The “sacred geometry” of the great gothic cathedrals was intended to reflect the invisible inner order of the universe, a microcosm of the divine creation. Within those lofty arches and soaring heights, luminous with radiant stained glass, God seemed very much present and alive. How this was achieved was based on ancient wisdom that long predated the gothic.
Bernard of Chartres was one of the masters of the esoteric wisdom school that came to flourish there. He wrote of his predecessors at the helms of such schools, “If we see further than they, it is not by virtue of our stronger sight, but because we are lifted up by them and carried to a great height. We are dwarfs carried on the shoulders of giants.” Masters including Bernard sought to realize the birth of the eternal self from out of the shell of the mortal human form. Saint Augustine believed that immersion within sacred harmonies, based on the underlying structures of the universe, could lead to the experience of God.
Twentieth-century author Louis Charpentier recounted how pilgrims made their way to Chartres, “in order to reach at least once in their lives a place where divinity dwells.” To Charpentier, the underlying design of the cathedral reflected “the search for a gate, a key, for the passage from one world to another.” Frequently, he wrote, those who enter the cathedral, “become no longer quite the same man or woman” and, even now, “the old crucible has still not lost its power.” The wisdom of the ancients, the architects and masters of Chartres had re-discovered, could open a doorway to God.
(formerly NewInvisibleCollege.com / Chartres-sacred-geometry.com; now Chartres.GeometryCode.com)
Copyright 2022 Will Gold.