The Sacred CutTons Brunés was a Danish engineer whom authored a book entitled

The Secrets of Sacred Geometry & Its Use

back in 1967. While I have not read the book myself, I believe the general idea put forth within it is that many of the ancient archetectural sites contain similar patterns within their layouts.One of the many topics covered in the book is a particular geometrical construction called"The Sacred Cut". It is generated in the following manner:Step 1 – "Make a square. With a compass open to an amount equal to half a diagonal of the square,swing an arc with center at a corner of the square, passing through the center of the square andcutting two sides of the square."Step 2 – "Repeat for the other 3 corners."

Step 3 – "Through the eight points of intersection of the arcs and the sides of the square, draw four verticals and four horizontals. The center square formed by this construction is called the

sacred cut square.

Connecting the eight points of intersection of the arcs and the sides of the squareconsecutively forms an

octagon.

"Sacred Cut Square In Middle Of OriginalOctagon FormationSignificance:"Brunes calls this construction

sacred

because it contains both square and circle, uniting the earthlyand the divine as in the Vitruvian man

. Furthermore, it

squares the circle

. The length of the four arcs equal the four diagonals of the half-square. And, as mentioned, it gives the

octagon

, the shapeuniversally used for baptistries and baptismal fonts."The ratio of 1:√2 is often related to the Silver Ratio.

1I believe this refers to the geometric metaphor of the Square (of four sides) representing the Planet Earth (with four compass directions and of the four classical elements), and the Circle being The One Thing (or Divine), as it acontinuous loop with no beginning and no end. There is more about the Vitruvian Man within the link provided fromwhich this quote is taken.

Extending The Construction:"The construction can be extended inward, by repeating the construction on the sacred cut square. Itcan also be extended outward, joining the intersections of the circles and the diagonals, to form asquare of which the original square is the sacred cut square."Extending Outwardly

(Note: Not directly to scale)

References:

Information about the book can be found at-http://www.ancientgeometry.com/Instructions for generating The Sacred Cut come from-http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit7/unit7.htmlDiagrams derived from one at-http://www.emis.de/journals/NNJ/Kappraff-fig05.html