A film by Shawn Patrick Higgins, Andrew Kurtz and myself created initially for the Deep Leap microcinema night of films relating to sacred geometry.  Soon after Shawn approached me about the topic I met Rachel Zuses, a sacred geometrist.  She was excited about the interview and we were excited to further explore the topic for the film with someone who passionately studies and teaches sacred geometry.

We are curious about how far sacred geometry extends beyond the platonic solids and euclidean forms, how it is conceived of as the architecture of the universe, how sacred geometrists see sacred geometry influencing their lives, and to what extent sacred geometry affects people who are unaware of it.

What initially sparked my interest in this topic was attending the masks showing at Launchpad Gallery and talking to Jeff Betz about his masks and their relationship with the ideas of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.  Many of the masks evoked a sense of facets of the self as represented in the unconscious; one gets a feeling that each could be an image of an intense emotional state or  developmental event within.  One of the feelings that struck me upon going to India was the spirituality and meaning which pervaded the environment, with spiritual symbols everywhere, and meaning attached to details all around: a garland on a tree branch, candles, patterns, images of gods and goddesses.  You walk into a store, or up to a food stand, and you will see a statue of a deity, you will see an altar.

Symbolic meaning and becoming shone through vividly in Betz’ masks and we discussed how that degree of meaning and connection to the unconscious isn’t as present within our culture.  Jung mentions in Man and his Symbols that this detachment separates our culture from our unconscious since the symbols which express the bubbling unconscious of a society and thus produce meaning are repressed.

However, just because the images of gods or other spiritual symbols are not as present in our society does not mean that our unconscious is not expressed in our culture.  Through what framework could the collective unconscious be expressed?  It became apparent upon learning more of sacred geometry that it could to some extent fulfill such a role.   The “gods” in our culture could be platonic ideals and a focus on rationality and meaning in that dimension expressed through the geometry of our architecture.  Such geometry laden with meaning could be a subtle expression of our collective unconscious.

interview with a sacred geometrist. from Shawn Patrick Higgins on Vimeo.

The film “Interview with a Sacred Geometrist” will be shown on December 15th as part of the Deep Leap Microcinema Sacred Geometries screening starting at 7:30 pm at the Waypost, 3120 North Williams Avenue, Portland, OR.