An uncertain diagram from an old oral familiar Tradition about Sacred Geometry and Mirror Resonance. By the way worth enough to get a glance.
In the case of such an ancient discipline as Alchemy, we must accept that so often, many teachings are from oral traditions. Generally, they are from what we trust as an influential, though legendary, source quoted by some very eminent authors. Or from some persuasive initiated orders. We rarely consider pieces of knowledge coming from other than those abovementioned environments.
But when something interesting and sounding, if not actual, at least plausible, is before us, it should be allowed to be evaluated. This preface introduces a diagram from the worst possible oral tradition environment: an unknown and inconspicuous family.
I kept it in my records just for the spirit of inquiry, but I could not further investigate. So, instead of being wise not to publish unverified and uncertain items, I made this public since I failed to see why I shouldn’t. This is neither a scientific nor a strictly historical site, and if one is scared to lose his /her way in the alchemical labyrinths, well … he/she has to learn the hard way.
Some twenty years ago, I was having dinner in an austere and rather dark dining room owing to a Venetian tailor. The two attributes were primarily caused by some seventeenth-century, and not remarkable, paintings on the walls. One in front of me caught my attention because of some white lines and signs marking it. The dinner finished, I went to have a closer look. The canvas was a relatively poor altarpiece. At first sight, a long white straight line, foreign to the original scene and apparently from watercolor, was drawn to join together an L point ( within the body of a little angel) to an L1 within a sitting Madonna left knee. After a thorough examination, a second white line joined together an R point, within a little angel beside L, to L indeed. Here I wrote L and L1 to differentiate, but in the original tailor’s tale, and consequently, in my homemade sketch, L1 was L’. Perhaps to point at a very close similitude between L and L’. More than L1 could suggest.
At the end of the L1 point, that’s to say, just before the beginning of Madonna’s left knee, some two segments seemed to roughly delineate a kind of half circle around the knee, to stop just beyond the middle point or the knee center.
“What is this?” I asked, being quite sure to hear a “ Just a sketch for the canvas to be cut into pieces” ( a sad practice to “clean” stolen paintings).
My host had no hesitation in answering. It was just a reminder of one of his grandmother’s teachings. “What kind of teachings?” I childishly replied. The man probably didn’t expect my answer; all the guests glanced at me contemptuously. The discussion went interrupted by a silly observation by another guest. In the room, the pervading mood was a kind of: “ it is not polite to make puerile questions on stolen canvas; this is his own business”. But my host didn’t know I was a tenacious mystery hunter. I remained for last to leave, and instead of giving the standard sense of obligation for dinner, I resumed my investigation: “What kind of teachings did you mean?”. “Some very antiquated and boring”. “Come on; we are among antiquarians. They cannot be more boring than a seventeenth-century second-rate altarpiece”. “Sacred Geometry”. “Tell me everything; I promise not to laugh”.
So the tailor told me of when his grandmother had brought him before the canvas to indicate angels and knees. The following is the literal tailor’s tale ( as I diligently wrote it down once at home): “Point L has an influx on point L1, provided two things: the distance between L and L1 has to be conspicuous, and an adjacent point R has to act as a catalyst, or activator, on L. The two segments around the knee suggest a bending action”. I asked why he had not drawn a curve instead. “ Because I do not think a light beam can bend”. “Was your grandmother to mention light beam?”. “No, it was me. She talked of an influx”. “Was she to draw the diagram lines” “No, it was me some years later, just not to forget”.
By a chance occurrence the following year, I happened to have another dinner in the same house. Meanwhile, I became interested in fluid mechanics through an analogous chance occurrence. I stumbled upon the Coanda effect ( if a stream of fluid flows along a solid surface curved slightly from the stream, the fluid will tend to follow the surface). The scrawled canvas was still there, and I took this as a sign of destiny. I managed to remain for last in the house and meant to resume, going to place before the canvas. “You are showing great appreciation of it”. “ Yes, but only of the implications. Are you so sure light is involved?”. “I simply presumed… when sacred is involved”. “But your grandmother told you of an influx, wasn’t it?” .“ Yes”. “And from point L1, the line has to bend to reach a not well-defined point on the sphere surface, isn’t it?” .“ Right”.“ So, I don’t think we are before a light beam, which anyway your grandmother didn’t mention… but an influx”. “ What’s the difference?” .“That a light beam cannot curve, not in that half-baked way. If turning around a sphere, as we are allowed to think of, a human knee is involved. Thus we are before an agent able to bend, such as a fluid, for example”. My host appeared puzzled. “ As far as I know, there is no way to force a series of segments to turn around a sphere, at least they should rotate on a pivot. There is no evidence of a pivot but a circumference to be bent”.
A few months later, the tailor died, leaving no children, and his heirs asked me an outrageous price for the canvas. I have kept the annotation in my archives for years with the name “Diagram of the knee tour”. Only recently, I began to think that if my host wanted to keep it a secret, he would not have exposed it in his dining room, and, what’s more, he would not have invited so many people.