Squaring the Circle: The philosopher’s task in bridging heaven and earth

Squaring the Circle: The philosopher’s task in bridging heaven and
earth, by Malik Tillman

The old symbol of squaring the circle as a way to understand a deeper
problem: how to make sense of opposites that don’t seem to fit together —
spirit and matter, order and chaos, the absolute and the relative, above and below? This has been a challenge for philosophers, alchemists, geometers, and theosophists for thousands of years. The problem has taken many forms — the philosopher’s stone, the alchemical marriage, the square and compass, The Great Work — but at its core, it’s fundamentally about the same thing: Unification. Explore these symbols & traditions, ask what can actually be done about this fundamental problem, inquire how it relates to self-overcoming.