The Nature of Reality, Symbolified.

A brief look at the meaning behind an image I created over the last few months.

Over the course of the last few months or so I have been working on, ‘throwing together’, if you will, a symbol that encapsulates my understanding of reality in as much as it has been made known to me after 42 years. There is nothing groundbreaking here. No new revelation. The symbols individual elements will no doubt be known to most who have any sort of passing knowledge of the esoteric. This has given me the chance, though, to write briefly upon them and for my own benefit more than anything.

A Wedding

Marriage and the Wedding of opposites is very much the central motif here, for it is the central motif of reality. This is to say that reality is Incarnational, being the mystery of unity between the divine and the mundane, God and man, heaven and earth, Christ and His Church.

The Tabula Smaragdina or the Emerald Tablet pronounces:

1) Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt!
2) That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one.
3) As all things were from one.
4) Its father is the Sun and its mother the Moon.

Whilst the prayer that Jesus Christ teaches us implores:

Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.

The Triskelion and Awen

To begin, I will draw your attention toward the highest point where can be found the symbol of the triskelion, an ancient symbol especially, but not exclusively, associated with the Celts, that represents the tripart nature of reality and most importantly in this instance the Holy Trinity of the Christic Tradition. The triskelion masterfully depicts the notion of the three Person’s of the Holy Trinity in their interpenetrating, eternal relationship with each other; their perichoresis. The perpetual inward and outward spiralling to and from one point to another depicts the pouring out of each Holy Person as gift in holy charity to each other.

Such is the nature of perfect divine love that it cannot be contained, even amongst the eternal triune God, and so it overflows and pours forth also into creation, as creation, for creation is an ongoing, eternal act. Depicted here as three rays of light.

Together, this element of the whole symbol has been taken from modern or neo Druidry which has used the depiction of 3 rays of lights leading to 3 points of origin to represent Awen. This term is of Welsh, Cornish and Breton origins and refers to inspiration, particularly a divine and often poetic inspiration.

Etymologically it means ‘to blow’ and is related to words denoting wind, breeze, gale etc. In this sense it is sympathetic to the word ‘spirit’ in Latin and the Hebrew ‘ruach’.

Here, therefore, it overlays and is one and the same as the descending dove of the Holy Spirit.

Sun and Moon

Lying in the background are the Sun and the Moon, one of the most prominent examples in esoteric symbolism pertaining to the Alchemical Wedding.

4) Its father is the Sun and its mother the Moon.

The Sun is the masculine, patriarchal, heavenly, dominant etc. The Moon, its counterpart, the feminine, matriarchal, earthly, passive etc.

Much more could be said of the general nature of the masculine and feminine duality of reality and their unification, and indeed, as I said it is very much the central motif. To speak of it in a general manner at length, however, is not within the scope of this short piece.

As Wise Serpents, As Innocent as Doves

In keeping with the motif of union but in a more specific manner the sigil shows the wedding of dove and serpent.

The wedding of dove and serpent refers specifically to the Gospel according to St. Matthew chapter 10 verse 16 " ... be therefore a wise as serpents and as innocent as doves."

This can be seen as the wisdom traditions of the ancient world, who were often associated in their ritual and mythos with serpent worship, being baptised (the dove being the symbol of the Holy Spirit in decent) by the Incarnation of the Christ, which, far from destroying that which can be called wisdom, actually fulfils and fructifies.

Indeed, Christ makes of Himself the brazen serpent raised up for the healing of man.

The union of dove and serpent also references the so-called language of the birds and what is known as serpent lines, songlines, dragon tracks etc. The latter being the energetic manifestation on earth of the former.

Of dragons, they are birdlike with their talons and wings, and consequently their mastery of the sky, the heavens or the vertical plane and also serpentine with reptilian appearance making them masters of the earth or the horizontal plane. They are therefore the marriage of heaven and earth.

The Chalice, the Wound, the Well

The serpent coils around and emerges from the mouth of a chalice. The chalice is a feminine symbol, (though there are instances of which the chalice itself can be seen as a symbol of unification of opposites, such is the polyvalent nature of symbol) in particular encapsulating the quality of receptivity. It receives the blood of Christ which is the equivalent of the life or spirit of Christ. Relevant here is the Blessed Virgin's fiat where she willingly becomes receptive to the Holy Spirit moving upon her that the Word Incarnate might dwell within her. Also, the receptivity of the unformed creation in Genesis who has the spirit of God also move over her.

The 3 jewels on the chalice represent the threefold feminine, triple goddess or the three Mary's, this in relation to the three rays of light of the triskelion, such that a jewel or crystal, diamonds etc "magnify" and "rejoice" in the light - a reference to the Blessed Virgin's Magnificat.

A tradition of a great jewel associated with the Holy Grail, in brief, says that Lucifer, being the highest of the angelic hierarchy, was bestowed a crown with a precious jewel, perhaps an emerald, as it’s centre piece. When Lucifer fell from the heavens so too did the jewel fall to earth. It is from this jewel that the chalice of Christ is made.

Returning for a moment to the crescent or horned moon, it is also a depiction of the open vessel. The moon being associated with water, the ocean and its tidal movements etc. should be noted here with the consideration of the name Myriam, which refers also to the sea. So, both the moon of receiving and mirrored sunlight and the Blessed Virgin in her fiat can be associated with the primordial waters of creation that were “void and formless”. Here we may speak of the wellspring of life.

Again, to the chalice, it is also associated with a wound, specifically the side wound of Jesus Christ on the cross, and therefore also to the "life giving wound" of the female vagina.

