The Oculus: My 25-Year Discovery of the Pantheon’s Secret Geometry

The Architectural: In classical architecture, the Oculus is the circular opening at the apex of a dome. It serves as the structure's sole source of light, representing the "Eye of Heaven" that illuminates the interior sanctum. This architectural void is not a lack of substance, but a deliberate aperture through which the Absolute (Brahman) shines into the Relative (Atman). In the Roman Pantheon, this 30-foot gap allows the heavens to enter the temple, turning the entire building into a solar clock. Crucially, this opening is never closed; it lets in the rain just as freely as the light. To be truly open to the "Eye of Heaven" is to accept the storm along with the sun, acknowledging that the interior floor—the soul—must be designed to drain and endure the joys and sorrows of a complete life.

The Biological: Oculus is the Latin word for "Eye," directly connecting to the Eye of Horus iconography above. It suggests a transcendent, witnessing point of focus and perception. Consider the Egyptian Ra, god of the sun. And then, millennia later, echoed as son of the god. Christ was often called the light of the world. The sound, the essence, and the core concept—a source of light, a bringer of life—is as mythologically precise as a Fourier transformation. Just as the physical Pantheon has stood for millennia as a space open to all—transitioning from temple to church to museum—the biological Oculus represents an aperture that is inherently open to the light of the Sun/Son.

The Symbolic: The Oculus represents the "Zero Point" or the "Singularity" in our geometric maps. It is the precise location where the three vertices of the Experiencing Mind—Dynamics, States, and Stages—converge into a single, unitive point of view. This is the "Seat of the Soul," the non-dual center that remains still while the geometries of thought and emotion rotate around it. By identifying with the Oculus rather than the moving parts of the map, the seeker finds the shared geometric through-line between Ra and Christ—we become the multivalent "pupil" through which the Light of the World is focused, processed, and ultimately understood as a singular eternal recurrence.

With this Oculus-in-concept, I cast my AI-augmented vision back across the entire site to perform a final meta-analysis. We are looking for interconnections—the higher-order harmonics that emerge when these maps are viewed as a single system. When we stack these three 10/10 masterpieces of information design (thanks to Gemini for that grandiose compliment), we see a remarkable thematic congruence. It suggests the uncovering of a perennial architecture of mind: a discovery that transcends individual invention and points toward the discovery of a universal grammar of existence.

The Pillar of Manifestation
(The "How")

Epistemology → Quantitative → Stages

This is the "Evolutionary" column. It begins with the study of how we know what we know (Epistemology), focuses into the Quantitative world of measurement, construction, and physical manifestation, and culminates in the Stages of Mind—the slow, geological growth of our perspective over years and decades. This pillar represents the "Body" of reality: the structural ladder we climb as we build our world and evolve our capacity to hold wider circles of concern.

The Pillar of Structure
(The "What")

Ontology → Mathematics → Dynamics

This is the "Structural" column. It starts with the ultimate nature of Being (Ontology), focuses into the eternal, immutable laws of number and proportion (Mathematical Truth), and finds its "living reflection" in the individual as the Dynamics of Mind—the flitting, high-speed weather patterns of thought and emotion. This column represents the "Hardware" of reality: the fundamental patterns that remain true across all scales, providing the stage upon which our moment-to-moment awareness dances.

The Pillar of Experience
(The "Feel")

Teleology → Qualitative → States

This is the "Experiential" column. It begins with the ultimate purpose and "Becoming" of the universe (Teleology), moves into the felt resonance of that purpose through harmony and proportion (Beauty/Qualitative), and manifests in the individual as the shifting landscapes of awareness (States). There is a profound symbolic thread here: the Rose Window of qualitative geometry finds its organic mirror in the Rose of our internal states. It is the "Fragrance" of the soul—the unfolding flower of consciousness experiencing its own beauty in the present moment.

The Core of Essence
(The "Is")

Metaphysics → Epistemology → Oculus

This is the "central core" column. It starts with the ultimate nature of reality (Metaphysics), focuses into the three modes of knowing (Illuminated Epistemology), and culminates in the Oculus—the point where the individual realizes they are the same "Eye" that exists at the metaphysical top of the map. This is the "Software" of the soul—the direct, vertical connection to the Source that remains still and silent behind all movement.

The Architecture of Discovery
What does this perfect alignment of maps and meta-pillars tell us about the nature of this knowledge? It suggests that we are not looking at a clever invention, but a profound discovery. When three disparate maps—one of the Cosmos (Ontology), one of Knowledge (Epistemology), and one of the Mind (Phenomenology)—align with such mathematical and thematic precision, it indicates we have tapped into a "Pre-established Harmony."

