However, in the strict sense of the meaning, when we refer to sacred geometry we are talking about methods, ancient or modern, of representing the metaphysical relationship between our physical existence and the spiritual source of existence -- between the consciousness of the individual and the Universal Consciousness of the transcendental dimension.

This relationship is the seed of creation.  It is an interaction process that is the root cause of all forms, the source of the experience of "otherness", and the entire field of objective spacetime.

Modeling Multidimensional Geometries

When we model a three-dimensional sphere on a two-dimensional page, we easily understand that the resulting circle is only a limited representation, and we have no problem visualizing the sphere within the conceptual space of our mind.  With the use of shading and perspective, 3-D models on flat paper can be very convincing, making it still easier to use the conceptual 3-D space of our mind to visualize what the model is trying to represent.

Modeling more than three dimensions gets a little more difficult since the space of our mind seems to be limited to the same three dimensions as the space of our objective experience.  However, the mind is perfectly capable of conceptualizing more than three dimensions, even though they cannot be visualized all at once.  This is exactly what is done in the Minkowski diagram.  Three-dimensional space is represented by a flat plane, and a spherical plane surrounding the observer at any given constant distance is represented by a simple ring on the past light-cone.  Our mind is able to understand that these models are limited representations of more complex, even extra-dimensional, structures.

Sometimes different geometric forms are used to represent the same state of reality, usually as representing different qualities, relationships, or perspectives of the same thing.  With a simple transformation of the defining coordinate system, for example, a geometric form can take on an entirely different shape.  As mentioned in "Realm of the Quasar", the hyperspherical model of a big bang universe with three-dimensional space visualized as the surface of an expanding balloon, can at the same time be thought of as being flat, or even hyperbolic, as far as relativistic geometry is concerned.  In fact, many different geometries have been used throughout history to represent cosmological relationships.

For in the view of the old Sumerian astronomical observers, the universe was neither flat nor a sphere, but in the form of a great mountain, ...

In a late Sumerian cuneiform text of ca 2000 BC  ...   the name of the goddess-mother of the universe, Nammu, is denoted by an ideogram signifying "sea", and she is given praise as "the mother who gave birth to Heaven-and-Earth [ama tu an-ki]." Moreover, a second tablet of about the same date   ...  tells that when this "Heaven-and-Earth" emerged from the primal sea, its form was of a mountain whose summit, Heaven (An), was male, and lower portion, Earth (Ki), female; further, that from this dual being the air-god Enlil was born, by whom the two were separated.  ...

But this, almost to the letter, is the myth preserved in the classical [Greek] legend of Earth and Heaven, Gaia and Ouranos, separated by their son Kronos.  We recognize it also in the ancient Egyptian representation of the separation of Heaven and Earth by the air-god Shu, or  ...  by a god bearing on his head a mountain sign -- except that in Egypt the sexes of the world-parents are reversed, Heaven (Nut) being female, and Earth (Geb) male.

Joseph Campbell
The Mythic Image
1974, Princeton University Press

In these ancient examples, the tip of the cosmic mountain corresponds to the spiritual dimension, and thus to the Universal Singularity (at the instant of the Big Bang or in the center of the hypersphere), and the tip of the individual's light-cone is a point at the foot of the cosmic mountain, in the physical dimension.  In the Vedic tradition, the unfoldment of creation from the spiritual to the physical is generally represented by a series of concentric spheres, usually seven, the center being the unchanging spiritual dimension.  Transcending the universal chakras to the spiritual source is often described as climbing a cosmic mountain.  This theme is also reflected in the general form of the mandala, with the center of the motif representing the spiritual source of creation.

In fact, the circle or sphere is the most common spiritual motif, used throughout history to represent the infinity and oneness of creation.

An Archaic Manuscript....is before the writer's eye.  On the first page is an immaculate white disk within a dull black background. On the following page, the same disk, but with a central point.  The first, the student knows to represent Kosmos in Eternity, before the re-awakening of the still slumbering Energy...   The point in the hitherto immaculate Disk, Space and Eternity in Pralaya, denotes the dawn of differentiation.  It is the Point in the Mundane Egg..., the germ within the latter which will become the Universe, the ALL, the boundless, periodical Kosmos....The one circle is divine Unity, from which all proceeds, whither all returns.

