Post by giovanni on Nov 27, 2005 19:25:05 GMT
THE NARROW DOOR
Bro. René Guénon
In the course of his study of the symbolism of the dome, A. K. Coomaraswamy has called attention to a point that is particularly worthy of attention as concerns the traditional depiction of the solar rays in relation to the ‘World Axis’. In the Vedic tradition the sun is always at the centre of the Universe, and not at its highest point, although, from any location whatsoever it nevertheless appears as being at the ‘summit of the tree’.1 This is easy to understand if the Universe is symbolized by the wheel, with the sun at its centre and every state of being located on its circumference.2 From any given point on this circumference the ‘World Axis’ is at once a radius of the circle and a ray of the sun, and it passes geometrically through the sun, to be extended beyond the centre and to complete the diameter.
But that is not all, for it is also a ‘solar ray’, the prolongation of which is not subject to any geometrical representation. Here it is a question of the formula according to which the sun is described as having seven rays; of these, six, ranged two by two, form the trivid vajra, that is, the three-dimensional cross, these rays corresponding to zenith and nadir coinciding with our ‘World Axis’ (shambha), while those corresponding to north and south, to east and west, determine the extension of a ‘world’ (loka) represented by a horizontal plane.
As for the ‘seventh ray’, which passes through the sun, although in a sense other than that just mentioned, in order to lead to the supra solar worlds (considered as the domain of ‘immortality’), it corresponds properly to the centre and therefore can only be represented by the intersection of the branches of the three-dimensional cross,3 so that its extension beyond the sun cannot be represented in any way, and this corresponds precisely to the ‘incommunicable’ and ‘inexpressible’ character of what is in question. From our point of view, and from that of every being located on the ‘circumference’ of the Universe, this ray terminates in the sun itself an is in a certain way identified with it as a centre, for no one can see through the solar disc by any physical or physic means whatsoever, and this passage ‘beyond the sun’ (which is the ‘final death’ and the passage into true ‘immortality’) is only possible in the purely spiritual order.
Now, in order to link these last considerations to what we have set forth previously, it is important to note that it is by this ‘seventh ray’ that the ‘hearth’ of every particular being is directly joined to the sun; the seventh ray is therefore the ‘solar ray’ par excellence, the sushumnā by which this connection is constantly and invariably established;4 and this is also the sūtrātmā, linking all the states of the being to one another and to its total centre.5 For the one who has returned to the centre of his own being, this ‘seventh ray’ therefore necessarily coincides with the ‘World Axis’; and it is for such a being that it is said that ‘the sun rises always at the zenith and sets at the nadir’.6 Thus, although the ‘World Axis’ may not actually be this ‘seventh ray’ for one being and another located at this or that particular point on the circumference, nevertheless it is always virtually so in the sense that the being has the possibility of identifying with it by returning to the centre, in whatever state of existence this return might be effected. One could say further that this ‘seventh ray’ is the only truly immutable ‘Axis’, the only one which, from a universal point of view, might be truly designated by the name, and that any particular axis, relative to a contingent situation, is really an ‘axis’ in virtue of this possibility of identification with it. After all, it is definitively that which gives its entire meaning to any symbolically ‘localized’ representation of the ‘World Axis’, as for example that we envisaged previously in connection with the structure of edifices built according to traditional rules, and especially of those surmounted with a dome-shaped roof, and it is precisely to this subject of the dome that we must now return.
