Post by giovanni on Aug 1, 2005 11:30:11 GMT
THE SILENCE OF THE INITIATE
Bro. Enrico Franceschetti, Rito Simbolico Italiano
PREAMBLE
Dearest Brethren,
the subject I am going to introduce tonight with Your brotherly support, regards an aspect (or rather a preamble) of our initiatory work, today so difficult to pursue because we are so confused by the deafening daily life.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, though, we must make two preliminary considerations.
The first one concerns the most remarkable characteristic of the western tradition and experience of thought and method; it diverges considerably from the most known (in the profane world) ‘oriental tradition’.(1)
In the latter the first element that appears to the western observer is the contemplating-passive disposition that the student or the researcher takes whilst waiting for an illumination. It can be resumed in the sentence: “in one instant a man becomes a perfect Buddha”. Man’s consciousness is immersed in a meditation that annuls individuality and conscience of self, from the Samsara to the Nirvana.(2)
The western tradition is the result of different environmental and historical experiences and therefore it applies methods of an active nature; it means that in them the instruments of thought of the initiate must be refined to allow an introspection that exalts our consciousness; this will lead to superior states of conscience-knowledge. When we talk about ‘superior states of conscience’ we mean as Guenon says: “not super-individual states, but to lead the being beyond any conditioned state”.
The second necessary consideration remarks the environment where our initiatory work is faced and accomplished.
In the reality of our days the Brother Mason is a man who, in a sense, leads a double inner life. One of them is the citizen, father and husband, fully integrated in the mechanisms of profane life and tied to it in order to contribute properly to the development of human society. The other life is the initiate’s, as a man in search of the meanings of the symbol and a traveler in the maze of himself.
The specific task of the Brother Mason is to make these two aspects of his existence live together; he wouldn’t be a Brother if he wasn’t committed to the perfection of Man and of the human Family, if he wasn’t productively present in his society.(3) He is not a distant hermit, neither an abstract observer; he is at the same time Initiate Man «AND» Civil Man. This means that it is necessary to harmonize the great work of refinement of one’s inner stone with the life that we call profane; the latter must represent to the outside the Sacred Temple inside each of us.
Well, then, how to prepare heart and soul to refine one’s consciousness? How to obtain the ‘moral strength’ that allows him to fight against adversities and to be an Initiate Brother Mason?
Reaching … the Silence.
THE BEGINNING
The word initiation, from initium, means ‘access’ or ‘start’ and it refers to a ‘second birth’ (or we could say a ‘second start’). Such ‘re-generation’ opens to the being the doors of a world other than the world where the activity occurs in the normal corporeal way; it leads him to the restoration in himself of the ‘primordial status’ which is fullness and perfection of human individuality.
The primordial status, though, is nothing but the quiet status of the new creation, of the tabula rasa on which we can write the words of knowledge, on which we can erect the first bricks of the Sacred Temple.(4)
From the creation of a new status of conscience is derived the first Silence induced by the lack of notions and information. In this sense the Brother just initiated faces the moment of the first exploration of the Sacral Vacuum created around him.
This vacuum, not to be confused with the Mystical Nothing (5) of the Zen tradition, is a ‘fertile’ vacuum, a direct consequence of the ‘re-creation’ occurred; it becomes an immediate preamble to the following step of understanding and analysis of the new space which the initiate is in.(6)
We must be Silent to get – essentially, that is in essence - in touch with the deepest Self.
Only Silence allows us to perceive the apparently unperceivable sound, the faint noise in the background that, at this stage, is the vibration (7) of one’s own being.(8)
Silence leads to the reflection on one’s own inner status, it allows one to focus the attention on what was overwhelmed by the noise of a previous unconscious existence and therefore it was kept unsaid; or it might have being unheard because it was covered by noises of every kind.
During the ceremony of initiation to the First Degree some ‘journeys’ are imposed to the profane. In this process he is accompanied by noises which are strong, invasive and obsessing at first and then they slowly become weak and discreet. Let’s remember the words that the Venerable Master says in this occasion: «Profane, the symbolic journey you’ve carried out is the picture of human life. The noise you heard reminds of the passion that moves it; the obstacles you’ve faced are the difficulties that man faces and he can win or overcome only by acquiring the moral strength that allows him to fight adversities…»
This status so well described precedes the traditio of Light; it changes and turns during the Rite, when the initiation’s conferrer becomes the proper ‘transmitter’ and ‘re-creator’; he acts not as an individual but as a link of a ‘chain’ whose starting point is outside and beyond humankind.
