A remnant from Caligula’s ship, a four-by-four piece of mosaic flooring which was pilfered from an Italian museum prior to World War II, has now been confiscated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.  What makes this discovery so fantastic is not just the mosaic’s exceptional beauty, it’s rarity, value, or provenance but the sacred geometry utilized which is consistent with the symbolic designs used in the flooring of some of the most famous churches in Italy, especially Rome and Ravenna, from the sixth century thru the thirteenth century.  The sacred geometry seen here from Caligula’s era is an early example of a mathematical template used in church design, on covers of illuminated manuscripts, and by famous Cosmati artisans of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 

The symbolic meaning of the distinctive geometrical and mathematical design will lead us to the understanding of the use of the quincunx, or geometric patterns of mystical mathematical symbolism based on the Chinese magic square and used famously in Christian art and architecture of the Middle Ages (and now thanks to this discovery, used in early Roman times as well).  But first, before we dive into the mathematical model for time and space, let’s go over a little background, or provenance, of this mosaic from Caligula’s ship.

Caligula was a famous Roman emperor who reigned from A.D. 37-41.  His decadent tastes led him to build giant ships, not for travel, but for entertainment and retreat from reality.  These ships were anchored on Lake Nemi – a circular volcanic lake outside Rome.  Following Caligula’s assassination, the ships were sunk. Mussolini, between 1929 and 1932, had the lake drained and the ships hauled ashore.  This mosaic was discovered and placed in a museum especially built for the artifacts recovered in two of Caligula’s ships in 1936.  By the end of World War II, the museum was burned down and many of the artifacts were damaged or destroyed but this mosaic survived undamaged leading some to speculate that the mosaic was removed before the destruction of the museum. 

In a rare sighting of the stolen artifact, the mosaic was spotted in a gallery in Rome and was photographed in the 1960s.  In 2013, an Italian expert on ancient marbles, Dario Del Bufalo, was lecturing a group of art historians and dealers in New York and displayed the photo.  The mosaic was recognized by some of the people at the lecture as being on display at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fioratti of New York.  Evidently, an Italian aristocratic family who possessed the mosaic sold the piece to the Fiorattis in the late 1960’s thru a broker, an Italian police official known for recovering looted art by the Nazis.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had a judge issue a warrant to seize the mosaic on September 18, 2017 on the basis that the authorities have evidence that the piece was stolen from an Italian museum before World War II.  The mosaic was returned to the Italian government October 19, 2017. Mrs. Fioratti offered no resistance.

The Caligula mosaic demonstrates the typical design used by the early church in art and architecture during the Middle Ages.  The cross-in-square represents the four cardinal directions and intersects in the center, or axis mundi, where Heaven, earth, and humankind co-exist.  The cross-in-square pattern creates the four quadrants where we can see four circular figures.  The cross-in-square represents Heaven and the four circles represent earth.   This is typical of quincunx geometry, or four objects arranged around a central object.  However, the relevance is mystical mathematical symbolism which incorporates Heaven, earth, the center or axis mundi, and humankind.  In addition, when we consider the Chinese magic square, we also incorporate the concepts of math, the right-angle triangle theorem (or Pythagorean Theorem) and the numbers of the calendar. 

As described many times before in this blog and in my book Number Time Archetype, there exists a formula to apply to the Chinese magic square that will lead to a set of magic squares called “magic squares in the Luo Shu format”.  These magic squares reveal a Pythagorean triplet of numbers at the heart of each square – a reference to the Pythagorean Theorem – which represents the describing of space in mathematical terms.  In addition, these magic squares will always have a cross of odd numbers thru the vertical and horizontal axis which creates the four quadrants.  Upon closer examination of the mosaic, one can see within the cross-in-square pattern a grid and within this grid exists a second quincuncial arrangement of four gnomon shapes or right angles around an identifiable center, a clear reference to the gnomon, a keeper of time, and the right angle or carpenter’s square, a symbol of time and space.  And the number 365, the number associated with the solar cycle, appears at the center of the 27x27 magic square, which represents time.  These squares, a gift from Heaven, had special reverence to the ancient Chinese a thousand years prior to their adoption by the Romans and Christians.

Therefore, the symbolic meaning of the quincunx incorporates all these concepts: Heaven, earth, humankind, the axis mundi, the four cardinal directions as well as time and space.  This is why the quincunx geometry was used as the ground plan for church design during the Middle Ages (known as the quincunx or cross-in-square ground plan) and why this same geometry appears on several covers of illuminated manuscripts during the Carolingian period, as well as on church art such as altar cloths and tapestries. 

