CHAPTER XIV The Symbolism of Weaving
There is a symbolism which is directly related to what has gone before, although it is sometimes applied in a way that may at first sight seem a little remote from our subject. In eastern doctrines, traditional books are frequently referred to by terms which in their literal sense are connected with weaving. Thus, in Sanskrit, sütra properly means "thread"[1]: a book may be formed by a collection of sütras, as a fabric is formed by a tissue of threads; tantra also has the meaning of " thread" and that of " fabric ", and denotes more particularly the " warp" of a fabric.[2] Similarly in Chinese king is the " warp" of a material, and wei is its " weft"; the first of these two words denotes at the same time a fundamental book, and the second denotes the commentaries on it.[3] This distinction between the " warp " and the " weft ", in the corpus of traditional scriptures, corresponds to the distinction drawn in Hindu terminology between Shruti, which is the fruit of direct inspiration, and Smriti, which is the product of reflection upon the contents of Shruti.[4]
If the meaning of this symbolism is to be clearly grasped, it should first be observed that the warp, formed as it is by threads stretched upon the loom, represents the immutable, principial elements, whereas the threads of the weft, which pass between those of the warp by the to-and-fro movement of the shuttle, represent the variable and contingent elements, in other words the applications of the principle to this or that set of particular conditions. Again, if one thread of the warp and one of the weft are considered, it will at once be perceived that their meeting forms the cross, of which they are respectively the vertical line and the horizontal; and every stitch in the fabric, being thus the meeting-point of two mutually perpendicular threads, is thereby the centre of such a cross. Now, following what was said about the general symbolism of the cross, the vertical line represents that which joins together all the degrees of Existence by connecting their corresponding points to one another, whereas the horizontal line represents the development of one of these states or degrees. Thus the horizontal direction may be taken as depicting, for example, the human state, and the vertical direction that which is transcendent in relation to that state. This transcendence clearly belongs to Shruti, which is essentially " non-human", whereas Smriti involves applications to the human order and is produced by the exercise of the specifically human faculties.
At this point another observation may be made which will bring out still more clearly the concordance of different symbolisms which are more closely connected than might be supposed; this concerns the aspect of the cross in which it symbolizes the union of complements. In this aspect, as we have seen, the vertical line represents the active or masculine principle (Purusha), and the horizontal one the passive or feminine principle (Prakriti), all manifestation being produced by the "actionless" influence of the first upon the second. Now, in another context, Shruti is likened to direct light, depicted by the Sun, and Smriti to reflected[5] light, depicted by the moon; but, at the same time, the sun and moon,
in nearly all traditions, also respectively symbolize the masculine and feminine principles in universal manifestation.
The weaving symbolism is not applied merely to traditional scriptures; it is also used to represent the world, or more precisely the aggregate of all the worlds, that is, the indefinite multitude of the states or degrees that constitute universal Existence. Thus, in the Upanishads, the supreme Brahma is called "That upon which the worlds are woven, as warp and weft", or by other similar formulæ[6]; here again, warp and weft naturally have the respective meanings just defined. Again, according to the Taoist doctrine, all beings are subject to the continual alternation of the two states of life and death (condensation and dissipation, vicissitudes of yang and yin)[7]; and the commentators call this alternation " the to-and-fro motion of the shuttle upon the cosmic loom ".[8]
Actually, these two applications of one and the same symbolism are even more closely akin, since in certain traditions the Universe itself is sometimes symbolized by a book; in this connection, one need only recall the Liber Mundi of the Rose-Croix, and also the well-known Apocalyptic symbol of the Liber Vita.[9] From this standpoint again, the threads
of the warp by which the corresponding points in all states are connected, form the Sacred Book which is the prototype (or rather, archetype) of all traditional scriptures, and of which these Scriptures are merely expressions in human language.[10] The threads of the weft, each of which is the development of events in a certain state, form the commentary, in the sense that they give the applications relating to the different states; all events, envisaged in the simultaneity of the " timeless ", are thus inscribed in the Book, of which each represents as it were one character, being also identified with one stitch in the fabric. On this symbolism of the book, the following passage from Mohyiddin ibn Arabi may also be quoted: "The Universe is a vast book; the characters of this book are all written, in principle, with the same ink and transcribed on to the eternal Table by the Divine Pen; all are transcribed simultaneously and inseparably; for that reason the essential phenomena hidden in the 'Secret of Secrets' were given the name of 'transcendant letters'. And these same transcendent letters, that is to say all creatures, after having being virtually condensed in the Divine Omniscience, were carried down on the Divine Breath to the lower lines, and composed and formed the manifested Universe."[11]
Another form of the symbolism of weaving, also found in the Hindu tradition, is the image of the spider weaving its web; this image is even more exact, since the spider spins the thread out of its own substance.[12] By reason of the web's circular shape, which may be considered as the plane section of the cosmogonic spheroid, that is, of the non-closed sphere alluded to earlier on, the warp is here represented by the threads radiating from the centre, and the weft by the threads arranged in concentric circles.[13] To return from
this to the ordinary representation of weaving, it is only necessary to consider the centre as being indefinitely remote, so that the radii become parallel in the vertical direction, while the concentric circles become straight lines perpendicular to these radii, that is, horizontal lines.
To sum up, the warp may be said to represent the principles that bind together all the worlds or all the states, each of its threads forming the connection between corresponding points in these different states; and the weft, the chains of events that are produced in each of the worlds, each thread being thus, the development of events in a given world. From a different viewpoint, it may also be said that the manifestation of a being in a certain state of existence, like any other event, is determined by the meeting of a thread of the warp with a thread of the weft. Each thread of the warp is then a being envisaged in his essential nature, which in so far as it is a direct projection of the principial "Self" provides the connecting-link between all his states, and maintains his unity through their indefinite multiplicity. In this case, the thread of the weft which this thread of the warp meets at a given point corresponds to a definite state of existence, and the intersection of the two threads determines the relation of the being, as regards his manifestation in that state, with the cosmic environment in which he is thus situated. The individual nature of a human being, for instance, is the resultant of the meeting of these two threads; in other words, it will always be necessary to distinguish in him two kinds of elements which will have to be referred to the vertical and the horizontal directions respectively: the first are the elements that properly belong to the being in question, whereas the second proceed from the environmental conditions.
By a different but equivalent symbolism, the threads of which the "world fabric" is formed are also termed the " hair of Shiva"[14]; they might be metaphorically described as the "lines of force" of the manifested Universe, and the directions of space represent them in the corporeal order. It will readily be seen in how many different ways all these
considerations are capable of being applied; but the sole purpose of this chapter was to indicate the essential meaning of the symbolism of weaving, which apparently is very little known in the West.[15]