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the secret teachings of all ages
Flowers, Plants,
Fruits, And Trees
CHAPTER XVI
manly p. hall
THE yoni and phallus were
worshiped by nearly all ancient peoples as appropriate symbols of God's
creative power. The Garden of Eden, the Ark, the Gate of the Temple, the
Veil of the Mysteries, the vesica piscis or oval nimbus, and the
Holy Grail are important yonic symbols; the pyramid, the obelisk, the
cone, the candle, the tower, the Celtic monolith, the spire, the
campanile, the Maypole, and the Sacred Spear are symbolic of the
phallus. In treating the subject of Priapic worship, too many modern
authors judge pagan standards by their own and wallow in the mire of
self-created vulgarity. The Eleusinian Mysteries--the greatest of all
the ancient secret societies--established one of the highest known
standards of morality and ethics, and those criticizing their use of
phallic symbols should ponder the trenchant words of King Edward III,
"Honi soit qui mal y pense."
The obscene rites practiced by
the later Bacchanalia and Dionysia were no more representative of the
standards of purity originally upheld by the Mysteries than the orgies
occasionally occurring among the adherents of Christianity till the
eighteenth century were representative of primitive Christianity. Sir
William Hamilton, British Minister at the Court of Naples, declares that
in 1780, Isernia, a community of Christians in Italy, worshiped with
phallic ceremonies the pagan god Priapus under the name of St. Cosmo.
(See Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus, by Richard Payne
Knight.)
Father, mother, and child
constitute the natural trinity. The Mysteries glorified the home as the
supreme institution consisting of this trinity functioning as a unit.
Pythagoras likened the universe to the family, declaring that as the
supreme fire of the universe was in the midst of its heavenly bodies,
so, by analogy, the supreme fire of the world was upon its hearthstones.
The Pythagorean and other schools of philosophy conceived the one divine
nature of God to manifest itself in the threefold aspect of Father,
Mother, and Child. These three constituted the Divine Family, whose
dwelling place is creation and whose natural and peculiar symbol is the
47th problem of Euclid. God the Father is spirit, God the Mother is
matter, and God the Child--the product of the two--represents the sum of
living things born out of and constituting Nature. The seed of spirit is
sown in the womb of matter, and by an immaculate (pure) conception the
progeny is brought into being. Is not this the true mystery of the
Madonna holding the Holy Babe in her arms? Who dares to say that such
symbolism is improper? The mystery of life is the supreme mystery,
revealed in all of its divine dignity and glorified as Nature's per feet
achievement by the initiated sages and seers of all ages.
The prudery of today, however,
declares this same mystery to be unfit for the consideration of
holy-minded people. Contrary to the dictates of reason, a standard has
been established which affirms that innocence bred of ignorance is more
to be desired than virtue born of knowledge. Eventually, however, man
will learn that he need never be ashamed of truth. Until he does learn
this, he is false to his God, to his world, and to himself. In this
respect, Christianity has woefully failed in its mission. While
declaring man's body to be the living temple of the living God, in the
same breath it asserts the substances and functions of this temple to be
unclean and their study defiling to the sensitive sentiments of the
righteous. By this unwholesome attitude, man's body--the house of
God--is degraded and defamed. Yet the cross itself is the oldest of
phallic emblems, and the lozenge-shaped windows of cathedrals are proof
that yonic symbols have survived the destruction of the pagan Mysteries.
The very structure of the church itself is permeated with phallicism.
Remove from the Christian Church all emblems of Priapic origin and
nothing is left, for even the earth upon which it stands was, because of
its fertility, the first yonic symbol. As the presence of these emblems
of the generative processes is either unknown or unheeded by the
majority, the irony of the situation is not generally appreciated. Only
those conversant with the secret language of antiquity are capable of
understanding the divine significance of these emblems.
Flowers were chosen as symbols
for many reasons. The great variety of flora made it possible to find
some plant or flower which would be a suitable figure for nearly any
abstract quality or condition. A plant might be chosen because of some
myth connected with its origin, as the stories of Daphne and Narcissus;
because of the peculiar environment in which it thrived, as the orchid
and the fungus; because of its significant shape, as the passion flower
and the Easter lily; because of its brilliance or fragrance, as the
verbena and the sweet lavender; because it preserved its form
indefinitely, as the everlasting flower; because of unusual
characteristics as the sunflower and heliotrope, which have long been
sacred because of their affinity for the sun.
