eleutheros.lab

These be sciences seven,
Who useth them well he may have heaven.

~ Regius Manuscript poem, A.D. 1390 2, cited in "A Brief Investigation of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences - Origins, Masonic Relevance and Applicability in Modern Life" by Rafael Etges and Abiel Klein

Trivium
Grammar: The study of the descriptive power of languages and the ability to identify and describe in order to attain knowledge. More than just the “framework” of an individual language, Grammar should include the study of the way cultures conceptualize their world and communicate what is important to their lives via their language. The goal of this Road is not only the appreciation of diversity, but the ability to look deeper into the process of naming and conceptualization in order to understand what essential truths are contained within a given “thing.” In architecture, this is related to the understanding of signs and signifiers, the “meaning” of the parts of the building and the role in the cultural imaginary.

Logic/Dialectic: The study of the cognitive process and the means by which perception is translated into governing principles and ultimately, into the Gnosis of the individual. The following areas (beyond basic reasoning skills) would be vital points of study:

Category theory – following the study of how individual things are identified and distinguished in grammar; emphasis on the process of discernment and the limitation of categorical thinking.

Cognitive Process – how the mind processes and uses the information, including the study of healthy vs. corrupted cognitive processes (which will be built further upon in Rhetoric).

Synthetic formula; thesis, antithesis, synthesis; etc. – the process of discerning “this” vs. “that”, and how this interaction underlines the evolutionary/learning process. The alchemical tradition as the process of transforming the base element by the combining and unifying of opposites in an ordered and deliberate way.

In architecture, this formula is the “eros” tradition expressed in the story of Polyphilo and Polia (from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili), and the process through the signifiers, the choice of the three doors. By the conflicting (“strife of love”) process of creating and overcoming boundaries, we open the space for what is beyond the ego-faculties.

Rhetoric: The study of expression and bonding; the Artisan as cultural magician and story-teller. This includes not only the traditional sphere of oratory and academic debate, but all the arts, as the means by which one expresses one’s Truth and thus invites others into new experience. The importance of memory (see the classic The Art of Memory by Francis Yates) and role of the imaginary in this function should be studied, building on the attention to perception and process in the previous two Roads, now understood as the experiential “record” of the individual. This is the area of practical application, and ethics should also be given deep study in this area (starting with the study of rhetorical tricks/fallacies and the ability to recognize them and preceding such studies as hypnosis, NLP, etc.) Attention should also be given to internal rhetoric (self-talk, tapes, etc.), as part of the process of self-knowledge and to avoid being "bound" subconsciously.

Quadrivium
In architecture, the four sciences of the Quadrivium reveal the Golden Mean. Note that Dee’s explanation of "Archemastrie" was included in the preface to Euclid's Elements, hinting at the importance of mathematical principles in the creation of space where the powers involved are brought to "actual experience sensible."

Arithmetic: numbers and their qualities (arithmology), including a full understanding of the relationship between numbers and powers (ie. qabala), “the language of God”, the theory of correspondences as discrete value systems.

Geometry: number in space or form; the study of the relationship between perception of shape and meaning, perspectival theory, "form and function", golden ratio, physics, geomancy, the body, the process of transformation between one state to another.

Music: harmony/sound, "number in time"; also, the study of the emotional/psychological relationships with sensory inform and cognition, pattern in nature, communication, memory (the bardic arts as a way of communicating cultural law, memory, and attachment), movement.

Astronomy: the principle of cosmic order; "number in space and time"; the individual’s perception of self/place through knowledge of the “star clock”/movement and interaction of observable forces; the relationship between earthly dwelling and heavenly timing; architectonics; geomancy; positioning and the use of astronomy in creating the “locus”;' astrology as the basis of archetypal “storying.”

Some sites to begin further study:
Harmonious Proportion and Ratio by David Clayton
The Craftsman’s Charge by GD.McDonald
The Spiritual Vision of the Seven Liberal Arts by Thomas D. Worrel
The Seven Liberal Arts and the West Door of Chartres Cathedral by Titus Burckhardt
The Education of the Classical Architect from Plato to Vitruvius by Graham Pont