25 § The Mysteries of the Letter Nūn

NUN is the fourteenth letter of both the Arabic and the Hebrew alphabets and it has the numerical value of 50. It holds however a more particularly significant place in the Arabic alphabet of which it terminates the first half, the total number of letters being 28 instead of the 22 of the Hebrew alphabet. As for its symbolic correspondences, this letter is considered above all, in the Islamic tradition, as representing _al-Hut_, the whale; and this accords with the original meaning of the word _nun_ itself which designates the whale and which also signifies 'fish'. It is by reason of this signification that _Sayyidnā Yūnus_ (the prophet Jonah) is called _Dhūn-Nūn_. This is naturally related to the general symbolism of the fish and more especially to some of those aspects that we considered in the last chapter, in particular, as we shall see, that of the 'fish-saviour', be this the _Matsya-avatāra_ of the Hindu tradition or the _Ichthus_ of the first Christians. The whale also plays the same part in this respect as is played elsewhere by the dolphin, and, like the dolphin it corre-sponds to the zodiacal sign of Capricorn as the solstitial gate that gives access to the 'ascending way'. But its similarity with the _Matsya-avatāra_ is perhaps the most striking as is shown by the considerations drawn from the form of the letter _nun_, especially if they are related to the Biblical history of the pro-phet Jonah.

To understand the question clearly, it must be remembered first of all that _Vishnu_, manifesting himself in the form of the fish (_Matsya_), orders _Satyavrata_, the future _Manu Vaivasvata_, to construct the ark in which the seeds of the future world are to be enclosed, and that under the same form he then guides the ark over the waters during the cataclysm that marks the separation of the two successive _Mahā-Yugas_. The function of _Satyavrata_ here is similar to that of _Sayyidnā Nūh_ (Noah), whose ark likewise contains the elements which will serve for the restoration of the world after the flood. No matter that the application which is made of this may be different, in the sense that the Biblical deluge in its most immediate signification seems to mark the beginning of a more restricted cycle than the _Mahā-Yuga_; though not the same event, they are at least two analogous events, wherein the previous state of the world is destroyed in order to be replaced by a new state.^[1] If we now compare with this the story of Jonah, we see that the whale, instead of simply playing the part of the fish-guide of the ark, is really identified with the ark itself. In fact, Jonah remains enclosed in the body of the whale, like Satyavrata and Noah in the ark, during a period that is also for him, if not for the outer world, a period of obscuration corresponding to the interval between two states or two modalities of existence. Here, too, the difference is only secondary, the same symbolic figures in fact always being susceptible of a double application, macrocosmic and microcosmic. Moreover, Jonah's emergence from the belly of the whale has always been regarded as a symbol of resurrection and therefore of passage to a new state; and this must be compared, on the other hand, with the idea of 'birth' which, in the Hebrew Kabbala especially, is attached to the letter _nūn_ and which must be understood spiritually as a 'new birth', that is, a regeneration of the being, individual or cosmic.

This is what the form of the Arabic letter _nūn_ indicates very clearly: this letter consists of the lower half of a circumference and a point that is the centre of this same circumference. Now the lower half-circumference is also the figure of an ark floating on the waters, and the point within it represents the seed enveloped or contained therein. The central position of this point shows, moreover, that in reality it is a question of the 'seed of immortality', or indestructible 'kernel' which escapes all the outward dissolutions. It may be noted, too, that the half-circumference, with its convexity turned downwards, is a schematic equivalent of the cup, like which it thus has, so to speak, the significance of a 'matrix' in which the not-yet-developed seed is enclosed and which, as we shall see in what follows, is to be identified with the lower or 'terrestrial' half of the World Egg.^[2] Under this aspect of the 'passive' element of spiritual transmutation, _al-Hūt_ is also in a certain manner the representation of every individuality insofar as it carries the 'seed of immortality' in its centre, which is symbolically represented as the heart; and in this connection, we can recall the close relationship, which we have already expounded on other occasions, of the symbolism of the heart with that of the cup, and with that of the 'World Egg'. The development of the spiritual seed implies that the being leaves its individual state and the cosmic setting to which it belongs, just as it is in coming out of the body of the whale that Jonah is 'revived'; and in view of what we have already written on the subject, it will easily be understood that this emergence is the equivalent of issuing forth from the initiatic cave, the very concavity of which is also represented by that of the half-circumference of the _nūn_. The new birth necessarily presupposes death to the former state, whether it be an individual or a world that is in question. Death^[3] and birth or resurrection—here we have two aspects that are inseparable one from another, for they are in reality nothing other than the two opposite faces of one same change of state. _Nūn_ in the alphabet immediately follows _mīm_, which has among its principal significations that of death (_al-mawt_), and whose form^[4] represents the being completely folded up in himself, reduced in a way to a pure virtuality, to which the position of prostration corresponds ritually. But by the concentration of all the essential possibilities of the being in one-single indestructible point, this virtuality, which may seem a transi-tory annihilation, immediately becomes the very seed from which will sprout forth all its developments in the higher states.

