“What does the use of the triangle mean? I keep seeing it. Does it have to do with enlightenment?”

— Anonymous

The esoteric importance of the triangle began over 2000 years ago with Pythagoras’ understanding of sacred geometries, knowledge which he synthesized from the ancient world cultures.

“Since the Pythagoreans considered the first ten numbers to be seed patterns for all the principles of the cosmos, a geometer needs only create their shapes to model all the universal rhythms. The first three shapes to emerge from the vesica piscis, the triangle, square and pentagon (3, 4, 5) form the only relationship, or ratios, required to generate all the rest (except for sevenness). These relationships called the square roots… are expressible not as whole numbers but as never-ending decimals…these ongoing relationships hold the structural pattern for all numbers and shapes that follow.

The classical numbers 3, 4, 5 are represented in the very structure of the pyramid. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built in approximately 2560 BCE, at the time of the Old Kingdom. The number One is the whole structure itself. The triangular faces represent the number 3. The square base is the number 4 and finally, the four corners plus its apex complete the number 5.”

— Egyptian Numerology: the Pythagorean Triangle and Its Esoteric Meaning

However the background the layman may pick up on most likely draws from the occult popularization of the “All Seeing Eye” or the Eye of Providence, a symbol usually associated with Freemason iconography, pointing to the watchful architect of the Universe, while also representing spiritual insight to higher levels of knowledge.

To the average American it has become the archetypal emblem of capitalism. They say the gods are dead but if you reach into your wallet and pull out a dollar bill you will find the Eye within the Great Seal on the back of this most common of sacraments. Make a wish, and buy a product. If there is one god the world still believes in it is Commerce.

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