The sacred geometric form known in modern times as the “Flower of Life” is seen in art and decoration dating back to 700 BC. It is found across Assyrian, Egyptian, Roman, and Gothic culture and history. Its modern popularity comes from The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life (1999) by Drunvalo Melchizedek, which outlined the historical, spiritual, and symbolic significance of the ancient pattern.
See this Sound Healing from Andrew with an Unlimited 40” Flower of Life Gong
The basis for the Flower of Life pattern is seven overlapping circles, each with equal radius. Six circles radiate around a seventh, whose central point is the overlap of the arcs of the six outer circles. The interesection of each pair of circles forms a vesica piscis (each flower petal) and the basis of a triangular lattice. This basic pattern is called the Seed of Life.
The Seed of Life
This pattern can be extended indefinitely with variations including 19, 37, 61, 91 and more total circles. These variations have different names and special qualities of their own, creating more and more sacred shapes.
The Flower of Life itself contains 19 total circles, with 12 circles added to the Seed of Life. The additional circles radiate around the central points and intersections of the original six outer circles of the Seed of Life.
The Flower of Life
From this pattern, we see a triangular lattice that forms. By staring at this image and meditating on it, many new images come to mind. It’s believed by many that the geometric patterns of all life, the universe, the building blocks of creation, and the essence of all things are represented in the Flower of Life.
One image that appears is the presence of three axes (height, width, and depth or x, y, and z). From this, the mind starts to see illusory three-dimensional shapes that pop out almost holographically, like a magic eye picture (“do you see the dolphin yet?!”). A matrix of cubes within cubes becomes apparent once you notice this 3-dimensional graph illusion.
The Flower of Life (with axis and cube, but no magic dolphin)
By adding another ring of circles (making a total of 37) and highlighting ONLY the circles through which these axes pass, we get a shape called the Egg of Life, featuring 13 total circles and the basis for a very important image in sacred geometry, Metatron’s Cube.
Metatron’s Cube is created by drawing lines from the central point of each circle in the Fruit of Life image (the circles along the three axis) to the central point of each other circle in the pattern. These lines create a series of images that represent the five, classical, Platonic solids: the cube (six squares), the tetrahedron (four triangles), the octahedron (eight triangles), the dodecahedron (twelve pentagons) and the icosahedron (twenty triangles).
Metatron's Cube
These five shapes are the only convex, regular polyhedra found to exist (this means that they are 3D solids constructed from repeating shapes with equal size, angles and the same number of faces meeting at each vertex). Because of these special properties, the ancient Greeks associated each of these shapes with one of the classical, alchemical, Euclidian elements:
In order: Fire, Earth, Air, Spirit, Water
The Flower of Life and the sacred shapes and special properties that arise from it are extremely unique. It's clear why many cultures have used this pattern in art, decoration, and spiritual practice for thousands of years. The symbolism of the building blocks of structure and shape arising from a single circle creates a parallel to the cycles of creation, with all of life arising from a central point, a lonely atomic cell, a single moment full of potential.
Other classic symbols and shapes can be derived from continued meditation on the image of the Flower of Life from the Cross and the Tree of Life (Kabbalah) to the Triskele and the Sri Yantra. It is an extremely powerful form to integrate into your daily spiritual practice. Use the Flower of Life in sound therapy and healing to help clear energetic blocks, to foster and strengthen the creative energies moving through your subtle body.
Flower of Life (127 circles; there’s a dolphin in there somewhere)
To see our Unlimited Flower of Life Wind Gongs, click here.
To see our other Sacred Geometry Gongs, click here.
It was an honor to meet with Bear and Shion of B Love Sacred Sounds. Their friction mallets unlock the beautiful potential of gongs. We are so thankful to them for sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience. Check out this blog to see some instructional videos we made with them!
A ton of research has been done on the connection between the different states of brainwave activity and specific sounds and frequencies. The question we wanted to answer is – can the brain be tuned to different states of consciousness using binaural beats and specific frequencies to achieve entrainment?
M H
Author