(iii. 16), in the question by and answer to Nicodemus, and it was the
eye of the needle referred to in St. Mark x. 25, in answer to the
question in verse 17, and again in St. Luke xviii. 25. In later ages
this symbol was extensively used by the Christian Church to surround
the "Soul of a Saint" after death (illustrated in _Magister
Mathesios_). The date of the birth of a Saint was always given as the
date on which he or she died and had been born again in the Spiritual
Life, and the Saint was depicted in a Vesica Piscis, the vulva of the
_Ruach_ or Holy Spirit, representing this new birth. To show the
extraordinary reverence and high value attached to this symbol, it is
only necessary to remember that, from the fourth century, when Theon
of Alexandria lectured on Geometry, and onwards, all Seals of
Colleges, Abbeys, Monasteries, and other religious communities, as
well as of ecclesiastical persons, have been made invariably of this
form, and they continue to be made so to this day. It was also in
allusion to this most sacred ancient emblem that Tertullian, and other
early Fathers, spoke of Christians as "Pisciculi." It was called the
"Vesica Piscis" (Fish's Bladder), and named, no doubt, by the Greeks
at the beginning of our Era, for the purpose of misleading the
ignorant from the true meaning of the Figure.
One can well understand the object which led the learned Rabbi
Maimonides, the greatest savant of the Middle Ages, when addressing
his pupils in the twelfth century, to command his hearers: "When you
have discovered the meaning thereof, do not divulge it, because the
people cannot philosophise nor understand that to the Infinite there
is no such thing as Sex;" but later on the noted writer on Symbolism,
Durandus, in the introduction to his book, is more explicit, and gives
the real meaning as follows: "The Mystical Vesica Piscis ... wherein
the Divinity and, more rarely, the Blessed Virgin are represented,
has no reference, except in name, to a fish, but represents the
Almond, the symbol of Virginity and self-production."
The Vesica Piscis, and its name, is intimately connected with the
discovery, by Augustus Caesar in the century preceding our Era, as
narrated by Baronius, of a prophecy in one of the Sibylline books,
foretelling "a great event coming to pass in the birth of One who
should prove to be the true 'King of Kings,' and Augustus Caesar
therefore dedicated an altar in his palace to this unknown God."
Eusebius and St. Augustine inform us that the first letter of each
line of the verses from the Erythrean Sibyl containing this prophecy,
formed the word [Greek: ICHTHYS] (a fish), and were taken as
representing the sentence: [Greek: Iesous Christos Theou Huios
Soter]("Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour"). Based upon this
discovery arose that extraordinary enthusiasm, during the second,
third, and fourth centuries, for hunting up further prophecies in
Pagan sources, resulting in a great number of Sibylline verses being
invented, giving the minutest details in the Life of our Lord. These
fabrications seem to have been at that time generally accepted by the
masses as true prophecies, though we know now that they were written
some centuries after the events they were supposed to foretell.
Let us now return to the Vesica Piscis. In the paintings and
sculptures of the Middle Ages, we find it constantly used to
circumscribe the figure of the Saviour, especially whenever He is
represented as judging the world and in His glorified state. Many
beautiful examples of this in Anglo-Saxon work of the tenth century
may be seen in King Edgar's Book of Grants to Winchester Cathedral and
the famous Breviary of St. Ethelwolfe. Numerous illustrations of these
and other pictures of the Middle Ages, as also diagrams of the
properties of the Vesica Piscis, can be seen in the volume I have
already referred to dealing fully with this subject.
