THE UNIVERSE — A LOVE STORY An Introduction Y · 01Introduction August 15, 2010 Now fast-forward six millennia and we find these same “four-fold roots” on our minds, as we assess

THE UNIVERSE — A LOVE STORY

An Introduction

ou’re facing in one of four directions:

1. North

2. South

3. East or

4. West

(or in a direction described by its relation to them: Northeast,

Southwest…).

It’s…

1. morning

2. afternoon

3. evening or

4. night

in the…

1. spring

2. summer

3. fall or

4. winter

as you pass your…

1. childhood

2. youth

3. maturity or

4. old age

Y

The Universe — A Love Story 2 Hayes 01Introduction August 15, 2010

Choose one from each group … There are no other choices.

As I write (this summer morning, facing North) the manmade

objects all about me: desk, door, picture, table, rug, window,

computer and room are all four-cornered — as is this page on which

we read and write. Even the circular clock on my wall is marked so as

to quarter time.

And while these foursomes are our own creations, others — like

our arms and legs — are built right in.

In “The Origin of Life on Earth,” the physicist, Dr. Neil deGrasse

Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, writes:

The matter within every living Earth creature mainly consists of just four chemical elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. All the other elements together contribute less than one percent ….1

Modern science currently counts as four the powers behind all

phenomena in the universe, from the galactic on down, identifying

these universal forces as:

1. the strong force, which binds the nucleus of atoms;

2. electromagnetism, whose sensible forms are heat and light;

3. the weak force, involved in nuclear decay; and

4. gravitation

Everything that exists — from the rupture of suns and the fission of

atoms to your memory of the sunlight in your sister’s hair — is, it


says, an interplay of these four powers.

Then again, we’re creatures of the four dimensions:

1. length

2. width

3. height/depth and

4. time

who function, traditionally, on four levels:

1. the physical

2. emotional

3. mental and

4. spiritual

And no matter what we think about any of the above, none of us can

live without the four life essentials:

1. air

2. warmth

3. food and

4. water

Though if we don’t, our options are still four:

1. burial on land, or

2. at sea;

3. excarnation, or

4. the funeral pyre

his repeated quartering of the circle of life was first noted in the

West by the Greek philosopher, Empedocles, who writes:

T


Now hear the fourfold Roots of everything: Life-bearing Hera, Aidoneus, shining Zeus,

And Nêstis, moistening mortal springs with tears.2

The ancient Greeks identified his divine Roots with the classical

elements:

1. Earth

2. Air

3. Fire and

4. Water

to which, our western histories claim, Aristotle added a mysterious

fifth element: Æther or Quintessence.

Nonetheless, a similar scheme had existed in India at least 700

years earlier, and for likely much longer. The Rig Veda reads in part

like praises of the elements divinized. And around the same time

(1200 BCE) in what is now Iraq, the same elemental gang of four

surfaces in Babylon, about which, Joseph Campbell writes:

“..the entire universe …whether viewed in its highest or its lowest aspect, is a reflex, according to this ancient view, of four elementary powers; the same that we have already found personified of old in the four great gods of the earliest literate civilization known to us: Anu (light or fire), Enlil (air), Ea (water), and the Goddess (earth).”3

This “earliest literate civilization” is Sumer (3800-2000 BCE),

whose dates back us up to the very cliff-edge of pre-history…


Now fast-forward six millennia and we find these same “four-fold

roots” on our minds, as we assess the effects the fires of our industry

have wrought upon the air and waters of our Earth.

Most amazing: this foundational quaternary — ancient,

ubiquitous and profound — goes today almost unacknowledged.

his book describes a primordial tradition, one that, for countless

past ages, viewed the universe as the dynamic expression of four

elemental powers; an archaic worldview replete with a schemata, which

— though partially erased by western science and religion — endures.

This old cosmology was the map humans for millennia used to orient

themselves in time and space; to make sense of their life’s journey; and

to find direction — their True North — in both their inner and outer

worlds.

What is this map? Here it is: dddd.

dddd, as a sign, goes back to the Paleolithic. Today (and for the

past few thousand years) it has signified Earth — both the classical

element and our planet and, by extension, our universe, world.

But if this sign’s history is unfamiliar, its face is not, gazing back,

as it does, from every compass, analogue clock and dial — telling us

the direction we’re headed in and how much time is left.

T


It is, in fact, a hopeful sign. Once hobos chalked it on the steps of

houses to let other hobos know: here you’ll find work, food or money. A

cross in a circle shows the site of buried treasure: “X marks the spot”.

It’s a bun in the oven, money in the bank, her in your arms: the

intersection of the horizontal female line and the vertical male principle

within the circle of space/time. (And where they meet? Well, that’s X-

rated. Or at the very least, there are hugs and kisses. XXX OOO).

