I always enjoy and relate to the Universal messages you speak to with each of your posts, Scott.
No matter how our personal lives have "habituated," the Universal principles of the circle square and triangle still prevail. These three basic and essential geometric symbols are sacred--meaning inviolate, not violate-able by personal perception. Their inclusiveness, structure and balance always exist in all things, perpetually.
Well, Scott, in reference to those three geometric symbols you mentioned. I suppose we all speak out of our own experiences. Take mine, for instance.
Let's start with the circle. I seem to be always going around and around. I never get anywhere in life because I always end up where I started.
And the square is another of those symbols that seems to describe my life, starting from my early childhood. Whenever I was with a group of my friends, I tried to tell a joke just to make people laugh. But whenever I tried. No one laughed. It was a girl, this time. She said to me, "Oh, Charles, you're so square." I don't need to tell you, that ended my life as a comedian.
And finally, the triangle. I loved my big sister. She was seven years older than I was, and she had lots of boyfriends. One time, the guy she ended up marrying said to me while he and my sister were sitting together on our living room green couch. "Charles, did you ever hear the saying, two's company, three's a crowd?" After a moment's thought, I said, "No, I never did hear that before." "Well, he said, I'll tell you what it means, Charles. It means that you're crowding me and your sister." I think I got that he just wanted me to disappear. So that was the last time I showed up. I didn't want to be just one of the sides of a triangle.
Your reflection highlights something important about symbols that is often overlooked.
-Long before language becomes involved, the human mind responds directly to patterns and shapes.
Symbols operate at a level that is both conscious
and less-than-conscious, communicating meaning in ways words sometimes cannot.
Geometric forms
may be the most basic symbols of all.
A triangle, square, or circle can be understood immediately without explanation.
-They carry meaning at a pre-conceptual level, where the mind recognizes structure before it begins naming or analyzing it.
Across many traditions these shapes appear again and again—in Aikido training diagrams, Zen symbolism, classical philosophy, and even modern storytelling.
They function almost like a visual grammar for understanding how things interact.
What is thoughtful in your explanation is the order you give them.
Beginning with the circle places relationship first.
The circle suggests inclusion, continuity, and the possibility that what appears separate can become part of a shared movement.
In a martial context, this mirrors the moment when conflict shifts from opposition toward connection.
( AiKiDo Us )
The square then introduces grounding. Roots, values, and structure remain present.
The willingness to relate does not require abandoning stability.
The square holds the center so openness does not dissolve into uncertainty.
Finally,
the triangle brings clarity about direction.
Conflict exists in the world, and acknowledging it is part of practicing genuine nonviolence. -The triangle’s point reminds us that energy and intention have direction, and that understanding this direction is necessary for responsible action.
Your sequence describes something very close to the dynamics of skilled movement: relationship opens the interaction, structure stabilizes it, and direction resolves it.
Symbols work because they allow these ideas to be held all at once
-rather than explained step by step.
A single image can carry layers of meaning that words might take paragraphs to describe.
And perhaps that is why simple geometric forms continue to appear across cultures and disciplines.
At their most basic level they are not merely decorative shapes but condensed expressions of how human beings perceive order, motion, and relationship in the world.
In that sense,
the circle, square, and triangle in your logo are doing exactly what powerful symbols have always done:
quietly communicating a philosophy that can be understood long before it is spoken.
My favorite shape in Asian martial arts going back to the Taoist is,
the Spiral.
Across many early cosmologies,
the spiral was not only a geometric pattern but a symbol of living motion.
In ancient China,
the dragon became one of the central symbols of cosmic energy within Taoism. Unlike the later Western image of a winged monster, the Chinese dragon was understood as a serpentine force that moves through clouds, wind, and water, coiling and uncoiling as it travels.
This image reflects a deeper observation: powerful natural forces—storms, rivers, whirlpools, and even galaxies—often organize themselves in spiraling motion.
Something similar appears in the Greek world.
Philosophers such as Plato and earlier geometric traditions associated the structure of the cosmos with underlying mathematical forms. The study of proportion, symmetry, and shape was not simply mathematics—it was an attempt to understand the architecture of reality itself.
(our Milky Way galaxy is a spiral, the big wheel in the sky that keeps turning)
Early Jewish cosmological imagery contains related themes.
Theli (or Teli)
is a celestial dragon in Jewish mysticism—specifically
the Sefer Yetzirah—described as a cosmic force surrounding the universe. Positioned "above the universe, as a king on his throne,"
this entity governs the constellations and planets. It is often identified with the Leviathan or a sea monster.
And this primordial sea creature Leviathan,
is described as a vast, coiling serpent associated with the deep waters of creation.
Later mystical traditions within Kabbalah often described divine energy as unfolding outward in dynamic patterns of emanation.
Although these cultures were separated by geography and language, they repeatedly returned to the same intuition: creation itself moves in curves and coils rather than straight lines.
In this light, the spiral becomes more than a decorative pattern.
It is a way of describing how motion continues while changing direction—how energy unfolds without breaking continuity.
That same principle appears again in skilled human movement.
When a practitioner allows force to travel through the body in a continuous rotational chain,
motion begins to resemble the same spiraling pathways seen in nature.
Power no longer comes from abrupt effort but from the ability to guide force through a living structure without interruption.
The ancient symbols of triangles, circles, squares, and spirals may therefore be less mysterious than they first appear.
They are early attempts to describe the geometry of motion—patterns that nature, mathematics, and the human body all seem to share.
In Feng Shui,
good Chi (Sheng Chi) travels in soft, winding, or spiraling paths,
You do have a really cool logo!
I always enjoy and relate to the Universal messages you speak to with each of your posts, Scott.
