Siatris Ioholo
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Platonic Solids: The Language of the Universe.
The Platonic Solids are, at their essence, the basic shapes that underlie observable reality. These five forms govern the structure of everything from atoms to planetary orbits.
We’ll begin by connecting the five solids to the five-element theory proposed by many ancient healing modalities — in this case, Ayurveda. Having established the relevance of these shapes to the human body, we’ll explore the micro and macro realms as well to see if there are any useful connections to be made.
FIVE ELEMENTS: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Akasha/Ether
-Sankhya is one of the most ancient natural philosophies still alive on planet Earth today and is the source for Ayurveda’s concept of the body. The Sankhya philosophical system proposes that everything created on this plane of existence is a compound of five essential elements. Planets, people, plants and atmospheric particulate alike are formed by Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Akasha/Ether.
Earth is the densest element, the stuff of rock and bone, giving solidity and form. Water is the universal solvent and the ruling archetype for all fluids, including rivers and oceans of course, but also blood and plasma. Fire is the only element that gives heat and is responsible for all transformative processes such as digestion. Air is the element of mobility, carrying ideas, inspiration. Akasha or Akash (Sanskrit ākāśa आकाश) means space or sky or æther.
ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY
The interaction of the five elements is well described by the five regular polyhedra known as the Platonic Solids. These are the only three-dimensional shapes that are perfectly symmetrical in every direction, with every internal angle and side length the same. According to Plato, each solid corresponds to a specific element:
The cube corresponds to earth; the icosahedron corresponds to water; the tetrahedron corresponds to fire; the octahedron corresponds to air, and the dodecahedron corresponds to ether.
-Looking at the shape of the sides, we notice that three of the five Platonic Solids are composed of equilateral triangles – the icosahedron, tetrahedron and octahedron, representing water, fire, and air, respectively. The two exceptions are the cube and dodecahedron – earth and ether – which are built of squares and pentagons, respectively.
The triangle represents the number three, the number of trinity, ( ex: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva | Osiris, Isis, Horus ) creation and destruction.
With that in mind, one way to understand the interaction of elements is to see them as sets of triangles crashing into one another and combining to make different sets of triangles.
Water, fire, and air are in this constant dance, intermingling to make bigger triangles and dissolving into tinier fragments. Is this not a simplified description of what we call chemistry?
Plato himself is said to have given the following example in order to make abstract teaching more real to our experience. It is commonly understood that something spicy must be associated with the fire element, and thus the tetrahedron. The tetrahedron is a very sharp shape, with spiked angles that you can imagine would be very prickly if you had several million of them in your mouth. This points to the burning sharpness of spicy food.
On the other hand, more soothing, creamy foods are associated with the water element, and thus the icosahedron. The icosahedron has twenty sides, with much duller angles, very near to a sphere. Compared to the tetrahedron, you can imagine how the roundness of this shape is far more gentle, sweet, and pleasing to the tongue.
Air, represented by the octahedron, is nothing but two tetrahedrons stacked back to back. Ayurvedically speaking, foods with a predominance of the air element is considered very dry and rough, difficult to digest, like popcorn or crackers. There is a certain intuitive logic to how these shapes connect to our experiential reality if you are willing to tune in and do the experiment.
Somewhat outside this process, although not entirely immune, is the square-based cube, representing earth. As the densest element, it makes sense that each of its sides is made of not one, but two triangles (aka a square). The eight square sides that make up a cube are indicative of the infinite potential of material creation, as well as the power of stability, as the number eight is both an upright infinity symbol and a perfectly balanced shape suggesting, as above, so below.
Outside the triangular paradigm altogether is the five-sided pentagon that makes up the dodecahedron. Given that the ether acts as a container for the other elements, it only makes sense that it is not overly susceptible to entanglement.
That being said, a pentagon can be created by five inwardly-directed triangles (though not equilateral), which is appropriate as well, since even the ether is within the third-dimensional realm and not entirely devoid of physical characteristics.
Generally speaking, though, the dodecahedron is the outlier of the group, and rightfully so since its role is to hold space for the ongoing dance performed primarily by the other four elements.
THE FLUIDITY OF AKAŚHA
-Observing the relationships between the Platonic Solids, one may notice that the icosahedron is the precise inverse of the dodecahedron. This is to say, if you connect the center points of all twelve pentagons that compose the etheric element, you will have created the twelve corners of the watery icosahedron.