This new status is produced by the advent of Light; the Apprentice must analyze and take it in (that is to take it in himself, make it his own) from his new and next point of view.
The violent contrast experienced during this difficult stage and the sudden change from racketing noise to deep silence can confuse the man who feels it; sometimes it can be quite disconcerting. In actual fact the Apprentice must undergo a period of ‘material silence’ in the Masonic Temple; this will give him the time to mature the new rule, to absorb the choc induced by the occurring of such apparently antithetical experiences.
THE DEVELOPMENT
Once the initiate has accomplished the first and most urgent work, once he’s explored and ‘recognized’ (known again) the space around him, he will turn his eyes further beyond and he will start the work of ‘re-creation’ of the world.
Now the Silence expresses the Time of the advent of the Logos, of the waiting for the Word. In the Silence the Sound will appear.
In India the sound of Krishna’s flute originates the world by magic. Pre-Hellenistic divinities play the lyre with the same meaning. Many traditional doctrines consider the sound as the first created thing that originated all the other things, such as light, air and fire.
J. R. R. Tolkien (9) in his Silmarillion derives the birth of the world from the Gods’ singing; even disharmony which creates Evil is included in the glory and the great mechanism of the creation.
All this must be ‘caught on’ by the initiate, in order for him to be part of his conscience and to learn how to talk.
It is very interesting to study the definition of phonetic symbolism in some mithraic rituals as it was derived from the Egyptian tradition, mentioned in the Book of Dead: «… the word, which is basically an acoustic phenomenon, has more value as a sound than as an expression of ideas, because the sound contained in it and emanated by it is in certain vibrations the modulation of the cosmic breath (10); to pronounce ‘correctly’ a word and synchronize it, so to speak, with the different rhythms of the cosmos, means to give it back its elemental power». This belief in the phonetic power itself led Gnostics and the followers of Mithra (11) to include parts without any literal meaning in their verses and ritual speeches. The aim was to originate a kind of symbolical music that could act only thanks to the power of the phonetic meaning.
The Om (Aum) of Tibetans concentrates the whole universal essence (A, principle; U, transition; M, end, deep sleep). In other words this is the Word that can be heard only if we can be Silent, necessary prerequisite for inner search and authentic knowledge and understanding.
Unfortunately today the Word has lost its sense and with it the Word of God. Since the sense of the Word is lost or misunderstood, profane man tends to do the same with Silence, feeling it like a status to run away from, like an expression of his anguish, unsaid fears and inability to ‘see’.
The Initiate Brother has undergone ‘a new start’, has started to move his first steps, has ‘recognized’ the Sacred Vacuum surrounded by the Silence generating the Sound; he has perceived the Cosmic Sound as an element that starts Life. Can he walk along the streets of the new world created in himself without being a victim of contradictions, contractions and deformities deriving by the contrast between the ever-present profane noise and the clear white received Light? (12)
Once again the answer is… in the Silence.
THE RITE, THE INSTRUMENT, THE GUARDIAN
Once again Silence has the role of clarifying and catalyzing in the soul of the Initiate; only the latter knows how to obtain it and to make it a meek instrument in his hands, a fertile preamble and a safe comfort.
There’s more.
In the ‘re-creation’ of the Initiation the profane experiences for the first time the Silence, as we said. Therefore the Silence as a first manifestation of a new creation constitutes the intimate ritual of the Brother Mason.
Every rite symbolizes and reproduces creation in its essence. For this reason rites are connected with ornaments and symbols whose intimate identity with the rite is such that they are part of it. The slowness in the ritual moves in ceremonies is similar to the rhythms of astral movements; on the other hand all rites are meetings, confluences of forces and ordinations, concentrations of energies. Its meaning and its power is derived by the accumulation and the combination of the concentrated powers.
The rite as a common character to all traditional institutions of every order, both exoterical and esoterical, has always the purpose of putting the human being in direct or indirect relation with something beyond his individuality that belongs to other states of existence.
In many cases the communication established is not even conscious although it is absolutely real.
When the Initiate Brother is going to work in order to open the doors of his inner Temple to himself, the rite re-focuses the condition in which he found himself straight after the initiation, which is the Silence. This will re-create the ideal conditions for a fruitful work.
We can say, then, that the Silence becomes the path used by the Initiate Brother to get in touch with the higher states; thanks to it he will acquire Knowledge.