No matter how our personal lives have "habituated," the Universal principles of the circle square and triangle still prevail. These three basic and essential geometric symbols are sacred--meaning inviolate, not violate-able by personal perception. Their inclusiveness, structure and balance always exist in all things, perpetually.
Thanks Chele
Well, Scott, in reference to those three geometric symbols you mentioned. I suppose we all speak out of our own experiences. Take mine, for instance.
Let's start with the circle. I seem to be always going around and around. I never get anywhere in life because I always end up where I started.
And the square is another of those symbols that seems to describe my life, starting from my early childhood. Whenever I was with a group of my friends, I tried to tell a joke just to make people laugh. But whenever I tried. No one laughed. It was a girl, this time. She said to me, "Oh, Charles, you're so square." I don't need to tell you, that ended my life as a comedian.
And finally, the triangle. I loved my big sister. She was seven years older than I was, and she had lots of boyfriends. One time, the guy she ended up marrying said to me while he and my sister were sitting together on our living room green couch. "Charles, did you ever hear the saying, two's company, three's a crowd?" After a moment's thought, I said, "No, I never did hear that before." "Well, he said, I'll tell you what it means, Charles. It means that you're crowding me and your sister." I think I got that he just wanted me to disappear. So that was the last time I showed up. I didn't want to be just one of the sides of a triangle.
Your reflection highlights something important about symbols that is often overlooked.
-Long before language becomes involved, the human mind responds directly to patterns and shapes.
Symbols operate at a level that is both conscious
and less-than-conscious, communicating meaning in ways words sometimes cannot.
Geometric forms
may be the most basic symbols of all.
A triangle, square, or circle can be understood immediately without explanation.
-They carry meaning at a pre-conceptual level, where the mind recognizes structure before it begins naming or analyzing it.
Across many traditions these shapes appear again and again—in Aikido training diagrams, Zen symbolism, classical philosophy, and even modern storytelling.
They function almost like a visual grammar for understanding how things interact.
What is thoughtful in your explanation is the order you give them.
Beginning with the circle places relationship first.
The circle suggests inclusion, continuity, and the possibility that what appears separate can become part of a shared movement.
In a martial context, this mirrors the moment when conflict shifts from opposition toward connection.
( AiKiDo Us )
The square then introduces grounding. Roots, values, and structure remain present.
The willingness to relate does not require abandoning stability.
The square holds the center so openness does not dissolve into uncertainty.
Finally,
the triangle brings clarity about direction.
Conflict exists in the world, and acknowledging it is part of practicing genuine nonviolence. -The triangle’s point reminds us that energy and intention have direction, and that understanding this direction is necessary for responsible action.
Your sequence describes something very close to the dynamics of skilled movement: relationship opens the interaction, structure stabilizes it, and direction resolves it.
Symbols work because they allow these ideas to be held all at once
-rather than explained step by step.
A single image can carry layers of meaning that words might take paragraphs to describe.
And perhaps that is why simple geometric forms continue to appear across cultures and disciplines.
At their most basic level they are not merely decorative shapes but condensed expressions of how human beings perceive order, motion, and relationship in the world.
In that sense,
the circle, square, and triangle in your logo are doing exactly what powerful symbols have always done:
quietly communicating a philosophy that can be understood long before it is spoken.
🐉🏄♂️☯️🌊🍭🌀
⸻
The Spiral and the Dragon.
My favorite shape in Asian martial arts going back to the Taoist is,
the Spiral.
Across many early cosmologies,
the spiral was not only a geometric pattern but a symbol of living motion.
In ancient China,
the dragon became one of the central symbols of cosmic energy within Taoism. Unlike the later Western image of a winged monster, the Chinese dragon was understood as a serpentine force that moves through clouds, wind, and water, coiling and uncoiling as it travels.
This image reflects a deeper observation: powerful natural forces—storms, rivers, whirlpools, and even galaxies—often organize themselves in spiraling motion.
Something similar appears in the Greek world.
Philosophers such as Plato and earlier geometric traditions associated the structure of the cosmos with underlying mathematical forms. The study of proportion, symmetry, and shape was not simply mathematics—it was an attempt to understand the architecture of reality itself.
(our Milky Way galaxy is a spiral, the big wheel in the sky that keeps turning)
Early Jewish cosmological imagery contains related themes.
Theli (or Teli)
is a celestial dragon in Jewish mysticism—specifically
the Sefer Yetzirah—described as a cosmic force surrounding the universe. Positioned "above the universe, as a king on his throne,"
this entity governs the constellations and planets. It is often identified with the Leviathan or a sea monster.
And this primordial sea creature Leviathan,
is described as a vast, coiling serpent associated with the deep waters of creation.
Later mystical traditions within Kabbalah often described divine energy as unfolding outward in dynamic patterns of emanation.
Although these cultures were separated by geography and language, they repeatedly returned to the same intuition: creation itself moves in curves and coils rather than straight lines.
In this light, the spiral becomes more than a decorative pattern.
It is a way of describing how motion continues while changing direction—how energy unfolds without breaking continuity.
That same principle appears again in skilled human movement.
When a practitioner allows force to travel through the body in a continuous rotational chain,
motion begins to resemble the same spiraling pathways seen in nature.
Power no longer comes from abrupt effort but from the ability to guide force through a living structure without interruption.
The ancient symbols of triangles, circles, squares, and spirals may therefore be less mysterious than they first appear.
They are early attempts to describe the geometry of motion—patterns that nature, mathematics, and the human body all seem to share.
In Feng Shui,
good Chi (Sheng Chi) travels in soft, winding, or spiraling paths,
while bad Chi
(Sha Chi or "poison arrows")
travels in straight lines.