The grace and symmetry of Sacred Geometry and Sacredness greet you at every turn at Chiswick House. This grand example of architecture was built in the 18th century by Lord Burlington, inspired by the designs of Andrea Palladio and English-born Inigo Jones whose presences have been immortalized in stone statues here. The eternal juxtaposition of curves and straight lines that was mastered by the Ancient Greeks and Romans in their temples, is emulated here at Chiswick House in the Italian villa classical style. While the Romans are historically recognized for building straight roads and structurally-sound curved archways that survive today in their viaducts and the famous Coliseum in Rome, here at Chiswick House we are greeted by an inspiring range of shapes and forms that will also, no doubt, survive the test of time.
Ever-evolving man has learned to harness and emulate the intricacies of shape and form found throughout Mother Nature. From the spiral calcifications of seashells to the microscopic arrangement of atoms in snowflakes, from the geometries of turtle shells of Mesoamerica to the spiraling constellations in the heavens, man has observed and studied such harmonies and mathematics that led eventually to the discovery by Leonardo Pisano, or Fibonacci, in 13th century Italy, of the divine proportion of the Fibonacci Golden Mean whose sequential numbers form a spiral. Although most often overlooked today, numbers and shapes hold a high vibrational value in their form, but most importantly, before they manifest as form, they are the balance of substance behind substance itself. But let us step further back in time to understand more of how the universe works in patterns.
At the Osireion, an ancient and otherworldly temple dedicated to the god Osiris in Abydos, Egypt, an ancient symbol was discovered, curiously burned (not etched) into one of the large blocks of granite weighing several tons. Its earthly origin is a mystery, yet this figure is recognized across cultures as one of the oldest sacred symbols known to man: the Flower of Life. From this initial curved structure are generated all the intricacies of shape and form of life on Earth, as well as in the universe. Its petal-like appearance has long been associated with the opening or flowering of the human body’s chakra system, but the lines that evolve from its geometry are the basis of all form that we know on this planet and beyond.
The Flower of Life
Traditionally, the circle has been used to represent the universe, the totality of All There Is and at the same time a cell of the microcosm within the macrocosm. Patterns of curved and straight lines emerge from the circle. It gives birth to all two dimensional and three-dimensional figures with straight lines, such as the square, rectangle, triangle, cube, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, and more, as well as circular figures of arcs, domes, cones and orbs, and the platonic solids. These shapes and forms are the building blocks of the universe that permeate all form. When a cell duplicates itself, it splits into two and the intersecting points on the circumference, as well as in the centers of the circles, generate straight lines. This divided form is known as the Vesica Piscis and is as familiar a shape in modern day iconography as well as historic structures and sacred sites (such as the Chalice Well in Somerset).
The Vesica Piscis
In principle, curved lines are associated with Divine Feminine, or creative form, straight lines with Divine Masculine, or initiating form. Three-dimensional lines give rise to three-dimensional solids such as the cube, the orb and the pyramid. Today, we take for granted these outer manifestations of form, but their intrinsic structure is repeated over, and over again, everywhere in our world and throughout the universe. As we accelerate to a fifth-dimensional spiritual perspective of the incoming Golden Age, we can appreciate once more the array of beauty and love that infuses our world without end.
At the entrance to Chiswick House, we are given our first clue to the combining of the masculine and feminine elements of form by the two sphinxes, lions with female heads, resting upon the gateposts. Like the Great Sphinx of Egypt, they act as metaphysical guardians to the House and the entranceway. They direct us to the grand Portico of the house where a formidable triangle rests upon columns. This structure, and another that is found here at the Link Building, has a spiritual significance long forgotten. The numbers ‘3’ over ‘4’, i.e. a triangle resting upon four columns, is a powerful symbol found in prominent buildings around the world (Chiswick’s House’s grand Portico actually rests on six columns derived from Rome’s Temple of Castor and Pollux, perhaps a doubling up of its spiritual quotient). An equilateral triangle is the strongest geometric form of all and will hold its shape, whereas a circle is fluid, like an amoeba (as construction of both with a piece of string will soon demonstrate). It is no surprise, therefore, that the number ‘3’ is associated with the intrinsic power and strength of the Holy Trinity and other spiritual trilogies; it represents the number of Spirit. The number ‘4’, associated with matter, or the elements of matter, is represented by the columns. Hence a portico of ‘3’ over ‘4’ tells us that Spirit rules over matter. We may be looking at matter itself, but spiritual design is at work subliminally. Everything that is created in form is first created in Spirit.
