Seed of Life
Noun. A seven-circle sacred-geometric figure — one central circle surrounded by six tangent circles of identical radius, each centred on the circumference of the central circle and on the circumference of its two adjacent neighbours. The hexagonal arrangement is the smallest stable circle-packing in the plane.
Origin
The Seed of Life figure appears in sacred-geometric tradition across Egyptian, Hindu, and Christian decorative iconography. Its earliest documented appearance is on a pillar of the Osirion (Abydos, Egypt; c. 13th century BC), where it is carved into the granite alongside the larger Flower of Life. The figure is treated as germinal — the seed from which the more elaborate sacred figures grow through systematic extension: add one ring of six circles to get the Egg of Life, another to get the Fruit of Life, the full extension to get the Flower of Life.
Construction
Draw a circle. Mark six points on its circumference at 60° intervals (the vertices of an inscribed regular hexagon). Draw six more circles of the same radius, each centred on one of those points. Each new circle passes through the centre of the original circle and through the centres of its two adjacent neighbours. The construction is purely compass-based — no measurement required. This makes the Seed of Life one of the easiest sacred figures to draw accurately by hand.
Modern use
The Seed of Life appears in modern sacred-geometry tattoo work, decorative ornament, New Age symbolic art, and as a teaching figure for the geometry of circle packing. The hexagonal arrangement is also the same packing nature uses for honeycomb — bees build their cells in the Seed of Life pattern (extended) because hexagonal cells tile the plane with minimum total wall length.