Not to mention the mandala patterns you can plot by drawing the apparent paths of planets against the ecliptic.

To the right is the one for Venus, with fivefold symmetry:


Venus' path

Venus repeats each loop after 8 years because of the resonance between Earth's and Venus's years.

I couldn't find a diagram for Mercury, which has three loops in one Earth year, plus a bit extra.

Mars is on this page. Plus Venus again.

Pretty planet patterns

Please do not consider the pages on which these pictures are found to be any sort of science. even though they may claim to be. These are the planetary version of those double pendulum gadgets which swing round to produce patterns on paper underneath.

I have wondered if the epicycles the Greeks thought up to explain these patterns were actually descriptions of the machines they made to plot the planets, and they never actually belived it was really like it in space.

Penny