However, the provenance of the magic square is Chinese and is known as the Luo Shu.  The Chinese used the magic square as their template for temple design as well as for city layouts and royal tomb design (see Alfred Schinz, The Magic Square: Cities in Ancient China and Lars Berglund, The Secret of the Luo Shu: Numerology in Chinese Art and Architecture).

The Quincunx as a Cosmic Symbol

Paloma Pajares-Ayuela sums it up best in her book, Cosmatesque Ornament:

The center symbolizes the beginning, the origin, the starting point, the pure being, the absolute, the transcendent; in three dimensions, the center corresponds to the axis, which unites a point with the zenith (the North Star), indicating verticality.  The circle–in space, the sphere–represents the infinite, transcendent, and complete, in sum, the divine, God. The square–in space, the cube–is the symbol of the material, of the finite, non-transcendent, limited, solid; it is the symbol of the earth, connected in its order to the four cardinal points.  The cross marks the four points of the compass; it stems from joining the center with each one of the points, establishing the orientation of the point in space and in time (solstices and equinoxes; change of seasons).  The cross is the mediating symbol that connects heaven and earth.

CONSTRUCTING SPHERICAL IMAGERY WITH THE (LUO SHU) MAGIC SQUARE

The circle and the square have a sacred place in human evolution.  Examples of the two icons are replete in art and architecture from the earliest of times.  The circle represents Heaven, the square represents the earth.  Adding to this, the male energy is represented by Heaven as the female energy is represented by earth.  The early Chinese refer to these energies, or qi, as yin (earthly and female) and yang (heavenly and male). 

My expertise is the study of magic squares in the Luo Shu format.  These squares are of an odd order and have peculiar characteristics that gave this “set of squares” a revered status.  The Luo Shu magic square was used in religious ceremonies, was the basis for religious art, and served as the ground plan for temple design and city layouts as this arrangement of numbers had a mystical connection to Heaven. 

These observations have been well documented by some of the greatest Sinologists such as Schuyler Cammaan, Alfred Schinz, and Paul Wheatley.  However, it was not until my discovery of the formula that describes the 3x3 magic square that it became evident that the Chinese magic square, referred to as the Luo Shu, actually refers to all orders of magic squares that can be derived from this formula.  Also, constructing magic squares using the Persian or Hindu method will generate squares of this type.

The study of these magic squares will demonstrate a unique Pythagorean triad of numbers associated with each order of square.  A cross of odd numbers run thru the vertical and horizontal axis of every square, regardless of size, and generates the cross-in-square template used in temple and tomb design (referred to as si fang).  Therefore math, and in particular, the Right-Angle Triangle theorem, is being highlighted in these squares.  Because the Pythagorean Theorem is the most important mathematical relationship to the evolution of humankind, these squares had special status to many cultures.

There has now been a new discovery with these squares that I refer to as magic squares in the Luo Shu format.

Tasha Lindsay has created spherical images based on these squares that are perfectly symmetrical generating as beautiful a mandala as can be since these images are based on a perfect kind of math.  The early Chinese believed the Luo Shu was a gift (or mandate) from Heaven and if used ceremoniously as well as functionally, humankind could improve their prospects to evolve and prosper. 

If it is true that these magic squares are not human constructs but the stuff bestowed upon us from Heaven, then Ms. Lindsay has made the visual and artistic* connection with Heaven.  Or at least with the magic square and circle. 

*COPYRIGHT 2016 
Tasha Lindsay

The Jesuits and the Magic Square

This is an excerpt from my book Number Time Archetype.  The book is on sale, for information contact information is on the right margin.

One of the most fascinating adventures concerning the pursuit of human evolution involves the efforts of Christian missionaries in China from about 1500 to 1800.

One group in particular, the Society of Jesus, whose members were called Jesuits, dominated the Christian mission during this period. The endless list of talented men such as Matteo Ricci, Adam Schall, and Ferdinand Verbiest faced extreme hardships as travel to China could take eighteen months. These men were great mathematicians, astronomers, and scientists who could construct diverse commodities such as a modern canon, a world map, or a cutting edge astronomical observatory equipped with instruments unknown to the Chinese.

