Another geometric design is similar to those apotropaic marks known as the daisy wheel, but is actually defined as a ‘hexfoil/hexafoil’, or as ‘the flower of life’.
Like other examples of geometric protective devices made up of endless lines; like Stars of David, pentagrams, or similar, daisy wheels, etc; these were thought to be demon traps, to ward off or confuse, or entrap those malevolent creatures.
Sometimes these daisy wheels or hexfoils are interconnected and form a sacred geometric shape; this is the case here, in Ethiopia, on a church door latch staple.
Here we see a hexagonal shape, which is made up of seven interconnecting hexfoils, or ‘flowers of life’. The shape is made up of multiple evenly spaced and overlapping circles and are arranged to form a flower petal like pattern with a sixfold symmetry. The hexagon and its seven interconnecting circles represent the seven days it took God to create the world. Six and Seven are sacred numbers and have many more sacred attributes.
The flower of life was considered perfectly formed of equal proportion and harmonious, and thought to be a form of divine enlightenment, and used as a circle to contain or create. It was known throughout the world to stonemasons, architects, philosophers, alchemists, occultists and artists. The Jewish Kabbalistic tree and its mysticism is also thought to be derived from the flower of life.
It is also the basis of what is known as ‘Metatron’s Cube’, a geometric shape from which all life springs, which has been used to ward off evil and malevolent forces for millennia.
The flower of life as well as that of the five pointed star, pentangle or pentagram, in some forms of mysticism, are connected with the boundaries between the spiritual body to that of the physical form, enclosing the spirit into the body, in a 3D infinite like interwoven shell, and hence whilst in a state of trance these boundaries may be dissolved, much like when knocked unconscious, many people say they saw stars.
On this example of the flower of life, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, sacred to Judaism, can be superimposed upon the geometric shape, because you only need three overlapping hexfoils to contain it. The Star of David made up of two overlapping triangles representing both above and below, may also be superimposed on each of the seven hexfoils.
The Flower of Life on a Door Latch at Beta Giyorgis Rock-Hewn Church, 12th-13th Century AD, Lalibela
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Apotropaic Ethiopia 