One of my students (thanks Daniele) asked me one of the most amazing questions ever. I didn’t have enough time to answer him fully, so I decided to write this blog post. He asked, "Why do you like triangles so much?" This is such a loaded question! Everyone who knows me is aware of my triangle obsession, so let me tell you all the reasons why I love triangles and their significance in my life, your life, and the meaning of life in general.
My obsession with triangles started five years ago, in 2019. One of my close friends, Micky, asked me if I could create a 3D, star-shaped triangle form with stained glass. At the time, I had never made any triangle glass artwork, although I had been experimenting with glass containers and 3D structures. I’ve included a picture of that first star at the top of this blog post. The shape Micky asked for has different names. Mathematically, it’s called a stellated octahedron or a star tetrahedron. But the more popular name, especially in spiritual circles, is the Merkaba—a name shrouded in both history and mystery.
As I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve come across countless articles, papers, and theories about this shape. Some I can believe and understand, while others seem to venture deep into the realms of questionable science. I like to cross-check information when it sounds too good to be true and if a source seems unreliable, I won't include it here.
Before building the Merkaba, I had no knowledge or belief in its mystical properties. I was as skeptical as they come. Interestingly, while writing this post, I’ve learned even more about it. Firstly, let me try to explain what it is, and then I will get into why I love it.
The Merkaba consists of two opposing tetrahedrons passing through each other. A tetrahedron is a triangular pyramid and is the most basic of the Platonic solids. Let me briefly explain what Platonic solids are: Named after Plato, these are the most fundamental building blocks of matter, and their discovery dates back to the time of Pythagoras. Platonic solids are convex shapes where all angles are equal, and every face is the same. Only five such shapes exist, and they are considered the foundation of all matter. On the atomic level, everything is structured according to these geometric shapes, which is why this kind of geometry is often called sacred geometry.
When one tetrahedron passes through the other, a fractal is created—a smaller copy of the larger star
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Fractal geometry is a field of study that deals with patterns that repeat from the smallest scale to the largest. From the microscopic to the macroscopic. From snowflakes and flowers to the veins in your body, fractal patterns are everywhere.
Fractal geometry is much more than just a mathematical curiosity; it is the very foundation of how nature organizes itself. Consider a fern leaf: each small leaf looks like a miniature version of the entire fern. This "self-similarity" is the essence of fractal geometry. Whether it’s a mountain range, cloud formation, or a coastline, fractals describe the repeating patterns we see at various scales. In the human body, the lungs are a wonderful example of fractals at work—the bronchi branch into smaller and smaller tubes, mimicking the tree structure on a microscopic scale, ensuring efficient oxygen transfer.
Fractals are also deeply embedded in the structure of the universe. The laws of physics, including the movement of galaxies, follow fractal patterns. This suggests that the universe itself is designed in this repeating, intricate manner, which for me represents the interconnectedness of all things.
Those were the facts, and now for some more esoteric interpretations and explanations. Some suggest that the two tetrahedra represent the masculine and feminine energies, with each rotating in opposite directions, creating an energy field. The Merkaba can also represent the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—within its alchemic symbolism.
Historically, the term Merkaba comes from Hebrew and means "chariot" or "vehicle." Merkabah mysticism, a school of early Jewish thought developed 100BCE, concerns itself with visions of ascent to heavenly realms, particularly Ezekiel’s vision of a fiery chariot (Ezekiel 1:4-28). Modern spiritualists interpret the Merkaba as a vehicle for ascension, allowing individuals to transcend their current reality and achieve higher states of consciousness.
For those interested in more theoretic academic explorations of the Merkaba, you can check out the work of Dr. Mohsen Paul Sarfarazi, a former professor and president of the Institute of Spiritual Science. He has written almost 400 papers theorizing reality, spirituality, consciousness, and existence. While I can’t fully wrap my head around all his theories, I’m linking his article about the Merkaba for those inclined to dive deeper:Introduction to MerKaBa Mechanics
According to ancient mystical texts, it represents the blueprint of all physical matter. The secrets to creation. All 5 Platonic solids are embedded within and are the foundation of everything in existence, from atoms to galaxies. In spiritual teachings, it’s often seen as a symbol of balance, harmony, and the interconnectedness of life, a testament to the idea that everything is connected through geometric forms.