There can be no question that the main objective of the Christian mission was to establish a permanent presence in China for the purpose of growing Christianity. Another objective was for an academic and technological exchange of science, wisdom, and information that would be mutually beneficial to both China and the Christian mission. China would be the clear beneficiary during this exchange as Europe was more advanced in science and technology. However, China evolved from the one of the oldest existing cultures and its writing projected images or concepts from the earliest of (civilized) human beings.

Some believe that the pictograms of the early Chinese language and the diagrams from the Yi Jing contain the clues of a Primitive Language, or the writing used before the Flood. The Luo Shu represents one of these diagrams and when decoded, its formula leads the disciple to the “set” of magic squares in the Luo Shu format thus revealing a mystical mathematical language that has functional applications and is directly related to the evolution and prosperity of humankind.

Jesuits Verbiest and Athanasius Kircher demonstrate this esoteric knowledge of the Luo Shu in diagrams from their books which will be discussed later in Chapter Ten.

The Diagram Preceding Heaven is also a diagram from the Yi Jing that when decoded reveals a binary mathematical language that presently is used in the software that allows computers to operate. This binary math was discovered in about 1700 by Father Bouvet, a French Jesuit priest stationed in China, and Gottfried Leibniz, a monumental European figure in science, math, philosophy, and Chinese culture. The Diagram Preceding Heaven shows the sixty-four hexagrams and, according to legend, is linked to Fu Hsi.

These two diagrams, the Luo Shu and the Diagram Preceding Heaven, offer some insight into the significance of complex mathematical relationships that were vestiges of an ancient yet intelligent civilization and could represent the earliest use of numbers and writing (language) known to the academic world. Whether this writing predated the Flood is up for debate, but the Jesuits, and by extension, the Church, were interested in the origins of language and human evolution.

The two diagrams fit the theory that alleges the Chinese language of pictograms can be decoded by mathematics (or musical scales) to reveal a language based on numbers. The two diagrams described here reveal the binary and Pythagorean math that correspond to the numerical language of computers and the measurement of space. Absent are the instructions on how to use these mathematical relationships but once the math is integrated into society evolution and prosperity await humankind.

WATER RETENTION MAGIC SQUARES

One of the hottest topics going on in the research of magic squares are water retention magic squares. Developed by Dr. Craig Knecht, these squares are analyzed from the perspective that a larger integer corresponds to a taller height than a smaller integer.  In this way, smaller integers can be surrounded by larger ones creating what are called ponds.

According to Dr. Knecht, magic squares in the Luo Shu format produce the maximum number of ponds. The blue cells identify ponds. The drainage path for the cell in green is long, eventually spilling off the square at the yellow spillway cell.

Here is the link for the Wiki page describing water retention magic squares.  And here is another link to Harvey Heinz's fine web site on magic squares.  On this web page, posted in 2008, the water retention square is referred to as the "topographical" magic square.  Harvey is no longer with us but his memories live on through his love for magic squares.

The 27x27 Magic Square – The Most Revered of All Magic Squares

The most important magic square of all is the 27x27 magic square.  This is the magic square that the early Chinese came to realize was indeed magical and relevant to the evolution and prosperity of humankind.  

The 27x27 magic square was also significant to Plato and Pythagoras and is referenced in Plato's Republic (Book IX):

                                          

     The king lives sevenhundred-twentynine times more pleasantly than the tyrant....

This passage referencing the number 729 is the key to understanding the puzzle to Plato’s famous quote.  However, it is instructive to understand some background philosophy about Plato, Pythagoras, and the early Chinese before illuminating on the impact the magic square had on religions, society, and the great philosophers and mathematicians throughout history. 

The Key to Understanding Plato, Pythagoras, and the early Chinese

Numbers.  Numbers were considered to be a gift from Heaven and a means for humankind to be connected with Heaven and earth.  The key to humankind’s success would be dependent upon man being in perfect harmony with Heaven and earth.  There existed perhaps a handful of instruments or systems that could place humankind in perfect harmony with Heaven and earth: numbers, astronomical instruments, and musical instruments were a few examples. 

Numbers were considered a special category as this was the system, when combined with mathematics, that could describe the mysteries of nature.  Numbers (and math) would organize the cosmos from random chaos to a predictable pattern that would be integral to the process of calendar making.  Numbers would simplify the understanding of musical scales as well as the interpretation of color. 

In summary, Plato, Pythagoras, and the early Chinese believed that numbers were the basis of human evolution and prosperity and, therefore, the key to being in perfect harmony with Heaven and earth. 

