Mathematics

An invitation to the depth that brevity cannot reach - Video coming soon.

TL;DR:

  • The algorithm wants you to scroll past this. Way out
  • If this feels too long to read, that is exactly why you might want to read it slowly.
  • Math is the dialect of the universal and eternal. Find out why.

excerpt from sacred geometry: philosophy & worldview (pages 14-15):

"Geometry’s mathematical use is abstract and markedly different from its quantitative use, which is concerned more with practical matters. The mathematical use of geometry includes within itself an inner logic that was spotted early in the history of civilization. Euclid lived in Alexandria and was likely born around 325 BC, but we sadly do not know more than this one fact about his life. I speculate that Euclid was less the discoverer of geometric theorems himself and more a brilliant chronicler of the common mathematical knowledge of his contemporaries, who were themselves informed by knowledge passed down from Egyptians, Sumerians, and other civilizations ancient even in Euclid’s time. However, that is beside the point—Euclid is identified the author of The Elements , he was Greek, and that is enough. 

I do not think people appreciate just how influential the mathematical uses of geometry have been in the development of rationality. Euclid’s Elements was the most popular textbook ever published and was required reading up until the early 20th century."
Mathematics is the only truly universal language. It is the same in every culture, in every century, and on every planet. When you study Euclid’s Elements, you are engaging with truths that are not subject to the whims of history. You are speaking the dialect of the eternal.
"It is sometimes said that next to the Bible, Euclid's The Elements may be the most translated, published, and studied of all the books produced in the Western world." —Bartel Leendert van der Waerden (1903-1996), historian of mathematics.

Euclid of Alexandria
(325 - 265 BCE)

Learn The Elements Today

I highly recommend Nicholas Rougeux's modern re-design of Oliver Byrne’s celebrated work from 1847 on Euclid's Elements. It satisfies the right hemisphere with the beautiful graphic design while you challenge your left hemisphere to comprehend what Euclid is so elegantly teaching.

another excerpt from sacred geometry: philosophy & worldview (pages 14-15)

"Many have been subjected to the “mathematical use” in their geometry class during secondary education (high school), but sadly most saw this as a form of unusually cruel punishment. Do not worry—that is not what this book is about. 
Geometry and mathematical education in general have been falling short for a long time. In 2011 one survey found, '77% of the students seemed to believe that math was not something that could be figured out, or that made sense. It was just a set of procedures and rules to be memorized. This is, of course, exactly the opposite of true.'  

Given the failure of stimulating conceptual thinking in students, it is no wonder pre-rational mythic belief has erupted onto the global stage. Democracy is itself a rational creation which requires at least that stage of cognition within its citizens to function effectively. 

Euclid showed how geometry can teach us to think clearly. From a few simple axioms, an entire interconnected edifice of logic can be reconstructed in each mind."
"Abraham Lincoln studied and nearly mastered the Six-books of Euclid (geometry) since he was a member of Congress. He began a course of rigid mental discipline with the intent to improve his faculties, especially his powers of logic and language. Hence his fondness for Euclid, which he carried with him on the circuit till he could demonstrate with ease all the propositions in the six books; often studying far into the night, with a candle near his pillow, while his fellow-lawyers, half a dozen in a room, filled the air with interminable snoring."
—William Herndon (1818-1891), law partner and biographer of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln
(1809 - 1865 CE)

The Universal Ascent

Reclaiming the Language of the Universe

The Shadow of the Classroom
I highly recommend re-training yourself in mathematics as an adult—or perhaps, learning it truly for the first time. Many of us left school believing we "weren't math people." If you hated math in school, I invite you to look into that shadow. Math anxiety is often just a form of performance fear that robs the brain of its working memory. Revisiting it as an adult is a form of cognitive exposure therapy. You aren't just learning numbers; you are reclaiming the mental territory that fear once occupied.

Why We Learn the Language of the Logos 
We don't learn math for its utility in calculating tips or measuring floorboards; we have calculators for arithmetic. Math is so much more than calculation. In fact, many professional mathematicians are notoriously bad at arithmetic because their brains are optimized for high-level conceptual synthesis, not rote algorithmic processing.

A mathematician is a machine for turning cheap coffee & expensive Japanese chalk into theorems.

We should all learn math beyond arithmetic because it is the ultimate training ground for the Logos—the rational faculty that allows us to perceive the underlying order of the universe. By moving beyond the quantitative mechanics of numbers, we begin to see the qualitative patterns of reality. We learn the language of the Logos not to count the world, but to understand it.

The Brutal Honesty of the Ascent
Two years ago, I realized that even with my background in engineering and architecture, I had forgotten the core of what I once knew. I decided to go back to the beginning. I used Khan Academy—a free resource that covers everything from Kindergarten to University—and I was brutally honest with myself. I went back as far as I needed to find the thread. For me, that was all the way back to Algebra. Sophie Germain (a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher who made foundational contributions to number theory and the theory of elasticity) had a key insight:

Sophie Germain
(1776–1831)

"Algebra is but written geometry, and geometry is but figured algebra." 