As we continue through the House we find ourselves walking through rooms connected to one central room, the lower level appearing more serious and less grand than the upper level. We pass under narrow archways and ornate smaller porticos into colorful, rectangular living rooms and bedrooms hung with in all more than 167 beautiful paintings of kings, leaders, poets and mythological scenes as well as the statues of Mercury, Apollo and Venus. Another magnificent sphinx greets us in a more austere, yet temple-like room known as the Lower Link. Of note in the Summer Parlour are the depictions of Roman goddess Minerva associated with the owl (similarly associated with Ascended Master Merlin), Egyptian Goddess Isis and heavenly cherubs and sphinxes.
Meandering along corridors and through gracious living rooms, at every turn we see the perfection of form fashioned by man’s hand. Some doorways have the straight column and lintel form that we have come to know so well from the bluestone monoliths at Stonehenge. The Green Man, a symbol of death and rebirth, has been immortalized in carvings in the Green Velvet Room while in the Red Velvet Room a wealth of astrological, masonic and biblical references invite personal reflection and interpretation. The Blue Velvet Room itself is a cube (15 x 15 x 15 feet) of perfect proportion.
We may pay homage to the intellectual minds that have visited and brought their energies to this place. Despite a lack of kitchen facilities, Chiswick House has served and been served by a talented array of royalty, thinkers, writers, musicians, politicians, and performers. Climb the remaining three spiral staircases, admire frieze designs and elegant statues bathed in light. Lord Burlington’s use of light was to emphasize the flow of the house with the garden – did you know that even the rays of light of the universe can be bent?
Passing a bust of Roman Emperor Augustus, we arrive at the great octagonal Upper Tribunal and Dome. A dome is a representation of the heavens itself, a form prized and developed by the Romans and historically most often utilized in temples and places of worship due to its circular radiation of energy in all directions. Energetic domes may be found in the higher dimensions where the Ascended Masters reside. The adornment of ceilings on Earth is an artform that we may also admire here at Chiswick House in the Summer Parlour and in the Red Velvet Room. We pause in the Upper Tribunal to see an eight-pointed star (Masonic) inlaid under our feet, yet another form generated within the Flower of Life. So many souls aspire to be a “star” in life, sans the following understanding as given by Spirit:
I am a star,
A star is a heavenly body radiating light,
I am a heavenly body radiating light,
I am a star …
(Repeat, repeat, repeat.)
No visit to Chiswick House would be complete without a stroll through the landscaped gardens where man’s creations mix and mingle with Mother Nature herself. Chestnut trees act like Tuscan columns and we walk along straight allées and around curved borders and hedgerows decorated with curvaceous stone urns and statues. Our thoughts are raised as we gaze up to the raised statue on a column that once supported a statue of goddess Venus de Medici. A gently arching bridge reaches over a lake, transporting us from one perspective to another while a small Ionic Temple at a pool’s edge holds great spiritual enchantment for us while its attendant obelisk points us heavenward.
Time becomes timeless here like Camelot of old. The word ‘Camelot’ means an ‘arc of light’ and just as we experience here at Chiswick House old and new meet eternally in one harmonic flow, intentionally so. As we evolve to create the New Golden Age of The New Camelot, it is the enduring legacy of such a beautiful place as this where one is instilled with a potent reminder of our shared connection to All Things. There is nothing new under the sun, yet the beauty found at Chiswick House is transcendent, vital and heartwarming. The gods are smiling here. Ω
July, 2018.
Published in Chiswick Magazine, London, September, 2018.