The plant might also be
considered worthy of veneration because from its crushed leaves, petals,
stalks, or roots could be extracted healing unctions, essences, or drugs
affecting the nature and intelligence of human beings--such as the poppy
and the ancient herbs of prophecy. The plant might also be regarded as
efficacious in the cure of many diseases because its fruit, leaves,
petals, or roots bore a resemblance in shape or color to parts or organs
of the human body. For example, the distilled juices of certain species
of ferns, also the hairy moss growing upon oaks, and the thistledown
were said to have the power of growing hair; the dentaria, which
resembles a tooth in shape, was said to cure the toothache; and the
palma Christi plant, because of its shape, cured all afflictions
of the hands.
The blossom is really the
reproductive system of the plant and is therefore singularly appropriate
as a symbol of sexual purity--an absolute requisite of the ancient
Mysteries. Thus the flower signifies this ideal of beauty and
regeneration which must ultimately take the place of lust and
degeneracy.
Of all symbolic flowers the
locus blossom of India and Egypt and the rose of the Rosicrucians are
the most important. In their symbolism these two flowers are considered
identical. The esoteric doctrines for which the Eastern lotus stands
have been perpetuated in modern Europe under the form of the rose. The
rose and the lotus are yonic emblems, signifying primarily the maternal
creative mystery, while the Easter lily is considered to be
phallic.
The Brahmin and Egyptian
initiates, who undoubtedly understood the secret systems of spiritual
culture whereby the latent centers of cosmic energy in man may be
stimulated, employed the lotus blossoms to represent the spinning
vortices of spiritual energy located at various points along the spinal
column and called chakras, or whirling wheels, by the Hindus.
Seven of these chakras are of prime importance and have their
individual correspondences in the nerve ganglia and plexuses. According
to the secret schools, the sacral ganglion is called the four-petaled
lotus; the prostatic plexus, the six-petaled lotus; the epigastric
plexus and navel, the ten-petaled lotus; the cardiac plexus, the
twelve-petaled lotus; the pharyngeal plexus, the sixteen-petaled locus;
the cavernous plexus, the two-petaled lotus; and the pineal gland or
adjacent unknown center, the thousand-petaled locus. The color, size,
and number of petals upon the lotus are the keys to its
symbolic import. A hint concerning the unfoldment of spiritual
understanding according to the secret science of the Mysteries is found
in the story of Aaron's rod that budded, and also in Wagner's great
opera, Tannhäuser, where the budding staff of the Pope signifies
the unfolding blossoms upon the sacred rod of the Mysteries--the spinal
column.
THE TREE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND
TABLE.
This remarkable example of the
use of the tree in symbolism is from the Chateau de Pierrefonds in the
little town of Pierrefonds, northern France. The eight side branches end
in conventional cup-like flowers, from each of which rises the body of a
knight carrying in his hand a ribbon bearing his name. The central stem
is surmounted by a larger flower, from which emerges the body of King
Arthur himself. The tree is a favorite motif in heraldry. The one trunk
with its multitude of branches caused the tree to be frequently used in
diagramming family lineage, from which practice has arisen the custom of
terming such tables "family trees."
The Rosicrucians used a garland
of roses to signify the same spiritual vortices, which are referred to
in the Bible as the seven lamps of the candlestick and the seven
churches of Asia. In the 1642 edition of Sir Francis Bacon's History
of Henry the Seventh is a frontispiece showing Lord Bacon with
Rosicrucian roses for shoe buckles.
In the Hindu system of
philosophy, each petal of the lotus bears a certain symbol which gives
an added clue to the meaning of the flower. The Orientals also used the
lotus plant to signify the growth of man through the three periods of
human consciousness--ignorance, endeavor, and understanding. As the
lotus exists in three elements (earth, water, and air) so man lives in
three worlds--material, intellectual, and spiritual. As the plant, with
its roots in the mud and the slime, grows upward through the water and
finally blossoms forth in the light and air, so the spiritual growth of
man is upward from the darkness of base action and desire into the light
of truth and understanding, the water serving as a symbol of the
ever-changing world of illusion through which the soul must pass in its
struggle to reach the state of spiritual illumination. The rose and its
Eastern equivalent, the lotus, like all beautiful flowers, represent
spiritual unfoldment and attainment: hence, the Eastern deities are
often shown seated upon the open petals of the lotus
blossoms.
