In this article we will cover another hugely important and often underappreciated geometric symbol of the Dyad – that is, the line.
Reference Construction Lesson #2: Angles and #8: Lines.
The Line
Before the Dyad we had only circles. The Dyad, or polar tension, allows us for the first time to have lines. This is expressed in the ‘Line of Centers’ discussed in the previous article.
The reflection of Unity creates Duality. Duality allows action and movement to occur.
The line expresses the principle of extension.
It is a picture of moving energy, tension, force, action, impulse, urge, direction, and movement.
A straight line represents tension and motion between opposing poles of every creating process.
“A line creates both a boundary that divides and a link that binds.”1
“The line comes into being as the One emerges into two principles, active and passive. The point chooses somewhere outside of itself, a direction. Separation has occurred and the line comes into being.”2
Robert Lawlor writes: “For the Egyptians, the straight line is simply a perceptual effect and a necessary intellectual contrivance. They believed that the prevailing and underlying expression of the universe was that of curvature, an outward expression created by an extreme intelligent force of an uncomprehended magnitude. For the Egyptian, every curvature was a segment of the perfect closure of a circle. Eventually, all these infinite graduations of force-fields veer back upon themselves seeking a return to the original Oneness. For the Egyptian, every unit of measure must reflect a connectivity between this apparent finite, linear, measurable world that is occurring within an infinite, active, ever cyclical reality.”
As Plato describes, “It follows that we should always associate rest with uniformity and attribute motion to diversity.”57e
Rest or stillness is associated with the Monad, the circle, the unpotentiated Infinity. Motion is associated with the Dyad, the line, and always leads to a diversity of perspectives coming from the One.
The line represents the Will or the Power of Choice that each person uses every day.
Every day we choose from among a seemingly infinite array of choices to decide what to materialize physically from that Infinite potential. Each day we can choose to create a new direction in life if we do not like the direction in which life is going.
The power of our Will is one of the most important and profound powers that we as humans exercise every day. We decide what to let into our lives and we decide what to express in our lives. And of course this power of the will can be used for the positive or for the negative.
It is of the utmost importance to have control over your own mind and your own will and to make sure no outside forces are manipulating or attempting to control your Will. Each person must be the master of their own Will and not the master of any other’s. Each person must learn to use their Will for the greatest good, knowing that the greatest good of All includes their own greatest good as well.
Furthermore, recognizing the true power of the Will guides people away from having a ‘victim mentality’ in which they feel powerless to alter their lives or the world for the better. In the Perennial Philosophy there are no victims. Each person has a powerful consciousness that can be used to create a life they feel is worth living – one full of peace, joy, abundance and prosperity. It all comes down the choices we make every single moment of every single day.
The Three “Ways” of the Line3
Circle – one end of the line is stationary (passive), the other is free to rotate and describe a circle, representing Heaven.
Square – the line can produce another line which moves away until distances are equal – creating a square, representing Earth.
Equilateral Triangle – the active point moves to a third position equidistant from the other two, creating the triangle, representing heaven joined with earth through the power of the human consciousness.
Types of Lines
A line has no endpoint. Theoretically it goes on to infinity.
A line segment has endpoints. There is a specific start and stop point.
A ray has one endpoint. The other end goes on to infinity.
Perpendicular lines are at right angles (90 degrees) to each other.
One line is perpendicular to another when the two angles formed by the two lines are equal in magnitude.
Parallel lines are equidistant and will never meet.
Two lines are parallel if all perpendiculars drawn from one line to the other are equal in length.
“And there is the headlight, shining far down the track, glinting off the steel rails that, like all parallel lines, will meet in infinity, which is after all where this train is going.” ~ Bruce Catton
- Schneider, Michael, A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, Harper Perennial, 1994
- Lundy, Miranda, Sacred Geometry, Bloomsbury USA, 2001
- ibid, pg. 65
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