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In the course of our different studies, we have often had occasion to allude to the symbolism of the annual cycle with its two halves, ascending and descending; and especially to that of the two solstitial gates, which are related to the figure of Janus among the Latins as with that of Ganesha among the Hindus. In order to understand adequately all the importance of this symbolism, it must be remembered that in virtue of the analogy of each part of the Universe with the whole, there is correspondence between the laws of all the cycles, of whatever order they may be, so that the annual cycle, for example, can be taken as a reduced and therefore more accessible image of the great cosmic cycles (and an expression such as that of the 'Great Year' indicates this clearly enough), and as a summary, so to speak, of the whole process of universal manifestation itself. It is this, moreover, which gives astrology all its significance as a strictly cosmological science.

It follows that the two 'stopping points' of the solar procession (and this is the etymological sense of the word 'solstice') must correspond to the two extreme terms of manifestation, either in its entirety or in each of the cycles which constitute it, cycles which are of an incalculable multitude, and which are nothing other than the different states or degrees of Universal Existence. If this be applied more particularly to a cycle of individual manifestation such as that of existence in the human state, it will be easy to understand why the two solstitial gates are traditionally designated as the 'gate of men' and the 'gate of the gods'. The 'gate of men', corresponding likewise to the summer solstice and to the zodiacal sign of Cancer, is the entry into individual manifestation. The 'gate of the gods', corresponding in the same way to the winter solstice and to the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, is the exit from this same individual manifestation and the passage to the higher states, in that the gods (the _devas_ of the Hindu tradition), like the 'angels' according to another terminology, represent, from the metaphysical point of view, the supra-individual states of being.^[2]

If we consider the distribution of zodiacal signs according to the four elemental trigons, we see that the sign of Cancer corresponds to the 'depth of the waters', that is, in the cosmogonic sense, to the embryonic setting in which are deposited the seeds of the manifested world. These seeds cor-respond, in the 'macrocosmic' order, to the _Brahmānda_ or 'World Egg'; and in the 'microcosmic' order, to the _pinda_, formal prototype of the individuality pre-existing in subtle mode from the origin of the cyclic manifestation as constituting one of the possibilities which must be developed in the course of that manifestation.^[3] This can be related also to the fact that this same sign of Cancer is the domicile of the Moon of which the relation with the Waters is well known and which, like the Waters themselves, represents the passive and plastic principle of manifestation: the sphere of the Moon is in fact the 'world of formation', or the domain of the elaboration of forms in the subtle state, the starting point of individual existence.^[4]

In the astrological symbol of Cancer, the seed is seen in the state of half development, which is precisely the subtle state; it is thus a question not of the corporeal embryo but of the above-mentioned formal prototype, the existence of which is situated in the psychic domain or 'intermediary world'. Moreover, its representation is that of the Sanskrit _u_, a spiral element which, in the _akshara_ or sacred monosyllable _Om_, constitutes the intermediary term between the point (_m_), representing principial non-manifestation, and the straight line (_a_), representing the complete development of manifestation in the gross or corporeal state.^[5]

In addition, the seed is double here, placed in two positions, the one the inverse of the other and thus representing two complementary terms. This is the _yang_ and the _yin_ of the Far Eastern tradition where the _yin-yang_ symbol which unites them has in fact a similar form. This symbol, as representative of the cyclic revolutions, the phases of which are bound up with alternating predominance of _yang_ and of _yin_, is not unconnected with other figures of great importance from the traditional point of view, such as the _swastika_, and also the double spiral which is related to the symbolism of the two hemispheres. These, the one luminuous and the other dark (_yang_, in its original signification is the side of light, and _yin_ that of shadow), are the two halves of the 'World Egg', assimilated respectively to Heaven and

Figure 12

Earth.^[6] These are also, for each being, and always in virtue of the analogy of the 'microcosm' with the 'macrocosm', the two halves of the primordial Androgyne which, generally speaking, is described symbolically as being of spherical form. This spherical form is that of the complete being which is in a state of virtuality in the original seed and which has to be reconstituted in its actual plenitude at the term of the development of the individual cycle.^[7]

It is to be noted, on the other hand, that each element of the hieroglyph is also shaped like the conch (_shankha_), which obviously has a direct relationship with the Waters and which is likewise represented as containing the seeds of the future cycle during the periods of _pralaya_ or 'outward dissolution' of the world. This conch encloses the primordial and unperishable sound (_akshara_), the monosyllable OM which, by its three elements (_mātrās_), is the essence of the triple _Veda_; and it is thus that the _Veda_ subsists perpetually, being in itself before all the worlds but as it were hidden or enveloped during the cosmic catyclysms which separate the different cycles, to be subsequently manifested anew at the beginning of each of them.^[8] Furthermore, the schema can be completed as being that of the _akshara_ itself, the straight line (_a_) covering and closing the conch (_u_), which contains within it the point (_m_), or the essential principle of all beings.^[9] By its horizontality, the straight line then represents at the same time the 'surface of the Waters', that is, the substantial setting in which the seeds will be developed (this development being represented in Oriental symbolism by the blooming of the lotus flower) after the end of the intermediary period of obscuration (_sandhyā_) between two cycles. At this stage, keeping to the same schematic representation, we will have a figure that can be described as the turning round of the conch, as it opens to allow the seed to escape along the straight line now oriented in a vertical downward direction which is that of the development of manifestation starting from its unmanifested principle.^[10]

