"Cryptic" Reflections

Number 2, Ratio


July, 2001

Contents List:

Introduction
Keys
Example

Return to:

Temple Guide

See also:

Ritual Crypt

Introduction

The Ardue Cyber-Temple was introduced as an attempt to model the economy of life from a psychological point of view. Its "above ground" construction is entirely mental, idealistic, or archetypal; whereas the "subterranean" ritual crypt has more obvious reference to a conventional material building.

In As You Like It, Shakespeare puts the following words into the mouth of the exiled Duke:
Sweet are the uses of adversity
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

Temples have traditionally provided some element of sanctuary where the individual could for a time escape from "public haunt", and their builders have traditionally contrived to build "sermons" into their construction. Although very simple, the Ardue Ritual Crypt is no exception.

Keys

In order to understand the cryptic sermons preached by stone-masons, it is necessary to be in possession of one or more "keys" with the aid of which they can be decrypted. The principal key to deciphering the Ardue Ritual Crypt is "ratio", defined in a simple dictionary as 'the relation between two quantities which is expressed by dividing the magnitude of one by that of the other'.

The very word contains a 'sermon'. It occurs in many other words of import to the thoughtful reader: ratiocinate, ratiocination, ratiocinative, ration, rational, rationale, rationalise, rationalisation, and rationality. The same thoughtful reader will notice that no units of measure have been quoted with respect to the Ardue crypt. It may be any size you like: but its proportions are fixed. It has a definite shape.

Example

The ratio of the length of the crypt to its height is 4/2 which is the same ratio as 2/1. Part of the significance of this and other ratios which may be found in the crypt will be explored in future essays.