flower of Life

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The flower of life is an ornament on a hexagonal section of a triangular grid. At each grid point, circles or arcs intersect around the six adjacent grid points, so that adjacent grid points are connected by lenses, ninety in number.

The flower of life

At each inner lattice point six lenses touch like petals, which suggested to modern esotericism ( New Age ) the name flower of life . There is no evidence that the ornament was called that before.

Occurrence of ornament in architecture and art

Leonardo da Vinci's representation of ornament ( Codex Atlanticus , fol. 309v)
Construction with the compass as a series of circles with the same radius: center of the second circle on the circular line of the first circle, center of the following circles on the intersection of the previous one
Neo-Assyrian doorstep, Louvre
Window on the south apse of the church of the Preveli Monastery , Crete
Osireion Abydos
Ball under the paw of a guardian lion in the Forbidden City in Beijing , China

Ornaments that resemble or resemble the “Flower of Life” can be found in churches , temples , secular buildings , tombs, art objects and manuscripts.

middle East

One of the oldest currently known representations of the basic structure as a repeating pattern can be found on a 2.07 × 1.26 m door threshold from the palace of King Aššur-bāni-apli in Dur Šarrukin from the year 645 BC. BC, which is shown today in the Assyrian section of the Louvre . Further specimens are shown in the British Museum . The ornamentation of the door sills was probably based on carpets laid out in the adjoining rooms; There are no indications of any further cultic or religious significance.

Occasionally , depictions cited as evidence of the use of the ornament since ancient Egyptian times can be found at a height of about 4 m on pillars of the Osiris sanctuary in Abydos (Egypt) . A whole series of graffiti in different languages ​​(including ancient Greek , Coptic ) have been affixed there since ancient times , which is why the flowers of life found in this environment are not to be assessed older than those (especially since such ornamentation was unusual in ancient Egyptian culture). They are therefore mostly dated to the first centuries AD, analogous to the nearby ancient Greek graffiti, when a partial burial of the temple complex might have allowed it to be attached without a ladder or scaffolding. The inconspicuous thin lines speak for graffiti. In terms of style, an Islamic origin around 1200 AD is also possible. An addition in the 20th century cannot be ruled out, especially since Margaret Murray's detailed listing of the graffiti from 1904 does not mention it.

Europe

In Europe , such ornaments are popular motifs from folk art of the 17th and 18th centuries. So there is, for example, in the parish church of Altenkirchen on Rügen in the choir above the altar ornament as star painted on the sky. The beams of numerous half-timbered houses in the old town of Strasbourg are also decorated with the ornament. It can also be found in the Kaiseraugst silver treasure on plate 85. In Preveli Monastery in Crete it can be found on both sides of the two-aisled chapel, in London's Westminster Abbey in the 13th century Cosmati mosaic. In the Hazara Rama Temple in Hampi , India , it can be seen on various columns and architraves . There are other sites in the ruins of Kabile and in Weliki Preslaw in Bulgaria , in Masada in Israel and in Cusco, Peru .

Leonardo da Vinci dealt with the form and the mathematical proportions of the ornament, but without specifically naming the ornament.

China

A ball covered with this ornament can be found under the paw of the male guardian lion at the Gate of Supreme Harmony to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Other guardian lions in this complex hold balls that are covered with similar, but deviating from the construction principle, hexagonal patterns, without any particular assignment of meaning for these different ornamentation is known.

Esoteric

In modern esotericism , the flower of life is propagated as a protection amulet , to " revitalize " water, to "eliminate interference" in interiors and to protect against " electrosmog ". The author Drunvalo Melchizedek, who published a two-volume work on the subject, attributed religious significance.

Web links

Commons : Flower of Life  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Georges Perrot , Charles Chipiez : A History of Art in Chaldæa and Assyria , vol. 1, London 1884, p. 240, online at Project Gutenberg (accessed January 7, 2014)
  2. ↑ a b Louvre inventory no. AO 19915
  3. ^ Door-sill (Museum number 118913). British Museum, accessed January 7, 2014 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Alan Geal: Aux armes symbolism: notes. 2010, accessed January 5, 2014 .
  5. ↑ David Furlong: The Osirion and the Flower of Life. In: davidfurlong.co.uk. Retrieved November 8, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b Margaret Alice Murray : The Osireion at Abydos, London 1904, p. 35 ff., Here online (accessed January 5, 2014)
  7. ↑ Peter J. Lu, Paul J. Steinhardt: Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture. Science 315, 1106 (2007), abstract online
  8. ↑ Hans Ulrich Instinsky: The late Roman silver treasure from Kaiseraugst. Mainz 1971
  9. ^ The Cosmati Pavements at Westminster Abbey. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  10. ↑ Ladislao Reti (ed.): Leonardo. Researcher, artist, magician. GLB Parkland Vlgsges.mbH, 2nd edition 1999, ISBN 978-3880598584
  11. ↑ Leonardo da Vinci: Codex Atlanticus , fol. 307r-309v
  12. ↑ Julian Aé: Optimization mania: The resurrection of the water. welt.de , December 13, 2019, accessed on December 13, 2019 . Critical newspaper article, behind the payment barrier.
  13. ^ Wolf Schneider: Small encyclopedia of esoteric errors: From astrology to Zen . Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2008, page 60, ISBN 978-3-579-06522-9
  14. ↑ Drunvalo Melchizedek: The Flower of Life. Burgrain 2004, 2 volumes: ISBN 978-3-929512-57-1 , ISBN 3-929512-63-7