The lotus was also a universal
motif in Egyptian art and architecture. The roofs of many temples were
upheld by lotus columns, signifying the eternal wisdom; and the
lotus-headed scepter--symbolic of self-unfoldment and divine
prerogative--was often carried in religious processions. When the flower
had nine petals, it was symbolic of man; when twelve, of the universe
and the gods; when seven, of the planets and the law; when five, of the
senses and the Mysteries; and when three, of the chief deities and the
worlds. The heraldic rose of the Middle Ages generally has either five
or ten petals thereby showing its relationship to the spiritual mystery
of man through the Pythagorean pentad and decad.
CULTUS ARBORUM
The worship of trees as proxies
of Divinity was prevalent throughout the ancient world. Temples were
often built in the heart of sacred groves, and nocturnal ceremonials
were conducted under the wide-spreading branches of great trees,
fantastically decorated and festooned in honor of their patron deities.
In many instances the trees themselves were believed to possess the
attributes of divine power and intelligence, and therefore supplications
were often addressed to them. The beauty, dignity, massiveness, and
strength of oaks, elms, and cedars led to their adoption as symbols of
power, integrity, permanence, virility, and divine
protection.
Several ancient
peoples--notably the Hindus and Scandinavians---regarded the Macrocosm,
or Grand Universe, as a divine tree growing from a single seed sown in
space. The Greeks, Persians, Chaldeans, and Japanese have legends
describing the axle tree or reed upon which the earth revolves. Kapila
declares the universe to be the eternal tree, Brahma, which springs from
an imperceptible and intangible seed--the material monad. The mediæval
Qabbalists represented creation as a tree with its roots in the reality
of spirit and its branches in the illusion of tangible existence. The
Sephirothic tree of the Qabbalah was therefore inverted, with its roots
in heaven and its branches upon the earth. Madam Blavatsky notes that
the Great Pyramid was considered to be a symbol of this inverted tree,
with its root at the apex of the pyramid and its branches diverging in
four streams towards the base.
The Scandinavian world-tree,
Yggdrasil, supports on its branches nine spheres or worlds,--which the
Egyptians symbolized by the nine stamens of the persea or avocado. All
of these are enclosed within the mysterious tenth sphere or cosmic
egg--the definitionless Cipher of the Mysteries. The Qabbalistic tree of
the Jews also consists of nine branches, or worlds, emanating from the
First Cause or Crown, which surrounds its emanations as the shell
surrounds the egg. The single source of life and the endless diversity
of its expression has a perfect analogy in the structure of the tree.
The trunk represents the single origin of all diversity; the roots,
deeply imbedded in the dark earth, are symbolic of divine nutriment; and
its multiplicity of branches spreading from the central trunk represent
the infinity of universal effects dependent upon a single
cause.
The tree has also been accepted
as symbolic of the Microcosm, that is, man. According to the esoteric
doctrine, man first exists potentially within the body of the world-tree
and later blossoms forth into objective manifestation upon its branches.
According to an early Greek Mystery myth, the god Zeus fabricated the
third race of men from ash trees. The serpent so often shown wound
around the trunk of the tree usually signifies the mind--the power of
thought--and is the eternal tempter or urge which leads all rational
creatures to the ultimate discovery of reality and thus overthrows the
rule of the gods. The serpent hidden in the foliage of the universal
tree represents the cosmic mind; and in the human tree, the
individualized intellect.
The concept that all life
originates from seeds caused grain and various plants to be accepted as
emblematic of the human spermatozoon, and the tree was therefore
symbolic of organized life unfolding from its primitive germ. The growth
of the universe from its primitive seed may be likened to the growth of
the mighty oak from the tiny acorn. While the tree is apparently much
greater than its own source, nevertheless that source contains
potentially every branch, twig, and leaf which will later be objectively
unfolded by the processes of growth.
Man's veneration for trees as
symbols of the abstract qualities of wisdom and integrity also led him
to designate as trees those individuals who possessed these divine
qualities to an apparently superhuman degree. Highly illumined
philosophers and priests were therefore often referred to as
trees or tree men--for example, the Druids, whose name,
according to one interpretation, signifies the men of the oak
trees, or the initiates of certain Syrian Mysteries who were called
cedars; in fact it is far more credible and probable that the
famous cedars of Lebanon, cut down for the building of King
Solomon's Temple, were really illumined, initiated sages. The mystic
knows that the true supports of God's Glorious House were not the logs
subject to decay but the immortal and imperishable intellects of the
tree hierophants.
