Sacred Geometry in the Solar System

I
The Golden Mean
“…every diagram, and system of number, and every combination of harmony, and the
agreement of the revolution of the stars must be made manifest as one through all to him who learns in
the proper way, and will be made manifest if, as we say, a man learns aright by keeping his gaze on
unity; for it will be manifest to us, as we reflect, that there is one bond naturally uniting all these
things: but if one goes about it in some other way, one must call it Fortune, as we also put it.”

(Plato, Epinomis 991c-992a)

One of the most beautiful signatures of
Life is known as the Golden Proportion or Phi
(ɸ). It is found all around the universe, both in
macrocosmic and microcosmic scales of
existence. The Golden Proportion seems to be
the most basic proportion given to Nature in
order that she bring forth the immense diversity
of living beings that populate the Earth and the
Universe as a whole.
The miracle and mystery of Life is
deeply linked to the Golden Proportion in a
variety of ways. The Earth is a vast astronomical
organism housing an amazingly rich variety of
mineral, vegetable, and animal life forms, but
the origin of Life itself is a mystery beyond the
comprehension of modern science and its
limitations to materialist philosophies.
The Golden Proportion –at once a
mathematical, geometrical, and logical
occurrence– has a prominent role in defining
such rich conditions for Life on our planet, but
its presence is abundant even beyond biological
life on Earth. The Golden Proportion is a
universal function, a universal mystery with a
well defined logic and mathematical basis, but
we will rarely come upon a modern text book of
physics, chemistry or biology giving it the
attention it truly deserves as a cosmic function
deeply related to Life as defined as a conscious
experience of the world. In our current scientific
wonder about the universe, we seem to have
skipped the most apparent and singular
signature of Life and disregarded its importance
in the process of creation: consciousness. Such
an obviation is mostly due to our materialistic
perspectives on reality which ultimately means
the annihilation of the search for the greatest
mystery of Life: our conscious identity or “I”.
The Golden Proportion or ɸ is a cosmic
function. This means that it is not something
unique to terrestrial life, but to all Life in
general, whether it is mineral, plant, animal or
astronomical life, the signature of ɸ is present.
In our Solar System, the Golden
Proportion is most notably found in the orbital
dance performed between Venus and the Earth
around the Sun. A study of the geometry at play
behind the orbits of Earth and Venus allows us
to understand how ɸ is geometrically linked to
the figure of the pentagram (seen on next
page).
The pentagram was venerated by
Pythagoreans over 2500 years ago as a holy
symbol, and these mystics considered the
pentagram to represent Life-Force or Soul. The
Five-fold geometry is seen to represent the