The latter, which is the direct knowledge of the Transcendent, is in itself incommunicable and inexpressible; every expression used to transmit it is a formal and therefore human instrument and it is obviously inadequate to represent it (13).
The Silence becomes also an attentive guardian of the acquisitions achieved by the Initiate. It becomes the case where the jewels of Knowledge are kept.
THE SYNTHESIS
We have already said that the spiritual power of Silence is great. Without it the Word is not possible and therefore truth, seriousness and life are not possible either.
For the Initiate Brother Silence is not a sterile gap but a fertile reflection; it is not an end in itself but it generates consequences. Therefore the Master will be able to make Silence inside himself for every step he wants to make; on the other hand, when he will be immersed in the profane world and he will picture himself as a Civil Man, he will necessarily need it to distill and make more understandable the transparent Temple inside him.
Through his soul’s transparency he will bring in the profane world and the human dimension the precious material effects of the Light of Initiation; the latter will turn from the virtual into the real and he will have then accomplished this part of his duty and commitment as a Mason.
Notes
1 Oriental mysticism has been made famous because it has been made banal; its most spectacular aspects (levitation, ability to stop the heartbeat) have been given relevance. It is less known, on the other hand, what is the fundament of that tradition, which is the authentic aspiration to knowledge even when pursued through methods different from the ones we are used to.
2 From the pain of continuous birth and death to the eternal peace. The continuation of individual existence in any form, even as a god, means pain, because existence means to become and to become is the shadow of being, a renewed bribe, a never satisfied desire, an implacable pain. The peace is in the unconscious dissolution in the colorless light where all things are originated and that, without us knowing it, shines in us.
3 The presence of the Brother Mason in the civil society must be intended as presence in itself and not coordinated intervention. The transparency of his Inner Temple will affect whoever is around him and will produce the elevation and the improvement mentioned in the Old Charges.
4 Doctrinal knowledge is necessary to the initiate. Its theoretical understanding is a prerequisite to any ‘realization’ and it doesn’t have anything to do with whatever is exterior education or profane ‘knowledge’. Indeed, the latter can be an obstacle rather than a help.
5 The following short Zen tale explains this concept: “the Master Joshu asked one of his disciples one day: - What are you? – the disciple answered: - I’m in meditation, in the status of Nothing and therefore I’m nothing – the Master Joshu then told him: - you must abandon the thought of being nothing, you must abandon your thoughts!”
6 Virtual initiation, like the transmission of ‘light’, is in a certain sense suffered by the candidate, because it is a conveyance and a transmission of a spiritual influence from a regular traditional organization. It obtains a true ‘new creation’ that upsets the inner balance of the initiating, bringing new Light to him.
7 Many scholars have dealt with the analogies between Vibration-Sound-Light, taking the analogy as far as between Creation and sound.
8 A great character of Italian theater, Edoardo De Filippo, invited to listen to the ‘Voices inside’.
9 Tolkien is a famous English writer born on the 3rd January 1892 in South Africa. He wrote many fantastic sagas that share a unique vision of an imaginary world; their reading has many levels. We can find in them clear and deep esoterical references.
10 The value of sound for all traditions is decisive. It is the manifestation of the first and most elementary duality deriving from the creation (Emptiness = Silence = Darkness / Life = Sound = Light). It permeates and expresses the idea of Life itself, of Cosmos as a sensitive manifestation of the environment where Life shows itself. Therefore the vibration induced by sounds is the ‘bearing harmonics’ of Life itself; the word is a coded organization of sounds and ends up by representing meanings, re-calling sensations that go beyond the mere linguistic conventions.
11 Ancient deity of the Iranian and Persian religion. He was then identified with the Sun and Apollo and it became the center of a mysterial cult; the main Mithra’s exploit was the killing of the Cosmic Bull that, by dying, originates life. Mithraic mysteries were celebrated in underground sanctuaries (mitrei) and ended with a sacred banquet.
12 Juan Cirliot in his Dictionary of Symbols identifies it as ‘The Domain where a stage of the existence develops… Twenty-first arcane of the Tarots, it corresponds to the complex of union of the manifested, which is the space world as a reflection of a permanent creative activity’.
13 Guenon writes: “human language is strictly connected to the practice of rational faculty for its own nature. As a consequence, all that is expressed or translated through this language naturally takes a form of ‘reasoning’, more or less explicitly.” – And again: “…such a simply theoretical knowledge is obtained through the mental process, whilst effectual knowledge occurs ‘through the spirit and the soul’, viz. through the whole being”.
