Sacred geometry · Made with one compass
Sacred Geometry Studio
Every famous sacred geometry figure comes from one circle and one compass setting. Press Next and watch a single circle grow into the Vesica Piscis, the Seed of Life, the Flower of Life, the Fruit of Life and Metatron’s Cube, then find the solid shapes hidden inside it. Pick your colors and keep it as a 4K wallpaper.
Now showing
One circle
Hidden solid
Colors
How it works
Seven steps, one compass
The rule is simple: never change the compass. Draw a circle. Put the point anywhere on that circle and draw a second one. Put the point where they cross and draw a third. Keep putting the point on a crossing and the six-around-one pattern appears by itself, because six circles of the same size fit exactly around a seventh. That is the Seed of Life.
One more ring gives the Flower of Life, 19 circles inside a border circle three radii wide. Carry on past the border and you can pick out 13 circles that just touch each other: the Fruit of Life. Join the centres of those 13 circles with straight lines, every one to every other, and you get 78 lines. That web is called Metatron’s Cube.
The hidden solids are shadows. Look at a cube corner-on and its outline is a hexagon with a Y inside. That exact drawing sits inside Metatron’s Cube, and so do the flat shadows of a tetrahedron, a star tetrahedron and an octahedron. Step 7 lights each one up. Each figure has its own page: the Flower of Life, Metatron’s Cube and the Platonic solids.
Questions
Drawing sacred geometry
How do you draw the Flower of Life?
Draw a circle with a compass. Without changing the compass, put the point on the edge of that circle and draw again, then keep putting the point where two circles cross. Six circles fit around the first (the Seed of Life); one more ring gives 19 circles, which a border circle three radii wide turns into the Flower of Life.
How many circles are in the Flower of Life?
The usual Flower of Life has 19 full circles inside a border circle: 1 in the middle, 6 around it and 12 in the outer ring. The Seed of Life inside it has 7.
How many lines are in Metatron’s Cube?
78. Metatron’s Cube joins the centres of the 13 circles of the Fruit of Life, each to every other one, and 13 × 12 ÷ 2 = 78.
What shapes are hidden in Metatron’s Cube?
The flat outlines of a cube, a tetrahedron, a star tetrahedron and an octahedron can all be traced along its lines. These are drawings of the solids seen from one angle, not the 3D solids themselves.
What is the Vesica Piscis?
The lens shape where two equal circles overlap when each passes through the other’s centre. The lens is exactly √3, about 1.732, times as tall as it is wide.
Can I use the wallpaper I make?
Yes. The 4K file is yours for your phone, desktop or print at home. Share it as much as you like.
Sources
Where this comes from
- Euclid, Elements Book I, Proposition 1, the two-circle construction, translated by T. L. Heath, Perseus Digital Library: tufts.edu.
- Eric W. Weisstein, “Seed of Life,” “Flower of Life” and “Fruit of Life,” MathWorld: mathworld.wolfram.com.
- Eric W. Weisstein, “Vesica Piscis,” MathWorld: mathworld.wolfram.com.
- Eric W. Weisstein, “Metatron’s Cube,” MathWorld, on the 78 lines and the cube, octahedron and tetrahedron inside: mathworld.wolfram.com.
- Eric W. Weisstein, “Platonic Solid,” MathWorld: mathworld.wolfram.com.
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