This is intriguing because what we have thus far been able to observe of the ether indicates that it does indeed behave like a fluid. Granted, measuring and observing the ether has proven rather difficult to this point, due to its all-encompassing pervasiveness. How can one measure something from which one cannot escape? And if we cannot measure it, how can we be sure that it even exists?
We have little trouble measuring the other elements: the kinetic mass of earth; the chemical reactions made soluble by water; the radiant heat of fire; the volts of electric wind. These are relatively effortlessly observed, standing “continually open to our gaze” as they do. But the super subtle ether evades easy detection.
So, we can learn a great deal about the nature of the ether by studying fluid dynamics. Water is far easier to access and observe than ether, so we can take clues from the spiraling of water down a drain, or the path of a hurricane to better understand what is happening at a more subtle level way out in the universe, or way deep within, all the same.
MICRO AND MACRO
- Beginning on page 328 of The Source Field Investigations, David Wilcock describes the work of Dr. Robert Moon in exploring how the Platonic Solids govern the structure of any given atom, accurately predicting the number of protons found therein.
Using this model, we can extrapolate the entire periodic table of elements, stacking several solids together to create the larger, less stable structures. This is a very exciting reimagining of how chemistry functions. Dr. Moon was involved in the Manhattan Project and his model may prove useful in cold fusion experiments as well as many other applications beyond the scope of this author’s current awareness.
Moon’s atomic model was inspired by Johannes Kepler, who suggested a model of the solar system based on the Platonic Solids all nested within one another. This conception of the planetary orbits is not only an elegant wish but a mathematical reality.
On page 337 of Source Field, Wilcock tells us that:
Pulling just one of many examples from John Martineau’s magical classic, A Little Book of Coincidence, wherein:
All that surrounds us, the Universe in all its majesty and splendour is wonderful, harbouring many mysteries and secrets that we hope will be unravelled as times change.
The Platonic Solids are, at their essence, the basic shapes that underlie observable reality. These five forms govern the structure of everything from atoms to planetary orbits.
We’ll begin by connecting the five solids to the five-element theory proposed by many ancient healing modalities — in this case, Ayurveda. Having established the relevance of these shapes to the human body, we’ll explore the micro and macro realms as well to see if there are any useful connections to be made.
FIVE ELEMENTS: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Akasha/Ether
-Sankhya is one of the most ancient natural philosophies still alive on planet Earth today and is the source for Ayurveda’s concept of the body. The Sankhya philosophical system proposes that everything created on this plane of existence is a compound of five essential elements. Planets, people, plants and atmospheric particulate alike are formed by Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Akasha/Ether.
Earth is the densest element, the stuff of rock and bone, giving solidity and form. Water is the universal solvent and the ruling archetype for all fluids, including rivers and oceans of course, but also blood and plasma. Fire is the only element that gives heat and is responsible for all transformative processes such as digestion. Air is the element of mobility, carrying ideas, inspiration. Akasha or Akash (Sanskrit ākāśa आकाश) means space or sky or æther.
ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY
The interaction of the five elements is well described by the five regular polyhedra known as the Platonic Solids. These are the only three-dimensional shapes that are perfectly symmetrical in every direction, with every internal angle and side length the same. According to Plato, each solid corresponds to a specific element:
The cube corresponds to earth; the icosahedron corresponds to water; the tetrahedron corresponds to fire; the octahedron corresponds to air, and the dodecahedron corresponds to ether.
-Looking at the shape of the sides, we notice that three of the five Platonic Solids are composed of equilateral triangles – the icosahedron, tetrahedron and octahedron, representing water, fire, and air, respectively. The two exceptions are the cube and dodecahedron – earth and ether – which are built of squares and pentagons, respectively.
The triangle represents the number three, the number of trinity, ( ex: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva | Osiris, Isis, Horus ) creation and destruction.
With that in mind, one way to understand the interaction of elements is to see them as sets of triangles crashing into one another and combining to make different sets of triangles.
Water, fire, and air are in this constant dance, intermingling to make bigger triangles and dissolving into tinier fragments. Is this not a simplified description of what we call chemistry?