TOP VERTEX:
Mathematical Geometry

Euclid's Elements | KhanAcademy.org

icon showing golden equilateral triangle with eye inside with letter G inside the eye

Illuminated Epistemology

LEFT VERTEX:
Quantitative Geometry

Houses | Cars | Airplanes | Electronics | Rockets

RIGHT VERTEX:
Qualitative Geometry

Everything here on SacredGeometryAcademy.com

Engage in a Sacred Anachronism: DRAW GEOMETRY.

Stop consuming the digital world and start constructing an analog one. By returning to the primary language of
shape and proportion, you bypass the noise of the standard worldview and rediscover the qualia
of your own consciousness.

Slogan text that reads 'DRAW YOUR OWN MAP. THEN COLOR IT.'
It took six months of intense, part-time work to recapitulate my entire mathematical education. It was temporally compressed because I'd done it before, and I learn very efficiently. If you never went to university, or if you struggled in school, this is your chance to climb the mountain on your own terms, one step at a time. It doesn't matter how long it takes, just do it. It's a great workout for the left hemisphere.
Khan Academy math courses
Small selection of amazing interactive Math courses available for free at khanacademy.org
The Depth of the Adult Mind
While a teenager’s brain might be faster at memorization, the adult mind is deeper. You have a lifetime of lived experience to map these abstract truths onto. You aren't just passing a test; you are revitalizing your left hemisphere and building a 'cognitive reserve' that serves as a bulwark against aging and the possibility of cognitive decline with the passage of time. This ascent is a revitalization of the left hemisphere—the part of the mind that seeks order, clarity, and truth.

The Tremendous View
Reclaiming your mathematical capacity is an act of mental sovereignty. It is an uphill slog, but the sense of accomplishment in making it up or back up that hill is a feeling like no other. Whether you are picking up a thread you lost decades ago or starting a brand new journey, the view from the summit is tremendous.

Whether you were an A+ student or someone who struggled to stay in the classroom, the mountain of math is open to you. KhanAcademy.org and other free resources have democratized this ascent. You just need the courage to find your thread and start climbing. You don't need a degree to speak the language of the universe. You just need the courage to take the first step.

If you have acquired the taste where learning becomes its own reward, congratulations, you have become an intellectual

Green critique: not an Armani-spectacled, turtleneck-wearing, performatively vapid poseur, but a person who simply loves to learn is what we call a geek, if you want to denigrate it with a label.

Dropping back down to Blue (tongue-in-cheek): The old testament Psalm 37:11, modulated for the present. If you prefer the new testament vibe, turn to Matthew 5:5, which says about the same thing:

"But the geek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of paying work."

Scott Onstott
(1970 – )

Turqouise aphorism: "Mathematics is the universal language of consciousness." 

chart of spiral dynamics stages from beige to turquoise
My synthesis of stage theories of human development. Read my free essay.

My Notes Made While Climbing the Mountain of Maths

Maybe my dark mode iPad notes down below could help you, or at least give you a visual sense of what you're in for if you accept this mission...highly structured thoughts. So I recently got 96% on Khan's AP College Calculus BC preparatory exam, which is damn good, if I do say so myself. See, I've still got it! Just so you know, I truly doubted whether I'd make it at all when I started the repeat journey 40+ years after my first summit attempt. It’s quite a slog, but the view from the top—well, you’ve just got to see it for yourself. To be clear, this is university-level math, not the rarefied altitude of a professional mathematician. But for an amateur, it’s a hell of a vista. 
mountaineer standing atop a crystal peak of math looking down into a pstoral valley below
Collated from Perplexity: "Among the cohort of students entering high school, only 4.3% pass the AP Calculus AB exam, and 2.3% pass the AP College Calculus BC exam. Of students entering US universities, <3%  reach the Calculus BC (Calc III+) equivalent level.

Of the full cohort entering 9th grade, only 54% enroll immediately in university, after accounting for the 87% high school graduation rate (leaving 13% dropouts) and 62% subsequent college-going rate among graduates.

From anecdotal professor data at Harvard, just 3-7% go beyond this level to study other subjects such as multivariable calculus, differential equations, complex analysis. Most STEM dropouts occur before advanced mathematics.

In Singapore nearly all of their 5,000 university grads go beyond Calc III+. In China this is around 40% and in Europe this is ~15-20%."

