Sacred geometry · The pattern
What is the Flower of Life?
The Flower of Life is a pattern of 19 circles of the same size, overlapping so that six surround each one, held inside a larger circle. The pattern is old and turns up carved in stone from Egypt to Assyria, but the name “Flower of Life” is modern: it was made famous by Drunvalo Melchizedek’s books in 1999 and 2000. Anyone can draw it with a compass in about five minutes. Press the button below and watch.
Now
Flower of Life
Violet dot: the compass point. Gold dot: the pencil. Every circle has the same radius.
How to draw it
Draw the Flower of Life with a compass
- Draw a circle. Set your compass to any radius and draw. Never change the compass again.
- Put the point on the edge of that circle, anywhere, and draw a second circle. The two overlap in a lens shape, the vesica piscis, and each passes through the other’s centre.
- Move the point to a crossing where two circles meet and draw again. Go round the first circle this way. After six, you are back where you started: 7 circles, the Seed of Life.
- Keep going round, always putting the point on a crossing, to add an outer ring of 12 circles. That makes 19.
- Draw the border. Open the compass to three radii and draw one big circle around the middle. That is the Flower of Life.
Six circles fit exactly around one because the centres of three touching circles form a triangle with equal sides, and six 60° angles make 360°. Euclid used the same two-circle move as the very first construction in his Elements, to draw an equilateral triangle.
Where it is old
The pattern in stone
Abydos, Egypt. The most famous example is in the Osireion, a sunken stone hall just behind the temple of Pharaoh Seti I, who reigned from about 1290 to 1279 BCE. The circles are cut high up on its stone columns, which stand about 4.1 metres tall. They are not as old as the building. The researcher David Furlong concluded they were added long after the temple fell out of use, when sand was filling the hall; Greek letters nearby point to the Christian era, perhaps the 5th or 6th century CE. Malcolm Stewart puts them broadly between the 4th century BCE and about 400 CE.
Nineveh, Assyria. A carved stone door threshold from the North Palace at Nineveh, the palace of King Ashurbanipal, who reigned from 668 to 627 BCE, is often cited as showing the pattern. It is in the Louvre in Paris, catalogue number AO 19915, carved in gypsum alabaster and about two metres long.
Judea and Rome. A floor mosaic from a bathhouse in King Herod’s palace, from the 1st century BCE, shows the overlapping-circle grid, and the pattern turns up in mosaics at Sepphoris in Galilee.
Leonardo da Vinci. In 1516 and 1517, near the end of his life, Leonardo filled pages of his Codex Atlanticus with studies of overlapping circles related to this pattern, folios 307 to 309. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan files them under geometry, with the heading ludo geometrico, “geometric play.”
Where the name comes from
A modern name for an old pattern
For most of history the pattern had no special name. MathWorld, the mathematics encyclopedia, puts it plainly: “The name ‘flower of life’ is modern.” The same goes for “Seed of Life.”
The name spread through Drunvalo Melchizedek, who taught Flower of Life workshops from 1985 to 1994 and published them as The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life, volume 1 in 1999 and volume 2 in 2000. His books presented the pattern as a key to creation: extend it, pick out 13 circles called the Fruit of Life, join their centres, and you get Metatron’s Cube, which he linked to the five Platonic solids.
So what does it mean? The meaning most people know today, a symbol of creation and of everything being connected, comes from that modern teaching. The geometry underneath is real and checkable: every circle in it passes through the centres of the circles next to it, and the whole thing grows from one compass setting. Earlier users, from Assyrian palace builders to Leonardo, left no record of what it meant to them.
What is proven
The Flower of Life, sorted
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| It is 19 circles of one size inside a border circle. | Real · count them above |
| It can be drawn with one compass setting. | Real · Euclid’s first move |
| Leonardo da Vinci drew it. | Real · Codex Atlanticus, 1516 to 1517 |
| It is carved at Abydos in ancient Egypt. | Partly · added in Greek or Roman times |
| The name “Flower of Life” is ancient. | No · modern, spread from 1999 |
| It contains Metatron’s Cube. | Partly · only after extending it |
| Wearing it has a measurable effect. | No evidence · a symbol, not a device |
Questions
The Flower of Life
What is the meaning of the Flower of Life?
Today it is used as a symbol of creation and of everything being connected, a meaning that comes from Drunvalo Melchizedek’s books of 1999 and 2000. As geometry, it is 19 equal circles in which each circle passes through the centres of the circles next to it, all drawn with one compass setting.
How many circles are in the Flower of Life?
19 full circles: 1 in the middle, 6 around it and 12 in the outer ring, inside a border circle three radii wide. The 7 in the middle are the Seed of Life.
Is the Flower of Life Egyptian?
It appears in Egypt, on the columns of the Osireion at Abydos, but researchers who studied it date those carvings to Greek or Roman times, more than a thousand years after the hall was built. Similar patterns appear in Assyria, Judea and Rome.
Do Christians believe in the Flower of Life?
It is not a Christian teaching, or part of any one religion. It is a geometric pattern that many cultures used as decoration, including in the Christian era: the Abydos carvings sit near Greek Christian letters, and the vesica piscis shape inside it frames holy figures in Christian art, where it is called a mandorla.
What does wearing the Flower of Life do?
No study shows any physical effect. People wear it as a reminder of what it means to them, the way any symbol is worn.
What is a Flower of Life tattoo?
A tattoo of the 19-circle pattern, often with its border, sometimes combined with the Seed of Life or Metatron’s Cube. Because it is pure geometry, it scales well and stays clean at any size.
Sources
Where this comes from
- Eric W. Weisstein, “Flower of Life,” “Seed of Life” and “Fruit of Life,” MathWorld: mathworld.wolfram.com.
- Euclid, Elements Book I, Proposition 1, translated by T. L. Heath, Perseus Digital Library: tufts.edu.
- David Furlong, “The Osirion and the Flower of Life”: davidfurlong.co.uk.
- Malcolm Stewart, “The ‘Flower of Life’ and the Osirion: Facts are more interesting than Fantasy”: davidfurlong.co.uk.
- “Abydos” and “Seti I,” Encyclopaedia Britannica: britannica.com.
- Door threshold, North Palace, Nineveh, AO 19915, Musée du Louvre: louvre.fr.
- “Ashurbanipal,” Encyclopaedia Britannica: britannica.com.
- Codex Atlanticus, ff. 307 to 309 and 459, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan: ambrosiana.it.
- Drunvalo Melchizedek, The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life, volumes 1 (1999) and 2 (2000), Light Technology: openlibrary.org.
- Eric W. Weisstein, “Vesica Piscis,” MathWorld: mathworld.wolfram.com.
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Poster
The Flower of Life, printed large.