The Da Vinci Code has awakened the public to the powerful and very ancient idea that religious truths and mathematical principles are intimately intertwined. Sacred Geometry offers an accessible way of understanding how that connection is revealed in nature and the arts. Over the centuries, temple builders have relied on magic numbers to shape sacred spaces, astronomers have used geometry to calculate holy seasons, and philosophers have observed the harmony of the universe in the numerical properties of music. By showing how the discoveries of mathematics are manifested over and over again in biology and physics, and how they have inspired the greatest works of art, this illuminating study reveals the universal principles that link us to the infinite.

Reviews

Skinner, credited with introducing feng shui to the West, continues his search for the underlying order of the world with this beautifully illustrated examination of the notion that some geometries reveal hidden truths about the way the universe operates. Beginning with the Greeks, such as Euclid and Pythagoras, who, Skinner explains, invented geometry as a means of constructing sacred buildings in a way that was pleasing to the gods, the text explores a variety of natural and human-made examples of sacred geometry, including the construction of Stonehenge, the shapes of crystals, and the idea of "living spirals" (the horn of a goat, the shell of a nautilus, or DNA). While some parts of the book are harder to accept than others--see, for example, the discussion of crop circles--Skinner argues persuasively that many aspects of art, architecture, and science are linked through mathematics to universal principles that govern the universe. The book's success depends entirely on how much stock one puts in this basic premise, but Skinner makes a remarkably elegant case. David Pitt
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