The top item on the class supply list was a bow compass and extender. Hmmm… wasn’t sure if my compass was classified as “bowed” nor how to assemble the extender. After watching several YouTube videos and experimenting with all the moving parts on my geometry set, I developed a rudimentary grasp of compassing. OK, ready for class…

Sounding the Inner Landscape was the title of the class taught by Pamela Paulsrud at Rendez-vous 2019, this year’s international lettering conference in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Studying with her five years ago was pivotal for me; it opened a whole new approach to creating. I was keen to learn more about her process—and to satisfy my curiosity about sacred geometry.

Our classroom was in a science lab which offered sturdy work benches and natural light. In keeping with the class theme, work tables were arranged in a circle. A meeting area for discussion and demonstration was set up in the centre.

Discipline…freedom…expression. With eyes closed, we began with breathing exercises. Pam played her Native American wood flute and brought us to a place of relaxation and focus. She described how the tools we use are an extension of our hand, arm, brain—and breath. Breathing and mark making are rhythmical events; we would attempt to coordinate the two. The marks we make reflect our personality and mood at any given point in time. The marks made on Sunday are influenced by factors different than those impacting marks made on Thursday.

Pam emphasized that creating a finished piece was not the point of the class. She reiterated this advice whenever we faltered to finish the day’s exercises. The point was to engage in the process and to identify approaches that appealed to us. For instance, we were encouraged to make a few marks on our full sheets of Arches Text Wove, then pause and let the marks speak to us. (We joked about how our pages were silent or we must have been distracted when they whispered.) And she asked us to set aside preconceived plans for designing the whole page. We felt the pain of releasing those designs when tearing sheets into sections, thus creating smaller page designs to respond to further.

So exactly what is sacred geometry? Pam quoted Karen Carty, a contemporary artist, who offers the following thoughts.

“Sacred geometry is the ancient, profound body of knowledge which sat at the nexus of art, science, religion, and philosophy in diverse cultures around this planet. This ancient art and science is literally a universal language of simple yet elegant geometries, proportions, and principles which reveal the universal archetypal processes, patterns, templates, and dynamics underlying all life and all forms in creation.”

Sacred geometry has a vocabulary all its own: monad, vesica piscis, platonic solids, root rectangles, and metatron’s cube. Oh yeah! And you may have heard of the golden mean (aka golden section aka golden ratio) and the Fibonacci sequence. What does all this have to do lettering and art, you ask?

Patterns found in nature—like nautilus shells, pine cones, and sunflower heads—may be considered “perfect” and “beautiful”. Because they appear with astounding regularity, these patterns can be demystified and subsequently incorporated in our artistic creations. By implementing their geometric principles, our art has greater visual appeal and balance.

On Faculty Demo day, Pam was pondering her presentation for that evening. Students offered to help her chalk out the Egg of Life (a geometric pattern) in the parking lot. It’s magical what can be achieved collaboratively using yardsticks and chalk on cracked asphalt. And don’t underestimate the power of determination—despite creaky knees, cranky spines, and one fractured elbow in a sling!

After drawing circles, making marks, pasting paper, and binding books, the delightful week drew to a close. We concluded by gathering to hold hands—in a circle, of course! Two students broke the chain to hold the ends of an “electric stick” between them. The mechanism lit up when everyone’s hands were joined. A break at any connection in the circle caused the stick to go dark. It was a science lab after all…but beyond the physics, it was a mystical revelation. Molecules resonate within and between us all to create physical energy.

Likewise, when we gather in community to connect and share, the creative energy that’s generated sparks an electrical continuum—a circle of light.

How sacred.