56 § The Symbolism of the Ladder
THER E has already been mention, in a previous chapter, [1] of the symbolism, preserved among the Indians of North America, in which the different worlds are represented by a series of superposed caves, and creatures pass from one world to another by climbing a central tree. Diverse instances are also to be found of similar symbolism realised by rites in which the climbing of a tree represents the ascension of the being along the 'axis'. Such rites are Vedic as well as Shamanist, and their wide-spread diffusion is itself an indication of their truly 'primordial' character.
The tree can be replaced in such a context by some other axial symbols; the mast of a vessel is one example, and it is to be noted in this connection that, from the traditional point of view, the construction of a ship, just as that of a house or a chariot, is the realisation of a 'cosmic model'. It is also interesting to note that the 'crow's nest' which encircles the upper part of the mast has here strictly the same symbolic place as the 'eye' of the dome, which the axis, even when it is not materially represented, is deemed to pass through at its very centre. On the other hand, lovers of 'folklore' will be able to point out that the common 'greased pole' of travelling shows is itself nothing other than a no longer understood vestige of a rite similar to those of which we have just spoken. In this case also, a particularly significant detail is to be found in the ring which is suspended from the top of the pole and which has to be reached by climbing-a ring through which the pole passes and beyond which it extends, just as the mast of a vessel passes beyond the crow's
nest and the spire of the stupa rises beyond the dome. The ring is yet another obvious representation of 'eye of the sun', and it will be agreed that it is certainly not the 'popular soul' which could have invented such a symbolism.
Another very widely spread symbol, and one which is linked to the same order of ideas, is that of the ladder, which is likewise an axial symbol. As Coomaraswamy said, [2] '... the Axis of the Universe is, as it were, a ladder on which there is a perpetual going up and down'. To make possible the accomplishment of such movement is, in fact, the essential purpose of the ladder; and since, as we have just seen, the tree and the mast play the same part, it can indeed be said that in this respect the ladder is their equivalent. On the other hand, the specific form of the ladder calls for some comments. Its two vertical uprights correspond to the duality of the 'Tree of Knowledge' or, in the Hebrew Kabbala, to the two 'columns', right and left, of the Sephirothic tree. Thus, neither the one nor the other is strictly axial; and the 'column of the middle', which is truly the axis, is not itself represented (just as in those cases where the central pillar of a building is not materially represented). But in another respect, the whole ladder, in its entirety, is in a way 'unified' by the rungs which join the two uprights to one another, and which, being placed horizontally between them, necessarily have their centres situated on the axis. [3] The ladder thus puts before us a very complete symbolism: it can be likened to a vertical bridge rising throughout the worlds and making it possible to traverse their whole hierarchy by passing from rung to rung; and at the same time the rungs are the worlds themselves, that is, the different levels or degrees of universal Existence. [4]
This meaning is obvious in the Biblical symbolism of Jacob's ladder, along which angels ascend and descend; and Jacob set up a stone which, at the place where he had the vision of the ladder, he 'erected like a pillar' which is also a figure of the World Axis and which in a way thus takes the place of the ladder itself. [5] The angels strictly speaking represent the higher states of the being; it is thus to these states that the rungs more particularly correspond, as follows from the fact that the ladder must be considered as having its feet resting on the earth, which means that, for us, it is necessarily our world itself which is the 'support' from which all ascension must be made. Even if it should be supposed that the
ladder extends beneath the earth, in order to comprise the totality of the worlds (as must be the case in reality), its lower portion would in any case be invisible, just as for beings who have reached a 'cave' at a given level, the portion of the central tree beneath them is out of sight. In other words, since the lower rungs have already been traversed, there is no longer any need actually to consider them as regards the subsequent realisation of the being, who has only now to traverse the upper rungs.
This is why, especially when the ladder is used as an element of certain initiatic rites, its rungs are expressly considered as representing the different heavens, that is, the higher states of the being. It is thus that in the Mithraic mysteries the ladder had seven rungs which were related to the seven planets and which, it is said, were made of metals corresponding respectively to them. The traversal of these rungs represented the passage through so many initiatic grades. This ladder of seven rungs is found in certain initiatic organisations of the Middle Ages from which it doubtless passed more or less directly into the higher grades of Scottish Masonry, as we said elsewhere in connection with Dante. [6] In this case, the rungs are related to so many sciences, but that makes no fundamental difference, for according to Dante himself, these sciences are identified with the heavens. [7] It goes without saying that in order to correspond thus to higher states and to degrees of initiation, these sciences could only be traditional sciences understood in the deepest and most strictly esoteric sense; and that is so even for those of them whose names no longer denote, for modern man, anything but profane sciences or arts-in a word, something which by comparison with these genuine sciences is really no more than an empty shell and a lifeless residue-all this being the result of the degeneration we have so often alluded to.
In some cases the symbol of a double ladder is to be found, implying that the ascent has to be followed by a re-descent. The ascent is made on one side by the rungs which are the 'sciences', that is, the degrees of knowledge corresponding to the realisation of the same number of states; and the re-descent is made on the other side by the rungs which are the 'virtues', that is, the fruits of these same degrees of knowledge applied to their respective levels. [8] It may be noted furthermore that even in the case of the single ladder, one of the uprights can also be considered in a certain sense as 'ascending', and the other as 'descending', according to the general meaning of the two cosmic currents of right and left to which these two uprights also correspond by the very reason of their lateral situation with regard to the true axis which, though invisible, is none the less the principal element of the symbol, that to which all its parts must be related if its meaning is to be understood completely.
In conclusion let us consider a somewhat different symbolism also to be found in certain initiatic rituals, namely the ascent of a spiral staircase. In this instance, it could be said that the ascent is less direct, for instead of being accomplished vertically along the direction of the axis itself, it follows the turns of the spiral that is coiled around this axis, so that its progress appears rather as 'peripheral' than as 'central'; but essentially, the final result must nevertheless be the same, for it is always a question of an ascent through the hierarchy of the states of the being. Like the rungs of the ladder, the successive turns of the spiral are, as we have amply explained before, [9] an exact representation of the degrees of universal Existence.