Whether the axis be represented materially under the form of a tree or of a central pillar, or by the ascending flame and ‘column of smoke’ of Agni in the case where the centre of the edifice is occupied by an altar or hearth,7 it always leads exactly to the summit of the dome, and sometimes, as we have indicated, even traverses the dome and is extended beyond it in the form of a mast or, in another example, as the shaft of a parasol, the symbolism of which is equivalent. It is obvious here that the summit of the dome represents the hub of the celestial wheel of the ‘cosmic chariot’; and since we have seen that the centre of this wheel is occupied by the sun, it follows that the passing of the axis through this point represents the passage ‘beyond the Sun’ and through it, which was mentioned above. And the same is true when, in the absence of any material representation of the axis, the dome is pierced at its summit by a circular opening (through which, in the case just mentioned, the smoke escapes from the hearth directly beneath); this opening is a representation of the solar disc itself as ‘Eye of the World’, and it is through it that the exit from ‘cosmos’ is accomplished, as we have explained in our studies devoted to the symbolism of the cave. In any case, it is through the central opening8 and through it alone that the being can pass to the Brahama-loka, which is an essential ‘extra-cosmic’ domain;9 and it is the same opening that is also the ‘strait gate’ which, according to the symbolism of the Gospel, gives access likewise to the ‘Kingdom of God’.10
The ‘microcosmic’ correspondence of this ‘solar door’ is easy to discover, especially if one considers the similarity between the dome and the human skull, which we mentioned earlier; the summit of the dome is the ‘crown’ of the head, that is, the point of termination of the subtle ‘coronal artery’ or sushumnā, which lies in the direct prolongation of the ‘solar ray’, also called sushumnā, and which in reality is nothing else, at least virtually, than the ‘intra-human’ portion of the ‘axis’, if we may so express it. This point is the orifice called brahma-randhra, by which the spirit of the being on the way to liberation escapes, once the bonds that united it to the psycho-physical composite (insofar as it was jivātmā) have been broken;11 and it goes without saying that this way is reserved exclusively for the case of the ‘knower’ (vidvān), for whom the ‘axis’ is effectively identified with the ‘seventh ray’, and who is consequently ready to go forth from the cosmos definitively, passing ‘beyond the Sun’.
1 On other occasion we have pointed out in different traditions the representation of the sun as the fruit of the ‘Tree of Life’.
2 This central and consequently invariable position of the sun gives it here the character of a veritable ‘pole’, while at the same time always placing it at the zenith in relation to every point of the Universe.
3 It should be noted that in the symbolic representations of the seven-rayed sun, particularly on ancient Indian coins, although all the rays may necessarily be drawn in a circular arrangement around the central disc, the ‘seventh ray’ is distinguished from the others by a distinctly different shape.
4 See Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, chap. 20
5 To this is related, in the Islamic tradition, one of the meanings of the word as-sirr, literally, ‘the secret’, used to designate what is most central in every being, and at the same time its direct relation with the supreme ‘Centre’, by reason of the character of ‘incommunicability’ of which we have just spoken.
6 Chāndogya Upanishad 3. 4. 10
7 In the case already noted, a habitation arranged around an inner courtyard open to the sky (and receiving light only from within), the centre of this courtyard is sometimes occupied by a fountain; this latter then represents the ‘Fountain of Life’ issuing from the foot of the ‘Tree in the Midst’ (although the tree naturally may not have here any material representation).
8 Among the North American Indians, who seem to have preserved more perfectly recognizable traditional ideas than is commonly believed, the different ‘worlds’ are often represented as a series of superposed caves, and it is by climbing up a central tree that beings pass from one cave to another; naturally, our world is itself one of these caves, having the sky for vault.
9 On this subject one can refer to the descriptions of the deva-yāna, of which the Brahma-loka is the culmination ‘beyond the sun’ (see Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, chap. 21).
10 In the symbolism of archery, the centre of the target has the same significance; without dwelling on this subject here, we will only recall that the arrow is yet another ‘axial’ symbol and also one of the most frequent figurations of the ‘solar ray’. In certain cases a thread is attached to the arrow and must pass through the target; this strikingly recalls the Gospel image of the ‘eye of the needle’, and the symbol of the thread (sūtra) is moreover to be found also in the term sūtrātmā.
11 The rite of the posthumous trepanation is clearly related to this, and the existence of this rite has been established from many prehistoric burial sites; among certain peoples it was even preserved up to much more recent times. Moreover, in the Christian tradition, the tonsure of priests, of which the form is also that of the solar disc and the ‘eye’ of the dome, manifestly refers to the same ritual symbolism.
