34 § The Heart and the World Egg
After all the observations made so far on the various aspects of the symbolism of the cave, we have still one more important point to speak of, namely the relationship of this symbol with the World Egg. But in order to make this entirely clear and to connect it more directly with what has already been said, we must first speak of the symbolic relationships of the heart with the World Egg. This could seem surprising at a first glance which might discern nothing other than a certain similarity of shape between the heart and the egg; but such a resemblance in itself can have no real significance without some deeper underlying relationships. That a connection does exist is shown by the fact that the omphalos and the baetyl, which incontestably are symbols of the centre, are often of ovoid form, as was, for example, the Omphalos of Delphi; [1] and it is this form which we must now explain.
What is to be noted before all else in this respect is that the World Egg is the figure, not of the cosmos in its state of full manifestation, but of that from which its development will be accomplished; and if this development is represented as an expansion in all directions from its starting point, that point must clearly coincide with the centre itself, so that the World Egg is indeed central in relation to the cosmos. [2] The Biblical figure of the Earthly Paradise, which is also the 'Centre of the World', is that of a circular precinct which may be considered as the horizontal section of an ovoid form as well as that of a spherical form. Let us add that, in fact, the difference between the two forms consists essentially in this, that the spherical form, extending equally in all directions
6. It will be noted, according to the same diagram, that if the mountain is replaced by the pyramid, the pyramid's inner chamber is the exact equivalent of the cave.
from its centre, is the true primordial form, while that of the egg corresponds to a state which is already differentiated, and which is derived from the preceding one by a sort of polarization or splitting of the centre. [3] The polarization may be said moreover to take place once the sphere completes a rotation around a determined axis, since from that moment all the directions of space no longer uniformly play the same part; and this marks precisely the transition from the one to the other of these two successive phases of the cosmogonic process, which are symbolised respectively by the sphere and the egg. [4]
It only remains now to show that what is contained in the World Egg is, as we said above, really identical to what is also contained symbolically in the heart, and in the cave as well insofar as it is the equivalent of the heart. The content in question is the spiritual 'seed' which, in the macrocosmic order, is called Hiranyagarbha in the Hindu tradition, literally, the 'golden embryo'. [5] This seed is truly the primordial Avatāra, [6] and we have seen that the birthplace of the Avatāra, as well as of that which corresponds to it from the microcosmic point of view, is represented precisely by the heart or the cave. It might be objected that in the text we then cited [7] as well as in many other cases, the Avatāra is expressly designated as Agni, while it is said that it is Brahmā [8] who is enveloped in the World Egg (called, for that very reason Brahmānda) to be born there as Hiranyagarbha. But apart from the fact that the different names really designate only different divine attributes which, far from being separate entities, are necessarily always connected with one another, it should be noted more especially here that since gold is considered as the 'mineral light' and the 'sun of metals', Hiranyagarbha is defined by its very name as a fiery principle, and for this reason, together with that of its central position, it is assimilated symbolically to the Sun which, moreover, is in all traditions one of the figures of the 'Heart of the World'.
To pass on now to the microcosmic application, we need only recall the analogy that exists between the pinda, the subtle embryo of the individual
being, and the Brahmānda or 'World Egg'; [9] and the pinda, inasmuch as it is the permanent and indestructible seed of the being, is identified also with the 'kernel of immortality' which is called luz in the Hebraic tradition. [10] It is true that, in general, the luz is not spoken of as situated in the heart, or that at least the heart is just one of the different localizations which it may be given in its correspondence with the bodily organism, and that it is not this localisation that is most commonly in question; but it none the less comes into its own as one of them precisely when, in view of all that has already been said, it must do so, that is, when the luz is in immediate relation with the 'second birth'. In fact, these localisations, which relate also to the Hindu doctrine of the chakras, refer to many conditions of the human being, or to phases of his spiritual development: at the base of the vertebral column is the state of 'sleep' where the luz is to be found in the ordinary man; [11] when the luz is in the heart, it is in the initial phase of its 'germination', which is the 'second birth'; when it is at the 'frontal eye', then the perfection of the human state has been attained, the reintegration into the 'primordial state'. Finally, when it is at the crown of the head, that signifies the passage to supra-individual states; and we shall find yet again the exact correspondence of these different stages when we return to the symbolism of the initiatic cave. [12]