Friday, October 23, 2009

CIRCLES, CROSSES AND SQUARES

We said that different peoples, away from each other in time and space, used to show similar symbols in their sacred manifestations.

For instance, circles, representing eternity, and squares or crosses, representing four as elements describing a certain principle related to the Divine, are found everywhere. Not only in images or buildings, but also in literature, such as this quotation from Al-Tirmidhi: “Those with the Prophet asked, ‘What are the gardens of Paradise?’ He answered, ‘Circles of people invoking,’” or this one from the Buddha: “Long is the circle of rebirths to a fool who does not know the true Law.”

In today’s Hungary a mollusk shell with a cross was carved about 100,000 years ago, before historic times. The figure does not only show a cross, but it also combines it with a circle.



The same combination appears in a bronze piece in Northern Afghanistan, dating from 4000 or 3500 years ago, or in a more Christian sarcophagus from the 5th century, in Ravenna.





The face in the sarcophagus also shows a square entering the combination. Meanwhile, the very Christian idea of the crucifixion is shown in a native image from 6000 years ago, in the Canyon State Park, in Texas, amazingly showing four fingers in each of his outstretched arms.



Since 630 AD, the Kaaba in Mecca shows his cubic shape (six square faces) as a tribute to God. The building however, is a pre-Islamic one, and it was deemed as a fair representation of the Divine by the Proophet himself.



Egypt, beyond its fame because of its pyramids and tombs, also shows a square containing an ankh in a ritual vessel from the 1st Dynasty (about 5000 years ago). Of course, this combination includes a square, a circle and a cross.



Around 1487, Leonardo da Vincì also depicted his famous Vitruvian Man within a circle and a square.



The final image, today, will be a Mayan monument, in Dzibilchatun, near Merida MX. This monument can produce this effect when the morning sun rises in both equinoxes, March 21st and September 21st, when its radiant circle crosses the square gate.



Perhaps, all this magic surrounding the square is depicted in Whitman’s words: “Chanting the square deific, out of the One advancing, out of the sides, Out of the old and now, out of the square entirely divine, Solid, four-sided, (all sides are needed), from this side Jehovah am I, Old Brahm I, and I Saturnius am...”

We will go on with these coincident shapes and quotes.


© 2009 Hugo Ferraguti

Thursday, October 1, 2009

MAN AND BEAST

As it was said in the last posting, there are ancient representations of gods and goddesses taming an animal. For instance, the Tarot card XI, Strength, represents a young woman forcing a lion to open his mouth.



Among the Sumerians and Babylonians, Gilgamesh is also shown while dominating a lion, while Marduk controls a boat where he sails with a dragon. These are references to the animal part of man, which are also present in Judeo-Christian tradition, as we can read in the Book of Genesis (3:1): Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”


In the story of the devil tempting Adam and Eve, the former is also personified as a beast, a serpent in this case.


According to these ancient traditions, this animal part is always shown as something significant, not to be overlooked.


Inanna-Ishtar, for instance, has even probably inspired the representation of the devil in the Marseillian tarot card, thousands of years later:




In this case, the Sumerian goddess is shown as standing on two lions, while the devil stands upon the world. The two owls flanking Inanna became the two men with donkey ears who are chained to the devil’s possession, the world.


Another image shows us St. George killing a dragon, another Christian variant of the serpent:




There is more to think about in all these images, but now, it would be interesting to pay attention to the famous dancing Shiva who, though in many images appears as controlling a beast, is here shown as standing upon a baby, clearly symbolizing that these animals are really something within man.




To strengthen this idea, the millenary I Ching says, “When the spirit of heaven rules in man, his animal nature takes its appropriate place.” Plotinus, in the 2nd century also refers to this animal part: “The true person is something different, pure from contact with the animal part of our nature.”

Among the Mesoamericans, Quetzalcoatl himself was a feathered serpent, and in a myth from the 4th century he says:
“The evil spirit persuaded the Toltecs to do evil deeds. To reach this goal he took different personalities. He changed his body into animal shapes and monstrous beings, and appeared as a prostitute.”

As we see, different cultures, apart in time and space, convey surprisingly similar ideas. We will return to this.



© Hugo Ferraguti