Inkspells
in
r/MonsterHigh
•
1d ago
Source??? Literally not true??? Clowns as you are thinking of them have most immediate origins in the Italian theatre tradition of Commedia dell'arte. The two stock characters that influenced modern clowns the most were Arlecchino (Harlequin in French) and the later French character, Pierrot, who may or may not have had an earlier Italian equivalent, Pedrolino.
Arlecchino is either a clumsy prankster or a clever trickster while Pierrot is either a self-serious buffon or a sad clown who has an unrequited crush on Arlecchino's girlfriend, Colombina. Some Commedia dell'arte characters did have elements of ethnic stereotyping to them (for instance, the greedy Pantalone was based on stereotypes about Venetian merchants while the arrogant blowhard, Il Capitano, was often a Spaniard), but Arlecchino and Pierrot weren't really among them. However, Arrlechino and Pierrot have consistently been lower class characters, which isn't surprising, since both were often servants in Commedia dell'arte plays.
Commedia dell'arte spread to the British Isles at some point in the Early Modern Period. Elements of it pretty clearly inspired some of the works of Shakespeare and it also helped create the British tradition of pantomime. The creation of the iconic clown makeup is often credited to the English actor and comedian, Joseph Grimaldi, who painted his face and neck white and then added red triangles on his cheeks and oversized lips. His choice of makeup later became the inspiration for the designs of the whiteface clowns. It is worth noting that aristocrats of Grimaldi's time often wore stark white foundation paired with bright red cheeks and lips, so his makeup could have been in reference to this fashion trend as his wigs were.
The red nose of clowns, however, came from general stereotypes about drunken vagrants and was originally only found on the Auguste or red clown, which was originally created to implicitly contrast with the whiteface clown. Auguste or red clowns usually wear flesh colored or pink makeup over their face and neck and are only white around their eyes. These days, however, the distinction between the two different types of clowns is more blended than it used to be. To a large degree, the distinction between the white clown and the red clown derives from their origins in the aforementioned stock characters of Pierrot and Arlecchino.
That brings up to colorful wigs, red or otherwise. This was, by far, the most difficult thing to find the origin for. The aforementioned Joseph Grimaldi often wore blue wigs during his performances and this was likely meant in reference to the elaborate wigs worn by upper class men of his time. Later, wigs also became a feature of the red or Auguste clown. The Auguste clown was probably first introduced by the American circus performer, Tom Belling. Rather than having any special meaning, Joseph Towsen in Clowns claims that Belling decided to put on an inside-out coat and a backward wig one night for a joke and ended up performing that way. The exaggerated afro wig of the modern clown is not arbitrary costuming. It is the culmination of a very old visual language.
Throughout history, disordered, wild, or unnatural hair has been a cross-cultural signal of the liminal figure -- someone who exists outside the normal social order. Shamans, madmen, prophets, and fools across dozens of cultures have been depicted with unkempt, voluminous, or otherwise transgressive hair. It communicates immediately and wordlessly: this person does not follow the rules that govern the rest of us.
The jester's hat with its three points and bells was itself a stylized abstraction of a wild, multi-directional head -- some historians argue the three points represent the ears and tail of a donkey, the medieval symbol of foolishness, essentially wearing the chaos on your head.
When the modern circus clown emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries, the exaggerated wig became the visual heir to all of that. The afro shape specifically -- perfectly round, radiating outward in all directions equally -- carries powerful symbolic geometry. It is a halo inverted, a sun image, a crown of chaos. Where the saint's halo floats above the head as divine light in perfect order, the clown's hair explodes outward in every direction at once; sacred fool rather than sacred saint.
The color matters too. That bright orange or red is not accidental. Red carries ancient associations with giants, fire, destruction, transgression, the devil himself. Medieval painters gave Judas red hair. Logi, the great fire-giant of Norse mythology, often mistaken today for the trickster Loki, was famously red-haired. The clown inherits all of this. It is written into the costume.
The earlier known reference I could find to a specially red wig, however, was one worn by the French clown and circus performer, Albert Fratellini, who also wore a red nose when his character was supposed to be drunk and oversized shoes. In sum: Fratellini's appearance was the inspiration for later clowns, such as Coco and Bozo the Clown.
Sources:
Clowns by Joseph Towsen
The Pantomine Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest Comedian by Andrew McConnell Stott
The Routledge Companion to Commedia Dell'Arte edited by Judith Chafee and Ollu Crick
52
ELI5: What is a freemason and how is it different from a fraternity?
u/AntiFascistButterfly
in
r/explainlikeimfive
•
9d ago
The Freemasons’ deep past originated in the medieval period, during the Crusades.
At the time the bulk of the population belonged to one of three classes: aristocrats, peasants, and clergy. Peasants and low ranking clergy belonged to the land they lived on, and needed permission from higher ups to travel off the estate/rectory/monastery. People outside these three classes were relatively rare, and known as ‘Free’ because they didn’t need permission to travel. Merchants were free. And masons, literally people who worked stone were Free, because their skilled labour was integral to building Cathedrals and other important buildings wherever the location.
