Keith Critchlow’s extraordinary book:

We are delighted to have received a copy of The Hidden Geometry of Flowers , by Keith Critchlow, sent to us by our colleague Julian Barnard of Healing Herbs , who helped facilitate the project. In fact, Julian Barnard has been invited as a guest lecturer of the Royal Horticultural Society for the official inaugural launch of Dr. Critchlow’s book on Tuesday, September 27, in London, England.

The forward is written by Prince Charles, which is appropriate, as Critchlow is the founder of the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts . To learn more of Prince Charles’ practical ecological and spiritual philosophy, please see his book and film, Harmony : A New Way of Looking at Our World. 

Keith Critchlow has created a masterpiece, which speaks not only through his inspired and informative text, but also through 560 color illustrations combining his superb flower photography with hand-drawn geometric patterns. The result is a celebration of the geometric lawfulness of flower forms that embody universal spiritual archetypes.

The pentagonal symmetry of the Rose bud

We know that flower essences embody such archetypes, which resonate with the inner qualities of the human psyche, thus awakening us to our transformed selves. Critchlow’s genius is to present in splendid specificity the way these spiritual harmonies are expressed in the forms of nature, especially flowers. Students of the Flower Essence Society will find in Critchlow’s book a wonderful reflection and amplification of the themes in The Twelve Windows of Plant Perception , the core basis for FES plant science research and for many of the plant essays published by the Flower Essence Society .

A review of some of the chapter titles alone gives a tantalizing overview of the book’s contents:

What is Life?
Viewing a Flower Geometrically
The Study of Flowers Over Time
The Wreaths of Plant Life
Number and Flowers
Number and Numbers: Quality As Well As Quantity
Rhythm and Periodicity Life and Flowers
Growth: the Floral Unfolding in Time
The Seed as a Point of Origin and Potentiality
From Bud to Flowering
The Spirals of Unfolding
The Orientation of the Face of Flowers
Archetypal Geometric Form and Spirals
The Mystery of Flowers, their Chosen Symmetry and their Intrinsic Geometry
Petal Geometries and the Principle of Radiance
The Search for the Controlling Archetype in Flower Geometry
An Introduction to the Geometry of Flowers: their Primary Symmetries
The Leaf; a Definition of Its Nature
Symbols and Actualities in the Plant and the World of Cultivation

The Hidden Geometry of Flowers is absolutely a must-read book for anyone who wants to be inspired by and appreciate the cosmic forces and archetypes that bestow the qualities we so cherish in each flower, and in their extraordinary healing qualities as flower essences.

Reviewer’s comments:

“I've been looking at plants all my life and it's one of my great pleasures; Keith Critchlow's book adds new dimensions to this enjoyment and shows how number and geometry are made manifest in the forms that we see in every garden, in wildflowers and in the cut flowers that decorate our rooms ... The plentiful illustrations help make this a book of inspiration and insight.”
— Dr. Rupert Sheldrake

“This is less a book for what we call 'reading' than a book to be lived with as a delightful and instructive companion for a long time. It is a fascinating book, full of things useful and pleasing to know. And I admire the honest circularity of its plot that begins in mystery, passes through much knowledge, and returns again (in fact again and again) to mystery.”
— Wendell Berry

“I have been waiting thirty-five years for this book.”
— Julian Barnard , author of Bach Flower Remedies: Form and Function , and Bach Flower Remedies - the essence within

About the author:

Professor Keith Critchlow is a well-known lecturer and author. He is a founder member of RILKO (Research Into Lost Knowledge Organization), a founder member and Director of Studies of Kairos and a founder member and President of the Temenos Academy. He is Professor Emeritus and founder of the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Programme at the Royal College of Art, now the Prince's School of Traditional Arts. His many previous books include Order in Space, Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach , Markings: Aerial Views of Sacred Landscapes , Soul as Sphere and Androgyne , and Time Stands Still: New Light on Megalithic Science (Floris Books, 2007).

Where to find the book:

The Hidden Geometry of Flowers is currently available for £30 from Floris Books in the UK.