Ray S Stevens

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I am a practising architect in Sydney, Australia and recently completed a PhD at University of NSW with a thesis titled 'Space Space, Time & the Human Margin:
A Way of Understanding Sacred Architecture Through Participation in
Spatial & Temporal Symbolism.
Address: Balmain, New South Wales, Australia

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Thesis Chapters by Ray S Stevens

The Symbolism of Number in Architecture 1980

B.Arch Thesis, 1980

Numbers can be symbolised in architecture in various ways; by embodiment of pure Platonic Numbers... more Numbers can be symbolised in architecture in various ways; by embodiment of pure Platonic Numbers; by numbers expressed in two and three dimensions as plane and solid geometry; as proportion of its various parts, and also by the act of measurement.

These methods of symbolism find support in religious doctrine, cosmology, metaphysics and the cultural tradition of its builders. They are not the idea of an individual architect or builder, but rather are ideas of a transcendent nature. These ideas could be called in modern terms sacred, for they are ideas which are above temporal and corporeal domains and are directed ultimately towards the Divine. The embodiment of such ideas leads to and supports the possibility of sacred architecture.

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An Hermeneutic Exploration of René Guénon's 'The Symbolism of the Cross' Applied to Sacred Architecture

An Hermeneutic Exploration of René Guénon's 'The Symbolism of the Cross' Applied to Sacred Architecture, 2018

This thesis examines how the architecture of the various sacred traditions, all manifest in their... more This thesis examines how the architecture of the various sacred traditions, all manifest in their built expressions a universal symbolic content, while at the same time being absolutely unique in their own inherent particular spiritual dispensation. One major aspect of this symbolic content is the embedding of the three-dimensional cross in its various modes within their built arrangements.

The correlation between the three dimensions of space and the metaphysical symbolism of the cross was the subject of a short but important work by the French traditional metaphysician René Guénon titled Symbolism of the Cross (Le Symbolisme de Ia Croix). In describing the purpose of the work Guénon wrote that it was 'to explain a symbol that is common to almost all traditions, a fact that would seem to indicate its direct attachment to the great primordial tradition'. While several authors on sacred architecture acknowledge the importance of Guénon's work, it has generally been applied only in limited considerations and to particular traditions. However, there remains many levels to this work that require further general elaboration and exploration.

Guénon uses the symbolic potential of three-dimensional space as a coherent and indispensable means of developing traditional metaphysics. An hermeneutic exploration and study of Guénon's Symbolism of the Cross, allows insights into various aspects of all sacred architecture, even when the tradition is unfamiliar. Equally, exploring various themes related to spatial symbolism in sacred architecture can give insights into the interpretative reading of Symbolism of the Cross.

$The 'now' or the ‘present moment’, like the 'here', possesses a unique quality. It is singularly situated in time, which is apparently unfolding both backward into the past and forward into the future. Events situated in the 'now' are real and actual. They are events that are virtual and in the process of actualisation passing over from the unreal future into the unreal past. Events in the future are present merely as possibilities, they await actualisation in the present. To subjectively witness the 'now' is to be present at the state of actualisation. This is akin to being present at creation and attaining a perspective of Eternity. The now is the 'window to Eternity’. What Being is to becoming, so is the now to temporal duration (Diagram 5.8). The Hindu Tantric tradition is explicit in its concept of two forms of time, the transcendent The Hindu Tantric tradition is explicit in its concept of two forms of time, the transcenden ernal Now and the empirical transient time. Transcendent time is the eternal time of the Divine rigin. The entire universe subsists in a potential state in this transcendent time, in this state o \uipoise called samand.17 This transcendent time cannot be destroyed (akalya) because in fact i not created, it has absorbed within itself the entire sequence of events in the universe anscendent time is the source of all nature, this Eternity creates on the manifest plane < versified sequence of events. This is the mode of ingress into the world of individualisation and i by the initiation of empirical time, that is by sequential manifestation, that form is projected intc dividual existence. This results in the sequence of ‘cause and effect’ or the principia fferentiation of antecedents and consequence. In this way, it causes differentiation in objects anc jents.18$

$The rotating asterism of the northern Ladle or Pei-tou taken at the four seasonal positions forms the configuration of the swastika rotating in the sk\ The configuration of the Northern Ladle set in the sky and considered as simultaneously superimposed over the four seasons, is the configuration of the swastika (Diagram 9.12) so the pole star is totally assimilable to the swastika. The swastika (when viewed toward the heavens is arranged in a counterclockwise configuration but as discussed in regard to the Lo Shu magic square with the Ho T’u couplets can also be seen as projected upon the earth in an inverse way. Together they establish the celestial axis. At the centre resides the Supernal Lord and Thearch, Shang-di driving his heavenly chariot in the constellation of Pei-tou (Image 9.18).54$

$~ “ The various states of manifestation which are to be overcome are symbolised in different ways. It is the art of architecture to present to the participant a built manifest form in which space is articulated and differentiated, a space or spaces which are capable of being interpreted and experienced in a manner which is both immediate and yet also symbolic. Such architectural elements as the progressive use of doorways and entries, the use of walls and screens to mark and separate different areas, the use of steps and changes in relative levels, the use of colour, smell, materiality and transparency, in fact the full vocabulary of architectural possibility, all come into play to articulate the progression of the way towards the centre (Diagram 10.4). Above all, however, it is the configuration of the cross within the building that gives symbolic structure to the \sthola and separate different areas, the use of steps and changes in relative levels, the use of colour, The Vertical Dimension as Expression of the Way$

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Papers by Ray S Stevens

An Hermeneutic Exploration of Rene Guenon's Symbolism of the Cross Applied to Sacred Architecture

Ray S Stevens

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Thesis Chapters by Ray S Stevens

Papers by Ray S Stevens

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