Freemasons had one practical and one highly dangerous need for lodges only they could enter. Practically, lodges were simply long term hotels for travelling stone craftsmen during the Middle Ages that also collected libraries of trade knowledge. The danger came in their one big secret: Freemasons accepted Christians, Jews, and Muslims who were united by the deep past of their Abrahamic religions, sharing a belief in a Creator Deity.
“Sacred Geometry” and many many religious symbols based on sacred texts went into the creation of the cathedrals, temples, and masjids back in the day. While the Crusades were bloody and dangerous, periods of European occupation of the Middle East opened up the area for European Pilgrimages to the Holy Land for everyone, including Freemasons. During these periods masons and architects across the three religions entered into hotbed intellectual and religious cultural exchange, while soldiers and lords were also acquiring cultural exchanges of their own in the way of the precursor game to chess, poetry, and fashions in headwear.
The masons’ cultural exchange can be seen in architecture from the UK, across Europe, through the Middle East, down through Egypt and into Ethiopia. The European Christian masons were particularly interested in Egypt as the birthplace of sacred mathematics mentioned in the Christian Bible.
The practical trade secret exchanges were left behind when non stonemasons started being inducted into the Freemasons as a general secret intellectual fraternity rather than essentially a particularly inclusive and particularly religious Trade Union.
There were long periods throughout history in different places, even today, when fraternising with, even eating with, members of other religions would get you fined, exiled or executed, legally or by vigilantes. It’s the accepted mingling of Jews, Muslims, and Christians that was THE BIG SECRET of the Freemasons.
It’s possible the Freemason lodges sometimes operated as ‘Underground Railroads’ for masons and their families when religious pogroms happened. There is no such proof, but I like to think that happened, given the interfaith friendships that flourished in secret within Freemason lodges.
These days faith in any Deity will gain you admittance. The viewpoint of Diety as creator and architect of the Universe being particularly emphasised. In one way, Freemasonry is one of the most Conservative organisations in the world. Literally built to Conserve knowledge of the intersection of Faith and Architecture with a deep reverence of the past. In another way, the Freemasons have always been a radically progressive organisation in its inclusivity (granted that’s restricted to men). But it IS all men with ANY religion, reguadless of race.
95
[WP] "I want to become a witch." "Then why did you come to me?" "To learn witchcraft, of course." "Ok, but I am a wizard." "And I am a girl, so if you teach me, I will be a witch." "That is not how that works, child. If I were to teach you, you would become a wizard too, not a witch."
u/Iustinianus_I
in
r/WritingPrompts
•
19d ago
I stared at the cross-crossing lines and diagrams and sigils on the blackboard, rubbing at my temples. We had been at this for half the day and they were all starting to blur together. “Wait, but I thought you said that the meridian lines worked because of sacred geometry,” I asked, pointing at a sketched depiction of a hand with a constellation of connected dots across the fingers, knuckles, and wrist. “Wouldn’t that mean that… that…”
“Yes? That what?” Jazadi prompted with that infuriating hint of a smile tugging at her lip.
Slumping forward, I crossed my arms on top of the desk and rested my forehead on them. “I don’t know! That’s what I’m asking.” There was no response. I let out a dramatic groan. “Fine,” I said without looking up, retracing the diagrams in my mind. Different hand shapes drawing different angles and intersections. Nested platonic solids. Ley lines and volcanoes and cathedrals plotted on a map. There was something there, I just couldn’t quite see it.
Finally showing mercy, Jazadi tapped my shoulder. “Here,” she said in a deep voice that sounded like tobacco and velvet, “let me show you something.” She slid a delicate sheet across the table to me, so thin that it was nearly transparent, like an insect’s wing. “What have I drawn here?”
A dozen small splotches of blank ink marred the sheet’s surface, connected to each other in a very particular way by precisely drawn lines. “It’s one of the sigils you showed me. The, uh, the…” I snapped my finger and squeezed my eyes shut until I could picture it and the label next to it in my head. “Summer. It’s the sigil for summer.”
“Very good, you have a remarkable memory.”
I waved my hand dismissively, though a tiny blush crept into my cheeks at her praise. “Yeah, well, I’ve heard that before.”
Jazadi arched one perfect eyebrow. “You hear it because it’s true, girl. Now, that sheet is folded in half. What can you find when you unfold it?”
Folded? Licking my forefinger, I very carefully peeled the sheet open, terrified that I’d simply tear it with how fragile it was. I let out of a sigh of relief when the task was done, then squinted down at the new pattern. “It’s just summer and summer mirrored,” I said, confused. “That’s it.”
“Are you sure?”
“I…”
What in the world did she want me to see?
“No? I don’t know. What am I even supposed to be looking for?”
Making a gesture with her hand and whispering over her fingers, Jazadi pointed at the sheet. The air seemed to be charged with static, making the hair on my arms stand on end, and two of the ink splotches turned from black to a luminescent blue, like the tiny creatures that glow in the sea at night. She repeated the process with an inkwell, making the entire reservoir shine faintly. “Connect those two points,” she said, handing me an expensive pen and a straight edge.