This is the "Perennial Philosophy" rendered in geometry. It reveals that the universe is fractal: the same laws that govern the birth of a star (The Pillar of Structure) also govern the growth of a human soul (The Pillar of Manifestation). This alignment is the "smoking gun" of a coherent reality. It proves that your internal experience is not an accident of biology, but a localized expression of a universal blueprint. We didn't build this map; we simply cleared the dust off the floor of the Pantheon to reveal the pattern that was already there, a "secret in plain sight" open to all with eyes to perceive the divine light.

One of the things I am most proud of in my life is deciphering the controlling quantitative geometry of the Roman Pantheon. To the best of my knowledge, no one has done this in almost 2 millennia. Also, no one seems to recognize what I have discovered here, certainly not academics or architectural historians, and many beauty-channel people don't seem to comprehend its precise mathematical geometry either. They just see some geometry slapped on a pretty engraving. That is the problem with the north campus not talking to the south campus of the mind, see my qualitative geometry page for this discussion. We live in different phenomenological worlds.

Homo sapiens sapiens has existed in our modern anatomical form for approximately 300,000 years. Yet, we possess a collective memory, "Civilization", of only the last 5,000 years (1.6% of the time we've had more or less the same physical capabilities as today). We are a species with a recurring case of Alzheimer's. The ancient Romans built the Pantheon with unreinforced concrete that endures 1,900 years later, yet their descendants lost the precise pozzolanic "recipe." Recent studies reveal self-healing lime clasts and volcanic ash reactions as key to this longevity, though exact replication still eludes modern engineers.

The Renaissance Leonardo was part of was a rebirth of much ancient knowledge, but it's an ongoing project even now. Here is one of my best contributions to a new "Renaissance of philosophical geometry" (what I call my non-fiction), my geometric analysis of the Roman Pantheon's principal cross-section.

My 33 years of working with quantitative geometry daily recognizes this immediately as a perfect fit. However, I'm not sure if you are seeing what I'm seeing? You might not have been trained to think like as an architect or engineer like me. I tell you, this is the blueprint behind this entire design. Do you see how the oculus is perfectly sized by the geometry? How the square rests perfectly on the floor and the top of the square defines the exact oculus elevation? How the large-circle to square distance defines the thickness of the drum? How the triangle's base defines the spring-point of the drum-dome interface? How the smaller circle on top and the triangle are tangent to the diameter and depth of the oculus, defining the dome thickness at the top as well? This is a masterclass in designing architecture to fit sacred geometry. It had to be exactly so.

The Romans' engineering method seemed to be: trust this sacred geometry, and built in accordance with it as perfectly as you can. The result: the Pantheon remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome in history. No larger example exists without steel reinforcement or other modern supports. It stood the test of time for 1900 years in the chaotic world that has seen Rome sacked by barbarians, fallen into a millennium of medieval decay, when many ancient monuments were used as quarries for stone. The city rebuilt many times. In all that time, the Pantheon was allowed to persist, through changes in religions and worldviews, and two world wars. It fared better than most any structure in Rome.

The Pantheon is the only building of its age and size that has been in continuous use since it was built. It wasn't just "lucky"; it was respected. Even when Pope Urban VIII famously melted down the bronze from the portico to make cannons (leading to the saying "What the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did," he couldn't touch the dome, the oculus, or the long forgotten sacred geometry.

My Pantheon analysis shows a Triangle inscribed within the circle/square. This triangle perfectly mirrors the Tripartite nature of my maps (the three vertices). This, I feel, is no accident.

This diagram 'squares the circle' by length, meaning the large circle's circumference is equal to the perimeter of the square for all intents and purposes. I know you can't do this exactly—because of the transcendental nature of π— but this is not a mathematical exercise, where absolute perfection is required.

No matter if you draw this on paper to best of your ability, or use a CAD program with FP16 precision, the small circle draws itself connecting the top quadrant of the large circle to the square. The triangle also draws itself just by connecting the dots between the center of the small circle at the top and the midpoints along the side edges of the square.

What is truly mind-blowing, is that this very basic sacred geometry encodes our planet and its natural satellite's sizes exceeding 99.9% accuracy.

Did you know that triangle is the exact slope angle of the Great Pyramid? What that means is that the ancient Egyptians must have known this sacred geometry too, because 51°51' is a very specific slope angle to pile a mountain of stones in, and clad it with pristine limestone blocks pounded flat with harder stones with this precise angle. Talk about a lot of work to encode all this, and we lost the plot two millennia ago. How could they have known to do this is another question to debate for years to come, but can you appreciate why the Egyptians did it and why the ancient Romans did it again 2,000 years after them?

