Ascent to the Rose of Divine Love

The movements of planet Venus are such that she is either ascending in the eastern sky or descending and setting in the western sky. The descriptions of her ascent in the east, just prior to the sunrise, underlie a number of symbolic storylines within scripture, myth and fairy tale concerning illumination, awakenings and ascension.

This illustrated talk will look at various examples of such storylines and how they often revolve around the rose, a female and the experience of love. This is one of the areas focused upon within the newly published book by the speaker Tom Bree, which is entitled The Cosmos in Stone. The central focus of the book is the use of geometry, cosmology and cosmic myth in the designs of English Gothic cathedrals. The area of the cathedral which will be focused upon in relation to the talk’s theme is the ‘Venusian’ Lady Chapel. These chapels are dedicated to the Virgin Mary – the ‘Thornless Rose’ – and are generally located at the east end of the cathedral.

Speaker: Tom Bree is a Geometer-Artist, Teacher and Writer. He studied Sacred Geometry under the Master Geometer Professor Keith Critchlow at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. He now teaches at the Prince’s School and for many other educational projects both here in the UK and abroad. Tom has just published 12 years of research in a book called The Cosmos in Stone, which concerns the design of the first English Gothic Cathedral and how the design incorporates various cosmic ascent myths that were so prevalent within the Christian-Platonism of the twelfth-century church.