1
pious soul: the soul which has conquered the 4
cardinal virtues of Moderation, Courage,
Wisdom, and Justice but especially the
quintessence of Virtue which is Piety: the
devotion to God.
Consecutive conjunctions between
Venus and Earth draw a very clear pentagonal
form in the heavens, but such a beautiful design
cannot be seen by the naked eye or through a
telescope: it can only be discovered after one
plots the orbits of the Earth and Venus and
draws the consecutive positions where they
enter into conjunction with the Zodiac as a
reference. After 5 alignments, the pentagram-
cycle is complete and according to the positions
of these conjunctions a pentagonal form can be
appreciated very clearly. This figure was known
as the Pentagrama Veneris, and it is itself the
astronomical sign which would have enabled
ancient astronomers to observe the play of the
Golden Proportion in heaven between Earth
and its closest neighbor Venus.
The arithmetic or mathematical play is
of 13 Venus orbits for every 8 Earth orbits, so
the Pentagrama Veneris is drawn after a period
of some 2920 days or 8 Earth years.
Venus and the Earth take an average of
584 days to align in conjunction, and after 5
such alignments, the cycle returns to its
beginning. The position of the consecutive
alignments follows the pattern of the
pentagram which can be drawn without lifting
the pen.
Even though many people today may
associate the pentagram figure to forms of
black magic and satanic cults, the pentagram is
actually a symbol highly valued by mystics and
quite important in the study of sacred
geometry. The pentagram actually reveals the
unique properties of ɸ as an infinite proportion
which recycles itself, and thus it is associated to
the Spirit or Life-Force principle of the universe
and its re-generative and healing function.
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 The importance of the pentagram in
sacred geometry is that it has a deep link to ɸ
or the Golden Proportion as a function inherent
to Life. Much of the negative association to the
figure of the pentagram was engendered in the
Dark Ages, when religion and science were
completely split apart by human ignorance and
corruption. Nevertheless, today we can see
some of the inherent traits this figure has
through a brief analysis of its geometrical and
arithmetical properties.
We can be quite sure that if the orbits
of Earth and Venus were not synchronized by
the Golden Ratio of 8:13, the conditions on this
planet would be very different: Life itself, in
fact, as a conscious experience of the universe
would be totally absent. The fact that we find
the shape of a flower with 5 petals being drawn
in heaven through invisible gravity lines linking
Earth and Venus allows us to recognize that the
basic geometric signature is identical to many
life-forms on earth. One of them is the Lotus
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flower, a sacred symbol in both Ancient Egypt
and India. It is no accident or random
coincidence that archetypal geometries appear
in heaven and on earth; it is, rather, an evident
proof that Spirit manifests itself through Nature
very much in accordance with the Hermetic
principle: as it is above, so it is below. Life, as
the manifestation of Spirit through Nature or
Matter is governed by invisible –yet intelligible–
Archetypes or Forms. These are what we call
the signatures.
Archetypes or primordial Forms govern
the solid manifestation of life (its perceptual
appearance). But these manifestations are
firstly directed or defined (limited or
delineated) in an invisible (mental) aspect of
reality which Man may only perceive by his
cognitive power of abstraction. The study of
Geometry makes this invisible realm apparent
to us, for what we draw is the manifest
expression of what we knowingly recognize in
the realm of abstraction. The same is true for
Numbers: they are abstract and archetypal
principles of the universe which we symbolize in
written forms.
These Archetypes or Platonic Forms
govern the whole of manifestation both in the
macrocosm and microcosmic levels of
existence, but they are not apparent to our
sensorial or empirical awareness. It is only their
effects that we can contemplate empirically.
Take the case of gravity, for example. No one
can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch gravity. We
can only notice and formulate its existence in
abstract terms, with algebraic symbols, for
example, and we can only notice its effects
through sensorial means.
Diversity depends on the recognition of
difference between particular expressions, yet
Unity depends on our ability to perceive the
congruence or similarity hidden behind
apparent diversity and the non-equal. For
example, we may conceive that a star-fish and a
lotus flower are different beings pertaining to
two different kingdoms, one animal and the
other plan or vegetable, yet the pentagram
form, the 5-fold archetype, is present in both of
these manifestations as in many others, such as
the human hand or any pentagonal shape. That
the pentagram is also present in the orbital
patterns of Earth and Venus around the Sun
shows that these archetypes are governing not
only our immediate microcosmic reality or
dimension, but both macrocosmic and
microcosmic realities. Thus, archetypal forms
govern all manifest realities across the vast
dimensions of the universe. Just as we can
notice the difference between a lotus flower
and a star-fish, we can also notice their
similarities because we can appreciate the
common form or archetypal structure.
The study of the harmonies latent in
our Solar System clearly reveal that Life on our
home planet and the universe as a whole is the
product of Intelligent Design, not random
chance or accident. The Ancient Greeks such as
Plato called this Universal Intelligence the Nous.
In Christian texts this is known as the Logos,
and it is the concept from where we get our
word “logic” and is also the philosophical
principle for all those fancy suffixes appended
on our scientific disciplines such as psycho-logy,
geo-logy, anthropo-logy, and so on and so forth.
That there is a Logos or logic behind the
manifest appearance of the world enables Man
to discover and understand the Laws of Nature.
These Laws are hidden in an abstract realm
where the eye cannot see and the ear may not
hear, and so it is a supra-empirical reality. But
the intellect of Man (his nous) can penetrate
the Logos or Noetic aspect of the universe and
come to perceive that “randomness” is only but
his inability to detect the underlying logical
patterns and inherent order behind the visible
or empirical experience of reality.
The word Kosmos literally means Order
in the ancient Greek language and it was no
accident that they used this term to refer to the
universe. The inherent order or the world is
found in the Noetic plane of the universe,
whereas the irrational aspect of reality (which
shows a disorder or random chaos) is
appreciated by the 5-sense experience of
reality.
The Logos is the Intelligent and logical
bond that unites all particularities, all
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objectifyable things, all phenomena, all natural Intelligence: the Nous of the Greeks. The
manifestation. So in the ancient wisdom of Egyptian mythology which poses a husband and
India, the Logos is known as the Dharma: the wife relationship between Ma’at and Toth has
ordering principle of the universe. The Dharma the purpose of illustrating that the Universal
is the underlying Order, Rule, or Law of the Intelligence and the Universal Order come hand
universe. On the other hand, this inherent order in hand. In Greek terms, these would be the
of the world was known to the Ancient Nous and the Kosmos: an inseparable reality
Egyptians as Ma’at. The Ma’at is usually
represented by the hieroglyph of the feather,
and also depicted as a woman with wings.
Ma’at is said to be the consort of Toth, the deity
who represents the archetype of Universal

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that speaks of the universe being Intelligent as
Plato says in his dialogue Timaeus.1
This archetype of Universal Order was
also associated in Greece with the goddess
Diké. In Rome this goddess was called by the
name of Iustitia, and here we meet the root of
the modern word “justice”, not actually “a
goddess”, (which is an empty terminology
unless it is understood as the archetype for a
Universal Order in the soul. Justice cannot exist
without the idea of a Universal Order, and the
injustice of Man (his sin) lies in his inability to
perceive the inherent Order of the universe as it
does in his inability to recognize the Law
governing action. Man’s actions might go
against or in favor of this Order or Kosmos.
Hence the idea behind “evolution” and
“devolution” in the Yuga calendar of the ages is
related to the Dharma. It is Man’s inability to
understand Dharma and live in accordance with
this Universal Order that produces the terrible
effects and consequences of Kali Yuga or Iron
Age, while it is Man’s ability to understand the
Dharma and follow its principles which
produces a Golden Age or Krta Yuga.
The Golden Proportion plays a
fundamental role in the Cosmic Order as it is
the principle of stability or equilibrium to which
Nature is subject. Astronomically, this may be
appreciated in more ways than by observing the
pentagram of Venus and Earth. In Chapter 1 we
defined dates for the Ages of the Great Cycle by
following the Great Conjunction cycle between
Jupiter and Saturn. This pulse or fundamental
heartbeat of the Solar System also reveals the
archetypal image of ɸ.

1
The idea is not that the universe is a bundle of
matter and particles created by an intelligent agent,
but that the Kosmos is in itself Intelligent.