The Dimensions of Paradise

An in-depth look at the role of number as a bridge between Heaven and Earth • Reveals the numerical code by which the ancients maintained high standards of art and culture • Sets out the alchemical formulas for the fusion of elements and the numerical origins of various sacred names and numbers • Describes the rediscovery of knowledge associated with the Holy Grail, through which the influence of the Heavenly Order is made active on Earth The priests of ancient Egypt preserved a geometrical canon, a numerical code of harmonies and proportions, that they applied to music, art, statecraft, and all the institutions of their civilization. Plato, an initiate in the Egyptian mysteries, said it was the instrument by which the ancients maintained high, principled standards of civilization and culture over thousands of years. In The Dimensions of Paradise, John Michell describes the results of a lifetime's research, demonstrating how the same numerical code underlies sacred structures from ancient times to the Christian era. In the measurements of Stonehenge, the foundation plan of Glastonbury, Plato's ideal city, and the Heavenly City of the New Jerusalem described in the vision of Saint John lie the science and cosmology on which the ancient world order was founded. The central revelation of this book is a structure of geometry and number representing the essential order of the heavens and functioning as a map of paradise.