It's Fractals of Three All the Way Up & Down

As readers know by now, I don't like to speculate, preferring rather to deal in Truths that cannot not be true -- or are at least so vague as to be beyond or beneath criticism or dumbtrollery. And if I do ever speculate, I'll give you a heads-up.

I'm speculating. 

Yesterday's post left off with a surprising image that looks suspiciously similar to a Star of David (consisting of two intersecting triangles). 

One thing leads to another, yada yada, and according to Guénon, triangles in general "are a feature of the major traditions," as they represent "symbolic ternaries" -- not just the Trinity, but all sorts of interesting threesomes, from Being-Consciousness-Bliss to Larry, Moe, and Curly.

However, he cautions us not to necessarily equate them; for example, the Sat-Chit-Ananda of Vedanta is intriguing, but not identical to Father-Son-Holy Spirit. Unless... 

I shouldn't have said that, because at this early juncture I have no idea where the post will end up. Maybe there's a connection, maybe not. We'll all just have to wait and see. 

Consistent with what was said yesterpost, Guénon distinguishes

two kinds of ternary. The first, type 1, can be represented by an upright triangle [∆], and symbolizes a principle giving rise to two opposing or complementary aspects of itself.

Thus, at the top is the Principle (however one wishes to approach it), which then bifurcates into, for example, Subject and Object. 

Down here, it is difficult if not impossible to understand how to reconcile these two... I don't want to say "opposites," because this term isn't sufficient to describe such radically different realities. I mean, what's the commonality between, say, a rock and the concept of justice? No wonder people fall into incoherent dualisms of various kinds.

Rather, the only way to unify these two is at the top of the triangle -- which, if I'm not mistaken, is the esoteric meaning behind that eye at the top of the pyramid on our legal tender. Yes, if thine eye be single, then you can see past the dualities.

Back to Guénon, before we get too carried away. The type 1 ternary is even a kind of unsurpassable map of Ultimate Reality,

in which Being or primal Unity polarizes into the first of all dualities, that of Essence and universal Substance which then gives rise to the whole of manifestation.

In this scheme, if I'm not mistaken, Essence would go to Absoluteness, Substance to Infinitude; or, Essence is always a limitation of Substance, otherwise the universe would be just a blob of undifferentiated Substance. (And for God, of course, his essence is existence, which is to say, he is Necessary Being, and cannot not be.)

Put another way, everything that exists, by virtue of existing, is a combination of substance + essence. I, for example, am apparently the human substance with the essence of Bob. Or a biological substance with the essence of humanness. Or a material substance with the essence of life. Etc.

Let's move on to the second type of ternary, "in which two complementary elements give rise to a third," for example -- you guessed it -- Father (⇆) Mother (⇅) Child, e.g., Osiris-Isis-Horus. 

Or Joseph-Mary-Jesus, which is immediately rendered ambiguous because of the ambiguity, so to speak, of Joseph. Here is a ternary amidst, or contained by, what must be the utterly unique ternary of God-Mary-Jesus. One would think that the middle term is disproportionate to the other two, but... Let's just say that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception renders it fitting if not totally proportionate.

If I'm understanding Guénon correctly, then it would be a mistake to put the second type of ternary ontologically prior to the first; although they are complementary, as with all complementarities, one must be ontologically prior, and in this case it's the upright triangle (∆). Indeed, this must be the case if everything resolves into unity, as it seemingly must.

But wait a minute: Christianity resolves into Trinity. Yes, but the Trinity is of one Substance, or a single Substance in three Persons, beyond which there is not whicher.

Or so they say. But what if it's fractals -- fractals of Three -- all the way up and down? No, you can't buy some pot from me, but hear me out: 

The three-dimensional cross represents the six directions of space emerging from the seventh position, the center.

If we're going to speculate, let's go all the way and say that this center is the heart-intellect and the sacred heart of Jesus, which reflect and now (thanks to the Incarnation) interpenetrate one another.

The two triangles that cover the cosmic waterfront (∆ and ▽) add up to six, and "Six is associated with creation as in the six days of Creation in Genesis." Just to rub it in, "There are six fundamental colours in three pairs of complementary colours." 

Hmm. Instead of all this speculation, perhaps I should have just flipped to page 322 (all of the material above has been taken from the book Prophet for a Dark Age: A Companion to the Works of René Guénon): the "double triangle" represented by the Star of David (or Seal of Solomon) "is one of the ancient symbols of Christianity, symbolizing the union of human and divine natures in Christ":

the upright triangle represented Divinity and the inverted one human nature... so the two triangles together symbolized the union of the two natures, divine and human.

Moreover,

the Seal represents the number six, which is the number of union and mediation, and also the number of creation, hence of the Word: "The role of the Word in relation to Universal Existence can be indicated by the addition of a cross within the Seal -- the vertical bar links the apices of the two opposed triangles, or the two poles of manifestation, and the horizontal bar represents the 'surface of the Waters.'"

And don't ask me what "the Waters" symbolizes, because we're done speculating.