Bulletins

GeometryCode bulletin for January 2015

Saturday, 31 January 2015 by Bruce Rawles

(1) News, Events, Interviews, Workshops, Classes, Exhibits, Products, Articles, Tutorials

Fibonacci Garden: Mathematics in the Plant World – New DVD from Michael Schneider

For the past two months I indicated that I would do a more proper review of “Fibonacci Garden: Mathematics in the Plant World“, the latest DVD from Michael S. Schneider, author of the superb book A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science by Michael Schneider (which I often recommend as a companion to Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook.) Earlier this month, I finally finished watching it’s generous content – give your self multiple hours to savor it, since it is packed with lavish visuals, photos and illustrations … I recommend it highly. If you’re a math educator, math historian, prime number theorist, botanist, geneticist, stock market analyst or sacred geometry enthusiast, you won’t regret getting a copy for your collection. Note the ‘golden angle’ (360°/2ø) = 137.507…° which also appears in the Blooms: Strobe-Animated Sculptures which I will describe in more detail in next month’s post. Here is a Fibonacci-inspired composition that Schneider refers to in the video: Béla Bartók – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, I. Rather than write about his insightful narration and imagery, I’ll let a few screen snaps convey a sense of what the DVD contains. There are hundreds of fascinating slides in this video, covering numerous aspects of how Fibonacci numbers and related sacred geometry topics reach into myriad areas of our lives; here are just a small handful of screen shots – please forgive the hand-held cell-phone photo quality; there’s no distortion or blurriness in the actual video:

In addition to an extensive bibliography at the end of the DVD, here are some of the websites that Michael references:

Fibonacci Quarterly
Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section
US Patent and Trademark Office (search using the words Fibonacci, Golden Ratio and Golden Mean)
USDA Plant Gallery (countless examples of Fibonacci numbers)

(2) Websites, Books, Videos, Imagery, Music and Quotes

an introduction to the EarthStar Globe by colleague Dan Shaw; among other familiar geometric curiosities, he details 62 terrestrial vertices at intersections of the 30 rhombic elements of this unique polyhedron
ESPL: Dances of the Planets – ‘string art’ and other planetary orbit images inspired by The book, ‘A Little Book of Coincidence‘ by John Martineau, as were my POV-Ray planetary images, available as greeting cards, posters, apparel, calendars and more.
Sisyphus, Golden Globes, Polytopes, and Rhythmic Cycles – an interview of Bruce Rawles by Dave Cohen

(3) Request for Submissions

As always, please let me know how I might support you. Please send me any interesting items about sacred geometry or related interests … since everything is inter-related!If you would like to stay connected and network with kindred souls online, check out my pages on
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. I always enjoy connecting with both recent and long-time friends and colleagues and discovering new friends of friends :-)Thanks for your interest & support! :-) BTW, I always appreciate enthusiastic reviews on the Amazon SGDS book page, and the newer Amazon book page for The Geometry Code. It’s a good “win-win” way to cross-promote your work as well.

If you like to color with colored pencils (or other media), make 3-D fold-up geometric art, do stained glass, quilts, geometric arts and/or crafts, or just want an extensive reference/resource of geometric archetypes, patterns and essential line art, you might enjoy a copy of my first book, Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook: Universal Dimensional Patterns.

If your leanings are more metaphysical … and perhaps whimsical :-) … you might enjoy my second book, The Geometry Code: Universal Symbolic Mirrors of Natural Laws Within Us; Friendly Reminders of Inclusion to Forgive the Dreamer of Separation. It was originally going to have geometry and Hermetic Laws/symbolism as a primary focus, but in 2007, a reawakened interest in the spiritual masterpiece, A Course In Miracles – thanks to Gary Renard – shifted the primary emphasis to an exploration of the two thought fundamental systems we all vacillate between, and how we can gradually shift our mind’s identity to the happy one.

Bruce Rawles
PO Box 192, Castle Rock, Colorado 80104
author of The Geometry Code book; co-author of The Geometry Code screensaver
author of Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook
Free monthly email bulletin on sacred geometry and related subjects
You might also enjoy my blog which has lots of other fun and info in addition to these bulletins.

GeometryCode bulletin for December 2014

Wednesday, 31 December 2014 by Bruce Rawles

(1) News, Events, Interviews, Workshops, Classes, Exhibits, Products, Articles, Tutorials

Solar System Geometry Calendars for 2015

The popular Martineau Solar System Series calendar for 2015 is still available. The models depicting averaged (circular rather than elliptical) orbit relationships are astonishingly accurate … and simple! Enjoy! :-)

You can order the 2015 Martineau-inspired Solar System calendar here.

