Plate XV
The Seed and the Plane
One principle turned, a whole plane re-derived — and its two deaths, enacted.
"By being legalistic, we sin by absolutising low-register symbols, and sacrificing principle. By being antinomian, we sin by precluding the emanation of principle into lower-register symbols, leaving them unaligned."
A gold octagonal seed at the center of a vast engraved star-pattern; turning the seed changes the whole plane's contact angle and a wave of re-derivation rolls outward from it
Drag in a circle around the gold seed to turn it — the contact angle of the whole plane turns with it, clamped between eighteen and seventy-two degrees. With the figure focused, Left and Right arrow keys turn the seed by one and a half degrees per press. Press and hold anywhere on the outer plane, or hold the L key, to freeze it against the seed. Grab and drag the seed itself past its own width, or hold the A key, to pull it off-center and starve the plane of light. Release either gesture to heal.
Fig. XVa — one contact angle, turned at the seed, derives every star in the plane; held or pulled apart from it, the plane shows its two deaths.
The pattern is not decoration laid over a grid — it is one principle (the contact angle) emanating into every visible form. Freeze the plane against its seed and the joints stop meeting; pull the seed from the plane and the plane goes dark while the seed blazes alone. The rosette's own heart is left ungilded, unmarked, the frame's brightest point never drawn.