Metatron’s Cube also holds deep esoteric meaning. In Kabbalistic traditions, Metatron is an archangel tasked with guarding the Tree of Life and holding the wisdom of creation. The geometry of this cube, when meditated upon or visualized, is believed to offer access to higher dimensions of consciousness, aligning the observer with universal energy. The Star Tetrahedron or Merkaba, which I first crafted in stained glass, sits at the heart of this structure, serving as a vehicle for ascension or spiritual evolution.
And how, you might ask, is any of this relevant to my personal triangle obsession? Well, five years ago, when Micky first asked me to make one for her, I built the shape without any knowledge of it, but I found it deeply relaxing and satisfying to create the sacred geometric pattern. When it was complete, I took it outside, pointed it at the sun, and looked through the shape from point to point—the exact same view that you have here at the top of this blog. As I looked through the shape, studied and observed all the lines, and saw the fractal within the heart of the pattern, something was triggered in my mind. From that moment, I started dreaming about triangles and obsessively exploring different triangle patterns. I saw triangles jumping out at me everywhere I went, and I would see triangles when I closed my eyes to sleep at night. My glass art took a 180-degree turn, and everything became triangles. I was swallowed by the triangle life. For some reason, my mind started trying to make sense of what it saw inside that Merkaba.
I couldn’t actually tell you what happened in my mind and why I became obsessed, so I guess I will never be able to answer that question, but this first Merkaba creation was exactly a year before my enlightening stint of psychosis in 2020, during which the triangle obsession had become extreme. I wrote about the experience that caused this annual mental instability HERE. During the exact overlapping time of the five-year anniversary of that accident, I had jumped down the rabbit hole of fractal geometry and was obsessively thinking about it, and how it associates to the universe, us, and everything that we are a part of. I started experiencing a profound clarity and deep new perspective and understanding about the things that I thought about. It was like have one “Aha” moment another another “Aha” moment. Within that obsessive thinking, I stopped sleeping. After almost a week without sleep, my mind had completely broken (or been rebuilt, depending on who you might ask), and my family decided to check me into a hospital.
When I came out of the hospital, my mind was more stable, and I went through a complete metamorphosis. My way of thinking, understanding, and feeling had changed. I learned about meditation, and I found that I could create a time and a space within myself for these triangles to be delivered to me in controllable segments, as well as creating spaces within my psyche to contemplate and understand life, process experiences and emotions, and ask for guidance from within. I started learning about shadow work, through which I began uncovering, healing, and accepting deep traumatic scars from my past.
I continue to deeply contemplate life, existence, what we are a part of, and the purpose of the collective. I found that my perspective of life had changed dramatically. Coming from a space of skepticism, facts, and physics, my mind had now become attuned to my intuition, which I believe to be my divine connection and guide to work towards the benefit of the collective consciousness and Source that we are all a part of. In fact, my entire reason for existing and living has changed, as I continue to seek and find the answers that my mind yearns for.
Some notable perspective shifts include:
Being capable of seeing the light, even within the darkest experiences. I can take pain, heartache, and deep emotions with gratitude for the fact that I am healing deep wounds by experiencing such intense emotions. My friend says I make "medicine" from my experiences, and I like how she puts it.
Considering many perspectives, and understanding the root causes of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that I would have previously judged, whether in myself or others. Now, I can automatically choose unity over separation
During meditation, I discovered my Dharma, or my reason for existing, which is love. Love deeply, fully, and completely—every thing, every one, and every experience. Though it may sound simple, discovering this personal truth changed the way that I think, feel, and interact towards people and experiences. It is something I work towards daily. Love is not only a feeling towards a person, but a way of living life, and I am actively and consciously trying.
Seeing the purpose of everything, even the most pesky creatures like mosquitoes and flies. I can consider the role of all the different creatures on the planet and understand how everything works together to make Gaia’s heart beat. I now have a much more nature-centric view, instead of a human-centric view.
