Vesica Piscis: Mother Earth and the Creative Force

Waylands Smithy Vesica Piscis crop circle, August 4th, 2011 -- sacred geometric co-radial circles where circumference of each shares the center of the other -- its central axis symbolizing the Cosmic Birth Canal to which, according to the Maya, all life returns in December 2012

The symbol of an ovoid –an egg– expresses the the primordial form of everything manifest, from atom to globe, from man to angel. The spheroid is with all nations the emblem of eternity and infinity —- a serpent swallowing its own tail. To realize the meaning, however, the sphere must be thought of as seen from its centre
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

The Vesica Piscis in sacred tradition — from Kabbalist to Vedic to Zen — is considered to represent the female organ of creation. Its circular shape invokes an intertwining of feminine energies, Mother Earth’s womb, a mingling of Nature and primeval cultural reverence: it is a symbol seen in all ancient graphical traditions, from pagan Sun Wheel, Celtic cross, architectural ‘golden mean‘ to sacred windows in cathedrals, mosques, tabernacles and pagodas.

The Vesica Piscis also represented to the Maya the summer and winter solstices in any time cycle. To them the Vesica Piscis shape held the Cycle of the Ages — the Precession of the Equinoxes, less of a calculation of Time; more as a symbol of evolution of consciousness. We are experiencing this change now as we move from one World Age (Christian Age of Pisces, 0BC-AD2000) to another (‘New Age’ of Aquarius).

Its Latin meaning, lit. bladder of the fish, may seem to lessen its sacred quality to the prosaic, but it remains connected in a bodily way and in the geometric sense in all cultures — East and West.

Antediluvian Meaning
In earliest traditions, the supreme being was represented by a sphere, the symbol of a Creator with no beginning and no end, continually existing, perfectly formed and profoundly symmetrical. The addition of a second sphere represented the expansion of unity into the duality of female and male. By overlapping, both spheres — goddess and god — created a divine offspring. The Vesica Piscis with its derivatives, the Flower of Life, Tree of Life, and fundamentals of geometry, has a history of thousands of years, easily predating all major religions of the current era.

A theme running through several recent crop circle seasons — most striking from 2007 on — has been the suggestion by the ‘Circlemakers’ that we return to the wisdom of our roots: roots in our native Earth, roots of our tradition, our sacred beginnings. Since it is presently clear to almost anyone in the Western World that in pursuing our headlong drive for power, riches and exploitation over balance, human warmth and respect for the earth, we have gone seriously awry. It might seem that our combined consciousness — that deep level of awareness we share beneath the cultural façade; what Terence McKenna called Humanity’s Oversoul — has chosen to ‘wake us up’ by bringing us (those genuine electromagnetically-produced) crop circles each year, to educate us and lead us gently towards a more loving future.

Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised by the ingenuity and wry sense of humor of the Circlemakers.

West Kennet Crop circle central tuft with 'spiderweb' filaments. Sacred earth pyramid Silbury Hill in distance, largest manmade mound in Europe,
photo Mariusz Szymaszek

For instance, this year in May — while we were all looking forward rather than looking at the miracles of the season — a quiet little ring appeared in green barley at East Kennet. It lay within one field’s breadth (roughly 10 acres) of one of Wiltshire’s most ancient shrines — the Neolithic tomb (long barrow) of West Kennet. Several 5,000-year old monuments lie — inter-visible — in this densely-built Neolithic landscape within two miles of Avebury’s Great Stone Circles.

Stonehenge and its magical meridian (51ºN) aside, the modern British are not particularly drawn to ancient shrines for their sacred quality, but crop circles — appearing within the same landscape and overlying the same limestone aquifer that produces measurable electromagnetic resonance (likened to human meditational alpha waves) — have been drawing them in. Nobody who has spent time in a pristine formation can deny it holds an ‘atmosphere’, an energy which can be uplifting, almost surreal. There is a growing body of evidence that crop circles are indeed produced through the medium of light and sound.

