I2 § The Triple Precinct of the Druids
Paul Le Cour called attention, in Atlantis (July-August 1928), to a curious symbol on the druidic stone discovered about 1800 at Suèvres (Loir-et-Cher). It had been previously examined by E. C. Florance, president of the Society of Natural History and Anthropology of Loir-et-Cher. Florance thinks that the locality where the stone was found may have been the place of the Druids' annual reunion which, according to Caesar, was situated on the borders of the land of the Carnutes.[1] His attention was drawn by the fact that the same sign is on a seal of a Gallo-Roman oculist, found about 1870 at Villefranche-sur-Cher (Loir-et-Cher); and he suggests that what is represented was a sacred triple precinct. For this symbol is, in fact, formed by three concentric squares, linked to one another by four lines at right angles (figure 7).
Figure 7
At the time when the article appeared in Atlantis, the same symbol was pointed out to Florance, cut into a large foundation stone of a buttress of the church of Saint Gemme (Loire-et-Cher), a stone, moreover, which appears to have a provenance from a time prior to the construction of this church and which could likewise go back even to Druidism. It is certain that like many other Celtic symbols, and especially that of the wheel, this figure remained in use until the Middle Ages, for Charbonneau-Lassay has
mentioned it among the 'graffiti' of the dungeon of Chinon, [2] together with another no less ancient figure, formed by eight rays and circumscribed by a square (figure 8), which is on the baetyl of Kermaria studied by M. J. Loth [3] and to which we have already had occasion to allude.[4]
Figure 8
Le Cour indicates that the symbol of the triple square is to be found also at Rome, in the cloister of San Paolo, dating from the thirteenth century, and that it was known by others in antiquity as well as by the Celts, as he himself has pointed out several times in connection with the Acropolis of Athens, on the flagstones of the Parthenon and on those of the Erechtheion.
The interpretation of this symbol as representing a triple precinct seems to us very right, and Le Cour, in this connection, establishes a parallel with the remarks of Plato who, speaking of the mother city of the Atlanteans, describes the palace of Poseidon as built at the centre of three concentric enclosures linked together by canals which, in fact, form a figure analogous to the one here in question, though circular instead of square.
Now what can be the significance of these three precincts? We thought at once that it must be a question of three degrees of initiation, so that, taken all together, they would have been in some way a figure of the Druid hierarchy; and the fact that this same figure is to be found elsewhere and not merely with the Celts would indicate that there were in other traditions hierarchies formed on this same model, which is perfectly normal. The division of initiation into three grades is, moreover, the most frequent partition and, we may say, the most fundamental. All the others, generally speaking, represent only its subdivisions or more or less complicated developments. We reached this conclusion because previously we had knowledge of documents which in certain masonic systems of the higher grades describe these grades precisely as so many successive precincts drawn around a central point.[5] It is true that these documents are incomparably less ancient than the monuments in question, but they nevertheless give us an echo of very much older traditions, and in any case, as regards our present theme, they have given us a starting point for interesting comparisons.
It should be noted that the explanation which we have just put forward is in no way incompatible with certain others, such as that of Le Cour, which relates the three precincts to the three circles of existence recognized by the Celtic tradition. These three circles, which are to be found under another form in Christianity, are the same as the 'three worlds' of Hinduism, which moreover sometimes represents the celestial circles as so many precincts around Meru, the sacred mountain that symbolises the 'Pole' or the World Axis [axis mundi], and this is yet another most remarkable concordance. Far from being mutually exclusive, the two explanations harmonize perfectly; it can even be said that they coincide in a certain sense, for where genuine initiation is concerned, its degrees correspond to so many states of the being, and it is these states which in all traditions are described as so many different worlds, for it must be clearly understood that 'localisation' has only a purely symbolic character. We have already explained, in connection with Dante, that the heavens are strictly speaking 'spiritual hierarchies', that is, degrees of initiation;[6] and it goes without saying that at the same time they relate to the degrees of universal existence, for as we said then, [7] in virtue of the constitutive analogy of the Macrocosm and Microcosm, the initiatic process rigorously reproduces the cosmogonic process. We will add that, generally speaking,
genuine initiatic interpretation is never exclusive but, on the contrary, includes within itself synthetically all other possible interpretations; and this, moreover, is why symbolism, with its multiple and superimposed senses, is the normal means of expression of all true initiatic teaching.
With this explanation, the meaning of the four lines arranged in the form of a cross and connecting the three precincts immediately becomes very clear: they are the channels by which the teaching of the traditional doctrine is communicated downwards from above, from the supreme grade, which is its trustee, down to the other degrees, in hierarchic order. The central part of the figure therefore corresponds to the 'fountain of teaching' of which Dante and the Fedeli d'Amore [8] speak, and the cruciform arrangement of the four channels which flow from it identifies them with the four rivers of Pardes.
In this connection it should be noted that between the circular and square forms of the triple precinct figure, there is an important nuance: they relate respectively to the earthly Paradise and the celestial Jerusalem, as has been explained in one of our books.[9] There is always analogy and correspondence between the beginning and the end of any cycle; but at the end, the circle is replaced by the square, and this indicates the realisation of what the Hermetists designated symbolically as the 'squaring of the circle'. [10] The sphere, which represents the development of possibilities by the expansion of the primordial point, is transformed into a cube when this development is completed and when the final equilibrium is attained by the cycle in question.[11] To apply these considerations more particularly to our present theme, let us say that the circular form must represent the outset of a tradition, which is indeed the case where Atlantis is concerned, [12] and the square form represents its terminal point, corresponding to the constitution of a derivative traditional form. In the first case, the centre of the figure then would be the source of doctrine, while
in the second it would strictly speaking be the reservoir, the spiritual authority having here especially a role of conservation. But naturally, the symbolism of the 'fountain of teaching' is applicable in both cases.[13]
From the point of view of numerical symbolism it must also be noted that the three squares taken together form the duodenary. Arranged differently (figure 9), these three squares to which are added four crosswise lines
Figure 9
constitute the figure according to which the ancient astrologers inscribed the zodiac. This figure, in addition, was regarded as that of the celestial Jerusalem with its twelve gates, three on each side; and there is here an obvious relation with the meaning we have just pointed out for the square form. No doubt there would be still many more relationships to consider, but we think that these several notes, incomplete as they may be, will help shed some light on the mysterious question of the triple precinct of the Druids.