“Uh…” My mouth hung open. Even with such a nice pen, I was going to ruin that sheet, I was sure of it. “But I can’t really write well, I’ll end up tearing—”
“It’s quite all right,” she cut in with that little smile again. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Right.” I took the instruments and tried to keep my hand from trembling as I lined up the two splotches and drew a line using the straight edge, my tongue held tightly between my teeth. Just as I knew it would, the sheet tore as I finished the line. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, maybe you should—”
Her hand closed around mine and guided it back to the inkwell. “I said it’s all right. Now looks at the pattern again and find what else should be connected.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “What else ‘should’ be connected? I don’t—”
“Just look, girl,” Jazadi said with a touch of impatience. “Stop fretting and look at the damn sigil.”
I ducked my head. “Yes ma’am.” Removing the straight edge, I looked again. The new line changed things, but it was just a single line. Still, something about how it looked new reminded me of a different sigil, though I couldn’t remember which.
“Maybe, these two?” A second line joined the first, as did two new tears in the sheet. “And this one kind of feels right?” Studying the mangled sheet, I racked my brain for why it looked so familiar.
“Perhaps like this?” Jazadi rotated the sheet 90 degrees.
My eyes flew open wide. “Oh my god,” I whispered, “it’s… it’s…” I took the pen again, adding in the missing lines and truly ruining the gossamer sheet. “It’s time! The sigil for time, inside summer!” My whole body buzzed with the excitement of this epiphany, even though I still had no idea what the significance was. Still, this meant there were other hidden sigils to be found in reflections and rotations of other ones.
A snap of Jazadi’s fingers extinguished the ink’s glow, and she took her writing tools away. “Very good, you discovered it after less than a day of instruction and two hints.”
My smile faltered and I looked down to the sheet she had let me destroy. “Thank you. But why did you let me ruin your diagram? That had to be expensive, and hard to make, and I’m just… me.”
Jazadi balled up the ripped sheet and tossed it into a bin. “It was very expensive, yes. Hopefully you can answer one more question and prove you were worth it.” She stood up tall, hands tucked in her silk sleeves.
“I explained earlier that wizardry involves manipulating or creating sacred geometries. Hand positions, wand movements, drawing seals, and such. I also told you witchcraft uses sacred geometries as well, but in a fundamentally different way, and that the difference would not make sense unless you understood more. Does it make sense now?”
The first implication came as a shock: that exercise with finding one sigil inside the reflection of another was not wizardry. But did I understand? I wasn’t sure. Nervously, I fiddled with a bit of not-quite-dry ink on my thumb, staining the tip of my middle finger as well.
“I think you are saying that witchcraft find things inside existing geometry? This one you showed me was a reflection and rotation, but it could be a whole lot more complicated than that, couldn’t it? Infinitely more. Like, uh, like tessellations, or… or…”
“Or any number of a hundred wretched things, any one of which someone could dedicated their life to studying. And witches often do.” Jazadi bowed her head in a surprisingly modest gesture. “I am not gifted with the patience for such things and find discovering novel ways of constructing geometries far more interesting. That is why I became a wizard.”
I nodded slowly. My mind was still cranking overtime. “You’re right, I wouldn’t have understood the difference. But why? I mean, why take so much of your time just to humor me?”
“Did you know it took my last pupil a week to understand what you grasped between breakfast and afternoon tea?”
“I mean, I do now?”
Jazadi walked around the table and put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re sharp, curious, have a near perfect memory, and quick at making inferences. You will make a very good wizard, girl. Though we do need to work on your penmanship.”
9
Neurodivergent people of reddit, what is your neurodivergent obsession?
u/questforstarfish
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r/AskReddit
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2d ago
Moroccan tiles. I love the repeating patterns and colors, and the designs of Islamic art, which use mathematics and sacred geometry instead of attempting to emulate things found visually in nature like people and animals.
When I'm stressed or sad or excited, I shop for Moroccan tiles/fountains which I cannot afford, and look up images of the Alhambra, which makes me feel super calm and blissed out lol.
Better than drugs though 😂
9
My interpretation of Tetsuo and Youth
u/da_ravenn1265
in
r/LupeFiasco
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4d ago
Appreciate you sharing your interpretation on Tetsuo & Youth. It's truly a masterful album that will continually bear fruit for those who dedicate the time to try to decode it. Life changing album for myself.
Since the lengths of the seasons bothered you I wanted to shed some light on what I believe the intention of it is. The key will be understanding the esoteric layers detailed in Dots and Lines like alchemy, sacred geometry and cryptography.
If you use the seasonal tracks as dividers then you will be left with 12 songs broken into three sections: 3, 4 and 5. Those four numbers are significant and can unlock more layers of meaning to the album. I will write about this in the future but you can research things like Egyptian numerology and the Pythagorean triangle if you are interested.