24 § Some Aspects of the Symbolism of the Fish
The symbolism of the fish, which is to be found in numerous traditional forms, including Christianity, is exceedingly complex and has many aspects which need to be clearly distinguished one from another. As to the earliest origins of this symbol, it seems to be of Nordic or even Hyperborean provenance. Its presence has in fact been verified in North Germany and in Scandinavia, [1] and in these regions it is in all likelihood nearer its starting-point than in Central Asia where doubtless it was brought by the great current which, issuing directly from the Primordial Tradition, was later to give birth to the doctrines of India and Persia. It is to be noted moreover, generally speaking, that certain aquatic animals figure above all in the symbolism of Northern peoples: to give just one example, the octopus is particularly widespread among the Scandinavians and the Celts, and is also found in archaic Greece as one of the chief motifs in Mycenian ornamentation. [2]
Another fact which bears out these considerations is that in India the manifestation in the form of the fish (Matsya-avatāra) is held to be the first of all the manifestations of Vishnu, [3] the one which marks the very beginning of the present cycle, and that it is thus directly related to the starting-point of the Primordial Tradition. It must not be forgotten, in this connection, that Vishnu represents the divine Principle especially in its world-preserving aspect. This function comes very close to that of Saviour, which is, more precisely, a particular instance of the wider function of Preserver; and it is truly as Saviour that Vishnu appears in some of his manifestations which correspond to phases of crisis in the history of the world. [4] Now the idea of the Saviour is also explicitly attached to the Christian symbolism of the fish, for the last letter of the Greek Ichthus is interpreted as the initial of Soter. [5] Doubtless there is nothing surprising in this, seeing that it has to do with Christ; but there are none the less emblems which allude more directly to certain of his other attributes, and which do not formally express the function of 'Saviour'.
In the form of the fish, at the end of the Mahā-Yuga which precedes our own, Vishnu appears to Satyavrata [6] who is to become, under the name Vaivasvata, [7] the Manu or Legislator of the present cycle. He announces to him that the world is going to be destroyed by flood, and he orders him to construct an ark in which the seeds of the future world are to be enclosed. Then, in this very same form, he himself guides the ark over the waters during the cataclysm; and this representation of the ark guided by the divine fish is all the more remarkable for having its equivalent also in Christian symbolism. [8]
The Matsya-avatāra has yet another aspect which is particularly worthy of note: after the cataclysm, that is at the beginning of the present Mahā-Yuga, he brings mankind the Veda, which must be understood, according to the etymological signification of the word (derived from the root vid, to know), as the Science of sciences, or Sacred Knowledge in its entirety. This is a very clear allusion to the primordial Revelation, or to the 'non-human' origin of Tradition. It is said that the Veda subsists perpetually, being in itself prior to all the worlds; but it is as if hidden or enveloped during the cosmic cataclysms which separate the different cycles, after which it must be manifested anew. The affirmation of the perpetuity of the Veda, moreover, is directly related to the cosmological theory of the primordiality of sound among the sensible qualities (as the quality that belongs to ether, äkāsha, which is the first of the elements). [9] And this theory is ultimately the same as what other traditions express in speaking of creation by the Word. The primordial sound is this Divine Word by which, according to the first chapter of the Hebrew Genesis, all things have been made. [10] This is why it is said that the Rishis or the Sages of the earliest times 'heard' the Veda. Revelation, being like creation itself a work of the Word, is strictly speaking an 'audition' for him who receives it; and the term which denotes it is shruti, which means literally 'that which is heard'. [11]
During the cataclysm that separates this Mahā-Yuga from the previous one, the Veda was enclosed in a state of envelopment in the conch (shankha), which is one of the chief attributes of Vishnu. The conch is in fact held to contain the imperishable primordial sound (akshara), that is the monosyllable Om, which is par excellence the name of the manifested Word in the three worlds while being at the same time, by another correspondence of its three elements or mātrās, the essence of the triple Veda. [12]
Like Vishnu in India-and also under the form of a fish-the Chaldean Oannés (whom some have regarded expressly as a figure of the Christ) [13] also teaches the primordial doctrine to men, a striking example of the unity existing between traditions that are in appearance most different-a unity which would remain inexplicable if we did not admit their derivation from a common source. The symbolism of Oannés or of Dagon seems moreover to be
not only that of the fish in general, but to be connected more especially with that of the dolphin which with the Greeks was related to the cult of Apollo [14] and had given its name to Delphi; and it is very significant that it was formally recognised that this cult came from the Hyperboreans. The connection between Oannés and the dolphin (which, on the contrary, is not specifically indicated in the manifestation of Vishnu), is above all implicit in the close connection between the symbol of the dolphin and that of the 'Woman of the sea' (Aphrodite Anadyomene of the Greeks). [15] It is she, under diverse names such as Ishtar, Atergatis and Dercéto, who appears as the consort of Oannés or of his equivalents, that is, as a complementary aspect of the same principle, its Shakti, [16] as the Hindu tradition would call her. This is the 'Lady of the Lotus' (Ishtar, like Esther in Hebrew, means 'lotus', and sometimes also 'lily', two flowers which often replace one another in symbolism), [17] like the Kwan-yin of the Far East, who in one of her forms is also the 'Goddess of the depths of the sea'.
To complete these remarks, we will add that the figure of the Babylonian Ea, the 'Lord of the Deep', represented as half-goat and half-fish, [18] is identical with that of the sign Capricorn in the Zodiac and may even have been its prototype. Now it is important to recall in this respect that in the annual cycle the sign of Capricorn corresponds to the winter solstice. The Makara which, in the Hindu zodiac, takes the place of Capricorn, is not unlike the dolphin. The symbolic opposition between the dolphin and the octopus must therefore be brought back to the opposition of the two solstitial signs of Capricorn and Cancer (in India Cancer is represented by the crab) or the Gates of Heaven and Hell, Janua Cæli and Janua Inferni; [19] and this also explains why these same two animals are found associated in certain cases, for example under the tripod of Delphi and under the feet of the coursers that draw the solar chariot, as indicating the two extreme points reached
by the Sun in its annual march. It is important not to confuse the two signs in question with another sign, that of Pisces, the symbolism of which is different and must be related exclusively to that of the fish in general, especially in its connection with the idea of the 'principle of life' and of 'fertility; (above all in the spiritual sense, like 'posterity' in the traditional language of the Far East). These are other aspects which can likewise be related to the Word, but which must none the less be distinguished clearly from those which manifest it, as we have seen, under its two attributes of Revealer and Saviour.