Paulo Coelho

Stories & Reflections

Association of the Week: The Triangle

Author: Paulo Coelho

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?

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