Texts>Ancient Pagan Symbols

The Pythagoreans adopted the Triangle as the most perfect geometrical figure, inasmuch as it was the first form complete in itself.

The Triangle enclosed by a Circle is thus defined by Plutarch: "The area within this Triangle is the common hearth of them all and is named the 'Plain of Truth' in which the Reason, the forms and. the patterns of all things that have been, and that shall be, are stored up not to be disturbed; and as Eternity dwells around them, from thence time like a stream from a fountain flows down upon the worlds." I And here having followed this fascinating pair- Man and Woman-to where they are no longer two but three, here we leave them in Plutarch's "Plain of Truth."

These ancient symbols that have existed so long, covered such a large part of the earth's surface, impressed themselves so permanently on art, architecture, music, mathematics, a$tronomy, religion reveal -andthe revelation is astoundingly clear-that man, that paradox of good and evil was never without ideals. There is, it is true, the same paradox in these old symbols of life. They can indicate everything that the depraved ima,gination, or the literal ones incapable of imagination may desire, yet there they stand, immutable, unchanging, speaking clearly from a far off past of the cross, creative energy; the circle, perfection; the serpent, the means of combining creative energy and perfection; the triangle, the result, the ultimate realisation of multiplicity in unity, of three in one; and the Three Pillars, Wisdom, Strength, Beauty, the eternal goal.

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