Bro. Enrico Franceschetti, Rito Simbolico Italiano
PREAMBLE
Dearest Brethren,
the subject I am going to introduce tonight with Your brotherly support, regards an aspect (or rather a preamble) of our initiatory work, today so difficult to pursue because we are so confused by the deafening daily life.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, though, we must make two preliminary considerations.
The first one concerns the most remarkable characteristic of the western tradition and experience of thought and method; it diverges considerably from the most known (in the profane world) ‘oriental tradition’.(1)
In the latter the first element that appears to the western observer is the contemplating-passive disposition that the student or the researcher takes whilst waiting for an illumination. It can be resumed in the sentence: “in one instant a man becomes a perfect Buddha”. Man’s consciousness is immersed in a meditation that annuls individuality and conscience of self, from the Samsara to the Nirvana.(2)
The western tradition is the result of different environmental and historical experiences and therefore it applies methods of an active nature; it means that in them the instruments of thought of the initiate must be refined to allow an introspection that exalts our consciousness; this will lead to superior states of conscience-knowledge. When we talk about ‘superior states of conscience’ we mean as Guenon says: “not super-individual states, but to lead the being beyond any conditioned state”.
The second necessary consideration remarks the environment where our initiatory work is faced and accomplished.
In the reality of our days the Brother Mason is a man who, in a sense, leads a double inner life. One of them is the citizen, father and husband, fully integrated in the mechanisms of profane life and tied to it in order to contribute properly to the development of human society. The other life is the initiate’s, as a man in search of the meanings of the symbol and a traveler in the maze of himself.
The specific task of the Brother Mason is to make these two aspects of his existence live together; he wouldn’t be a Brother if he wasn’t committed to the perfection of Man and of the human Family, if he wasn’t productively present in his society.(3) He is not a distant hermit, neither an abstract observer; he is at the same time Initiate Man «AND» Civil Man. This means that it is necessary to harmonize the great work of refinement of one’s inner stone with the life that we call profane; the latter must represent to the outside the Sacred Temple inside each of us.
Well, then, how to prepare heart and soul to refine one’s consciousness? How to obtain the ‘moral strength’ that allows him to fight against adversities and to be an Initiate Brother Mason?
Reaching … the Silence.
THE BEGINNING
The word initiation, from initium, means ‘access’ or ‘start’ and it refers to a ‘second birth’ (or we could say a ‘second start’). Such ‘re-generation’ opens to the being the doors of a world other than the world where the activity occurs in the normal corporeal way; it leads him to the restoration in himself of the ‘primordial status’ which is fullness and perfection of human individuality.
The primordial status, though, is nothing but the quiet status of the new creation, of the tabula rasa on which we can write the words of knowledge, on which we can erect the first bricks of the Sacred Temple.(4)
From the creation of a new status of conscience is derived the first Silence induced by the lack of notions and information. In this sense the Brother just initiated faces the moment of the first exploration of the Sacral Vacuum created around him.
This vacuum, not to be confused with the Mystical Nothing (5) of the Zen tradition, is a ‘fertile’ vacuum, a direct consequence of the ‘re-creation’ occurred; it becomes an immediate preamble to the following step of understanding and analysis of the new space which the initiate is in.(6)
We must be Silent to get – essentially, that is in essence - in touch with the deepest Self.
Only Silence allows us to perceive the apparently unperceivable sound, the faint noise in the background that, at this stage, is the vibration (7) of one’s own being.(8)
Silence leads to the reflection on one’s own inner status, it allows one to focus the attention on what was overwhelmed by the noise of a previous unconscious existence and therefore it was kept unsaid; or it might have being unheard because it was covered by noises of every kind.
During the ceremony of initiation to the First Degree some ‘journeys’ are imposed to the profane. In this process he is accompanied by noises which are strong, invasive and obsessing at first and then they slowly become weak and discreet. Let’s remember the words that the Venerable Master says in this occasion: «Profane, the symbolic journey you’ve carried out is the picture of human life. The noise you heard reminds of the passion that moves it; the obstacles you’ve faced are the difficulties that man faces and he can win or overcome only by acquiring the moral strength that allows him to fight adversities…»
This status so well described precedes the traditio of Light; it changes and turns during the Rite, when the initiation’s conferrer becomes the proper ‘transmitter’ and ‘re-creator’; he acts not as an individual but as a link of a ‘chain’ whose starting point is outside and beyond humankind.
