The circle is the most used geometrical symbol and its shape reminds the shape of the Sun and the Moon.
For ancient philosophers, such as Plato, the circle represents the perfect shape. It is said that the Temple of Apollo in the land of Hyperborean had a circular shape – which reminds the shape of Stonehenge in South England as well as Plato’s description of the island of Atlantis.
Mystical systems represent God as a circle that has a center everywhere and the circumference is nowhere – proof that God’s perfection is unattainable to man.
The Egyptian symbol of eternity was a string closed by a buckle, in other cultures infinity would be depicted as a serpent biting its own tail (Ouroboros).
Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the circle?
The triangle is one of the most elementary symbolic figures due to its geometric aspect: it’s basically the simplest way of linking three points in space with straight lines.
Yet not all triangles have the same meaning. In excavations made near to Lepenski Vir in the Danube, there was found many blocs of stones shaped like triangles and inscriptions in bones also with triangular shapes. These vestiges date from the Stone Age and are mainly composed of inverted triangles which most probably refer to the feminine sex.
In more recent times, including in Alchemic texts, the inverted triangle would symbolize water (reproducing in a geometric fashion the shape of a drop) whilst the triangle with its point up would refer to the masculine element of fire.
In the system drawn from Pythagoras (Born between 580 and 572 BC, died between 500 and 490 BC), the delta letter symbolized the cosmic birth, whilst for Hindus the same letter would represent the goddess Durga – source of life and incarnation of femininity.
In the Christian era, the triangle was increasingly used as a symbol of the Trinity and later on, during the Baroque period, God’s eye was incrusted at its center. Such a vision can also be found in the Zohar: “God’s eyes and foreheads form in the sky a triangle and they reflect mutually in water in the shape of a triangle.”
Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the triangle?
The eye is always associated in traditional cultures with light and spiritual perceptions. According to ancient beliefs, the eye was not a passive receiver of light, but rather a source of light.
It is believed that such was the power of the eye that certain creatures would have magical powers in their eyes. It is the case of Medusa in Greek mythology that would petrify anyone that would look at her. In Ancient Ireland, Balor, the king of Fomorians,, would use in the battlefields his bad eye against his enemies. This belief in the bad eye gave rise in many cultures, especially Mediterranean ones, to many amulets supposed to protect people.
The positive connotation of the eye is nevertheless wider and thus the eye is associated with knowledge and by extension with the power of foresight. But the access to this type of vision – that goes beyond the mere appearance of things - is usually achieved by the sacrifice of this very organ. The wise man Tiresias, Apollo’s priest, was blind. The Scandinavian God Odin also gives one of his eyes to the Giant Mimir for knowledge. In Christianity the All Seeing Eye of God is represented inside the sun of a pyramid – which means that God sees all everywhere and always.
Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the eye?