It should be added that the symbolism of the whale has not only a benefic aspect, but also a malefic one which, apart from general considerations related to the double meaning of symbols, is further and more especially justified by its connection both with death and with resurrection, under the guise of which every change of state appears according to whether it is viewed from the one side or the other, that is, in relation to the previous state or to the state which is to come. The cave is both a place of burial and a place of rebirth, and in the story of Jonah the whale plays precisely this double part. Besides, cannot one say that the _Matsya-avatāra_ himself appeared first in the baneful guise of harbinger of a cataclysm before becoming the saviour in this very cataclysm? On the other hand, the malefic aspect of the whale is manifestly akin to the Hebrew _Leviathan_.^[5] But it is especially represented in the Arab tradition by the 'daughters of the whale' (_banāt al-Hūt_) who from the astrological point of view are the equivalents of _Rāhu_ and _Kētu_ in the Hindu tradition, especially insofar as concerns the eclipses, and who, it is said, 'will drink the sea' on the last day of the cycle, on that day when 'the stars will arise in the West and will set in the East'. We cannot insist further on this point without altogether digressing from our subject; but we must at least call attention to the fact that one finds again here an immediate connection with the end of the cycle and the change of state which follows, for this is very significant and brings added confirmation to what we have been saying.

Let us now return to the form of the letter _nūn_, which gives rise to a remark that is important from the point of view of the relations existing between the alphabets of different traditional languages. In the Sanskrit alphabet, the corresponding letter _na_, reduced to its fundamental geometrical elements,^[6] is likewise composed of a half-circumference and a point; but here, the convexity being turned upwards, it is the upper half of the circumference and not the lower half as in the Arabic _nūn_. It is therefore the same figure but inverted or, more exactly, two figures that are strictly complementary to one another. If they are joined together, the two central points naturally merge into one, and this gives a circle with the point at the centre, a figure which represents the complete cycle and which is at the same time the symbol of the Sun in astrology and that of gold in alchemy.^[7] Just as the lower half-circumference is the figure of the ark, the upper half-circumference is, as we have seen, that of the rainbow which is its analogue in the strictest acceptance of the word, all true analogy being inverse. These two semi-circles are also the two halves of the 'World Egg', the one terrestrial, in the lower waters, and the other celestial, in the upper waters; and the circular figure, which was complete at the beginning of the cycle, before the separation of the two halves, must be reconstituted at the end of the same cycle.^[8]

It could be said, therefore, that the reunion of the two figures in question represents the completion of the cycle, by the joining of its beginning and its end, and reference to solar symbolism makes this all the clearer inasmuch as the figure of the Sanskrit _na_ corresponds to the rising Sun and that of the Arabic _nūn_ to the setting Sun. On the other hand, the complete circular figure is also the usual symbol of the number 10, the centre being 1 and the circumference 9. But here, being obtained by the union of the two _nūn_, it equals 2 x 50 = 100 = 10², which indicates^[9] that it is in the 'intermediary world' that the junction must be brought about. In fact, this junction is impossible in the lower world, which is the domain of division and separativity, whereas, on the contrary, it always exists in the upper world where it is realised principially in permanent and immutable mode in the eternal present.

To these already lengthy remarks, we will make just one addition so as to connect them with a question which was recently alluded to in this very journal.^[10] It follows from what we have been saying that the fulfilment of