Trees are repeatedly mentioned
in the Old and New Testaments, and in the scriptures of various pagan
nations. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
mentioned in Genesis, the burning bush in which the angel appeared to
Moses, the famous vine and fig tree of the New Testament, the grove of
olives in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray, and the
miraculous tree of Revelation, which bore twelve manners of fruit and
whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, all bear witness to
the esteem in which trees were held by the scribes of Holy Writ. Buddha
received his illumination while under the bodhi tree, near Madras
in India, and several of the Eastern gods are pictured sitting in
meditation beneath the spreading branches of mighty trees. Many of the
great sages and saviors carried wands, rods, or staves cut from the wood
of sacred trees, as the rods of Moses and Aaron; Gungnir--the spear of
Odin--cut from the Tree of Life; and the consecrated rod of Hermes,
around which the fighting serpents entwined themselves.
The numerous uses which the
ancients made of the tree and its products are factors in its symbolism.
Its worship was, to a certain degree, based upon its usefulness. Of this
J. P. Lundy writes: "Trees occupy such an important place in the economy
of nature by way of attracting and retaining moisture, and shading the
water-sources and the soil so as to prevent barrenness and desolation;
the), are so useful to man for shade, for
fruit, for medicine, for fuel, for building houses and ships, for
furniture, for almost every department of life, that it is no wonder
that some of the more conspicuous ones, such as the oak, the pine, the
palm, and the sycamore, have been made sacred and used for worship."
(See Monumental Christianity.)
THE TREE OF NOAH.
From the "Breeches" Bible of 1599.
Most Bibles published during
the Middle Ages contain a section devoted to genealogical tables showing
the descent of humanity from Father Adam to the advent of Jesus Christ.
The tree growing from the roof of the Ark represents the body of Noah
and its three branches, his sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The nations by
the descendents of Noah's three sons are appropriately shown in the
circles upon the branches of the tree. While such tables are hopelessly
incorrect from a historical point of view, to the symbolist their
allegorical interpretations are of inestimable importance.
The early Fathers of the church
sometimes used the tree to symbolize Christ. They believed that
ultimately Christianity would grow up like a mighty oak and overshadow
all other faiths of mankind. Because it annually discards its foliage,
the tree was also looked upon as an appropriate emblem of resurrection
and reincarnation, for though apparently dying each fall it blossomed
forth again with renewed verdure each ensuing spring.
Under the appellations of the
Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil is concealed the great arcanum of antiquity--the mystery of
equilibrium. The Tree of Life represents the spiritual
point of balance--the secret of immortality. The Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its name implies, represents
polarity, or unbalance--the secret of mortality. The Qabbalists reveal
this by assigning the central column of their Sephirothic diagram to the
Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Unbalanced forces perish in the void,"
declares the secret work, and all is made known. The apple represents
the knowledge of the procreative processes, by the awakening of which
the material universe was established. The allegory of Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden is a cosmic myth, revealing the methods of universal
and individual establishment. The literal story, accepted for so many
centuries by an unthinking world, is preposterous, but the creative
mystery of which it is the symbol is one of Nature's profoundest
verities. The Ophites (serpent worshipers) revered the Edenic snake
because it was the cause of individual existence. Though humanity is
still wandering in a world of good and evil, it will ultimately attain
completion and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life growing in the midst
of the illusionary garden of worldly things. Thus the Tree of
Life is also the appointed symbol of the Mysteries, and by partaking
of its fruit man attains immortality.
The oak, the pine, the ash, the
cypress, and the palm are the five trees of greatest symbolic
importance. The Father God of the Mysteries was often worshiped under
the form of an oak; the Savior God--frequently the World Martyr--in the
form of a pine; the world axis and the divine nature in humanity in the
form of an ash; the goddesses, or maternal principle, in the form of a
cypress; and the positive pole of generation in the form of the
inflorescence of the mate date palm. The pine cone is a phallic symbol
of remote antiquity. The thyrsus of Bacchus--a long wand or staff
surmounted by a pine cone or cluster of grapes and entwined with ivy or
grape-vine leaves, sometimes ribbons--signifies that the wonders of
Nature may only be accomplished by the aid of solar virility, as
symbolized by the cone or grapes. In the Phrygian Mysteries, Atys--the
ever-present sun-savior--dies under the branches of the pine tree (an
allusion to the solar globe at the winter solstice) and for this reason
the pine tree was sacred to his cult. This tree was also sacred in the
Mysteries of Dionysos and Apollo.
