The Seven Holy Pillars of Eternity

They considered it impermissible to preserve the holy divine mysteries in such signs and characters in which all profane and shameful unholy things might be recorded by the common rabble. Therefore, Porphyrius Porphyry of Tyre, a Neoplatonic philosopher says that the ancients, in order to keep the Godhead and the divine properties and powers secret and hidden, passed on the great mysteries through sensory images, and through visible things that signify the invisible—as if through holy letters—and explained them through certain secret and significant figures. For example, they assigned and dedicated everything round to the world, the sun, the moon, hope, and fortune; the circle to the heavens; the parts of the circle, however, to the moon; the pyramids and obelisks to fire and the heavenly deities; the roller or cylinder to the sun and the earth; the male reproductive organ to procreation and Juno the Roman goddess of marriage; just as they also assigned the triangle to the latter, because of the female gender. Therefore, this type of character has no other foundation and origin than the whim and authority of the founder and author,