The building fraternity was a purely Christian community; the First
Crusade raised a great enthusiasm for building Christian Churches, and
brought in large gifts of money for that purpose. Up to 1140 Norman
Architecture held sway, having the "Square" for its unit, its greatest
symbol being the _Gnomon_, representing knowledge; but about that
time, as we have seen, arose from the study of Geometry, the head of
all learning, a Mystical form having the mysterious figure of the
Vesica Piscis, the true Gothic Arch, with the Equilateral Triangle
enclosed as its unit, and symbolising the Trinity in Unity. The
recognition of the import of the Trinity was paramount throughout
those early days; all important documents began with an Invocation of
the _Tres Personae_, or were garnished with symbolic illustrations
thereof; all the old MSS., already referred to, which have come down
to us from that period, invariably commence with "In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
It can therefore be readily understood what determined the sudden
change between 1140-1150, resulting in that wonderful accession of
beauty to architectural design which we find in the Gothic. The
incentive had to be a strong one, and of an eminently religious
character, to accomplish the radical change of throwing over so
absolutely the Norman, and commencing to build entirely on what are
called Gothic lines. A careful examination of the proportions of the
structures themselves, and the character of the decorations found in
the finest examples of buildings representing that style, at once
shows us that the incentive was the symbolism attached to the
mysterious figure called the Vesica Piscis, which appears to be not
only the principal feature upon which the whole style rests, but is
also employed, as a symbol of the Divine, wherever we have Gothic
Architecture, either in painted windows or mural decorations. Every
Cathedral has its Vesica Piscis, often of enormous dimensions.
Geometry was synonymous with Masonry, and the very _foundation_
of the Science of Geometry, as expounded by Euclid, was his
_first_ proposition. _Every single problem_ in the whole of his
books necessitates for its construction the use of this one
foundation--namely, "how to form an Equilateral Triangle," and this is
the Mystical form of "the Knowledge of the Square." This triangle,
symbolising the Logos, is therefore not only the _beginning_ of the
Science of Geometry, and therefore of Masonry, the Head of all the
Sciences, but it is by that triangle that all Geometrical forms, and
therefore forms of knowledge, are _made_, and it became the most
mysterious and secret symbol of the Logos, for is it not written by
St. John that "In the beginning was the Logos, and by it were all
things made"; so the Vesica Piscis, the cradle of the Logos, became
the great _secret_ of Masonry, the foundation as we find it upon which
Gothic Architecture was evolved, the means by which its wonderful
plans were laid down, and the most reverenced figure in Religious
Symbolism, as shown by its use in seals, engravings, sculptures,
pictures, &c., throughout the Middle Ages.
Let me make this clearer. The more one examines the typical points in
the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic styles of Architecture, the more clearly
one sees that the Architects of the two former used circles and
squares on their tracing-boards, as units for their proportions, in
drawing up both ground plans and elevations, with here and there
suggestions only of the Equilateral Triangle having been made use of
in some of the smaller details; whereas the Gothic Architects seem to
have used the Vesica Piscis almost entirely. This explains the reason
why true Gothic buildings have always been said to be built mainly on
the basis of the Equilateral Triangle; this naturally follows, because
the use of the Vesica creates, and therefore necessitates, the
appearance of the Equilateral Triangle in every conceivable situation.
The following quotation is typical of the leading essay writers on
this subject: "The Equilateral Triangle enters largely into, if it
does not entirely control, all mediaeval proportions, particularly in
the ground plans. In Chartres Cathedral the apices of two Equilateral
Triangles (_vide_ frontispiece to these Views), whose common base is
the internal length of the transept, measured through the two western
piers of the intersection, will give the interior length, one apex
extending to the east end of the chevet within the aisles, the other
to the original termination of the Nave westward, and the present
extent of the side aisles in that direction. With slight deviation,
most, if not all, the ground plans of the French Cathedrals are
measurable in this manner, and their choirs may be so measured almost
without exception. Troyes Cathedral is in exact proportion with that
of Chartres, and the choirs of Rheims, Beauvais, St. Ouen at Rouen,
and others are equally so. Bourges Cathedral, which has no transept,
is exactly three Equilateral Triangles in length inside, from the East
end of the outer aisle to the Eastern columns supporting the West
Towers. Most English Cathedrals appear to have been constructed in
their original plans upon similar rules." White's Classical Essay on
Architecture compares the Norman with the Gothic, where he says: "In
what is usually called the Norman period, the general proportions and
outlines of the Churches are reducible to certain rules of setting out
by the plain Square. As Architecture progressed the Square gradually
disappeared, and the proportion of general outline, as well as of
detail, fell in more and more with applications of the Equilateral
Triangle, till the art, having arrived at its culminating point, or
that which is generally acknowledged to be its period of greatest
beauty and perfection in the thirteenth and the beginning of the
fourteenth centuries, again began to decline. With this decline the
Equilateral Triangle was almost lost sight of, and then a mode of
setting out work by diagonal squares was taken up, for such is the
basis found exactly applicable to the work of the fifteenth century,
since which time mathematical proportions have been generally
employed." And after referring to numerous scale drawings of Churches,
windows, doors, and arches, he points out that every student of Church
architecture must pronounce those of the untraceried and traceried
first point to be the most beautiful of all, those of the Norman to be
a degree less so, and those of the perpendicular and debased to be far
inferior to either, and in that analysis we find that the Equilateral
Triangle was used almost exclusively for determining one order (the
Gothic), the Square for another (the Norman), and the Square
diagonally divided for the other (the debased).