Personal note: I remember taking differential equations, linear algebra, and vector calculus in UC Berkeley's Mech engineering program, which perplexity says is "notoriously rigorous, often weaving infinite-dimensional concepts into the curriculum as motivation for engineering applications." By the time I was learning about infinite dimensional vector spaces I have come to the end of the road, which seemed overly abstract to me at the time. Understanding infinite-dimensional vector spaces and advanced vector calculus is highly useful—even essential—for cutting-edge AI researchers today. My interests had shifted and I changed majors to Architecture, which developed a different hemisphere of the brain. It launched me into another domain and vocational direction.

It is interesting to note that of say 1000 students that entered the average US high school, 870 graduate, and 540 go to university. Of these, perhaps only 5% or 27 people go beyond what is possibly available in high school math (equivalent of Calc III+). And Berkeley's rigorous program would probably drop this to perhaps 10 persons. That is 100X filtering.

This is not about why Scott is so smart. If only 1% of kids who enter high school end up going beyond the maximum mathematical education that is offered there in university or using free online resources, that is a sorry state of affairs. Motivated homeschoolers check out MathAcademy.com (AI-driven, paid) and KhanAcademy.com (human made, free).

With AI being so good at math you may say why bother learning math? Use a calculator or Wolfram Alpha. Yes do that, but you miss out on learning for learning's sake and the neuronal patterning that you can't get any other way. 

Math education transcends computation or STEM utility, serving as a foundational discipline for cultivating abstract reasoning, logical rigor, and intellectual discipline that shape human cognition broadly.

Mathematics trains the mind to identify patterns, construct airtight proofs, and navigate uncertainty through deduction—skills Euclid's Elements exemplified by reducing geometry to 13 axioms and 10 postulates, yielding theorems that revealed universal order from simple rules. Elements dominated because it wasn't mere geometry: it was a portable gymnasium for the mind, proving theorems from axioms to reveal necessity itself. 

Math mirrors philosophy's quest for first principles, fostering clarity amid complexity; studies link early algebra exposure to improved executive function and problem-solving in non-math domains.

Elements outsold all but the Bible for centuries because it embodied Greek ideals of mathesis (learning through disciplined inquiry), influencing Aquinas, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein not just geometrically but as a model for rational theology and scientific method. Medieval scholars saw it as moral training: theorems demand humility before logic, curbing hasty conclusions—echoing Aristotle's logic or Kant's categories.

"It is marvelous enough that man is capable at all to reach such a degree of certainty and purity in pure thinking as the Greeks showed us for the first time to be possible in geometry." —Albert Einstein

Philosophical Benefits:
  •     Precise language combats vagueness, honing argumentation like Socratic dialogue.
  •     Proofs instill perseverance and falsifiability, countering cognitive biases.
  •     Abstraction builds empathy for unseen structures, paralleling ethics or metaphysics.

Beyond AI's symbolic crunching, math uniquely builds mathematical intuition—the epiphany of seeing symmetries or infinities—which refines judgment in law, policy, art, and life.

As Whitehead noted: "The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... [but] enlarges the imaginative realm."
Middle aged perspective: The thing is—nobody else cares in the slightest what you do; everyone is so self-absorbed. You won't get  many "friends" or "likes" for learning math. Still, the view from the mountaintop is a beautiful moment in time, frozen in a photograph, like my recent iPad notes below. The real challenge and the pleasure, if one could even call it that, is the climb. The 'Orange' strive-drive is all about that climb. And for a guy with two artificial legs (and one artificial hand), this is my kind of climb, it all mental. I’ve done a lot of transcending-and-including in my life, but there is a unique novelty in getting down off my Turquoise high-horse and revisiting earlier Tier 1 modes—to see if I can still fully inhabit the most challenging stages.

TOP VERTEX:
Mathematical Geometry

Euclid's Elements | KhanAcademy.org

icon showing golden equilateral triangle with eye inside with letter G inside the eye

Illuminated Epistemology

LEFT VERTEX:
Quantitative Geometry

Houses | Cars | Airplanes | Electronics | Rockets

RIGHT VERTEX:
Qualitative Geometry

Everything here on SacredGeometryAcademy.com

The Most Beautiful Theorem in Mathematics (Not!)

While Euler’s Identity is widely known as "the most beautiful theorem in mathematics," this has always bothered me. It remains a closed circuit of abstraction—collapsing the infinite complexities of  𝑒, 𝜋, and 𝑖 into an unsatisfying equation where we add one to something just to make it sum to zero. Why not simplify by moving the +1 to the right side? Because then you have the relationship between the trio of transcendental numbers equaling 1, which feels like a transcendental downer. How could something so sublime result in such a negative unity? Or must we vacuously add 1 on the left just to get poetic about "unity" and "zero" in an ad hoc, unsatisfying way?
In my view we have the most harmonious number in existence, the golden ratio, called the divine proportion in Leonardo da Vinci's day, which he built his art on (see my book on these Secrets in Plain Sight: Leonardo Da Vinci), and it has these most curious properties:
By refracting this identity through the Golden Ratio, we breathe life into the dance of these constants. Although 𝜙 and 𝜑 are algebraic rather than transcendental, their irrational nature provides a musical, right-brained harmony where Euler's identity falls flat. Here it is, the most BEAUTIFUL theorem in mathematics, in my humble opinion.
This is the mathematical signature of the Human Bridge: it demonstrates that the fundamental constants of the universe are not destined to end in a void, but are ineffably shifted to resonate with the same proportions that govern life. We have taken the left-brained "Skeleton of Truth" found in Euler and clothed it in the right-brained "Flesh of Beauty," transforming a cold calculation into a living communion.

