7/27/2019 THE CIRCLE AND THE SQUARE, from "The Mind of the Druid"

1/3

THE CIRCLE AND THE SQUARE

In the mystery of numbers, apart from the ubiquitous position of zero,three and four must hold pride of place. Add them together and thenumber is 7, for the days of the week; multiply them, and the number

is 12, for the months of year. No one quite knows why, and nowadayswe no longer wonder why this should be so!Starting with a point, we realise that it has no extension, and no

dimensions. (This is what we mean by the state ofNON-DUALITY). Movingthe point, we extend it to a line, which has only one dimension;rotating that line through a right angle, we have two dimensions,making a square; again another, and we have three dimensions,making a cube. (If you look into the corner of any room you will see thethree dimensions there). But rotating the line through one more rightangle, we have completed 360 degrees, to form a circle, which has onemore dimension than the square. It is therefore capable of movement,

which the square is not. But the circle (3) has the square (4) within itsboundaries: and so the square is only 3 dimensional, but the circle 4.So, in a curious way these two numbers, which are as opponent in theircharacteristics as time and space, are interlocked, inseparably; andinterchangeable.

Putting the circle and the square together, we have what isknown as the space-time continuum. As a matter of fact, it is withinthis continuum that we live and move: time moves within us, and wemove outwardly in space.

Time moves in curves, rhythmically. It is cyclical, if seen to berepeating itself, as in the seasons; but spiral, if seen extending itself

over a term of years, as in history. Objects in space stand still; becausethey are only three-dimensional, they cannot move and must bemoved by something which is curved, and therefore possessed of thisdimension plus, as are we all. All living things are curved and moverhythmically. All square things are dead, like a box or a house, unlesswe live within them.

Time is therefore always moving into space, the larger dimensioninto the lesser. It is rhythm (time) which brings energy into space,producing form. The Druidic concept of the triplicity of idea,promoting energy, promoting form, can therefore be seen as aprocess ofextension by reduction, or expansion with loss of energy or

heat. This is the process, as a matter of fact, of all creative activity:and once upon a time it was this especial study which fascinated theDruids. Their problem was how to be able to make use of the magicwhich worked so mysteriously in their daily lives between the 3 andthe 4, and the 4 and the 3. For although they were both asdifferent as opposite to one another, yet they were also indwelling oneanother and interchangeable. The Chinese once upon a time alsorealised the same truth. They said the Yin (female principle) was in the

7/27/2019 THE CIRCLE AND THE SQUARE, from "The Mind of the Druid"

2/3

Yang (male principle), and drew it so to show the universal law ofrhythmic reciprocity.

This was the key to the Druidic state of mind, and to theirunderstanding of the way the creative process worked in their space-time continuum. This was the way their magic worked, amongst the

stones and in the clearings amidst the trees. This was the secret oftheir capacity for deep communication: like the berries on themistletoe, they could get between the forked stems of apparentopposition, and draw out the secret juice of life itself, so getting thebest out of both the worlds of 4 and 3, of circle and of square. Theirarchitecture was as much to the point as their minds were. This waswhy their magic worked so well, and their communications were sodeeply true.

But the most important fact of the relationship involved in thecreative process has not yet been clearly stated, although it has beenpartly implied. The creative process is a losing game, with death

always required at every step, as the needed price of life. Idea mustdie into energy, as energy must die into form, to make it work. Sothe infinite God-headTHAT I AM is always dying that we may live in finiteform, as human me, in space and time. Space and time, 3 and 4,circle and square, are all dying into one another, in order to get acrossthe barrier between. So also the animals must die, in order that wemay live: and we must learn also to die for ourselves and one another,if we are to avoid the useless slaughter of ever more futile wars. Thisdying world is not nature red in tooth and claw; but the ruthlessmajesty of the creative process, which thrives so unreasonably onparadox. We are in-dwelling one another, and the universe is really one

at heart when we understand that seeming conflicts and contradictionscan all be resolved by understanding what the creative process is allabout, and Whence it originates.

This is what the Druids knew and taught, and why they stressedso much the rites of sacrifice and the disciplines of initiation, even untodeath.

Once upon a time the Druids' world contained more time andless space; but as the creative process has advanced with thedevelopment of our human consciousness, so we have movedoutwards into space, and lost our touch with time in the process.Human progress has been at a price, as the creative process must

always be. We have lost on the swings what we have gained on theroundabouts. We have lost in the heart (insight), what we havegained in the head (outsight).

A simple diagram of circle and square may help to illustrate ourpresent condition, and the course of our development:

The creative process is from below upwards, i.e. from the pastforward, out from once upon a time, into as a matter of fact, now.

7/27/2019 THE CIRCLE AND THE SQUARE, from "The Mind of the Druid"

3/3

The cross-over at the neck, diaphragm, or junction of our two worlds ofthe circle and the square, which together comprise our whole beingand becoming, indicates the state of reversal or paradox which is infact actually present in the physiology of our nervous system, as thenerve channels from the brain cross over from one side of the body to

the other.Evidently, by having gained so much power to control things inspace, there is some danger that we may have lost the art of moresensitive communication, not only with one another but with the worldin which we live. Having gained so much of the material world, wehave always been in danger of losing more and more of the essentialvalue andmeaning of our souls.