Among the ancient Egyptians and
Jews the acacia, or tamarisk, was held in the highest religious esteem;
and among modern Masons, branches of acacia, cypress, cedar, or
evergreen are still regarded as most significant emblems. The
shittim-wood used by the children of Israel in the construction of the
Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant was a species of acacia. In
describing this sacred tree, Albert Pike has written: "The genuine
acacia, also, is the thorny tamarisk, the same tree which grew around
the body of Osiris. It was a sacred tree among the Arabs, who made of it
the idol Al-Uzza, which Mohammed destroyed. It is abundant as a bush in
the desert of Thur; and of it the 'crown of thorns' was composed, which
was set on the forehead of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a fit type of
immortality on account of its tenacity of life; for it has been known,
when planted as a door-post, to take root again and shoot out budding
boughs above the "threshold." (See Morals and Dogma.)
It is quite possible that much
of the veneration accorded the acacia is due to the peculiar attributes
of the mimosa, or sensitive plant, with which it was often
identified by the ancients. There is a Coptic legend to the effect that
the sensitive plant was the first of all trees or shrubs to worship
Christ. The rapid growth of the acacia and its beauty have also caused
it to be regarded as emblematic of fecundity and generation.
The symbolism of the acacia is
susceptible of four distinct interpretations: (1) it is the emblem of
the vernal equinox--the annual resurrection of the solar deity; (2)
under the form of the sensitive plant which shrinks from human touch,
the acacia signifies purity and innocence, as one of the Greek meanings
of its name implies; (3) it fittingly typifies human immortality and
regeneration, and under the form of the evergreen represents that
immortal part of man which survives the destruction of his visible
nature; (4) it is the ancient and revered emblem of the Mysteries, and
candidates entering the tortuous passageways in which the ceremonials
were given carried in their hands branches of these sacred plants or
small clusters of sanctified flowers.
Albert G. Mackey calls
attention to the fact that each of the ancient Mysteries had its own
peculiar plant sacred to the gods or goddesses in whose honor the
rituals were celebrated. These sacred plants were later adopted as the
symbols of the various degrees in which they were used. Thus, in the
Mysteries of Adonis, lettuce was sacred; in the Brahmin and Egyptian
rites, the lotus; among the Druids, the mistletoe; and among certain of
the Greek Mysteries, the myrtle. (See Encyclopædia of
Freemasonry.)
As the legend of CHiram Abiff
is based upon the ancient Egyptian Mystery ritual of the murder and
resurrection of Osiris, it is natural that the sprig of acacia should be
preserved as symbolic of the resurrection of CHiram. The chest
containing the body of Osiris was washed ashore near Byblos and lodged
in the roots of a tamarisk, or acacia, which, growing into a mighty
tree, enclosed within its trunk the body of the murdered god. This is
undoubtedly the origin of the story that a sprig of acacia marks the
grave of CHiram. The mystery of the evergreen marking the grave of the
dead sun god is also perpetuated in the Christmas tree.
The apricot and quince are
familiar yonic symbols, while the bunch of grapes and the fig are
phallic. The pomegranate is the mystic fruit of the Eleusinian rites; by
eating it, Prosperine bound herself to the realms of Pluto. The fruit
here signifies the sensuous life which, once tasted, temporarily
deprives man of immortality. Also on account of its vast number of seeds
the pomegranate was often employed to represent natural fecundity. For
the same reason, Jacob Bryant in his Ancient Mythology notes that
the ancients recognized in this fruit an appropriate emblem of the Ark
of the Deluge, which contained the seeds of
the new human race. Among the ancient Mysteries the pomegranate was also
considered to be a divine symbol of such peculiar significance that its
true explanation could not be divulged. It was termed by the Cabiri "the
forbidden secret." Many Greek gods and goddesses are depicted holding
the fruit or flower of the pomegranate in their hands, evidently to
signify that they are givers of life and plenty. Pomegranate capitals
were placed upon the pillars of Jachin and Boaz standing in front of
King Solomon's Temple; and by the order of Jehovah, pomegranate blossoms
were embroidered upon the bottom of the High Priest's ephod.