Helena Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine, Vol.1, Cosmogenesis
The Theosophical Publishing House

 

We should always keep in mind that metaphysical geometries are a way of modeling higher-dimensional relationships that are more real than the geometries themselves.  What is most important is to develop an intuitive understanding of the metaphysical relationship or principle being modeled, and as powerful as they are as teaching tools, we must not get too hung up on the models themselves.  The realization of transcendental unity is the goal of any metaphysical system or spiritual teaching.

The Cosmic Mandala

Wind or Air stands for the gaseous state.
Fire stands for transformation, and is usually depicted as a red triangle.
Water stands for the liquid state, and is represented by a half-circle or circle.
Earth stands for solid matter, and is symbolized a yellow square or cube.

The emerging forms of the elements are painted in the blue ring surrounding the Cosmic Center, in the lower sphere intimating the world continents-to-be.  The blue Ether represents the all pervading condition, the source of all elements filling the space of the Mandala.  On it circles are drawn, looking like ellipses in their dynamic intersection.  They portray the orbits of celestial bodies, painted in all the colors of the rainbow plus black and white and indicating the directions.  These twelve astrological circles of the upper sphere demonstrate the movements in the seasons of the sun, moon, and stars.

-- courtesy BuddhaNet

The Sephiroth:

The 1st Sephirah
Kether, the Crown

The 2nd Sephirah
Chokmah, Wisdom

The 3nd Sephirah
Binah, Understanding

The Invisible Sephirah
Da'ath, Knowledge

The 4th Sephirah
Chesed, Mercy

The 5th Sephirah
Geburah, Strength

The 6th Sephirah
Tiphareth, Beauty

The 7th Sephirah
Netzach, Victory

The 8th Sephirah
Hod, Glory

The 9th Sephirah
Yesod, Foundation

The 10th Sephirah
Malkuth, The Kingdom

The Dalai Lama, 1980

... it is shown in every ancient scripture and Cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a luminous incorporeal form, over which...the physical frame of the body was built, through, and from, the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life.   "The Soul and the Form when descending on Earth put on an earthly garment," says the Zohar.  ...   "When Adam dwelt in the garden of Eden, he was dressed in the celestial garment, which is the garment of heavenly light, ... light of that light which was used in the garden of Eden."

Helena Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine, Vol.2, Anthropogenesis
The Theosophical Publishing House

Just as big bang cosmology is paralleled within the quantum realm, just as the entire history of cosmological evolution (Cosmogenesis) is ever-present in the structure of the atom, the entire history of human evolution (Anthropogenesis) is ever-present in the structure of the body-soul vehicle.  The relationship between the heavenly light of the Garden of Eden and the earthly world of the manifest Universe, is reflected directly in the relationship between the soul and the body, mind and matter, consciousness and spacetime.  In each case, both realms exist simultaneously in an intricate web of interdependence, and in each case, the higher, more ethereal levels provide the primary substance for the lower, more corporeal realms.  In transcendental meditation, an increasing transcendence is a progression toward the source of conscious unfoldment (and toward the central source of the Universe itself).

Consciousness thus proceeds from the more limited to the more comprehensive, from lesser to greater intensity, from lower to higher dimensions, and each higher dimension includes the lower ones by coordinating its elements in a wider and more intricate structure of relationships.  ...  Thus the reality of a lower dimension is not devaluated or eliminated by the higher one, but only relativized.

Lama Anagarika Govinda
Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness
1976, The Theosophical Publishing House

 

The code of the FLOWER OF LIFE actually contains all the wisdom found in the universe, similar to the genetic code contained within our own DNA.   This geometric code goes beyond ordinary forms of teaching and lies beneath the very structure of reality itself.  All the harmonics of light, sound and music exist within this geometric structure, which exists as a holographic pattern, defining the shape of both atoms and galaxies alike.  This image has been used throughout the world and has been found in all the major religions in all countries.  ...  The Flower of Life pattern was considered so sacred to the ancients, that it was kept secret and has only been found in a few known Egyptian sites.

Drunvalo Melchizedek
from Flower of Life Research

This very same geometry probably underlies what modern physics is calling the quantum vacuum, and is fundamental to the creation process at the quantum level.