Now let me try to describe the wonderful properties of the Vesica
Piscis, so that you may understand the mystery which shrouded it in
the minds of those Mediaeval builders. The rectangle formed by the
length and breadth of this figure, in the simplest form, has several
extraordinary properties; it may be cut into three equal parts by
straight lines parallel to the shorter side, and these parts will all
be precisely and geometrically similar to each other and to the whole
figure,--strangely applicable to the symbolism attached at that time
to the Trinity in Unity,--and the subdivision may be proceeded with
indefinitely without making any change in form. However often the
operation is performed, the parts remain identical with the original
figure, having all its extraordinary properties, the Equilateral
Triangle appearing everywhere, whereas no other rectangle can have
this curious property.
It may also be cut into four equal parts by straight lines parallel to
its sides, and again each of these parts will be true Vesicas, exactly
similar to each other, and to the whole, and of course the Equilateral
Triangle is again everywhere.
Again, if two out of the tri-subdivisions mentioned above be taken,
the form of these together is exactly similar, geometrically, to half
the original figure, and again the Equilateral Triangle is ubiquitous
on every base line.
Again, the diagonal of the rectangle is exactly double the length of
its shorter side, which characteristic is absolutely _unique_, and
greatly increases its usefulness for plotting out designs; and this
property of course holds good for all the rectangles formed by the
original figure and for the other species of subdivision. But perhaps
its most mysterious property (though not of any practical use) to
those who had studied Geometry, and to whom this figure was the symbol
of the Divine Trinity in Unity, so dear to them, was the fact that it
actually put into their hands the means of _trisecting_ the Right
Angle.
Now, the three great problems of antiquity which engaged the attention
and wonderment of geometricians throughout the Middle Ages, were "the
Squaring of the Circle," "the Duplication of the Cube," and lastly,
"the Trisection of an Angle," even Euclid being unable to show how to
do it; and yet it will be seen that the diagonal of one of the
subsidiary figures in the tri-subdivision, together with the diagonal
of the whole figure, actually trisect the angle at the corner of the
rectangle. It is true that it only showed them how to trisect one kind
of angle, but it was that particular angle which was so dear to them
as symbolising their craft, and which was created by the Equilateral
Triangle. All these unique properties place the figure far above that
of a square for practical work, because even when the diagonal of a
square is given, it is impossible to find the exact length of any of
its sides or _vice versa_; whereas in the Vesica rectangle the
diagonal is exactly double its shorter side, and upon any length of
line which may be taken on the tracing-board as a base for elevation,
an Equilateral Triangle will be found whose sides are of course all
equal and therefore known, as they are equal to the base, and whose
line joining apex to centre of base is a true Plumb line, forming at
its foot the perfect right angle, so important in the laying of every
stone of a building.
