THE ELEMENTS OF ASTROGEOMANCY (I)

Towards a Recreation of the Megalithic Spiritual Science 

© Xavier de la Huerga 2023

Context – The Primordial Continuum of Knowledge and the Unified Perception Mode

As it has been explained somewhere else in this blog, astrogeomancy attempts the reintegration of the elements making up the continuum of knowledge that was applied millennia ago by high megalithic cultures as the result of a unified perception mode; very different from the current perception mode of human beings. This primordial continuum of knowledge can only be understood today by our modern minds as a synthesis of several related but distinct scientific disciplines with aesthetic and spiritual dimensions integrated. However, it was in fact originally apprehended as a multi-faceted seamless whole, going beyond what we today call science, art and spirituality. Following the clues an solid proofs left behind by our ancestors - their monuments, mainly -, astrogeomancy attempts to recreate the unified perception mode behind this primordial continuum of knowledge through reverse engineering, studying and implementing simultaneously all those aspects we perceive today as separate fields.

The revolutionary discoveries of psychiatrist, neurophysiologist, historian and philosopher Iain McGilchrist on the roles of the two brain hemispheres, lends support to the existence of a "unified perception mode" amongst megalithic builders.

It is important to fix the mind's eye steadfastly onto the concept of a primordial continuum of knowledge not just as a synthesis of different elements blended together, but as a pre-existent whole without any fissures, that however displays a number of different facets or qualities pertaining to the greater body; a gestalt that not only transcends the sum of its parts, but antecedes it. During millennia, awareness of this continuum has been disintegrating, losing its original cohesion and breaking apart due to the loss of the unified perception mode among humans. 

The above realisation will help us to better understand the relationships, correspondences, connections and reciprocities - frequently acausal - between what the modern mind only perceives as a cluster of fortuitous coincidences and disconnected data, present throughout many of the enigmatic megalithic designs.

The Quadrivium

In the western world the megalithic primordial continuum of knowledge survived into history in a fragmented and diminished form through the Pythagorean schools and Plato's Academy. It eventually surfaced at the start of the Middle Ages by the hand and quill pen of Abbot Cassiodorus with the name of Quadrivium. From his codification of the ancient teachings into various encyclopedic compilations (Instituciones), the Quadrivium was established as the core curriculum for European universities until the XIV century.

This curriculum was centred around the Seven Liberating Arts, so called because they were  considered essential for the inner cultivation of free-thinking human beings. Of these seven arts, the Quadrivium constituted the advanced stage, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and harmony - nowadays known as music theory or musicology.

Wrongly translated as "four ways", the precise meaning of Quadrivium is "quadruple way", or "place where four ways meet", which points back in time to the underlying unity found in the vision and methodology of the high megalithic cultures. Therefore, the Quadrivium was taught as a whole, implying that it was not possible to achieve a proper, deep comprehension of any of the four arts in isolation from the other three. Their simultaneous implementation on megalithic constructions exemplifies in the practice hundreds of cases in which these four disciplines weave themselves into a coherent whole.

A woman teaching geometry during the Middle Ages

The four arts/sciences that make up the Quadrivium are a very convenient starting point to elucidate the elements of astrogeomancy, even though many megalithic monuments encompass other disciplines such as metrology and geodesy and occasionally include a mysterious component that it is not easily explainable. We will have a look at those additional elements in the second part of this article.

One must be aware that we are not dealing here with the modern, conventional, utilitarian versions of these four disciplines, but with their ancient forms through which it is sought their capacity to trigger the spiritual revelatory experience, and with this transcendent approach, the holistic understanding of them all. As Plato tells us towards the end of Book VII of The Republic; “...when all these studies reach the point of inter-communion and connection with one another, and come to be considered in their mutual affinities, then, will the pursuit of them have a value for our objectives; otherwise there is no profit in them”. 

Be it as repository of prehistoric lore through the Pythagorean oral tradition, via his Egyptian contacts, or else as an original rediscoverer of a fragment of the prisca sapientia; Plato knew that it was vital for the education of healthy human beings to reassemble these four pieces of the scattered cosmic puzzle.

Each of the arts/sciences of the Quadrivium was portrayed as a female. Perhaps a memory of origins in the distant past?

The Four Convergent Sacred Arts

Arithmetic.  Beyond calculus and the purely quantitative functions of number, there are its qualitative characteristics, the dynamics of interrelations and proportions, the regularity and harmony of ratios. Sacred arithmetic investigates number in its abstract purity, its symbolic dimension leads us to a deep understanding of reality, of the form or archetype of the good. As Plato expounds in The Republic; “...until they see the nature of numbers with the mind only; not like merchants or retail-traders, with a view to buying or selling... but for the sake of the soul herself; and because this will be the easiest way for her to pass from becoming to Truth and Being." The Pythagorean axiom; "all is number" illustrates the realisation that the deepest substrate of reality and the language through which nature becomes intelligible is number.

Geometry. Again through Plato's dialogues and also Pythagoras' teachings, is emphasised the capacity of geometry to take us to the ultimate truth, beauty and goodness, beyond its utilitarian and mundane applications. The description of geometry as "the art of the ever-true", defines this eminently spiritual perspective, which is also known nowadays as sacred geometry. In the context of megalithic culture, geometry takes on its true etymological meaning, since it is applied to measuring the earth and to define the placement and orientation of monuments at a geodetic scale. Thus we can rightly define geometry as "number in space"

Astronomy. In antiquity until the Middle Ages, astronomy was identical with astrology, in an age when the prevalent and very universal paradigm was animism and the universe was alive, possessed intelligence and was filled with purpose. In the animist cosmovision, the heavens are populated with archetypes embodied in the planetary and stellar orbs, cosmic forces - goddesses, gods, titans - interact with human beings and through their movements generate cycles, calendrical computations, sacred festivals and the arrangement of society around them. The rising and setting of celestial bodies produce alignments to topographic features, providing the geometric and angular parameters for the orientation of settlements and temples that spring up as a reflection of heaven on earth. The role of sunlight is sacred; physical sunlight being a consequence and manifestation of divine light. It is fitting to define sacred astronomy as "number in movement, both in time and space".

Harmony. The length of a flute, or a tensed string, the dimensions and shape of an instrument, determine its capacity and type of resonance, establishing a direct relationship between space, form and sound generation. On the other hand, there is also a relationship between sound and movement - hence, time -, since audible vibration is oscillation and this in turn, is endowed with velocity, or frequency and amplitude. The sacred science of harmony, is centred not only in defining and understanding the numerical relationships existing between musical intervals, but in investigating and discovering those which are most harmonious and produce sympathetic resonances¹ connected with astronomical phenomena, geometric patterns and numerical relationships; that is, with the other three fields of study encompassed by the Quadrivium.

1 -  Sympathetic resonance is defined in musical terms as a harmonic phenomenon in which a vibratory body in a state of rest responds to external vibrations with which it has a harmonic similarity. A guitar string, for example, when it is plucked and produces a note, causes a vibration in any other strings tuned to that same note, even across higher and lower octaves.

The Elements of Astrogeomancy (II) - In the forthcoming second part of this article, another key element of the astrogeomantic megalithic canon is explored; metrology, together with its astounding geodetic and musical harmonic correspondences.

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