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The
Realize!
Logo
As with any good
symbol, there is more to the
Realize!
logo than at first meets the eye.
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The
Condensed Version
The Realize!
logo's two elements present the fusion of Leonardo's paramount
image of humanity with the mystical symbol of the Mandala--the
Quartered Circle.
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The forepart of
the logo is derived from Leonardo da Vinci's well-known drawing
referred to as The Vitruvian Man. Found in
Leonardo's notebooks, this study in proportion is based on the
book De Architectura by Vitruvius. The drawing
illustrates not only the proportions of the human figure, but
Vitruvius relates these proportions to the building of ancient
temples. Leonardo's own writings take this thinking one
step further: he sees Man as the microcosm of the universe.
But Leonardo's drawing has transcended
its original purpose as an exercise in proportion and an
expression of philosophy, and has come to stand for the entire
humanistic impulse of the Renaissance, that time when the
ultimate concern of scholars and artists shifted from the next
world to this one, and interest in the sciences came to share
equal footing with religion, art, music, and literature.
Leonardo's humanism was not the
formalized "secular
humanism" of the 20th century, which constitutes a sort
of quasi-religion. It is quite simply the exuberance of
youth, the belief that with enough thinking and enough hard
work, humans can overcome almost any obstacle. It is an
admirable, if somewhat disproved, way of thinking. The
Renaissance Men were mostly right, but something was
missing...
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Behind
The Vitruvian Man is a symbol less well known yet more
universally found. It is the Quartered Circle, here
rendered in a style inspired by rock inscriptions found on every
inhabited continent. It can also be found, in more
sophisticated cultures, as the center of the Celtic cross, and
as the basic form of the Buddhist mandala.
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| Chumash
rock art |
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A
Celtic Cross |
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A
Tibetan Mandala |
So widespread is the image of the
quartered circle that Swiss psychologist Carl Jung says it
represents the Self--it is the very shape of the Soul. 
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In the system of
astronomical symbols (above), the quartered circle represents
the earth. The reasoning is simple: imagine you are
standing on a vast plain, with nothing to block your view of the
horizon. That horizon, then, would appear to you as a
great circle. And anything on the plane of the plain could
be plotted in relation to you using a simple grid composed of
the x and the y axes (left).
So the quartered
circle can be seen as representing not only the Earth, but
the individual's place on it. This may be part of the
reason that it has had such a universal appeal.
Elsewhere
I discuss the symbols of various religions, pointing out that
each indicates balance or centeredness. In harmony
with all these great symbols, this quartered circle, too, can take
its place as the symbol for Neo-Perennialism.
It is an image of the Earth from a heavenly (skyward)
perspective, and as such it exactly positions the human in the
cosmos.
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If the simple
quartered circle will suffice as a symbol for Neo-Perennialism,
why have I added the Vitruvian Man to the logo used for this
website? Well, the mission of Realize! goes
beyond the proclamation of Neo-Perennialism. It also
encourages people to develop all of their faculties,
through the courses in The
Academy, for example, or by appreciation of the images in
The
Gallery. The Renaissance Man was, after all, merely a
man, but one who had developed his faculties to the
fullest. As a teacher, my goal is to help each of my
students (and friends!) to do nothing less: to become the most
complete human beings they can be.
This is the promise extended by our
logo.
Contents
(C) 2006 James Baquet.
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Read More
Online:
On
Leonardo's Vitruvian Man (for
access in China)
A
passage from Vitruvius, with a mystical interpretation
On
Secular Humanism (for
access in China)
A
page of Mandala links
Quotes
from Jung about Mandalas
An
essay on Jung and Mandalas
Offline:
References to come
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