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.

John Michell, educated at Eton and Cambridge, is the pioneer researcher and specialist in the field of ancient, traditional science. He is the author of more than 25 books, including The New View Over Atlantis, Secrets of the Stones, The Temple of Jerusalem: A Revelation, and many other books that have profoundly influenced modern thinking. He lives in London.

Introduction

IN QUEST OF THE CANON

1    THE HEAVENLY CITY AS ETERNAL STANDARD

The Cosmic Temple • The New Jerusalem • The Twelve Hides of Glastonbury • The New Jerusalem in Stonehenge • The Pattern in the Heavens • Contructing the New Jerusalem • Measuring the Courts of the City

2    NUMBER IN SACRED SCIENCE

The Numbers of the Canon • Gematria: The Names and Numbers of God • Symbolic or Sacred Geometry • Sacred Geometry in Dürer’s Melencolia • Music and Proportion • A Circle of Perpetual Choirs

3    NUMBER AND MEASURE

Lengths of Ancient Units of Measure • Summary of the Earth’s Dimensions • The Priority of the Foot • Astronomy


4    THE CITIES OF PLATO

The 5,040 Citizens of Magnesia • From Circle to Square: The City Brought to Earth • Plato’s Secrecy • Atlantis • The Measures of Atlantis • The Problem of the Plain • Why Atlantis Fell • Plato’s Cosmos and the Wanderings of the Soul • The Music of the Heavenly Wheels • The Numerical Creation Myth of Timaeus • The Harmonic Composition of the World Soul • The Number of the Soul


5    SYMBOLIC NUMBER

864, the Foundation Number • 3,168, the Perimeter of the New Jerusalem • 1,224, the Number of Paradise, and the 153 Fishes in the Net • 1,080, the Lunar Number • 666, the Solar Number and the Number of the Beast • 1,746, the Number of Fusion • Sacred Names from the Dimensions of the New Jerusalem

6    THE ANCIENT AND FUTURE COSMOLOGY

Heavenly Jerusalem, Its Invocation and Modern Function

Index of Names
Index of Numbers