FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK: The SATOR Square and the modern Italian Legal Medicine.

 From the Director’s Desk

The SATOR Square and the modern Italian Legal Medicine.

This issue cover page displays the Siena SATOR Square: a latin four-times palindrome containing the words SATOR   AREPO   TENET   OPERA   ROTAS.  As the elder sample was found in the ruins of Pompei (covered of  volcanic ashes in 76 A.D.), it is pre-christian, as no Christians lived in Pompei before the disaster. This square has been told to be related to the Roman cult of Mithras (the rock-born God), to be a magic Charm, as being immune to tampering by the devil, who would become confused by the repetition of the letters, Alchemic, Templar (a Templar Cross can be formed by joining the letters A-E-O-N), Gnostic, a tool of the ancient Builders of Cathedrals, as joining different letters you can form “harmonic grids” useful for building (see the façade of St. Francis Church in Assisi inscribed in one of these grids):

 

The SATOR square has been found engraved in few churches: the Cathedral of Siena is one of them (you can see it on the external left wall when facing the façade), and the meaning of these words is still controversial, as different scholars give many interpretations.

Sator is a sower: throws seeds that will root and start a new life. Arepo is the most controversial of these words: could be the name of the sower, or something else, as you can not find it in a Latin dictionary. Tenet means holds, Opera is work and Rotas is wheels.

In our Discipline, we really need someone to throw seeds and hold the wheels of our work. We are facing many changes in difficult times, so we are looking forward to tamper the devil, build a new Cathedral, turn Lead into Gold, pursue Knowledge. Maybe the SATOR magic square will be our charm of good luck.

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