THE
SUNFLOWER.
From Kircher's Magnes sive
de Arte Magnetica Opus Tripartitum.
The above diagram illustrates a
curious experiment in plant magnetism reproduced with several other
experiments in Athanasius Kircher's rare volume on magnetism. Several
plants were sacred to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hindus because
of the peculiar effect which the sun exerted over them. As it is
difficult for man to look upon the face of the sun without being blinded
by the light, those plants which turned and deliberately faced the solar
orb were considered typical of very highly advanced souls. Since the sun
was regarded as the personification of the Supreme Deity, those forms of
life over which it exercised marked influence were venerated as being
sacred to Divinity. The sunflower, because of its plainly perceptible
affinity for the sun, was given high rank among sacred
plants.
Strong wine made from the juice
of the grape was looked upon as symbolic of the false life and false
light of the universe, for it was produced by a false
process--artificial fermentation. The rational faculties are clouded by
strong drink, and the animal nature, liberated from bondage, controls
the individual--facts which necessarily were of the greatest spiritual
significance. As the lower nature is the eternal tempter seeking co lead
man into excesses which inhibit the spiritual faculties, the grape and
its product were used to symbolize the Adversary.
The juice of the grape was
thought by the Egyptians to resemble human blood more closely than did
any other substance. In fact, they believed that the grape secured its
life from the blood of the dead who had been buried in the earth.
According to Plutarch, "The priests of the sun at Heliopolis never carry
any wine into their temples, * * * and if they made use of it at any
time in their libations to the gods, it was not because they looked upon
it as in its own nature acceptable to them; but they poured it upon
their altars as the blood of those enemies who formerly had fought
against them. For they look upon the vine to have first sprung out of
the earth after it was fattened with the carcasses of those who fell in
the wars against the gods. And this, say they, is the reason why
drinking its juice in great quantities makes men mad and beside
themselves, filling them as it were with the blood of their own
ancestors." (See Isis and Osiris.)
Among some cults the state of
intoxication was viewed as a condition somewhat akin to ecstasy, for the
individual was believed to be possessed by the Universal Spirit of Life,
whose chosen vehicle was the vine. In the Mysteries, the grape was often
used to symbolize lust and debauchery because of its demoralizing effect
upon the emotional nature. The fact was recognized, however, that
fermentation was the certain evidence of the presence of the solar fire,
hence the grape was accepted as the proper symbol of the Solar
Spirit--the giver of divine enthusiasm. In a somewhat similar manner,
Christians have accepted wine as the emblem of the blood of Christ,
partaking of it in Holy Communion. Christ, the exoteric emblem of the
Solar Spirit, said, "I am the vine." He was therefore worshiped with the
wine of ecstasy in the same manner as were his pagan
prototypes--Bacchus, Dionysos, Arys, and Adonis.
The mandragora
officinarum, or mandrake, is accredited with possessing the most
remarkable magical powers. Its narcotic properties were recognized by
the Greeks, who employed it to deaden pain during surgical operations,
and it has been identified also with baaras, the mystic herb used
by the Jews for casting out demons. In the Jewish Wars, Josephus
describes the method of securing the baaras, which he declares
emits flashes of lightning and destroys all who seek to touch it, unless
they proceed according to certain rules supposedly formulated by King
Solomon himself.
The occult properties of the
mandrake, while little understood, have been responsible for the
adoption of the plant as a talisman capable of increasing the value or
quantity of anything with which it was associated. As a phallic charm,
the mandrake was considered to be an infallible cure for sterility. It
was one of the Priapic symbols which the Knights Templars were accused
of worshiping. The root of the plant closely resembles a human body and
often bore the outlines of the human head, arms, or legs. This striking
similarity between the body of man and the mandragora is one of the
puzzles of natural science and is the real basis for the veneration in
which this plant was held. In Isis Unveiled, Madam Blavatsky
notes that the mandragora seems to occupy upon earth the point where the
vegetable and animal kingdoms meet, as the zoophites and polypi do in
die sea. This thought opens a vast field of speculation concerning the
nature of this animal-plant.
