Axis Of The Land

כ'ו בחשון תשס"ח

Small excerpts from an interesting new book I recently acquired - Secret Signs, Symbols & Sigils by Nigel Pennick:

Writing and symbols, art and architechture, technology and warfare are all structured according to the human body.

The fourfold division of the world, and its further subdivision into eight directions known as airts is derived directly from the structure of the human body and its interaction [emphasis mine] with the physical structure and processes of the planet upon which we evolved and upon which we live. At the centre of this fourfold division is the individual person, the source, fount and origin, the naval, the relic of the point from which each of us developed as an embryo within our mother.

Naval points in the landscape [of feminine malchut, for example - my addition] are known in geomantic terminology by its Greek name omphalos. This terminology, calling the central point a naval, reiterates the slain giant motif of the primal creation of the world, where each part of the human being is reflected in its corresponding structure in the world.

In human beings, the naval is the vestige of the umbilical cord which once connected the unborn baby to the placenta in the mother's womb. Through the omphalos, the material world is linked by a cosmic axis "upwards" to the creative, generative upperworld and downward to its complimentary opposite, the degenerative or destructive underworld.

This pattern of a centre in this world linked by an axis to the upper world above and the netherworld below is the basis for traditional sacred cosmology. It exists throughout the world in different cultural contexts.

It is the stable structure of society without which there is disorder and disintegration.

The determination of such a powerful cosmic centre [the teli - my addition], so vitally important in psychological as well as social terms, was one of the major tasks of the augur or locator - many folk tales recall these arduous quests.

Such is the mystery of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm, "as above, so below". The central naval of the earth, symbolically represents the fixed point at which other states of consciousness and spiritual evolution may be attained by those attuned to such things by dint of personal effort or divine designation.

The discovery of such a place of symbolic power, its definition and the geomantic act is enshrined in the mythos of dragonslaying in the stories of such luminaries as the Pagan heroes Cadmus, Siegfried and Beowulf, and in the Christian mythology, saints such as Beatus, George, Leonard, Martha and Michael and knights like Lord Lambton [and in Judaic stories such as David and Goliath - my addition].

In each of these legends, the dragon, wyrm or serpent that is killed is often taken to symbolise the earth energies which, sensitive people assert, roam, bewilderingly and dangerously free in the soil and the underlying rock formations beneath our feet.

In traditional society, the determination of the most powerful and appropriate location for the fixation of these geomantic energies was the task of the locator. After long and meticulous scrutiny of the site, [the locator] would decide upon the correct time to undertake the geomantic act.

According to geomantic symbolism, at the designated instant, when the forces were at their most malleable, and when the energies could best be tamed, the locator would drive a peg or staff, or perhaps a lance or sword into the earth as the culmination of the foundation ceremony.

All would be applied with the greatest care to ensure the efficacy of the geomantic act.

Piercing the ground at the optimal location appears to fix these wandering energies permanently in an accessible place ... commonly called a place of power.

Many depictions of the geomantic act show the hero or heroine [emphasis mine] transfixing the dragon with a stave, sword or spear, which frequently runs through the head to pin it to the ground below [like Yael of "a mother in Yisrael" fame in Torah - my addition].

This mystical concept is found in many places, most notably in the epithet of King Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, high king of Britain. In Northern Tradition spiritual symbolic kingship, the strength and health of the monarch, as head of the nation, is indistinguishable from that of the land. When he or she is strong and worthy, the land flourishes in unity, peace, fruitfulness and prosperity. When he or she is weak or unworthy, the land distintegrates in crime, factionalism, greed and poverty. Also, once these magical aspects of kingship are no longer recognised, distintegration occurs. [My addition - once these magical aspects of kingship are again recognised, reintegration occurs.]

Symbolically, King Arthur's withdrawal of the sword from the stone to assert his right of kingship of Britain, is a reversal of the geomantic act. In removing the sword, Arthur frees the dragon power which, as Pendragon himself, the king can control. It appears to be of no coincidence that Arthur's military successes against the Saxon invader, were [like a wandering Jew - my addition] in mobile calvary warfare, not in static and centered defense.

when the pause is pregnant like a rock of hate against us
truth remains

[lines above from my poem The Torch]

The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased, until that thou didst arise, Deborah, that thou didst arise a mother in Israel. ... Shoftim 5:7