Description
Book SynopsisThe priests of ancient Egypt preserved a geometrical canon, a numerical code of harmonies and proportions, that they applied to music, art, statecraft, and all the institutions of their civilization. Plato, an initiate in the Egyptian mysteries, said it was the instrument by which the ancients maintained high, principled standards of civilization and culture over thousands of years. In The Dimensions of Paradise, John Michell describes the results of a lifetime’s research, demonstrating how the same numerical code underlies sacred structures from ancient times to the Christian era. In the measurements of Stonehenge, the foundation plan of Glastonbury, Plato’s ideal city, and the Heavenly City of the New Jerusalem described in the vision of Saint John lie the science and cosmology on which the ancient world order was founded. The central revelation of this book is a structure of geometry and number representing the essential order of the heavens and functioning as a map of paradise.
Trade Review“John Michell’s
The Dimensions of Paradise is inarguably among the most important Gnostic transmissions of recent generations. With his candid, uncomplicated style, John has made widely available the visions, the laws, and the numbers held within pure geometry and which integrate earth and sky, movement and form, cosmos and mankind.” * Robert Lawlor, author of Sacred Geometry: Its Philosophy and Practice and Voices of the First Day *
“John Michell has produced one of the primary texts for understanding the number system that encoded the prehistoric world view. He reveals how sacred geometry, myth, gematria, and the structure of numbers created a big picture lost soon after Plato, a knowledge replaced by derivative religious and materialistic ideas.
The Dimensions of Paradise is an essential key to comprehending monuments such as the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge, but it also provides an initiatory journey into the ancient mind itself.” * Richard Heath, author of Sacred Number and the Origins of Civilization *
"As usual, this is a dense, yet inspiring, read and one that has some practical nuggets in it for those who are looking for a kind of three-dimensional sacred geometry they can apply to daily life." * Institute of Hermetic Studies, Mar 2008 *
" . . . a top pick for New Age libraries interested in sacred geometry." * The Midwest Book Review, April 08 *
"A must for anyone looking for the science hidden within the matrix of life." * Rahasya Poe, Lotus Guide magazine, July 2009 *
“. . . most intriguing of books. Recommended.” * EarthRites.org, May 2011 *
Table of Contents
Introduction
IN QUEST OF THE CANON1 THE HEAVENLY CITY AS ETERNAL STANDARDThe Cosmic Temple • The New Jerusalem • The Twelve Hides of Glastonbury • The New Jerusalem in Stonehenge • The Pattern in the Heavens • Contructing the New Jerusalem • Measuring the Courts of the City
2 NUMBER IN SACRED SCIENCEThe Numbers of the Canon • Gematria: The Names and Numbers of God • Symbolic or Sacred Geometry • Sacred Geometry in Dürer’s Melencolia • Music and Proportion • A Circle of Perpetual Choirs
3 NUMBER AND MEASURELengths of Ancient Units of Measure • Summary of the Earth’s Dimensions • The Priority of the Foot • Astronomy
4 THE CITIES OF PLATO
The 5,040 Citizens of Magnesia • From Circle to Square: The City Brought to Earth • Plato’s Secrecy • Atlantis • The Measures of Atlantis • The Problem of the Plain • Why Atlantis Fell • Plato’s Cosmos and the Wanderings of the Soul • The Music of the Heavenly Wheels • The Numerical Creation Myth of Timaeus • The Harmonic Composition of the World Soul • The Number of the Soul
5 SYMBOLIC NUMBER864, the Foundation Number • 3,168, the Perimeter of the New Jerusalem • 1,224, the Number of Paradise, and the 153 Fishes in the Net • 1,080, the Lunar Number • 666, the Solar Number and the Number of the Beast • 1,746, the Number of Fusion • Sacred Names from the Dimensions of the New Jerusalem
6 THE ANCIENT AND FUTURE COSMOLOGYHeavenly Jerusalem, Its Invocation and Modern Function
Index of Names
Index of Numbers
