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In this book, renowned thinker and geometrist Keith Critchlow has chosen to focus on an aspect of flowers that has received perhaps the least attention. This is the flower as teacher of symmetry and geometry. In this sense, he says, flowers can be treated as sources of remembering - a way of recalling our own wholeness, as well as awakening our inner power of recognition and consciousness. What is evident in the geometry of the face of a flower can remind us of the geometry that underlies all existence.
Working from his own flower photographs and with every geometric pattern hand-drawn, the author reviews the role of flowers within the perspective of our relationship with the natural world. His illuminating study is an attempt to re-engage the human spirit in its intimate relation with all nature.
Professor Keith Critchlow is a well-known lecturer and author. He is a founder member of RILKO (Research Into Lost Knowledge Organisation), a founder member and Director of Studies of Kairos and a founder member and President of the Temenos Academy. He is Professor Emeritus and founder of the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Programme at the Royal College of Art, now the Prince's School of Traditional Arts. His many previous books include Order in Space, Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach, Markings: Aerial Views of Sacred Landscapes, Soul as Sphere and Androgyne, and Time Stands Still: New Light on Megalithic Science (Floris Books, 2007).
'Like many people, I've been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book, and I have to say that it has been a real delight finally to read its inspirational thoughts and also to conmplete the large number of beautiful images and geometrical diagrams that is contains. The Hidden Geometry of Flowers is a wonderful gift to the growing number of people who, dissatisfied with the impoverished and disenchated worldview of materialistic science, are seeking to relate to the spiritual in nature once again. It is also a major contribution to the holistic science of the plant world, complenting studies by Goethean and anthroposophically inspired researchers into the formatie forces a work in the plant kingdom. Anyone giving proper attention to [this book] will feel that they are indeed brought closer to the mysterious form-creating life-processes that emanate from the world of spirit, and for this reason it is an enormously valuable contribution to all who are endeavouring to work towards a more holistic and spiritual awareness of the plant world.' -- Jeremy Naydler, New View, Autumn 2011 'I've been looking at plants all my life and it's one of my great pleasures, Keith Critchlow's book adds new dimensions to this enjoyment and shows how number and geometry are made manifest in the forms that we see in every garden, in wild flowers and in the cut flowers that decorate our rooms ... The plentiful illustrations help make this a book of inspiration and insight.' -- Dr Rupert Sheldrake 'This is less a book for what we call "reading" than a book to be lived with as a delightful and instructive companion for a long time. It is a fascinating book, full of things useful and pleasing to know. And I admire the honest circularity of its plot that begins in mystery, passes through much knowledge, and returns again (in fact again and again) to mystery.' -- Wendell Berry 'I have been waiting thirty-five years for this book.' -- Julian Barnard, author of Bach Flower Remedies: Form and Function 'Keith Critchlow has created a masterpiece, which speaks not only through his inspired and informative text, but also through 560 color [sic] illustrations combining his superb flower photography with hand-drawn geometric patterns. The result is a celebration of the geometric lawfulness of flower forms that embody universal spiritual archetypes ... The Hidden Geometry of Flowers is absolutely a must-read book for anyone who wants to be inspired by and appreciate the cosmic forces and archetypes that bestow the qualities we so cherish in each flower, and in their extraordinary healing qualities as flower essences.' -- Warren Kenton, Flower Essence Society