This new status is produced by the advent of Light; the Apprentice must analyze and take it in (that is to take it in himself, make it his own) from his new and next point of view.
The violent contrast experienced during this difficult stage and the sudden change from racketing noise to deep silence can confuse the man who feels it; sometimes it can be quite disconcerting. In actual fact the Apprentice must undergo a period of ‘material silence’ in the Masonic Temple; this will give him the time to mature the new rule, to absorb the choc induced by the occurring of such apparently antithetical experiences.
THE DEVELOPMENT
Once the initiate has accomplished the first and most urgent work, once he’s explored and ‘recognized’ (known again) the space around him, he will turn his eyes further beyond and he will start the work of ‘re-creation’ of the world.
Now the Silence expresses the Time of the advent of the Logos, of the waiting for the Word. In the Silence the Sound will appear.
In India the sound of Krishna’s flute originates the world by magic. Pre-Hellenistic divinities play the lyre with the same meaning. Many traditional doctrines consider the sound as the first created thing that originated all the other things, such as light, air and fire.
J. R. R. Tolkien (9) in his Silmarillion derives the birth of the world from the Gods’ singing; even disharmony which creates Evil is included in the glory and the great mechanism of the creation.
All this must be ‘caught on’ by the initiate, in order for him to be part of his conscience and to learn how to talk.
It is very interesting to study the definition of phonetic symbolism in some mithraic rituals as it was derived from the Egyptian tradition, mentioned in the Book of Dead: «… the word, which is basically an acoustic phenomenon, has more value as a sound than as an expression of ideas, because the sound contained in it and emanated by it is in certain vibrations the modulation of the cosmic breath (10); to pronounce ‘correctly’ a word and synchronize it, so to speak, with the different rhythms of the cosmos, means to give it back its elemental power». This belief in the phonetic power itself led Gnostics and the followers of Mithra (11) to include parts without any literal meaning in their verses and ritual speeches. The aim was to originate a kind of symbolical music that could act only thanks to the power of the phonetic meaning.
The Om (Aum) of Tibetans concentrates the whole universal essence (A, principle; U, transition; M, end, deep sleep). In other words this is the Word that can be heard only if we can be Silent, necessary prerequisite for inner search and authentic knowledge and understanding.
Unfortunately today the Word has lost its sense and with it the Word of God. Since the sense of the Word is lost or misunderstood, profane man tends to do the same with Silence, feeling it like a status to run away from, like an expression of his anguish, unsaid fears and inability to ‘see’.
The Initiate Brother has undergone ‘a new start’, has started to move his first steps, has ‘recognized’ the Sacred Vacuum surrounded by the Silence generating the Sound; he has perceived the Cosmic Sound as an element that starts Life. Can he walk along the streets of the new world created in himself without being a victim of contradictions, contractions and deformities deriving by the contrast between the ever-present profane noise and the clear white received Light? (12)
Once again the answer is… in the Silence.
THE RITE, THE INSTRUMENT, THE GUARDIAN
Once again Silence has the role of clarifying and catalyzing in the soul of the Initiate; only the latter knows how to obtain it and to make it a meek instrument in his hands, a fertile preamble and a safe comfort.
There’s more.
In the ‘re-creation’ of the Initiation the profane experiences for the first time the Silence, as we said. Therefore the Silence as a first manifestation of a new creation constitutes the intimate ritual of the Brother Mason.
Every rite symbolizes and reproduces creation in its essence. For this reason rites are connected with ornaments and symbols whose intimate identity with the rite is such that they are part of it. The slowness in the ritual moves in ceremonies is similar to the rhythms of astral movements; on the other hand all rites are meetings, confluences of forces and ordinations, concentrations of energies. Its meaning and its power is derived by the accumulation and the combination of the concentrated powers.
The rite as a common character to all traditional institutions of every order, both exoterical and esoterical, has always the purpose of putting the human being in direct or indirect relation with something beyond his individuality that belongs to other states of existence.
In many cases the communication established is not even conscious although it is absolutely real.
When the Initiate Brother is going to work in order to open the doors of his inner Temple to himself, the rite re-focuses the condition in which he found himself straight after the initiation, which is the Silence. This will re-create the ideal conditions for a fruitful work.
We can say, then, that the Silence becomes the path used by the Initiate Brother to get in touch with the higher states; thanks to it he will acquire Knowledge.