Bro. René Guénon
In the course of his study of the symbolism of the dome, A. K. Coomaraswamy has called attention to a point that is particularly worthy of attention as concerns the traditional depiction of the solar rays in relation to the ‘World Axis’. In the Vedic tradition the sun is always at the centre of the Universe, and not at its highest point, although, from any location whatsoever it nevertheless appears as being at the ‘summit of the tree’.1 This is easy to understand if the Universe is symbolized by the wheel, with the sun at its centre and every state of being located on its circumference.2 From any given point on this circumference the ‘World Axis’ is at once a radius of the circle and a ray of the sun, and it passes geometrically through the sun, to be extended beyond the centre and to complete the diameter.
But that is not all, for it is also a ‘solar ray’, the prolongation of which is not subject to any geometrical representation. Here it is a question of the formula according to which the sun is described as having seven rays; of these, six, ranged two by two, form the trivid vajra, that is, the three-dimensional cross, these rays corresponding to zenith and nadir coinciding with our ‘World Axis’ (shambha), while those corresponding to north and south, to east and west, determine the extension of a ‘world’ (loka) represented by a horizontal plane.
As for the ‘seventh ray’, which passes through the sun, although in a sense other than that just mentioned, in order to lead to the supra solar worlds (considered as the domain of ‘immortality’), it corresponds properly to the centre and therefore can only be represented by the intersection of the branches of the three-dimensional cross,3 so that its extension beyond the sun cannot be represented in any way, and this corresponds precisely to the ‘incommunicable’ and ‘inexpressible’ character of what is in question. From our point of view, and from that of every being located on the ‘circumference’ of the Universe, this ray terminates in the sun itself an is in a certain way identified with it as a centre, for no one can see through the solar disc by any physical or physic means whatsoever, and this passage ‘beyond the sun’ (which is the ‘final death’ and the passage into true ‘immortality’) is only possible in the purely spiritual order.
Now, in order to link these last considerations to what we have set forth previously, it is important to note that it is by this ‘seventh ray’ that the ‘hearth’ of every particular being is directly joined to the sun; the seventh ray is therefore the ‘solar ray’ par excellence, the sushumnā by which this connection is constantly and invariably established;4 and this is also the sūtrātmā, linking all the states of the being to one another and to its total centre.5 For the one who has returned to the centre of his own being, this ‘seventh ray’ therefore necessarily coincides with the ‘World Axis’; and it is for such a being that it is said that ‘the sun rises always at the zenith and sets at the nadir’.6 Thus, although the ‘World Axis’ may not actually be this ‘seventh ray’ for one being and another located at this or that particular point on the circumference, nevertheless it is always virtually so in the sense that the being has the possibility of identifying with it by returning to the centre, in whatever state of existence this return might be effected. One could say further that this ‘seventh ray’ is the only truly immutable ‘Axis’, the only one which, from a universal point of view, might be truly designated by the name, and that any particular axis, relative to a contingent situation, is really an ‘axis’ in virtue of this possibility of identification with it. After all, it is definitively that which gives its entire meaning to any symbolically ‘localized’ representation of the ‘World Axis’, as for example that we envisaged previously in connection with the structure of edifices built according to traditional rules, and especially of those surmounted with a dome-shaped roof, and it is precisely to this subject of the dome that we must now return.
