26 § The Wild Boar and the Bear

AMONG the Celts the wild boar and the bear symbolised, respectively, the representatives of the spiritual authority and the temporal power, that is, the two castes of Druids and Knights, the equivalents, at least originally and in their essential attributions, of the Brahmins and Kshatriyas in India. As we have indicated elsewhere,^[1] this clearly Hyperborean symbolism is one of the marks of the direct attachment of the Celtic tradition to the Primordial Tradition of the present _Mahā-Yuga_, whatever other elements, from earlier but already secondary and derivative traditions, may have come to be added to this main current and to be, as it were, reabsorbed into it. The point to be made here is that the Celtic tradition could probably be regarded as truly con-stituting one of the 'links' between the Atlantean tradition and the Hyper-borean tradition, after the end of the secondary period when this Atlantean tradition represented the predominant form and, as it were, the 'substitute' for the original centre which was already inaccessible to the bulk of human-ity.^[2] On this point also, the same symbolism which we have just mentioned can provide some information that is not without interest.

Let us note first of all the importance given to the wild boar by the Hindu tradition, which is itself the direct issue of the Primordial Tradition and which expressly affirms its own Hyperborean origin in the _Veda_. The wild boar (_varāha_) not only figures as the third of the ten _avataras_ of Vishnu in the present _Mahā-Yuga_, but our entire _Kalpa_, that is to say, the entire cycle of manifestation of our world is designated in Hinduism as the _Shwetavaraha-Kalpa_, the 'cycle of the white wild boar'. This being so, and considering the analogy which necessarily exists between the great cycle and subordinate cycles, it is natural that the mark of the _Kalpa_, so to speak, should be found once more at the outset of the _Mahā-Yuga_; and this is why the polar 'sacred land', seat of the primordial spiritual centre of this _Mahā-Yuga_, is also called Vārāhī or the 'land of the wild boar'.^[3] Moreover, since it is there that the first spiritual authority resided, from which all other authority of the same order is only an emanation, it is no less natural that the representatives of such an authority should also have received the symbol of the wild boar as their distinctive mark and that they should have retained it during the times that followed. This is why the Druids designated themselves as 'wild boars' even though, since symbolism always has multiple aspects, we may well have here at the same time an allusion to the isolation in which they kept themselves with regard to the outside world, the wild boar always being thought of as 'solitary'. It must be added, furthermore, that this very isolation, which took the form, with the Celts as with the Hindus, of a forest retreat, is not unrelated to the characteristics of 'primordiality', of which some reflection at least has always had to be maintained in all spiritual authority worthy of the function it fulfils.

But let us return to the name Vārāhī, which leads to some particularly important observations: it is considered as an aspect of the _Shakti_ of _Vishnu_, more especially in relation to his third descent, the boar _avatāra_, whose 'solar' nature immediately identifies him with the 'solar land' or primeval 'Syria', of which we have spoken elsewhere,^[4] and which is, moreover, one of the designations of the Hyperborean _Tula_, that is, of the primordial spiritual centre. Then again, the root _var_, for the name of the wild boar, is found in the Nordic languages under the form _bor_.^[5] The exact equivalent of Vārāhī therefore is 'Borean', and the truth is that the customary name of 'Hyperborean' was used only by the Greeks at a time when they had already lost the meaning of this ancient designation. It would be better, therefore, in spite of the usage that has prevailed since then, to term the Primordial Tradition not 'Hyperborean' but simply 'Borean', affirming thereby unequivocally its connection with 'Borea' or the 'land of the wild boar'.

Another point to be made is that the root _var_ or _vri_, has in Sanskrit the sense of 'cover', 'to protect' and 'to hide'; and as the name _Varuna_ and its Greek equivalent _Ouranos_ show, it serves to designate the sky, not only because it covers the earth but also because it represents the higher worlds, hidden from the senses. Now, all this applies perfectly to spiritual centres, either because they are hidden from the eyes of the profane or because they protect the world by their invisible influence, or finally because they are, on earth, like images of the celestial world itself. Let us add that the same root has yet another sense, that of 'choice' or 'election' (_vara_), which obviously is no less in agreement with the region which is everywhere designated by names such as 'land of the elect', 'land of saints' or 'land of the blessed'.^[7]In what we have just said, the union of the two symbolisms, 'solar' and 'polar', may have been noted; but strictly speaking, as far as the wild boar is concerned, it is the polar aspect that is especially important; and this results from the fact that in ancient times the wild boar represented the constellation which later became the Great Bear [Ursa Major].^[8] There is, in this substitution of names, one of the signs of what the Celts symbolised precisely by the struggle between the boar and the bear, that is to say the revolt of the representatives of the temporal power against the supremacy of the spiritual authority, with the diverse vicissitudes which followed in the course of the successive historical periods. The first manifestations of this revolt, in fact, go back much further than commonly-known history, and even further back than the beginning of the Kali-Yuga, in which it was to become more wide-spread than ever before. This explains how the name of _bor_ could have come to be transferred from the wild boar to the bear,^[9] and how 'Borea' itself, the 'land of the wild boar' could subsequently become, at a certain moment, 'the land of the bear' during a period of Kshatriya predominance to which, according to the Hindu tradition, Parashu-Rāma^[10] put an end.In this same Hindu tradition the most common name of the Great Bear is _sapta-riksha_, and the Sanskrit for bear, _Riksha_, is linguistically identical with the names it is known by in various other languages: the Celtic _arth_, the Greek _arktos_, and even the Latin _ursus_. It may be wondered, however, if that is really the primary meaning of the expression _sapta-riksha_, or if, in accordance with the substitution of which we have just spoken there was not rather a kind of super-position of words etymologically distinct but brought together and even identified by the application of a certain phonetic symbolism. In fact, _riksha_, generally speaking, is also a star, that is, a 'light' (_archis_, from the root _arch_ or _ruch_, 'shine' or 'illuminate'), whereas the _sapta-riksha_ is the symbolic abode of the seven _Rishis_ who, beyond the fact that their name relates to 'vision' and therefore to light, are themselves also the seven 'Lights' by whom the Wisdom of earlier cycles was transmitted to the present cycle.^[11] Nor is this connection between the bear and light the only case of its kind in animal symbolism, for the wolf was held to be connected with light by both Celts and Greeks, ^[12] whence its attribution to the solar god, Belen or Apollo.

For a certain period, the name _sapta-riksha_ was no longer applied to the Great Bear, but to the Pleiads, which likewise comprise seven stars. This transfer from a polar constellation to a zodiacal one corresponds to a passage from a solistitial to an equinoctial symbolism, implying a change in the starting point of the annual cycle as well as in the order of predominance of the cardinal points which are related to the different phases of the cycle. ^[13] The change here is from North to West, which is indicative of the Atlantean period; and this is clearly confirmed by the fact that, for the Greeks, the Pleiads were daughters of Atlas and as such were also called Atlantids. Moreover, transfers of this kind are often the cause of multiple confusions, the same names having received different applications at different periods and this applies to terrestrial regions as well as to the heavenly constellations, so that it is not always easy to determine exactly what they refer to in each case. