René Guénon
Chapter 30

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. 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, _ākāsha_, 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]

II

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 _Oannès_ (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 _Oannès_ 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 Oannès 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

Footnotes

[13]That amounts to saying that there are no longer, strictly speaking, anything but superstitions, in the etymological sense of this word.
[1]Cf., L Charbonneau-Lassay, 'Le Poisson' in _Regnabit_, December 1926.
[2]The arms of the octopus are generally straight in the Scandinavian figurations, while they are wound in spirals in Mycenian ornaments. In the latter, one also sees very frequently the swastika, or figures that are manifestly derived from it. The symbol of the octopus relates to the zodiacal sign of Cancer, which corresponds to the summer solstice and to the 'depth of the Waters'. It is easy to understand from this that it could sometimes have been taken in a malefic sense, the summer solstice being the _Janua Inferni_.
[3]We must call attention to the fact that we do not say 'incarnations', as is commonly done in the West, for the word is quite inexact. The proper sense of the word _avatāra_ is 'descent' of the divine Principle into the manifested world.
[4]Let us also note in this connection that the last manifestation, the _Kalki-avatāra_, 'He who is mounted on the white horse', and who must come at the end of this cycle, is described in the _Purānas_ in terms rigorously identical to those found in the _Apocalypse_, where they relate to the 'second coming' of Christ.
[5]When the fish is taken as the symbol of Christ, its Greek name, _Ichthus_, is considered as formed by the initial letters of the words _Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter_ (Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour).
[6]This names signifies, literally, 'dedicated to the Truth'; and this idea of the 'Truth' is to be found in the designation of _Satya-Yuga_, the first of the four ages into which the _Mahā-Yuga_ is divided. One may note also the similarity of the word _Satya_ with the name _Saturn_, considered in Western antiquity precisely as the regent of the Golden Age; and in the Hindu tradition, the sphere of Saturn is called _Satya-Loka_.
[7]Issued from _Vivasvat_, one of the twelve _Adityas_ who are regarded as so many forms of the Sun, in correspondence with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and of whom it is said that they must appear simultaneously at the end of the cycle.
[8]Charbonneau-Lassay, in the study mentioned above, cites 'the pontifical ornament decorated with embroidered figures which enclose the remains of the Lombard bishop of the eighth or ninth century, and on which is seen a barque carried by a fish, image of Christ supporting the Church'. Now, the ark has often been regarded as a figure of the Church, just as the barque (which, in ancient times was, with the keys, one of the emblems of Janus; cf., _Autorité spirituelle et pouvoir temporelle_, ch. 8). It is this one and the same idea that we find expressed here both in Hindu and Christian symbolism.
[9]Inversely, when a man is dying, the first of the senses to be 'lost' or reabsorbed is normally the sense of smell corresponding to the element earth, then taste corresponding to water, then sight corresponding to fire, then touch corresponding to air, and finally hearing which corresponds, as we have seen, to ether. Cf., our study of 'La Théorie hindoue des cinq éléments', in _Etudes Traditionnelles_, August-September, 1935. [We have enlarged this note by giving the relevant gist of the above article which is now not easy to obtain. Ed.]
[10]Cf., also the beginning of the Gospel according to St John.
[11]On the distinction between _shruti_ and _smriti_ and on their relationships, see _Man and his Becoming according to the Vedanta_, ch. 1.
[12]On the presence of this same ideogram AVM in ancient Christian symbolism, cf., _The Lord of the World_, ch. 4.
[13]In this connection it is interesting to note that the head of the fish, which gave its form to the head-dress of the priests of _Oannès_, is also the form of the mitre of Christian bishops.
[14]It is this which explains the connection of the dolphin symbol with the idea of light (cf., L Charbonneau-Lassay, 'Le Dauphin et le crustacé' in _Regnabit_, January 1927, and in _Bestiaire du Christ_, ch. 98, 5). Also to be noted is the function attributed by the ancients to the dolphin as saviour of the shipwrecked, of which the legend of Arion offers one of the best known examples.
[15]This 'Woman of the sea' must not be confused with the mermaid, though she may sometimes be represented by a similar form.
[16]The _Dea Syra_ is strictly speaking the 'solar Goddess', just as the primeval Syria is the 'Land of the Sun', as we have already explained, its name being identical with _Sūrya_, the Sanskrit name for the Sun.
[17]In Hebrew, the two names _Esther_ and _Sushana_ have the same meaning and, moreover, they are numerically equivalent: both add up to 661, and the additions before each of them, of the letter _he_, which signifies the definite article of which the value is 5, brings the number to 666, from which some have not failed to draw more or less fantastic deductions; for our part, we mention this only as a mere curiosity.
[18]Moreover _Ea_ holds before him—like the Egyptian scarab—a ball which represents the World Egg.
[19]The function of the dolphin as guide of sanctified souls towards the 'Islands of the Blessed' also refers obviously to the _Janua Cæli_.
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