Whether the axis be represented materially under the form of a tree or of a central pillar, or by the ascending flame and ‘column of smoke’ of Agni in the case where the centre of the edifice is occupied by an altar or hearth,7 it always leads exactly to the summit of the dome, and sometimes, as we have indicated, even traverses the dome and is extended beyond it in the form of a mast or, in another example, as the shaft of a parasol, the symbolism of which is equivalent. It is obvious here that the summit of the dome represents the hub of the celestial wheel of the ‘cosmic chariot’; and since we have seen that the centre of this wheel is occupied by the sun, it follows that the passing of the axis through this point represents the passage ‘beyond the Sun’ and through it, which was mentioned above. And the same is true when, in the absence of any material representation of the axis, the dome is pierced at its summit by a circular opening (through which, in the case just mentioned, the smoke escapes from the hearth directly beneath); this opening is a representation of the solar disc itself as ‘Eye of the World’, and it is through it that the exit from ‘cosmos’ is accomplished, as we have explained in our studies devoted to the symbolism of the cave. In any case, it is through the central opening8 and through it alone that the being can pass to the Brahama-loka, which is an essential ‘extra-cosmic’ domain;9 and it is the same opening that is also the ‘strait gate’ which, according to the symbolism of the Gospel, gives access likewise to the ‘Kingdom of God’.10
The ‘microcosmic’ correspondence of this ‘solar door’ is easy to discover, especially if one considers the similarity between the dome and the human skull, which we mentioned earlier; the summit of the dome is the ‘crown’ of the head, that is, the point of termination of the subtle ‘coronal artery’ or sushumnā, which lies in the direct prolongation of the ‘solar ray’, also called sushumnā, and which in reality is nothing else, at least virtually, than the ‘intra-human’ portion of the ‘axis’, if we may so express it. This point is the orifice called brahma-randhra, by which the spirit of the being on the way to liberation escapes, once the bonds that united it to the psycho-physical composite (insofar as it was jivātmā) have been broken;11 and it goes without saying that this way is reserved exclusively for the case of the ‘knower’ (vidvān), for whom the ‘axis’ is effectively identified with the ‘seventh ray’, and who is consequently ready to go forth from the cosmos definitively, passing ‘beyond the Sun’.
1 On other occasion we have pointed out in different traditions the representation of the sun as the fruit of the ‘Tree of Life’.
2 This central and consequently invariable position of the sun gives it here the character of a veritable ‘pole’, while at the same time always placing it at the zenith in relation to every point of the Universe.
3 It should be noted that in the symbolic representations of the seven-rayed sun, particularly on ancient Indian coins, although all the rays may necessarily be drawn in a circular arrangement around the central disc, the ‘seventh ray’ is distinguished from the others by a distinctly different shape.
4 See Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, chap. 20
5 To this is related, in the Islamic tradition, one of the meanings of the word as-sirr, literally, ‘the secret’, used to designate what is most central in every being, and at the same time its direct relation with the supreme ‘Centre’, by reason of the character of ‘incommunicability’ of which we have just spoken.
6 Chāndogya Upanishad 3. 4. 10
7 In the case already noted, a habitation arranged around an inner courtyard open to the sky (and receiving light only from within), the centre of this courtyard is sometimes occupied by a fountain; this latter then represents the ‘Fountain of Life’ issuing from the foot of the ‘Tree in the Midst’ (although the tree naturally may not have here any material representation).
8 Among the North American Indians, who seem to have preserved more perfectly recognizable traditional ideas than is commonly believed, the different ‘worlds’ are often represented as a series of superposed caves, and it is by climbing up a central tree that beings pass from one cave to another; naturally, our world is itself one of these caves, having the sky for vault.
9 On this subject one can refer to the descriptions of the deva-yāna, of which the Brahma-loka is the culmination ‘beyond the sun’ (see Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, chap. 21).
10 In the symbolism of archery, the centre of the target has the same significance; without dwelling on this subject here, we will only recall that the arrow is yet another ‘axial’ symbol and also one of the most frequent figurations of the ‘solar ray’. In certain cases a thread is attached to the arrow and must pass through the target; this strikingly recalls the Gospel image of the ‘eye of the needle’, and the symbol of the thread (sūtra) is moreover to be found also in the term sūtrātmā.
11 The rite of the posthumous trepanation is clearly related to this, and the existence of this rite has been established from many prehistoric burial sites; among certain peoples it was even preserved up to much more recent times. Moreover, in the Christian tradition, the tonsure of priests, of which the form is also that of the solar disc and the ‘eye’ of the dome, manifestly refers to the same ritual symbolism.