The latter, which is the direct knowledge of the Transcendent, is in itself incommunicable and inexpressible; every expression used to transmit it is a formal and therefore human instrument and it is obviously inadequate to represent it (13).
The Silence becomes also an attentive guardian of the acquisitions achieved by the Initiate. It becomes the case where the jewels of Knowledge are kept.
THE SYNTHESIS
We have already said that the spiritual power of Silence is great. Without it the Word is not possible and therefore truth, seriousness and life are not possible either.
For the Initiate Brother Silence is not a sterile gap but a fertile reflection; it is not an end in itself but it generates consequences. Therefore the Master will be able to make Silence inside himself for every step he wants to make; on the other hand, when he will be immersed in the profane world and he will picture himself as a Civil Man, he will necessarily need it to distill and make more understandable the transparent Temple inside him.
Through his soul’s transparency he will bring in the profane world and the human dimension the precious material effects of the Light of Initiation; the latter will turn from the virtual into the real and he will have then accomplished this part of his duty and commitment as a Mason.
Notes
1 Oriental mysticism has been made famous because it has been made banal; its most spectacular aspects (levitation, ability to stop the heartbeat) have been given relevance. It is less known, on the other hand, what is the fundament of that tradition, which is the authentic aspiration to knowledge even when pursued through methods different from the ones we are used to.
2 From the pain of continuous birth and death to the eternal peace. The continuation of individual existence in any form, even as a god, means pain, because existence means to become and to become is the shadow of being, a renewed bribe, a never satisfied desire, an implacable pain. The peace is in the unconscious dissolution in the colorless light where all things are originated and that, without us knowing it, shines in us.
3 The presence of the Brother Mason in the civil society must be intended as presence in itself and not coordinated intervention. The transparency of his Inner Temple will affect whoever is around him and will produce the elevation and the improvement mentioned in the Old Charges.
4 Doctrinal knowledge is necessary to the initiate. Its theoretical understanding is a prerequisite to any ‘realization’ and it doesn’t have anything to do with whatever is exterior education or profane ‘knowledge’. Indeed, the latter can be an obstacle rather than a help.
5 The following short Zen tale explains this concept: “the Master Joshu asked one of his disciples one day: - What are you? – the disciple answered: - I’m in meditation, in the status of Nothing and therefore I’m nothing – the Master Joshu then told him: - you must abandon the thought of being nothing, you must abandon your thoughts!”
6 Virtual initiation, like the transmission of ‘light’, is in a certain sense suffered by the candidate, because it is a conveyance and a transmission of a spiritual influence from a regular traditional organization. It obtains a true ‘new creation’ that upsets the inner balance of the initiating, bringing new Light to him.
7 Many scholars have dealt with the analogies between Vibration-Sound-Light, taking the analogy as far as between Creation and sound.
8 A great character of Italian theater, Edoardo De Filippo, invited to listen to the ‘Voices inside’.
9 Tolkien is a famous English writer born on the 3rd January 1892 in South Africa. He wrote many fantastic sagas that share a unique vision of an imaginary world; their reading has many levels. We can find in them clear and deep esoterical references.
10 The value of sound for all traditions is decisive. It is the manifestation of the first and most elementary duality deriving from the creation (Emptiness = Silence = Darkness / Life = Sound = Light). It permeates and expresses the idea of Life itself, of Cosmos as a sensitive manifestation of the environment where Life shows itself. Therefore the vibration induced by sounds is the ‘bearing harmonics’ of Life itself; the word is a coded organization of sounds and ends up by representing meanings, re-calling sensations that go beyond the mere linguistic conventions.
11 Ancient deity of the Iranian and Persian religion. He was then identified with the Sun and Apollo and it became the center of a mysterial cult; the main Mithra’s exploit was the killing of the Cosmic Bull that, by dying, originates life. Mithraic mysteries were celebrated in underground sanctuaries (mitrei) and ended with a sacred banquet.
12 Juan Cirliot in his Dictionary of Symbols identifies it as ‘The Domain where a stage of the existence develops… Twenty-first arcane of the Tarots, it corresponds to the complex of union of the manifested, which is the space world as a reflection of a permanent creative activity’.
13 Guenon writes: “human language is strictly connected to the practice of rational faculty for its own nature. As a consequence, all that is expressed or translated through this language naturally takes a form of ‘reasoning’, more or less explicitly.” – And again: “…such a simply theoretical knowledge is obtained through the mental process, whilst effectual knowledge occurs ‘through the spirit and the soul’, viz. through the whole being”.