Interview with Starr Fuentes

On November 27, 2014 I was the guest of long-time fellow geometer and sacred geometry enthusiast, Starr Fuentes on her BlogTalkRadio show, Starr Gazing Radio. I shared some of the historical precedents of my interest in the subject and much more. I’m scheduled to be a presenter at her conference next June 13-14 in Hot Springs, Arkansas; stay tuned!

Great Pyramid and more – another interview with Dave Cohen

Dave Cohen (a.k.a. Davie Crockett) and I did another interview on 21 December, 2014, on his LA Talk Radio show covering interconnectedness, shared interests, the Hermetic Law of Mentalism, oneness, Platonic philosophy and geometry, metaphysics in general, our usual romp through sacred geometry – a few tangents like the timeless movie Joyeaux Noël – and an extended segment on the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt.

Fibonacci Garden: Mathematics in the Plant World – New DVD from Michael Schneider

Last month I indicated that I would do a more proper review of “Fibonacci Garden: Mathematics in the Plant World“, the latest DVD from Michael S. Schneider, author of the superb book A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science by Michael Schneider (which I often recommend as a companion to Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook.) I only had time to watch about half of it–busy month!–but what I saw and heard (earlier today) was superb, and already surpassed my high expectations. I recommend it highly. I’ll do a more detailed review in next month’s (January 2015) bulletin. Thanks for your patience. If you’re a math educator or sacred geometry enthusiast, you won’t regret getting a copy for your collection.

(2) Websites, Books, Videos, Imagery, Music and Quotes

Khan Academy has LOTS of great tutorial info on geometry
Chad Adams’ Extended Fibonacci Series Facebook page
A reader’s email question about geometric constructions of an ellipse led to this MathWorld page about the ellipse, another from ‘ancient curve drawers‘, and another about the foci of ellipses.
The image for this month’s bulletin was a screen snap from the lavishly illustrated video: The Lost Scale Extended Version – by David Sereda which explores non-distoring harmonic scales

(3) Request for Submissions

GeometryCode bulletin for November 2014

Monday, 1 December 2014 by Bruce Rawles

(1) News, Events, Interviews, Workshops, Classes, Exhibits, Products, Articles, Tutorials

Fibonacci Garden: Mathematics in the Plant World – New DVD from Michael Schneider

I just today received “Fibonacci Garden: Mathematics in the Plant World“, the latest DVD from Michael S. Schneider, author of the superb book A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science by Michael Schneider (which I often recommend as a companion to Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook.) I haven’t had time to watch it, but based on his Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe book and related DVDs (all excellent), I can already recommend it highly. I’ll do a more detailed review in next month’s bulletin – make that this month’s (December 2014) bulletin, since it just became December while I was typing this. :-)

New geometric creations from Ka Gold Jewelry

Artists at Ka Gold Jewelry keep adding exquisite new artistic creations to their prolific line of geometrically inspired, mystical, cosmic jewelry. New items include a vesica-piscis-yin-yang-entangled pendant, star tetrahedra with and without enclosing spheres, Flower of Life, Seed of Life, zodiacal emblems and a truncated icosahedron (i.e. soccer ball shape) with each face a seed of life shape … and much more. Their geometric and design artistry draws from a diversity of cultural traditions and contemporary visionary interpretations. You might want to benefit from their current seasonal 15% discount; use Coupon Code – KAGOLD2014 – valid until December 24, 2014. Here are more photos of recent additions to the Ka Gold Jewelry line.

(2) Websites, Books, Videos, Imagery, Music and Quotes

Nassim Haramein’s vortex math video and math
Chestahedron? A 7-sided quasi-Platonic form with equal area faces
some classic 2-D geometric line art polygon and fractal archetypes
Platonic Solids and their relation to the Flower of Life pattern
article: The Sacred Geometry of Sound and Vibration
Burning Man Time-Lapse video of a pyramid cluster
Bucky Fuller-inspired partial-geodesic chairs
Photographer Renee Cox uses multiple human forms to make geometric mandalas, fractals, etc.
Stonehenge researchers discover site is much larger than previously thought
Intrinity geometry jewelry
Monadology: “Existence is based on monism, not dualism, because there is no sufficient reason why existence should produce an arbitrary number of incompatible substances. If it generated such substances, it would generate an infinite number, not just two. In fact, what existence does is generate infinite instances of one substance. That one substance MUST contain, at least in elementary form, every property that will be exhibited in the universe.”

