Oculus Simplex

This diagram is constructed as a movement inward. Its symbols form successive boundaries surrounding a single center, moving from scripture into geometry, from geometry into sacred symbolism, and ultimately toward Christ.

Encircling the composition is the Latin text of Matthew 6:22:

Lucerna corporis est oculus. Si fuerit oculus tuus simplex, totum corpus tuum lucidum erit.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”

This passage establishes the central idea of the work. Everything within the composition moves toward singularity—from the expansive perimeter toward an illuminated center.

The first enclosure is the great red triangle. At its three vertices are crosses representing the Knights Templar, establishing a Christian framework around the composition. The triangle itself introduces the recurring principle of three expressed as one.

Within its three points appear the alchemical principles of Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt. Here they form an alchemical reflection of the Christian Trinity: Mercury represents God the Father, Sulfur represents the Holy Spirit, and Salt represents the Son of God. The three principles become three expressions contained within a single form.

At the heart of the triangle is a white mandorla, the almond-shaped sacred enclosure found throughout Christian iconography. Its form also creates the image of an eye, directly embodying the words of Matthew 6:22. The mandorla becomes the single eye through which the rest of the composition is viewed.

At its upper and lower poles stand Alpha and Omega, recalling Christ’s declaration in Revelation: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” Together they establish Christ as the axis extending through the entire sacred enclosure.

Moving inward, the composition enters a circular cosmology. The four fixed zodiac signs—Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio—correspond to the four creatures of the tetramorph: the man, ox, lion, and eagle. These four creatures appear in Ezekiel’s vision and became associated within Christian tradition with the four Evangelists. Scorpio carries the eagle correspondence within older esoteric symbolism, completing the relationship between the four fixed signs and the four creatures.

The fourfold cosmos therefore surrounds the central image of Christ.

Within this ring is a square bearing the Greek Christian formula IC XC NIKA—“Jesus Christ conquers” or “Jesus Christ is victorious.” The inscription proclaims the triumph of Christ and places that victory within the ordered geometry of the composition.

Within the square stands the pentagram, a fivefold Christian symbol associated with the Five Wounds of Christ. Its five points contain the Hebrew letters of the Pentagrammaton, a sacred name developed within Christian Kabbalistic tradition by introducing the Hebrew letter Shin into the four-letter divine name. The resulting five-letter name represents Jesus, bringing the divine name into direct relationship with Christ.

At the absolute center stands the Chi-Rho.

Formed from the Greek letters Chi and Rho—the opening letters of Christos—the Chi-Rho is one of Christianity’s ancient Christograms, a monogram representing Christ. Its position is deliberate: it occupies the center of the pentagram, the center of the square, the center of the celestial rings, the center of the mandorla, and ultimately the center of the great triangle.

It is also positioned as the pupil of the single eye.

The entire composition therefore converges upon Christ.

The colors reinforce this structure through another triad. Black represents the void, the primordial darkness from which form emerges. White represents purity, illumination, and divine light. Red represents the blood of Christ—sacrifice, incarnation, life, humanity, consciousness, and soul.

These three colors echo the threefold structure established by the triangle and the alchemical principles: void, light, and life; Father, Spirit, and Son.

The composition begins at its perimeter with Christ’s teaching concerning the eye and light. It then passes through successive layers of Christian, alchemical, celestial, and sacred geometry, each enclosure drawing closer toward a single point.

At the perimeter is the Word.

Within it is the cosmos.

Within the cosmos is the eye.

Within the eye is the name.

And within the name is Christ.