When the East Kennet circle first appeared, Stuart Dike, one of the long-time stalwarts of CropCircleConnector, crop circle ‘bible’, said at the time:

East Kennet crop design, May 17th, was ringed by extra circles June 22. If seen as the 'negative', it acquired a mirror-image 'positive' at West Kennet, July 25th 2011,
photo Olivier Morel

It certainly takes me back to over twenty years ago, from the 1990 days in Wiltshire. This is what we were all used to seeing back then, very simple designs, with a sense of excitement of what they could become. It’s a great indication that the earlier designs are very much part of what’s occurring today: the precursor of what was to be an evolutionary road in geometry and complexity. Perhaps the phenomenon is telling us not to ignore the purity of what was occurring at the very beginning.

Little did we know that the Circlemakers had further plans for that small field. One month later, during excitement of solstice and a profusion of appearances (2 at Stonehenge + 4 more in the vicinity over a 2-day period), nobody seemed to notice that East Kennet had acquired three concentric rings (June 22).

West Kennet Longbarrow, July 25th 'mirror image' of East Kennet phases 1 & 2, photo courtesy Bert Janssen

Then exactly a month after that, on July 22, attention focused on the intricate and superb ‘spider-web’ headdress formation which appeared in an adjoining field (East Kennet-2). There followed in quick succession two exceptionally graphic ‘suggestive’ crop designs at Roundway (1 & 2, July 23 & 25) –appearing to advocate humanity’s opening its third eye, releasing the body’s natural happiness hormone, melatonin— so, once again a little mirror appearance the same day — at West Kennet Long Barrow itself this time, next to the passage grave — seemed less than significant.

Working behind the scenes are a multitude of local altruistic researchers (CCC, above, is one of many). Their common bond is that they believe that ‘genuine’ crop circles are phenomena somehow produced through an electromagnetic or dimensional medium, either by light, sound or other variants within that vast spectrum. Sometimes, when local conditions are just right, a substance colloquially known as ‘angel hair’ (documented as being found after UFO sightings) has been deposited and can be measured, if collected within the first few hours after a formation has been laid down. Researchers in this field include the Massachusetts-based BLT, the British Harmony Blue group, and the CircularSite in the Netherlands,. They are consequently disappointed and nonplussed by world media efforts to persevere in ‘replicating’ crop circles, as has been tried on several occasions. Research on the dimensional/spiritual nature of real crop circles continues. On the morning the West Kennet circle motif appeared, the HarmonyBlue team found angel hair in the West Kennet formation (‘spiderweb’ photo, above).

There is even the suggestion — by the much more charismatic ‘spider-web’ crop appearance at East Kennet on July 22 — that the Circlemakers were telling them where to look!

Two Cherhill crop circles in the same week: Cherhill Down, July 20th, left; Cherhill 'smoking alien' July 27th, right

Sacred geometry
The Vesica Piscis is the root principle in sacred geometry, interlocking circles which share radii, cosmically and intrinsically entwined. In precise mathematical measurement, where the circumference of each shares the center of the other, the ratio between the width of the vesica piscis to its height is the square root of 3, or approximately 1.7320508…

A mathematical sub-note: if straight lines are drawn between the centers of both circles with each other and with the two points where their circumferences intersect, two equilateral triangles can be formed, joining along an edge.

Eye of consciousness, complete with eyelashes! Crop circle at Silbury Hill, Avebury August 2, 2011

Archimedes of Syracuse, 287-212BC, Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer, in his On the Measurement of the Circle, used these ratios:

In Christian tradition this sacred number –153– appears miraculously in the Gospel of John [21:11] as the number of fishes which Jesus of Nazareth caused to be manifested in the Feeding of the Multitude story. Since all Judaic written (Biblical) tradition centered on sacred number, numerological sequence and coded word combinations/number of letters used, this coincidence has a deeper meaning. The Fish — Lat. Piscis — is well-known as the secret symbol used by the Early Christians in Rome. By enumerating the total catch on the Sea of Gallilee, specific use of that sacred geometric ratio would have had meaning to early followers, aware of the significance of number.

