Symbol — Encyclopedia of Mystery & Metaphysics
Daily Discovery
Symbol · Esoteric Symbols
Metatron's Cube
The Matrix of Creation
Thirteen circles with straight lines joining every centre to every other, named after the angel Metatron.
What it meansDrawn by joining the thirteen circles of the Fruit of Life, and its claim is that all five Platonic solids can be found inside the result. The reading is that one construction contains every possible regular form — order not imposed on matter but already latent in the figure.
The FindingThe five-solids claim goes back to Drunvalo Melchizedek's Flower of Life workshops (1985-94, printed 1998). He says angels told him 'They're all in there', and that finding the dodecahedron took him over twenty years.
Symbol · The Ancient World
Gorgoneion
The Visage of Protection
The face of a Gorgon, often Medusa, shown head-on on Greek shields, roof-tiles and cups to ward off harm.
What it meansIt works by looking at you. The head faces outward on shields, roof-tiles and cups, one of the few frontal faces in an art of profiles. What turned men to stone is aimed at whatever approaches: protection by threat, kept after the monster died.
The FindingHomer's Iliad already sets a Gorgon's head on Athena's aegis and on Agamemnon's shield, yet never names Medusa. That Athena set Perseus's trophy in her shield is told in the Library of Apollodorus, of the first or second century AD.
Symbol · Esoteric Symbols
Seed of Life
The Seven Days of Creation
Seven equal circles: six centred round the rim of a seventh, each passing through its centre.
What it meansDrunvalo Melchizedek calls it the Genesis pattern. Spirit makes a first sphere, then moves six times, projecting a new sphere each time; the six outer circles are the six days of Genesis.
The FindingThe seven-circle figure is far older than its New Age name. A lattice of such rosettes is carved across a gypsum door-sill from Ashurbanipal's North Palace at Nineveh, seventh century BC, now Louvre AO 19915.