Flower of Life - The Math of Nature

A week ago I was going through Devi Parikh’s Instagram handle ( I am a big fan of her through ). She regularly posts generative art and other creative stuffs as part of her hobby. Simlutaneously, I was also going through a python library called turtle which is a graphical library to create mostly recurssive design. So I decided to take a math problem or some thing really interesting to learn and replicate and that’s when I found the “Sacred Geometry- The flower of life”.

In simple words it is simply a mathematical drawing with overlapping circles, and nineteen in number, not more not less. I took the challenge to replicate the design in python turtle and also side by side learn the beauty of the concept and the math behind.

Here’s what I found:

The flower of life depicts the life’s journey where we are formed out of singularity and then bloom all throughout. It all starts with one circle and eventually as life proceeds other circles grow around. It consists of an overlapping of 19 circles of the same radius. IT follows the Sacred Geometry which believes that all life is part of a divine, geometric plan. All structures known to us are following this plan.

This construction resembles a fruit tree growing from a seed from a tree. A fruit falls from a tree which has seeds in it which then grows into a sapling. It then bears flower buds and then turns into a fruit which carries the seed within. This fruit after ripening falls into the ground and another tree emerges from the seed.

Symbols that resemble the Flower of Life can be found in temples, churches, secular buildings, burial sites, art objects and manuscripts worldwide. Many cultures used this symbol in full knowledge of its power and potency.

Some examples where we can see the flower of life structure quite strangely in different parts of the worls are, in a temple in Abydos (Egypt), Rama temple of Vijayanagara (India), Forbidden City (China), Altenkirchen, the Apis-Altar in Dresden which belonged to Augustus II the Strong (Germany), Gotland (Denmark), on the ceiling of a church in Maria Luschari (Italy), ruins of Pompeji (Italy), an orthodox monastery in Kreta (Greece), church in Sörg (Austria), on a platte of the silver treasure of Augustus etc.

Replication:

I have used python turtle to replicate the construction of the Sacred-Flower of Life geometry:

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