(3) Request for Submissions

GeometryCode bulletin for October 2014

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 by Bruce Rawles

(1) News, Events, Interviews, Workshops, Classes, Exhibits, Products, Articles, Tutorials

Follow the bouncing ball: toroidal torsos, tetrahedra and truncated icosahedra

I recently saw a fun video on FaceBook showing soccer players with their torsos enclosed in protective toroidal bubbles, and then found this related Bubble Soccer USA site. Perhaps sport is now imitating what some believe is the shape of the human electromagnetic energy field? Below is a stylized illustration I did some years ago of nested rainbow colored toroids surrounding a meditator in lotus position.

Of course, the shape of a traditional soccer ball is roughly the projection of a truncated icosahedron onto a sphere. Since inflated bubbles provide superb cushioning, they are also found on this NASA Mars lander video; note the tetrahedral cushioning balloons (with 6 quasi-spherical balloons on each face) about 3.5 minutes into the video.

Solar System Geometry Calendars for 2015

I just updated the popular Martineau Solar System Series calendar for 2015. The models depicting averaged (circular rather than elliptical) orbit relationships are astonishingly accurate … and simple! Enjoy! :-)

Spiral shell sculptures

Sculptor, fellow artist, geometer and student of metaphysics, Stefán Geir Karlsson recently sent me some interesting conceptual images and commentary about making some really large spiral shell sculptures. His virtual vortices would be fun to explore as full size realized art forms. I’ve long had similar ideas for making huge models of polyhedra with mirrored interiors that we could walk inside, see the labyrinthine reflections and hear the equally fractal echoes; all metaphors of our projections mirrored back to us! Colleague Sara Frucht of Berkeley, Calif. has some excellent smaller models she calls ‘Kaleidoscapes‘ with wonderful interior mirror reflections.

(2) Websites, Books, Videos, Imagery, Music and Quotes

Golden Ratio and sound – John Chowning audio
A site featuring the work of noted geometer and scholar Tons Brunés and classic sacred geometry constructions
22 maps and charts that will surprise you; some interesting images for map enthusiasts; the last one (#22) about Laniakea and the Milky Way; is particularly impressive to keep our tiny earth-bound issues in perspective! :-)
a related, linked video about supercluster Laniakea … staggering!
a lovely photo of newly-discovered galaxy SMM J2135-0102
Golden Ratio For Kids: Pinterest page
Werner Vogt’s geometrically inspired architecture
Lissajous figures (I used to make wild animations with an analog oscilloscope and a bank of oscillators in high school) and Hans Jenny’s Cymatics are kindred art forms. … John Martineau has a great little book on the Harmonograph (among his generous assortment of gems in his Wooden Books series; scroll down to the Wooden Books section on our Sacred Geometry books page. … Steven K. Roberts: “here was my childhood harmonograph with adjustable pendulums and U-joints to the drawing tool, with rack-and-pinion pickoff via servos to a second platform above.

(3) Request for Submissions

As always, please let me know how I might support you. Please send me any interesting items about sacred geometry or related interests … since everything is inter-related!If you would like to stay connected and network with kindred souls online, check out my pages on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. I always enjoy connecting with both recent and long-time friends and colleagues and discovering new friends of friends :-)Thanks for your interest & support! :-) BTW, I always appreciate enthusiastic reviews on the Amazon SGDS book page, and the newer Amazon book page for The Geometry Code. It’s a good “win-win” way to cross-promote your work as well.

BTW, there are TWO different GeometryCode bulletins (and you can subscribe to either or both):

a monthly bulletin (which tends to be sent towards the end of the month when I realize I haven’t sent one yet! :-)
an update bulletin (you can subscribe on any page from the box in the right sidebar just below the search box) that gets sent any time there’s a new blog post the prior day

GeometryCode bulletin for September 2014

Tuesday, 30 September 2014 by Bruce Rawles

(1) News, Events, Interviews, Workshops, Classes, Exhibits, Products, Articles, Tutorials

Mutation game – prototype

Inventor Mark White recently sent me a prototype – check out his KickStarter campaign – for his very cool new “Mutation” game which allows 4 white and 4 black ‘knobs’ to traverse the edges of a colorful dodecahedron. You get an intuitive and kinesthetic sense of the shape and its topology by traversing the edges and it has a good ‘feel’ in your hand. The goal of one of many possible games is to be the first to make your 4 knobs (white or black) into a tetrahedral pattern. Here’s a bright youngster at a recent science event I participated in playing with the proto.

More fun with Zometool

At the aforementioned educational event (the Castle Rock, Colorado library “Full STEAM Ahead program” Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Mathematics) last weekend, I set up a demo showing a recursive video animation I did of the nested Platonic solids on my laptop … along with a 3d model made from ZomeTool which some of the young event participants helped me to add to, making a sort of quasi-partially-truncated inner-stellation (nowhere near mathematically correct jargon, but you kinda get the idea :-) of a cube with green and blue struts which enclosed the outermost octahedron. Fun! :-)