In the volume referred to I have given a skeleton plan upon such a
scale of subdivision that a tracing-board, of 5 feet by 8 feet, would
be divided up into over one million parts, and, as all these
subdivisions are perfect representations of the original Vesica figure
with all its properties, the design of the largest building, with the
minutest detail, could be drafted with absolute accuracy. There are
many other curious properties of this Figure, but they are difficult
to explain without diagrams. I will, however, give one more example of
its creative power. The problem of describing a Pentagon must have
puzzled architects considerably in those early times, but this was
again easily accomplished by means of the Vesica. Albrecht Duerer, the
great designer and engraver, who lived at the end of the fifteenth
century, refers to the Vesica in his works (_Dureri Institutune
Geometricarum_, lib. ii. p. 56) in a way which shows that it was as
commonly known in his time as the Circle, Square, and Triangle. His
instructions for forming a Pentagon are: "Designa circino invariato
tres piscium vesicas" (describe with unchanged compasses three vesicae
piscium). Three similar circles are described with centres at the
angles of an Equilateral Triangle, forming the three Vesicae, by means
of which the Pentagon is drawn, and from which also we get a beautiful
form of arch very common in the thirteenth century (_vide_
illustrations in _Magister Mathesios_). This is also the method used
in that old manuscript of the fifteenth century named "Geometria
deutsch." In this old MS. it is also shown that the easiest method for
finding the centre of a circle, however large, or any segment of a
circle, is by means of the Vesica Piscis. And just as we see so many
Cathedrals of the Middle Ages are stated by antiquarians to have been
planned on the Equilateral Triangle, so do we find the Pentagon
appearing as the basis of Architectural designs of buildings of a
later date, such as Liverpool Castle, Chester Castle, and other
similar structures; but the true means by which each were laid down,
as in the case of the Equilateral Triangle, was again the Vesica
Piscis. A beautiful example of decoration, on the basis of the Vesica,
is seen in the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey.
I will conclude this subject by quoting from the summing up by Prof.
Kerrich (Principal Librarian to the University of Cambridge in 1820),
in his masterly Essay on Architecture, where he gives the different
forms of what he calls the "Mysterious Figure," used in the most
noted Gothic buildings: he says, "I would in nowise indulge in
conjectures as to the reference these figures might possibly have to
the most sacred mysteries of religion; independently of any such
allusion, their properties are of themselves sufficiently
extraordinary to have struck all who have observed them."
From earliest Christian times the principal _doctrine_ based upon the
Mysticism of the Neo-platonists and the Kabalists was what was called
the [Greek: Gnosis], the Knowledge of the All, and the fundamental
basis of this, as of all esoteric teaching from the beginning of
History, was _Procreation_. From the first dawn of civilisation the
"Great One" always had an enemy with whom he had to fight; having
conquered, he married that enemy, and their offspring was Life or
Duration. In the oldest forms, as in Persia and ancient Egypt, it was
Light and Darkness, "Ormuz and Ahriman," "Osiris and Isis," the Light
conquering Darkness, the Day conquering Night, resulting in Time and
duration. In the Eleusinian Mysteries it was the "Sun and Earth"
producing Vegetable Life, and in the [Greek: Gnosis] it was the
"Ainsoph and Ignorance," resulting in True Knowledge or Everlasting
Life.
In the Vesica Piscis (_vide_ frontispiece) we see two Equilateral
Triangles formed on the same base, similar to what we found in the
ground-plan of Chartres and other Gothic Cathedrals; these two
triangles symbolised to the Mediaeval Builders the Divine and Human
Natures of the Logos, the Word, the Creator; they are both procreated
and enclosed in the Vesica; the one having the Apex pointed upwards,
represented Divine or Spiritual Life, and in that I have placed the
"Tetragrammaton," the Word or name of God (Jehovah), which, throughout
the Jewish race for thousands of years, was held to be so sacred that
they did not dare to utter it aloud. It was, at this time, depicted in
the Equilateral Triangle, the symbol of the Logos, becoming thus the
Masonic Word of the Middle Ages, and was probably used, exoterically,
for purposes of recognition among members of the Great Building
Societies, with the introduction of Gothic Architecture; but the
_esoteric_ teaching, which was known only to the elite of the Craft
and not by the Ordinary Operatives, was the mystical _procreation_ of
that triangle, the doctrine of Spiritual or New Birth, symbolised by
that mysterious figure which we have seen was the very foundation
stone of Geometry, and therefore of Tectonic Art, the Head of all
learning, and the great Secret of Gothic Architecture, called for
esoteric purposes "Vesica Piscis." The Triangle, having the Apex
pointing downwards, represented Human or Physical Life, and I have
placed therein a representation of _sacrificial_ death, which we shall
see was introduced, as a necessity, for the good of the Race.
