At the core of our curriculum is sacred geometry, especially as embodied in one of its most extraordinary expressions, Chartres Cathedral. For those fortunate enough to have been there, this can be, as it has been for thousands, a near-miraculous, life-changing experience. My own first visit there occurred in 1964. I was thirteen years old. In grew up in an agnostic/atheist Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. The presence of God, despite our ethnic roots, never seemed to appear in our home. Our suburban synagogue was huge, modern, but felt strikingly empty. Why, I wondered, were all these people going through these pointless “religious” motions? What was accomplished by all these elaborate but meaningless rituals?
At thirteen years old, standing in the crossing at Chartres, gazing up at the stained glass, all that suddenly changed. To my considerable thirteen-year old shock, something, some kind of invisible force, an ineffable but almost overwhelming presence seemed to be inside there with me, filling that soaring space. I had always thought of “God” just as a kind of inherited myth. It had never even occurred to me that this “thing” called God, could actually be real.
Even at thirteen I found myself wondering what was going on here. What was happening? “God” had gone from a tritely well-worn mere word, to shockingly, tangibly real, overflowing down into this place. Why was I suddenly, in this place, perceiving divine spirit I had never enough thought actually existed before right inside here with me? Even more striking, this same immersion and communion has occurred every time I have returned there. For some this divine spirit seems to be not only present but speaking to them.
Gradually I began to ponder too about the why and how. Why was what I was experiencing here unlike anything I had perceived anywhere else? Only years later did I learn that what had occurred to me at Chartres, and to so many others there down through the centuries, might be related to a knowledge called “sacred geometry”. At thirteen I had certainly never heard of sacred geometry. Years ago a teacher of kabbalah gave me a worn paperback copy of Louis Charpentier’s Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral, assuring me it would “blow my mind.” He was right. More doors were starting to open.
(formerly NewInvisibleCollege.com / Chartres-sacred-geometry.com; now Chartres.GeometryCode.com)
Copyright 2022 Will Gold.