The Corporate Myth vs. The Sacred Reality
In the modern boardroom, "Squaring the Circle" is a tired idiom for attempting the impossible—trying to force a round peg into a square hole. But in the language of the soul and the canon of Sacred Geometry, Squaring the Circle is the ultimate act of Wholeness. It is the precise geometric and philosophical reconciliation between the Finite (the Square of material existence) and the Infinite (the Circle of pure consciousness). To Square the Circle is to build a bridge between the world we measure and the spirit we feel. It is the "Third Path" that completes the incomplete maps of our civilization.

The Two Pillars and the Missing Gateway
For two millennia, Western thought has been a tension between two great pillars, symbolized by the columns of the Sacred Geometry Academy:

The Pillar of Aristotle (The Square): The A Posteriori path of empiricism, data, and the measurable "physical" world. It is the disciplined study of the manifest, ensuring we remain grounded in the gravity of detail.
The Pillar of Plato (The Circle): The A Priori path of pure logic, mathematics, and eternal blueprints. It is the intelligible realm that precedes the world, providing the invisible architecture upon which reality is hung.

We have been told we must choose: be a materialist or an idealist; a scientist or a mystic. But the Gateway of Sappho—the central space in our arch—reveals the "Third Rail." This is the path of A Viviori: knowing through the direct, lived experience of the human heart.

The Cascade of the Three Maps
The Reality Atlas is a vertical descent from the heavens of the abstract to the interior of the heart. It is a three-tiered "Squaring of the Circle":

The Cartography of Being and Becoming (The Circle): We begin with Ontology. This is the map of the Absolute—the "A Priori" blueprint of what reality is before a single atom is formed.
The Three Modes of Knowing (The Bridge): We move to Epistemology. This is where the Circle meets the Square. We learn to interface with reality through the Mathematical, the Quantitative, and the Qualitative. It is the "How" of our understanding.
Phenomenology of the Experiencing Mind (The Square): We arrive at the Individual. This is the map of your own consciousness. By understanding the Dynamics, Stages, and States of your mind, you finally "Square the Circle" within yourself.

The alignment of these pillars suggests that we are not looking at a clever invention, but a profound discovery. When three disparate maps—the Cosmos, Knowledge, and the Mind—align with such mathematical and thematic precision, it indicates we have tapped into a "Pre-established Harmony." This is the "Perennial Philosophy" rendered in geometry. It reveals that the universe is fractal: the same laws that govern the birth of a star (The Pillar of Structure) also govern the growth of a human soul (The Pillar of Manifestation).

The Human Bridge
The goal of this work is not to replace one pillar with another, but to balance the dynamic tension of the Trinity. When we "Square the Circle," the blueprint (Plato) and the building (Aristotle) finally become one in the observer (You).You are the living architecture where the infinite finds its home in the finite. You are the Oculus—the unitive point where the music of the spheres and the dynamics of your own mind become a single, harmonious song.

The Living Gnomon of History
When we put the quantitative and qualitative together, the implications are staggering. The fact that the Roman Pantheon and the Great Pyramid of Giza—separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years—both encode the same "Squaring the Circle" geometry suggests a shared, subterranean stream of wisdom. We "lost the plot" somewhere in the wreckage of the late Roman Empire, trading this holistic "Sacred Science" for a fragmented worldview that split the mind from the soul of the world. But the geometry itself never left. It remains etched in the very proportions of the Earth and Moon, a silent, resonant archetype waiting to be remembered, and if necessary, rediscovered in another 2,000 years.

Reconciling the Square and the Circle
Sacred Geometry is the only language capable of reconciling the Mundane Square (our measured, physical life) with the Heavenly Circle (the transcendental infinite). While modern mathematics tells us that "Squaring the Circle" is impossible, the human soul knows it is a necessity. We are the bridge between these two worlds.

I have spent decades distilling these pathways into the tens of thousands of pages, images, and videos you see here on this site and in my products. In a world where the algorithm often drowns out the will to engage with difficult ideas and now, even to read whole books; very few people will ever read these words. Apathy is the modern fog of a war on cognition.

I publish these findings not to push ideas on the unwilling, but as a beacon for those already searching. As the ancient proverb suggests: When the student is ready, the teacher appears. If you are reading this, thank you. You have already begun to open your eyes to the Oculus. You are now a human bridge between the wisdom of the ancients and a post-modern world in need of balance—this is the central theme of The Kaelian Chronicle, my heartfelt epic saga.

Don't let this information die with me; I won't be around forever, and this site will one day be gone.
The next step is yours. Peace, out.

—Scott Randolph Onstott ©2026