An Introduction to Sacred Symbolism
The march of aggregation
For several thousand years, we have been undergoing a process of ‘aggregation’
- the grouping of people and land into bigger and bigger units
Today they call this globalisation, but it is not new.
This period has seen the creation of different systems
to manage each new aggregate, the ‘isms’.
There are political ‘isms’ - fascism, communism, capitalism,
and there are religious ‘isms’ - Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism,
Judaism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and today Scientism
These are Power based systems and are based on unity by conformity.
submission to the rules and control by dominance
Natural law
In great contrast , however, we can see that Nature is based on
massive diversity not conformity
not only between species
but within species too
and Nature manages to incorporate great beauty in every design
Most achieve harmony by co-operation, not rigid conformity
Rudyard Kipling Jungle Book
Now this is the Law of the Jungle as old and as true as the sky
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the Law runneth forward and back,
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,
and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack
So ... Diversity and co-operation,
the sum of the parts is greater than the parts alone
Going against Natural Law
So what happens as we go more and more against ‘natural law’?
Well, firstly you have to force conformity by brutal control and will
And the heavy hammers of war, imprisonment, torture and genocide,
violence and aggression, pain and bloodshed, and slavery,
subjugation and oppression, injury and death.
And this is still the method being used with people in our systems of work
conformity and control
and now we are also applying this same unnatural approach to animals
and causing cruelty of an almost unimaginable kind
In other words instead of using a single system of law in order to:
- Reduce conflict - Reduce violence, aggression and misery
- Ease co-operation - Preserve diversity
A few power hungry men are using it to acquire more and more wealth,
power and control at the expense of billions
The Mysteries
The Mysteries are and were based on unity in diversity,
through co-operation and not control.
The adepts and initiates rely on direct experience of ‘heaven’
via spiritual experience, because.
As Rumi said He who tastes not, knows not.
Many mystic groups have been heavily persecuted by the ‘isms’ political,
‘scientific’ and religious - largely because they believe in Natural Law,
and their experience gives them ‘Truth’ over doctrine and dogma,
and can thus undermine the power the ‘ism’ has over its believers
And as ‘isms’ have grown stronger -
the Mysteries have even been threatened with extinction.
Not just because they believe in Unity in diversity
via the active pursuit of LOVE, and avoidance of all HATE and HURT.
But because they believe in submission only to the Will of ‘God’
Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz translated by Nicholson
What is to be done, . ? for I do not recognise myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem. I am not of the East,
nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature's mint, nor of the circling heavens.
I am not of Earth, nor of Water, nor of Air, nor of Fire;
... My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;
‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the Beloved
But all ‘isms’ demand subservience by ALL men and women
within their system to the men in power.
And so those in power - the ‘Ministries’ or ‘Magisteriums’
- sought to systematically destroy all those
who knew the magic arts and the Mysteries,
in ways so brutal they almost defy belief.
We have added some details within the accompanying text to the video
And it is because of this persecution, that Sacred symbolism was born.
The alchemists, for example , devised symbols to describe the stages of the Spiritual Path
Others fled to the Theatre, and created plays based on archetypal roles and plots
Others devised new ways of teaching children Nursery rhymes,
games, toys, board games, and ‘fairy’ stories
Others encoded knowledge in architecture, paintings, gardens and landscape
Others in music, dance, poetry and song
And some formed circuses
So to find the true meaning of sacred symbolism one must go to these sources
not dusty books or misguided ‘experts’
A. Austin The Owl and the Lark
O souls, perplexed by hood and cowl
Fain would you find a teacher
Consult the lark and not the owl
The poet, not the preacher