- The most notable change might be that I shifted from being an atheist to a theist or deist. Before, I suffered from the same religious trauma that many of my peers still do, rejecting religion and the existence of any God, almost religiously. I had firm belief in facts, science, and proof, and I rejected anything spiritual, holistic, or unprovable, like God, horoscopes, or homeopathy. During my 2020 psychosis, I was drawing my favorite triangle fractal pattern, and it took my mind on a journey of understanding what fractal geometry means regarding life, and how we are all connected and a part of something bigger. We are a part of Earth, and Earth is a part of the universe, in the same way that millions of different atoms make up one cell, and millions and billions of those cells make up your body. Through my love of triangles, mathematics, facts, and truth, my mind came to realize and believe that we are all within the body of something all-encompassing. Something Almighty. The Source. God.
Now I have to reconsider everything that I rejected in the past.
While researching for this blog I found an article about the Merkaba, that mentioned another triangle based shape, but on my further research I could not relate it to a merkaba, so I did not mention it earlier, though I definitely need to mention it because it is also absolutely amazing. This incredibly fascinating triangular structure is made up of four tetrahedra combined into one form and the shape, known as the amplitudehedron, was introduced by theoretical physicists Nima Arkani-Hamed and Jaroslav Trnka, who work at Princeton and the University of California, respectively. It's another contender for the most magical triangle structure in existence, but I admit that much of the academic paper (which can be found here) went over my head. Even the Wikipedia entry on the amplitudehedron didn’t offer much clarity for me. I asked ChatGPT for an explanation and this is what it said.
"The Amplitudehedron is a revolutionary mathematical concept in the world of theoretical physics, offering a radical new way to simplify calculations involving particle interactions. Discovered in 2013, it presents a geometric approach to understanding how particles interact—something that traditionally required complex Feynman diagrams.
Here’s a more digestible summary:
What is it? The amplitudehedron is a multi-dimensional, jewel-like geometric shape that encodes information about particle interactions. It provides a new method for calculating the probabilities of particle scatterings, which were previously determined using complex quantum field theory equations.
What does it do? It simplifies particle interaction calculations by eliminating the need for certain space-time elements from Feynman diagrams, offering a geometry-only approach to understanding quantum physics. This is particularly groundbreaking because it challenges our traditional reliance on space-time in these kinds of interactions.
Relation to Sacred Geometry: The amplitudehedron resonates with sacred geometry because of its foundational shapes like the tetrahedron, which is central to both disciplines. Just as sacred geometry seeks to uncover universal truths through simple shapes like the tetrahedron or star tetrahedron, the amplitudehedron hints at a fundamental, geometric framework that governs all particle interactions. It suggests a universal harmony that can be explained through geometry—similar to what sacred geometry proposes about the fabric of existence.
In short, the amplitudehedron appears to link modern physics with ancient spiritual ideas, hinting that geometry might underlie both the physical universe and spiritual understandings."
Even though I can’t fully grasp the scientific intricacies, I think this discovery may one day prove to be a bridge between quantum physics and fractal geometry, possibly supporting my personal belief that triangles are at the heart of everything. Who knows? It might even validate my theory that we exist as atoms within cells, forming part of the body of the Almighty.
In conclusion, my journey with triangles has evolved into something far more profound than I ever expected. What began as a simple geometric curiosity turned into a gateway for me to explore complex concepts like sacred geometry, fractal patterns, and even quantum physics. Whether through the intricate beauty of Metatron’s Cube or the mind-bending properties of the amplitudehedron, triangles have proven to be not just shapes, but symbols of deeper truths about the universe and our place in it. They have helped me shift my perspective on life, grounding me in both the tangible and the metaphysical.
Triangles are more than just mathematical constructs—they are the blueprints of creation itself. From the smallest atoms to the vast cosmos, everything seems to follow a geometric harmony. And while I may never fully understand the scientific complexities behind concepts like the amplitudehedron, I’m certain that these shapes have unlocked new levels of insight, healing, and connection for me. They remind me that no matter how chaotic or mysterious life may seem, there’s an underlying order—a sacred geometry—that ties everything together.
I encourage anyone who’s curious to delve into this world of triangles and sacred shapes. Whether you’re an artist, a mathematician, or simply someone seeking answers, there’s a wealth of knowledge and inspiration waiting to be discovered within these simple lines.
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