A wound, likewise the vagina, is a portal, a gateway, a door by which blessing is both received and given. The wound of Christ receives the phallic spear and consequently the spirit of man, even the Rome-Man, the epitome of man at that time. It should be noted that the spirit of this man is one of death and sin and so the fact that Christ receives such and returns life means the side wound of Christ and His body in general is specifically an Alchemical athanor, the Alchemical egg, the vessel which harbours eternal life.

The vagina and the womb of woman, also, which receives the phallus and 'spirit' of the man and in turn gives new life - a baby - is also Alchemical. The man ejaculates his life out of him and so the woman receives him in his death.

The Double Rose

In the tradition of the Church the wound of Christ pours forth blood and water (the same occurrence happens when a woman gives birth) which are the sacramental life of the Church. The same is depicted as the briar rose, red and white in colour, which are also the Alchemical colours of the Heiros Gamos "rubedo" and "albedo" which burst forth from the chalice whose depths are the Alchemical "nigredo" - black.

The red and white rose, again, speaks of polarity and the interplay of the winding currents of the masculine and feminine locked in a cosmic dance.

R.J. Stewart writes:

The Mystery of the Double Rose is about polarity. Before going deeper into the mystery, we must be clear that we are not dealing with stereotypes of male and female (as in romanticism) but working directly with forces that occur within each and every one of us, regardless of physical gender or sexual orientation. There will be a tendency for the male body to express the powers of the white rose, and for the female to express the powers of the red, but each has both within. Thus, the simple polarities of the Faery tales and ballads are not to be understood as rules or dogma, but as indicators of how things work. Once we have activated the esoteric content and methods, these polarities can (and do) change.

A Hidden Star

A 6-pointed star, again a symbol of the Alchemical wedding, is formed between the origin point of the 3 rays, the two wing tips of the dove, the 2 roses, and the base of the chalice stem.

In particular it, speaks of the so-called Luminous Trinity of Valentin Tomberg’s Meditation on the Tarot:

The hexagram is not at all the symbol of good and evil, but rather a is that of the threefold pure act or "fire" and the threefold pure reaction (the threefold mihi fiat secundum verbum tuum) or "light of fire", i.e. "water". "Fire" and "water" signify that which acts spontaneously and creatively on the one hand, and that which reacts reflectively on the other hand — the latter being the conscious "yes" or light of mihi fiat secundum verbum tuum. This is the elementary meaning of the "seal of Solomon"—elementary in the sense of the elements "fire" and "water", taken on their highest level.

But the still higher meaning that this symbol hides —or rather reveals — is that of the luminous Holy Trinity, i.e. that of understanding of the Holy Trinity. Then it is the hexagram comprising the two triangles: Father-Son-Holy Spirit; Mother-Daughter-Holy Soul (see figure). And these two triangles of the luminous Holy Trinity are revealed in the work of redemption accomplished through Jesus Christ and conceived through Mary-Sophia. Jesus Christ is its agent; Mary-Sophia is its luminous reaction. The two triangles reveal the luminous Holy Trinity in the work of creation accomplished by the creative Word and animated by the "yes" of Wisdom-Sophia. The luminous Holy Trinity is therefore the unity of the triune Creator and the triune natura naturans, i.e. the unity of the threefold Fiat and the threefold mihi fiat secundum verbum tuum which reveals itself in natura naturata, in the world created before the Fall; and it is the triune divine spirit and the triune soul of the world manifesting in the body of the world —in natura naturata.

Each element of the image, of course, opens up into their own vast arenas of contemplation, this is, however, simply a brief run down.

To Finalize …

* Although what follows does not exactly coincide with the image I have put together, part of the inspiration comes from two instances of dream or perhaps vision or something in between. Originally, this was to be a post of its own and I will probably end up separating it into its own post at some point. *

The first instance was as teenager growing up in the country on a dairy farm. I used to spend much of my time outside playing basketball, if not with 1 or more of my 3 brothers, then often by myself into the wee hours of the night. One such time, whether at dusk or further along into the evening I cannot remember, I shot the ball and, as it often did, it bounced away to the right side of the hoop to other side of a large shrub that grew out from alongside our shed. I quickly went to retrieve it but as I grabbed it and stood up straight, I noticed in the otherwise starless sky, for it was heavily overcast, three bright lights, large enough not to be mistaken for stars. They stayed there a few moments as I blinked and rubbed my unbelieving eyes before fading off into the night sky again.

I have no intention to claim any sort of supernatural event happening here, only that I cannot explain what they were.

The next instance was only in the last 6 months or so.

This was quite clearly a dream, but extremely lucid and accompanied by an immediate understanding of what I saw which was as follows:

Three lights in a triangular pattern within the space of a 3-dimensional cube. The rays of these lights emanated forth onto the ground on which there was a serpent. Next it was made known to me that my son was a master at feeding the serpent his intentions by placing them on the ground before it, the serpent would grow fat on these intentions plus the soil that it would consume in the process. After a short while the serpent would spew out the intentions, but they would now have been made manifest into the actual ‘thing’ intended by my son.

In short, I immediately understood the 3 lights to be light of the Holy Trinity, the grace of God that shines forth into the created world i.e. the 3-dimensional cube. The 3 lights were also understood to be the 5 wounds of Christ when they fell to the ground, the soil of the earth, as the blood of Christ did on Calvary Hill. So it was that “the Son” was the master of the serpent but only in as much as his intent was ‘sacrificed’ to the serpent. The serpent devours what is laid before it on the earth as it “eats the dust” as per the curse laid upon it by God. The serpent, however, in eating the dust, also takes into itself the blood of the Godman on the cross of Calvary Hill, the grace of Jesus Christ, and so instead of dissolution of the intention in the stomach of the serpent, it spews it forth, now incarnate. The serpent venom becomes healing elixir.

Mark 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.