Plato himself is said to have given the following example in order to make abstract teaching more real to our experience. It is commonly understood that something spicy must be associated with the fire element, and thus the tetrahedron. The tetrahedron is a very sharp shape, with spiked angles that you can imagine would be very prickly if you had several million of them in your mouth. This points to the burning sharpness of spicy food.
On the other hand, more soothing, creamy foods are associated with the water element, and thus the icosahedron. The icosahedron has twenty sides, with much duller angles, very near to a sphere. Compared to the tetrahedron, you can imagine how the roundness of this shape is far more gentle, sweet, and pleasing to the tongue.
Air, represented by the octahedron, is nothing but two tetrahedrons stacked back to back. Ayurvedically speaking, foods with a predominance of the air element is considered very dry and rough, difficult to digest, like popcorn or crackers. There is a certain intuitive logic to how these shapes connect to our experiential reality if you are willing to tune in and do the experiment.
Somewhat outside this process, although not entirely immune, is the square-based cube, representing earth. As the densest element, it makes sense that each of its sides is made of not one, but two triangles (aka a square). The eight square sides that make up a cube are indicative of the infinite potential of material creation, as well as the power of stability, as the number eight is both an upright infinity symbol and a perfectly balanced shape suggesting, as above, so below.
Outside the triangular paradigm altogether is the five-sided pentagon that makes up the dodecahedron. Given that the ether acts as a container for the other elements, it only makes sense that it is not overly susceptible to entanglement.
That being said, a pentagon can be created by five inwardly-directed triangles (though not equilateral), which is appropriate as well, since even the ether is within the third-dimensional realm and not entirely devoid of physical characteristics.
Generally speaking, though, the dodecahedron is the outlier of the group, and rightfully so since its role is to hold space for the ongoing dance performed primarily by the other four elements.
THE FLUIDITY OF AKAŚHA
-Observing the relationships between the Platonic Solids, one may notice that the icosahedron is the precise inverse of the dodecahedron. This is to say, if you connect the center points of all twelve pentagons that compose the etheric element, you will have created the twelve corners of the watery icosahedron.
This is intriguing because what we have thus far been able to observe of the ether indicates that it does indeed behave like a fluid. Granted, measuring and observing the ether has proven rather difficult to this point, due to its all-encompassing pervasiveness. How can one measure something from which one cannot escape? And if we cannot measure it, how can we be sure that it even exists?
We have little trouble measuring the other elements: the kinetic mass of earth; the chemical reactions made soluble by water; the radiant heat of fire; the volts of electric wind. These are relatively effortlessly observed, standing “continually open to our gaze” as they do. But the super subtle ether evades easy detection.
So, we can learn a great deal about the nature of the ether by studying fluid dynamics. Water is far easier to access and observe than ether, so we can take clues from the spiraling of water down a drain, or the path of a hurricane to better understand what is happening at a more subtle level way out in the universe, or way deep within, all the same.
MICRO AND MACRO
- Beginning on page 328 of The Source Field Investigations, David Wilcock describes the work of Dr. Robert Moon in exploring how the Platonic Solids govern the structure of any given atom, accurately predicting the number of protons found therein.
According to Dr. Moon, the eight corners of the cube indicate eight protons. This gives scientific credence to the assertion that the cube shape is associated with the esoteric earth element.
Using this model, we can extrapolate the entire periodic table of elements, stacking several solids together to create the larger, less stable structures. This is a very exciting reimagining of how chemistry functions. Dr. Moon was involved in the Manhattan Project and his model may prove useful in cold fusion experiments as well as many other applications beyond the scope of this author’s current awareness.
Moon’s atomic model was inspired by Johannes Kepler, who suggested a model of the solar system based on the Platonic Solids all nested within one another. This conception of the planetary orbits is not only an elegant wish but a mathematical reality.
On page 337 of Source Field, Wilcock tells us that:
This is by no means a new idea. Many scientists and philosophers before have suggested that the micro is essentially a reflection of the macrocosm. What is exciting in this case, is the mathematical precision with which we can make this assertion.
Pulling just one of many examples from John Martineau’s magical classic, A Little Book of Coincidence, wherein:
All that surrounds us, the Universe in all its majesty and splendour is wonderful, harbouring many mysteries and secrets that we hope will be unravelled as times change.