Then again, we could see it like this:

the wheel of fortune: the circle of life:

Game show logo

Whatever it is, its manifestations are diverse, various, almost

Logo of the New York City Fire Department; 2001


numberless and universal, ranging from…

the trivial: to the sublime:

From East: to West:

Television test pattern; 1941

The muladhara or root chakra of Yoga,

associated with the element Earth

Celtic cross

Painted zodiac on the ceiling of the Temple of Hathor, Dendera, Egypt;

c. 30 BCE


Bronze Age rock carvings, Skepplanda, Sweden

From the decorative: to the sacred:

Ancient: and modern:

Ancient and modern

Furthermore, this same form is drawn repeatedly by Nature…:

Design for inlaid wooden tabletop, American; 1967

The Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral,

France; 1200

Bicycle logo


Human female estrus cycle

DNA codon wheel, showing how the four nucleotides — guanine, thymine, adenine and cytosine — combine to

form proteins

on different scales…:

…and is sketched in the theoretical air by a vast array

of scientific models, two of which are:

The Moon’s position relative to the Earth in the course of a month, showing its 4 phases

The Earth’s position relative to the Sun over the course of a year,

and at the 4 quarters

Cell division


Great Seal of the United States

ccasionally, some of its symbolism — old and unvarnished —

bubbles up to the cultural surface,

creating a small disturbance in the Force.

The all-seeing eye above a four-sided

truncated pyramid mounted within a circle

appeared on our dollar bills in 1936 and has

been linked ever since in urban myth to a Masonic-

Rosicrucian-Illuminati conspiracy that controls the world’s banks — in

concert with the Rothschilds and the Trilateral Commission!

This much is true: in the West, the Rosicrucians and the Masons

were for centuries keepers and preservers of this old traditional

worldview which is, of course, pre-Christian.

But having invoked the Rosicrucians, can the Knights Templar be

far behind? Nay! For no ancient mystery is replete without them!

O

Temple Seal of Preceptor Brother

Hugues de Rochefort 1204

Templar Cross Philai Temple

Egypt

Templar Cross Gravestone

St. Mary's Church, Fortingall, Scotland C. 1400


“Treasure map”

A templar cross and skull-and-bones decorate a window in an old

Freemason building in Massachusetts

As you can see, the

Templar or Maltese cross

is just a stylish variation on this

old design — and one traditionally

associated with buried treasure.

And yet, as Fortune’s other face, this

same sign, with just a small turn, becomes

the skull-and-crossbones, reminding us that

the Wheel of Life: dddd: is also the Wheel of

Death —

and that the whole shebang can take a sinister twist and go bad before

our very (exed-out) eyes.

Button for Microsoft Internet Explorer

The Jolly Roger

pirate flag


ince at least 529 CE, when the first Christian Emperor, Justinian,

forbade the teaching of Greek philosophy at the University of

Athens, cutting the West off from its classical roots and almost

personally ushering in the Dark Ages, the older and more profound

meanings of this cosmic symbol were suppressed. Not until Crusaders

returned with it to Europe, along with Arabic copies of Greek and Roman

texts, did it again became an object of (often secret) study.

But though its older meanings have been all but lost in the West,

its face and form is still impressed on our culture and is reflected to

this day in our language and myth; in the structure of our govern-

ments; in the layout of our cities and houses of worship — even our

homes.

In other words, this template did not vanish — only our

awareness and understanding of it.

S

St Peter’s Square, the Vatican, Rome

Original plan for Baghdad as built by Al-Mansur, Second

Abbasid Caliph, 762 A 1475 German

map of Jerusalem as a

circular city of four gates


St. Peter’s Basilica Rome

In his authoritative work, Le Symbolism du La Temple Chrétien

[The Symbolism of the Christian Church], J. Hani affirms:

The whole of sacred architecture consists, in reality, of “squaring the circle,” that is, of turning the circle into a square. 4

Thus, the traditional plan of Christian

churches describes a square nave at the

church’s center with a round dome or

cupola above. The lower square is

Earth. The higher circle, Heaven. A

church is their union: Heaven on Earth.

This meant, of course, that up

until recently, to build a church or a

temple, one had to be able to “square a

circle,” working only with a straight edge

and compass. Today, it’s known that this mathematical problem can

only be approximated. Thus, the expression to “square the circle”

meant to perform a near-impossible feat, and came to mean the

attainment of enlightenment.

Maybe this is why dddd is more than a blueprint for the great

cathedrals of Europe and the temples of Angkor Wat, but serves as the

unseen scaffolding for some of our most celebrated psychological and

philosophical systems — from Meyers-Briggs to Yoga to the Greek


mysteries.

In these, and in many other ways, this ancient, simple 4-spoked

wheel seems to serve as a pattern or template for a broad array of forms

and systems, both in nature and in human craft and thought.

This may sound like a lot for one poor watch face to contain, but as

we’ll see, it holds that and more.

1 Tyson 2 Empedocles 3 Campbell 4 J. Hani

Gods of the Greek Orphic Mysteries with

elemental attributions The Myers-Briggs personality types

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo DaVinci

Italy, 1492

Documents

THE UNIVERSE — A LOVE STORY An Introduction Y · 01Introduction August 15, 2010 Now fast-forward six millennia and we find these same “four-fold roots” on our minds, as we assess