A Little Tangent

I discovered these symmetries in the golden ratio: it's all about "phive." There is a profound numerical resonance hidden within the geometry of life. Here, the five-sided symmetry of the pentagon is revealed to be a literal reflection of the "5-ness" of its own internal logic. By using the square root of five (raised to the power of 0.5) as the primary operator, the proportions of the inscribed circle and the pentagonal vertices emerge not as random decimals, but as a harmonic dialogue. It is a self-referential loop where the number five defines the root of five to manifest the shape of five—proving that there is a deep partnership between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of mathematics.

A geometric diagram of a dark green pentagon containing an inscribed blue circle. White dimension lines show the radius of the circle as 0.5 and the distance from the center to the top vertex as 0.5 times 5 to the power of 0.5, minus 0.5. Below the diagram, algebraic equations show that 1 over Phi equals 0.5 times 5 to the power of 0.5 minus 0.5 (approximately 0.618), and Phi equals 0.5 times 5 to the power of 0.5 plus 0.5 (approximately 1.618).

A Little Transcendental

There is a stunning geometric "coincidence" I found here that bridges the transcendental constants of the Circle (π) and Growth (e) with the Golden Ratio (𝜙). When we construct a right triangle with a base of π and a height of e, the resulting hypotenuse resonates at 99.9% accuracy with the value of 10 raised to the power of one over 𝜙 (which is also 𝜑). Even more remarkably, this specific triangle yields a Perimeter of approximately 10 (99.9%). In our base-10 reality, this represents a "Return to Unity." It suggests that the "Transcendental Trio" are not merely disparate decimals, but participants in a closed geometric circuit that anchors the infinite back into the decimal foundation of our world. This is the "Human Bridge" in trigonometric form.
A right-angled triangle with a blue fill. The base is labeled with the symbol for Pi ( 𝜋 π), the height is labeled with the symbol for  𝑒 e, and the hypotenuse is labeled as 10 to the power of 1 over Phi ($10^{1/\Phi} ) 𝑤 𝑖 𝑡 ℎ 𝑎 99.9 )witha99.9\approx$ 10 (99.9%)". Dimension lines indicate the measurements of each side, showing the geometric relationship between the three most fundamental constants in mathematics.

One More Thing...

I feel like I'm channeling Steve Jobs here, but I wanted to leave you with one final mindblower, for those who understand the path of geometry, math, music, and astronomy. In the standard worldview, we are taught that mathematics is a realm of crystalline, perfect precision. But as we delve into the Quadrivium—the four-fold forementioned path—we discover a recurring "ghost" that haunts the foundations of reality. It is a consistent, 99.9% resonance that manifests as a ratio of approximately 1.014, little more than 1% "imperfection".

The gap is a feature, not a bug.

It is the "Pythagorean Comma" that prevents musical scales from ever being perfectly in tune. It is the "Transcendental Glitch" where the squares of 
Φ and 𝑒 almost, but not quite, equal the square of 𝜋. It is the "Orbital Offset" between the 365-day solar year and the 360-degree circle. It even appears in the biological sex ratio of human births.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible." —Aristotle
This 1.014 gap is not a mathematical error; it is a Signature. If the universe were exact, it would be a static, dead crystal—a Platonic "Realm of  Pure Forms" with no room for movement. The Gap is the "Socratic Solvent" that prevents the system from locking up. It is the necessary imperfection that allows for growth, breath, and the entry of consciousness into the workings of its imagined machine. It is the proof that the universe is not a calculation to be solved, but a living harmony to be inhabited.
An infographic titled "Mind the Gap" showing three sections: The Pythagorean Comma (music), Transcendental Mathematics (geometry), and Orbital Mechanics (astronomy). Mathematical formulas show that the ratio of twelve perfect fifths to seven octaves, the ratio of Phi squared plus e squared over Pi squared, and the ratio of the Solar Year to 360 degrees all approximately equal 1.014. The text explains that this recurring gap is an essential clue in the "Great Mystery" of the Quadrivium.
Mind the Gap from Quantification

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A Note on Yuor Anamizg Brain:
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Biological Encryption: The Human Advantage

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A Map for the Human Bridge

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Where It All Fits

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How You Think

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