Dodecahedron and the Universe

So I have recently come across some interesting research that suggests that the universe is not infinite, but that it may in fact be a finite space, and more interestingly that the research evidence is suggesting that the universe is the shape of a dodecahedron (12-faced polyhedron).

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac upon the Dodecahedron

The research is not very recent, as I have found articles that date back at least as far as 2003, but it is new to me. The research is based upon data collected by an American satellite called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). This satellite collects data relating to microwave radiation, energy whose source is supposed to be the big bang. The conclusions of this data alluding to the universe being shaped as a dodecahedron all seems to be pointing to the French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet. I rather like the description from this article from the Economist as to how this data of energy bouncing around the universe is analyzed in this context:

The wavelength of this radiation is remarkably pure, but like a musical note it has harmonics associated with it. These harmonics, like those of a note, reflect the shape of the object in which the waves were generated. In the case of the note, that object is a musical instrument. In the case of the microwave background, that object is the universe itself.

The reason I find this so interesting is because I have been doing a lot of work with the Platonic Solids, so they've been on my mind. Plato, while he didn't discover these any more than Christopher Columbus discovered America, attributed these solids to the four elements and a fifth, the dodecahedron, to the quintessence and the Universe, and did so more than two thousand years ago. I love it when modern science agrees with ideas in the realm of occult science. Plato wrote in Timeaus:

One other construction, a fifth, still remained, and this one the god used for the whole universe, embroidering figures on it.

Or alternatively translated as:

There was yet a fifth combination which God used in the delineation of the universe.

The first translation is a bit more flowery. The second more so implies the shape to be a construct for the structure of the Universe. Being that I don't know much Greek, I cannot myself say which translation is more accurate, but the second makes more sense in the way it is generally interpreted, and fits with the work of Luminet.

VH Soror FDA's Universe Card ©
Used with Permission

To the twelve sides are generally referred the twelve signs of the zodiac, with the Sun at the center. Being we attribute this figure to the universe, and the signs of the zodiac to the twelve faces upon it, this makes me curious as to whether early adepts were considering this when defining the symbolism of the Universe tarot trump. As here, in the Universe card, we see the number 12 and the Zodiac quite prevalent. Were I to one day create a tarot deck incorporating concepts of sacred geometry, I think I would experiment with the dodecahedron with the female figure or the Sun at the center. Something like this I made for meditation, which expresses the number 12 in two and three dimensional space: