It’s impossible to create a closed shape with only two lines, making the triangle the most basic closed shape after the circle.
Thinker extraordinaire Euclid of Alexandria noticed a few neat things about triangles around 300 B.C. that we can use today to understand how this shape plays in the birth chart.
One of those things is that the sum of any triangle’s three exterior angles is 360 degrees. In other words, if you measure all three angles from the outside, not from the inside, then add them up, you’ll get 360.
What else is 360 degrees around? A circle.
This discussion could go places on its own but at this point it might be more interesting to bring the square in for comparison’s sake. That’s because, in the square, it’s the four internal angles that add up to 360 degrees.
So the triangle suggests that, to move back toward the spiritual wholeness of the circle (the original 360 degrees), the person needs to move – to get outside the structure, break out, be original and daring and different. Individuation is the dynamic of the triangle.
On the other hand, the square suggests safety in the status quo, in remaining inside the structure, hugged by the familiar confines, each corner and each side of which is marked by sameness. The familiar — the family — by extension, the pre-set structures, habits and customs of the environment — is the habitat of the square.
The perfect square is the most stable (and stubborn!) of astrological shapes, whereas the triangle is dynamic with direction in a way that the unboundaried and infinite line is not. There are also many variations on the square — the rectangle, obviously, but also many quadrangles with internal angles that deviate from 90 degrees. But the fact remains that the sum of the internal angles always equals 360. The quadrangle, whether square, rectangle or anything else, no matter how outwardly-focused the action — is always focused on the inward stability suggested by this fact.
The dominance of linear, triangular or quadrangular structures in your chart (as well as their direction, coloring and other nuances pertaining to your chart in particular) will provide insight about your core motivations in life. Take a look and see what’s there…
More musings on sacred geometry here, here and here.
i disagree on the opening statment that 2 lines cannot make a closed shape. especially if 1 line can do it. a half moon is suh a shape that has 2 lines and a closed shape???
Interesting, thanks. I was thinking of two straight lines. I’m not a mathematician, but I think the curved line of a half-moon would be considered an arc.