Starring the Circle

This arrangement is know in solid state physics, which concerns itself with the way atoms arrange themselves together in solid matter, as planar close packing. Select one of the pennies and mentally place a mark on it. If it is not on an edge, it will be touched by exactly six neighboring pennies. Mentally mark these six pennies as well. You will now have the pattern of seven marked pennies shown in Figure B. This pattern is repeated throughout the entire arrangement, except where the edges interfere, and is know in solid state physics as a unit cell, meaning that the arrangement is built of repetitions of this basic pattern.

Figures C and D show how the unit cell of planar close packing contains the figure known as the Star of David, a six-pointed star formed from two interpenetrating triangles. The Star of David, a figure based on a six-sided polygon of straight lines, is inherent in a figure based on seven circles.

The URANTIA Book teaches that the number seven appears in the traditions of religions and mystical teachings throughout the world because this represents the maximum possible number of manifestations of the three Paradise Deities. There are just seven possible combinations of any three items, alone or in combination, and they are:

1. First item alone.
2. Second item Alone.
3. Third item alone.
4. First item and second item together.
5. First item and third item together.
6. Second item and third item together.
7. First, second, and third item together.

The URANTIA Book also teaches that seven is echoed in the material world, indicating the ultimate high origin even of material reality. As an example, the Periodic Table of the Elements, a chart in which scientists arrange the physical elements in order of ascending atomic number, shows that certain physical properties tend to recur in every seventh element.

Could there be more symbolism behind the Star of David than most of us know today? Machiventa Melchizedek sojourned and taught among the predecessors of the Jewish people and could have taught them things of this nature. The idea of a symbol which can signify the nature of the three Paradise Deities and the Paradise Trinity; which can portray the Seven Absolutes of Infinity as well as the triodities of actuality and potentiality; which combines unity, duality, and triunity relationships (as well as sevenfold and twelvefold relationships, which we shall see later have special significance); which indicates the structure of matter and the relationship of matter to the Paradise Sources; and which is actually carried in the heart of basic matter itself is tremendously appealing.

We are told in The URANTIA Book that the number seven is particularly associated with the ministry of life, as is also the number twelve. One way to arrive at the number twelve from the number seven is to observe that the unit cell of planar close packing contains exactly twelve pairs formed from the seven circles of the unit cell; or, in the language of solid state physics, there are exactly twelve pair-bonds formed. Seven and twelve are mentioned together in the teaching that there are just seven architectural forms of life in the universe and that these architectural forms of life are characterized by the number of inheritance carriers they incorporate, these inheritance carriers occurring in ascending multiples of twelve; that is, one architectural form of life has twelve inheritance carriers, the second has twenty-four, the third forty-eight, and so on to the seventh, which has seven hundred sixty-eight. (Note that throughout The URANTIA Book, the word chromosome is not used when referring to the number of human inheritance carriers. Since the time of the writing of The URANTIA Book, science has changed its mind about the number of chromosomes each individual human possesses; however, the statements of The URANTIA Book on the matter, error free then, are still error free).

The URANTIA Book refers in several places to the space content of matter. It also talks of pursuing matter to a point where matter disappears to the senses but what remains is real to the mind. Using an instrument called a field ion microscope, it is possible to observe matter as a collection of individual atoms, each atom a dot of light and the space between a dark void. In Figure E, a bit of tungsten examined through a field ion microscope has disappeared to the senses and all that remains is a pattern; because of human understanding of the significance of this pattern, though, its identity as tungsten remains real to human mind. Each dot, which represents an individual atom, appears in at least two different intersecting circles--as if it needs the two separate centers of force, represented by the centers of two different circles, to balance it and keep it from being pulled into any one. Hold the illustration quite a distance away and a large Star of David will be seen in it, the picture revealing itself as seven huge circles arranged as a unit cell of planar close packing.

Think in a reverse direction for a moment about matter being built up out of unit cells. Visualize that a theoretical tiny, flat circle is really conposed of seven smaller circles arranged as a unit cell of planar close packing. Each of these small circles in the unit cell in turn is composed of a smaller unit cell of tinier circles and so on, until the smallest circles of all appear only as dots. What sort of a figure would result from trying to depict such a relationship? Figure F is the result of such an attempt. Sixteen thousand eight hundred and seven dots and some precise positioning were required to develop this figure, which displays unusual symmetry and balance, six-pointed stars, and the general appearance of a snowflake, one of nature's beautiful associations of free particles.