Interlocking circles, Water & the Sacred Feminine: Vesica Piscis's sacred shape which seals the cover of the Sacred Chalice Well at Glastonbury, Somerset

Probably the best known example in England of the Vesica Piscis is the design on the wellcover of the Sacred Chalice Well at Glastonbury. While we are now culturally ignorant of number, this design resonates with us on a subliminal level (internal balance) and, seen there in a New Age context, represents the Universal symbol of the Feminine, Mother Earth, in contrast with the nearby masculine emblem of Glastonbury Tor. The Glastonbury example on the lid of the Chalice well — like the crop circle at Wayland’s Smithy (top) — contains the meridian line that runs through the centers of both circles.

Even though this archaic symbolism may not seem relevant to some after so many aeons of time, it is not unrealistic to suppose that our cultural unconscious, even blurred and insensitized by modern inconsequential minutiae in massive overdose, does at some deep level sense peace, harmony and beauty when we behold this sacred design.

Egyptian Celestial and Sacred Measure
We owe the Egyptians for the application of Sacred Geometry on the surface of the Earth.

Cosmic serpent-of-Life returning to its birth canal at the center of the Galaxy in 2012 -- West Woodhay Down, Inkpen crop circle July 29th, arrived as a prelude to the August 4th glyph (top), the Cosmic birth canal itself

Geo-metry means ‘measure of the earth’. In ancient Egypt, from which Greece and eventually the West inherited the study, the Nile would flood its banks each year, obliterating orderly demarcation of plot and farm areas. This annual inundation symbolized to the Egyptian the cyclic return of primal watery chaos, and when the waters receded the work began of redefining and re-establishing boundaries. The temple astronomer might announce that celestial configurations had changed so the orientation or location of a temple had to be adjusted. It was seen as regaining law and order, dominion over the earth. The laying of squares upon the earth had, for the Egyptian, a metaphysical as well as a physical and social dimension. This activity of measuring the earth – ‘geo-meter’- became the basis for a science of natural law embodied in the archetypal forms of circle, triangle and square.

Plato at his Academia required the study of mathematics as a prerequisite for philosophia, a term signifying “the love of wisdom” and “to lift the soul to truth.” To him, symbolic mathematics provided a map of our own inner psychological and sacred spiritual structure. Through the study of recurring harmonious patterns inherent in mathematics, music, and nature, ancient mathematical philosophers recognized that consistent correspondences occur inside the human mind and simultaneously throughout the universe.

Sacred geometric shapes: circle, triangle, square

This Zen calligraphic drawing shows Creation through the simple progression from the unity of the circle, through the triangle, to the manifest form of the square.

The circle –one– and the vesica piscis –two– were considered by ancient mathematical philosophers to be the parents of Number. Their firstborn, the triangle –three– was the ‘first’ and eldest number. Its geometric expression, the equilateral triangle, is the initial shape to emerge through the portal of the vesica piscis, the First of the Many. The square –four– was the second born.

Alpha and Omega
Mathematics and sacred geometry can take us beyond our ordinary limits to cosmic depths.

Furze or Morgan Hill, Bishops Cannings, August 6th dimensional progression on the Vesica Piscis: two cosmic parents produce a dimensional child

Man –from the Sanskrit root manas, meaning ‘Mind’, Consciousness, is a creature who can reflect upon himself. Man is not a mere constituent part –a cog– in this Universal Cycle, but he is both the final complete product of evolution and the original seed potential out of which the Universe germinated. The Alpha as well as the Omega. Both the seed and the tree: the tree of the universe is the actualization of the seed potential, which is Cosmic Man.

The World Tree of the Maya now begins to make sense. Mayan cosmology saw the Rift in the Milky Way as the the female birth canal (Yoni, Vesica Piscis) to which the Serpent of Life returns in December 2012.

Spiraling towards Source

CCC denizen Dike may have had a premonition when he said (above) that ‘the (CC) phenomenon is telling us not to ignore the purity of what was occurring at the very beginning’. Without realizing it, he may have been referring to the very beginning of Time. As we spiral onwards through the Galaxy towards our 2012 rendezvous with that primeval birth canal, we are indeed completing a cycle, coming to our ending, but also returning to our beginning.