Of these two positions of the conch, which are to be found in the two halves of the symbol of Cancer, the first corresponds to the ark of Noah (or of _Satyavrata_ in the Hindu tradition) which can be represented as the lower half of a circumference closed by its horizontal diameter and containing within it the point in which are synthetised all the seeds in the state of complete envelopment.^[11] The second position is symbolised by the rainbow, appearing 'in the clouds', that is, in the region of the Upper Waters, at the moment which marks the re-establishment of order and the restoration of all things, whereas during the catyclysm, the ark floated on the ocean of the Lower Waters. The rainbow is therefore the upper half of the same circumference; and the reunion of the two figures, inverse and complementary to one another, forms a single complete circular or cyclic figure, reconstituting the primordial spherical form. This circumference is the vertical section of the sphere of which the horizontal section is represented by the circular enclosure of the terrestrial Paradise.^[12] Inside the Far-Eastern _yin-yang_ the same two half circumferences are to be found, but they are displaced by a duplication of the centre representing a polarisation which is, for each state of manifestation, the analogue of what the polarisation of Sat, or pure Being, into _Purusha-Prakriti_ is for universal manifestation.^[13]

Footnotes

[20]One should write 'pantacle' (pantaculum, literally 'little all'), and not 'pentacle' as is too often done; this spelling error has led to the belief that the word is related to the number 5 and that it should be taken as a synonym of 'pentagram'.

[21]Furthermore, this conception is in a way implied in the very plan of the cathedral; but for the moment at least we cannot undertake to justify this affirmation, which would lead us much too far afield.

[1]See especially The Lord of the World, ch. 3.

[2]This point is explained more amply in _The Multiple States of the Being_.

[3]See _Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta_, ch. 13 and 19. The constitutive analogy of the 'microcosm' and of the 'macrocosm', considered under this aspect, is expressed in the Hindu doctrine by this formula: _Yathā pinda Tathā Brahmanda_, 'as the (subtle) individual embryo, so the "World Egg".'

[4]See _Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta_, ch. 21. We have pointed out on several occasions the identity of the 'world of formation', or _Yetsirah_ according to the Hebrew Kabbala, with the domain of subtle manifestation.

[5]On these geometrical forms corresponding respectively to the three _mātrās_ of _OM_, see ibid, ch. 17. It is well to recall in this connection that the point is the primordial principle of all geometrical figures as the non-manifest is of the states of manifestation and that, being supra formal and 'without dimensions', it is, in its own order, true indivisible unity, which makes it a natural symbol of pure Being. [The author explained to me that the 'geometrical hieroglyph' of Om (aum) referred to here and elsewhere in his writings is. Ed.]

[6]With the Greeks, these two hemispheres were represented by the round coifs of the Dioscures, Castor and Pollux, who are the two halves of the egg of Leda, that is, the egg of the swan which, like the serpent's egg, represents the 'World Egg'.

[7]See, for example, the discourse that Plato in _The Symposium_ places in the mouth of Aristophanes; most modern commentaries fail to recognise its symbolic value, which is none the less evident. We have dwelt in more detail on this spherical form in _The Symbolism of the Cross_.

[8]The affirmation of the perpetuity of the _Veda_ must be linked directly to the cosmological theory of the primordiality of sound (_shabda_) among the sensible qualities (as the quality that belongs to ether, _Ākāsha_, which is the first of the elements); and this theory must itself be related to that of 'creation by the Word' in the Western traditions. The Primordial sound is the divine Word 'by which all things were made'.

[9]By quite a remarkable concordance, this schema is also that of the human ear, the organ of hearing which, in order to be apt for the perception of sound, has to be actually shaped in conformity with the nature of sound.

[10]This new figure [ ] is that which is given in the _Archéomètre_ for the letter _heth_ which corresponds to the zodiacal sign of Cancer. [The astral alphabet in question, known as *Watan* or *Vatan*, was the primeval script of the Atlantids, and it was also known to the Hindus, who alone retained the knowledge of it after the destruction of Atlantis. The three first letters stood for the principial triad, then seven for the planets and twelve for the zodiacal signs, 22 in all. See Michel Vâlsan, *Etudes Traditionnelles*, March-April 1964, pp. 85-90. Ed.]

[11]The half circumference must be considered here as a morphological equivalent of the spiral element which we mentioned earlier; but in that the actualisation of the development from the initial seed-point is clearly visible.

[12]See _The Lord of the World_, ch. 11. This is also related to the mysteries of the letter _nun_ in the Arabic alphabet. [See below, 25, 'The Mysteries of the Letter Nun'.]

[13]This is a first distinction or differentiation, but still without a separation of the complementaries. The constitution of the Androgyne itself corresponds to this stage, while prior to this differentiation we can only speak of a 'neutrality' which is that of pure Being (see _The Symbolism of the Cross_, ch. 30).

21 § The Hieroglyph of Cancer

Footnotes