Embodied and emergent symbols: Christian cross, rose windows, mandalas and Wu Xing?

Reconciling Symbols of Islam, Judaism and Christianity (Part #8)

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The introduction argued that the approach was designed to reconcile at least the key symbols of the Abrahamic religions. The obvious question is how the Christian cross figures in the above models or in their further development. Again the assumption is not whether such a key symbol fits in but rather where it fits in -- for whom, and from what perspective.

Already phases in the dynamics of the models above can be construed in terms of a Christian cross, most notably of the kind depicted below.

Selected varieties of Christian crosses
Bolnisi cross	Coptic cross	Macedonian Orthodox cross	Maltese cross	Triquetra cross	Lazarus cross
Images reproduced from Wikipedia

Given the extensive range of Christian crosses indicated by Wikipedia (Christian cross variants), it might be asked whether there is a case for treating them all as pieces of a puzzle which together make a larger picture -- if appropriately configured into a pattern as yet to be discovered (in three dimensions or more). How is the disparate set of denominations to be understood as related?

As a "puzzling facility", it is also possible to add the more conventional so-called Latin cross to either the Star of David or the Islamic pentagon -- or to both in a more complex model. This is suggested by the following.

Association of the geometry of the Christian cross with the Star of David and the Islamic pentagon

Built into the geometry in 3D, it can be readily imagined that the Christian cross could rotate around the edge it shares with either the Star of David or the Islamic pentagon. To the extent that the model has multiple pentagonal or hexagonal forms, there could then be as many crosses, variously rotating. [model in preparation, but see incorporation of the cross in the model presented in a later section below]

Various pentagonal symbols can obviously be seen as reflective of alternative appreciations of that pattern, as separately discussed (Cycles of enstoning forming mnemonic pentagrams: Hygiea and Wu Xing, 2012). The point may be made otherwise by reference to Leonardo da Vinci's famed Vitruvian Man (animation below centre).

Hugieia Pentagram of Pythagoreans	Vitruvian animation	Chinese 5-phase Wu Xing cycle
Reproduced from Hygiea entry in Wikipedia (G. J. Allman Greek Geometry From Thales to Euclid, 1889, p.26) with labels added	Adapted from that of Leonardo da Vinci	Adapted from Wu Xing entry in Wikipedia Interaction arrows: black=generating; white= overcoming

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