The complete quote from Plato’s Republic:

How far the king is removed from the tyrant in truth of pleasure, one will find at the end of the multiplication that the king lives 729 times more pleasantly, while the tyrant lives more disagreeably by the same distance…..And yet the number is true and appropriate to lives too, if days and nights and months and years are appropriate to them.

The number 729 is mentioned along with a reference to the cycle of time measured in days, nights, months, and years.  Only a calendar can identify these cycles of time.  The number 729 is a reference to 27 squared or the square of 27 and this corresponds to the Chinese 27x27 magic square.  There are at least two very good reasons why Plato is referencing the 27x27 magic square:

a) The center number of the 27x27 magic square is 365, which corresponds to the solar cycle or the number of days, nights, and months that are in a year, and

b) The Pythagorean triplet of 27, 364, 365 resides at the heart of the square.

Plato is attempting to demonstrate that it is best for a king to rule from the perspective of wisdom rather than tyranny.  This follows the tradition of the early Chinese and their development of the calendar, astronomy, and agriculture through the wisdom of several mathematical systems, one being the Yi Jing.  The 3x3 Chinese magic square is also known as the Luo Shu and is part of the Yi Jing.

According to Platonic, Pythagorean, and Chinese philosophy odd numbers are superior to even numbers. Squares and cubes of numbers also have particular interest. Pythagorean triplets of numbers are of most significance. The two odd numbers of the above triplet, 27 and 365 are special numbers indeed. The number 27 can be recognized as the cube of three, three also representing the triad, Mother-Father-Son. Therefore, three to the third power is doubly special. The number 27 squared gives us 729 – the number referenced by Plato. The number 365 not only represents the solar cycle or calendar, the number is also the center of 1 thru 729 and is a member of the Pythagorean triplet mentioned above.

The principles of the Pythagorean Theorem or Right Angle Triangle Theorem had a very practical use to the early Chinese as well as to the people of Platos’ and Pythagoras’ time because the mathematical relationship was a part of the calendrical system known as the gnomon or gnomonics.  This connection of math, time, and space with Heaven and earth rendered these concepts sacred and relevant to the use of symbols that would become integrated with objects used in religious ceremonies, religious clothing, temple building, city design, art, coinage as well as many other facets of society.

The Pythagorean Theorem and the Calendar

Traditional observation of the gnomon and use of the right angle triangle led to an ordering of time and space.

From the above illustration, one can see how the shadow generated from the sun exhibits a right angle as well as a calendrical system. (Please refer to the brilliant Joseph Needham whose work on the subject can be reviewed in perhaps the greatest of all publications, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. III, pages 284-461).

In the Chinese scheme of systems that helped to align humankind in a harmonious relationship with Heaven and earth, the gnomon and the magic square became intimately inter-related to one another based on calendrical and Pythagorean Theorem correspondences. The mathematical correspondences with the calendar and the right angle triangle theorem represented by the Chinese magic square known as the Luo Shu became the basis for a system of prognostication that was integral to the success of agricultural and as a byproduct, humankind. The sacred geometry that corresponds to the mathematical arrangement of numbers in a 3x3 magic square is known as the quincunx; this would become the model of symbolic representation of the highest form of being one with Heaven. 

The quincunx is a symbol in Christianity, here it is seen in the ciborium in the nave of Santa Maria Cosmedin church in Rome, Italy

The Chinese magic square had a major influence on early Chinese society.  Excellent books by Albert Schinz (The Magic Square, Cities in Ancient China) and  Paul Wheatley (Pivot of the Four Quarters) make clear that the whole of Chinese society used the gnomon and magic square as a model for agricultural and city planning, temple building, and ceremonial objects.

The Luo Shu

The 27x27 magic square is the key to the Luo Shu, which is a progression of magic squares not limited to only the 3x3 magic square. My book, The Language of Number Demystified, is the only publication that contains the full set of magic squares 3 thru 27. A thorough analysis explains the significance of the Chinese magic square and why it is was so revered in Chinese civilization. The illuminating information contained within the set of magic squares in the Luo Shu format is too detailed for this blog but can be accessed in The Language of Number Demystified.

Most interesting to me was the discovery of the early Church integration of magic square symbolism on the covers of elaborate illuminated manuscripts. The magic square also enjoyed a resurgence during the Italian Renaissance and appeared in some classic works of art. The story of the magic square is endless, please enjoy my book.

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