According to a popular
superstition, the mandrake shrank from being touched and, crying out
with a human voice, clung desperately to the soil in which it was
imbedded. Anyone who heard its cry while plucking it either immediately
died or went mad. To circumvent this tragedy, it was customary to dig
around the roots of the mandrake until the plant was thoroughly loosened
and then to tie one end of a cord about the stalk and fasten the other
end to a dog. The dog, obeying his master's call, thereupon dragged the
root from the earth and became the victim of the mandragora curse. When
once uprooted, the plant could be handled with immunity.
During the Middle Ages,
mandrake charms brought great prices and an art was evolved by which the
resemblance between the mandragora root and the human body was
considerably accentuated. Like most superstitions, the belief in the
peculiar powers of the mandrake was founded upon an ancient secret
doctrine concerning the true nature of the plant. "It is slightly
narcotic," says Eliphas Levi, "and an aphrodisiacal virtue was ascribed
to it by the ancients, who represented it as being sought by Thessalian
sorcerers for the composition of philtres. Is this root the umbilical
vestige of our terrestrial origin, as a certain magical mysticism has
suggested? We dare not affirm it seriously, but it is true all the same
that man issued from the slime of earth and his first appearance must
have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of Nature compel
us to admit the notion, at least as a possibility. The first men were,
in this case, a family of gigantic, sensitive mandrogores, animated by
the sun, who rooted themselves up from the earth." (See
Transcendental Magic.)
The homely onion was revered by
the Egyptians as a symbol of the universe because its rings and layers
represented the concentric planes into which creation was divided
according to the Hermetic Mysteries. It was also regarded as possessing
great medicinal virtue. Because of peculiar properties resulting from
its pungency, the garlic plant was a powerful agent in transcendental
magic. To this day no better medium has been found for the treatment of
obsession. Vampirism and certain forms of insanity--especially those
resulting from mediumship and the influences of elemental larvæ--respond
immediately to the use of garlic. In the Middle Ages, its presence in a
house was believed to ward off all evil powers.
Trifoliate plants, such as the
shamrock, were employed by many religious cults to represent the
principle of the Trinity. St. Patrick is supposed to have used the
shamrock to illustrate this doctrine of the triune Divinity. The reason
for the additional sanctity conferred by a fourth leaf is that the
fourth principle of the Trinity is man, and the presence of this leaf
therefore signifies the redemption of humanity.
Wreaths were worn during
initiation into the Mysteries and the reading of the sacred books to
signify that these processes were consecrated to the deities. On the
symbolism of wreaths, Richard Payne Knight writes: "Instead of beads,
wreaths of foliage, generally of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak,
appear upon coins, sometimes encircling the symbolical figures, and
sometimes as chaplets upon their heads. All these were sacred to some
peculiar personifications of the deity, and significant of some
particular attributes, and, in general, all evergreens were Dionysiac
planes; that is, symbols of the generative power, signifying perpetuity
of youth and vigor, as the circles of beads and diadems signify
perpetuity of existence. (See Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and
Mythology.)
THE TREE OF
ALCHEMY.
From Musæum Hermeticum
Reformatum et Amplificatum.
The alchemists were went to symbolize
their metals by means of a tree, to indicate that all seven were
branches dependent upon the single trunk of solar life. As the Seven
Spirits depend upon God and are branches of a tree of which He is the
root, trunk, and the spiritual earth from which the root derives its
nourishment, so the single trunk of divine life and power nourishes all
the multitudinous forms of which the universe is composed.
In Gloria Mundi, from which the
above illustration is reproduced, there is contained an important
thought concerning the plantlike growth of metals: "All trees, herbs,
stones, metals, and minerals grow and attain to perfection without being
necessarily touched by any human hand: for the seed is raised up from
the ground, puts forth flowers, and bears fruit, simply through the
agency of natural influences. As it is with plants, so it is with
metals. While they lie in the heart of the earth, in their natural ore,
they grow and are developed, day by day, through the influence of the
four elements: their fire is the splendor of the Sun and Moon; the earth
conceives in her womb the splendor of the Sun, and by it the seeds of
the metals are well and equally warmed, just like the grain in the
fields. * * * For as each tree of the field has its own peculiar shape,
appearance, and fruit, so each mountain bears its own particular ore;
those stones and that earth being the soil in which the metals grow."
(See Translation of 1893.)
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