As "everything in Heaven has its counterpart on Earth," so may we see,
by introspection, that the _reflecting_ surface, the thin, physical
film between the Human and Divine, is represented by that Base, and
Human Life then becomes truly, as it should be, the reflection of the
Divine.
One more glance through the Window at what I will call--
"The Mystery of the Apex."
The earliest forms of Life, the unicellular "Beings," whether animal
or vegetable--for both divisions, if they can be said to be divided,
have the same protoplasmic cell as basis of life--were, and are still,
immortal except for accidents; they are not subject to natural death
as we know it; they multiply by fission and not by "budding." It was
only with the building up of cell upon cell into communities, and the
advent of polycellular beings of greater and greater complexity of
structure, that the "Wisdom" behind natural laws introduced death as
an _adaptation_, to prevent monstrosities in the shape of mutilated
specimens being perpetuated on the earth. Life is purely physical and,
in conformity with the modes under which our physical senses act, has
the appearance of tri-unity. As white light is seen to be composed of
but three primary colours, as Music is based on the Triad, as Space is
known to us in three dimensions only, and Geometry, "the Head of all
Learning," is based upon the Circle, Square, and Triangle, so may we
see life in its three primary aspects: the Animal, Vegetable, and
Material. The last-mentioned aspect, though long suspected, from the
investigation of Crystallography, to have in some mysterious way a
common basis with the animal and vegetable, was not fully grasped
until, in the last few years, we have been able to study in our
laboratories the actual evolution, or more correctly devolution, of
matter from one form to another; and as all plants and animals are
found to be built up of the same identical protoplasmic cells, so are
we now able to break down and analyse not only these cells but even
the very structure of matter, and find that all substances are built
up of exactly the same bricks, the different forms known to us as
Elements being the _designs_ of the great Architect upon which each
structure has been built; and these completed designs again are used
and become the "ashlars" of the higher forms of plant and animal
structure. As Evolution in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms has
given us Species, so in the Material it has developed Elements. The
structures of animal and vegetable life are of comparatively recent
formation, and are still apparently progressing in the direction of
complexity, whereas the structures of matter appear to have long
passed the stage of highest complexity, and the elements are now
undergoing the retrograde process of being transformed, by
radio-activity, from the more complex into simpler elements of lower
atomic denominations--namely, having fewer bricks in each atom.
All these material designs are more or less radio-active--namely,
changing into other elements, but some, like radium, polonium, &c.,
are active to an extraordinary extent. Each molecule or atom may be
looked upon as an _aperture_, more or less open, through which we have
flowing the equivalent of what may be called a leak from the Infinite,
the changing of one element into another being represented by the
change of shape or activity of that aperture. Countless ages ago these
apertures were, by evolution, growing more and more complex in shape,
but when the limit of complexity was reached and the _Apex_ was
passed, an adaptation, somewhat analogous to death in the animal and
vegetable, must have come into play, with the result that these
apertures are now becoming more and more simple in their shape and
activity. The Infinite referred to above may be diagnosed by some as
being in the fourth dimension of space, or it may even be comprised
within the Ether of our known three dimensions, for the discovery of
radio-activity has enabled us to see that Ether is not only as dense
as iron, but millions of times denser than that metal, every cubic
foot, or probably cubic inch, being capable of supplying millions of
horse-power if it could only be tapped. A homely simile of this leak
from the Infinite may be seen in a glass of aerated water, where an
irregularity of surface, a crumb of bread, or a grain of sand becomes
the means by which carbonic-dioxide escapes from the interstices of
the water.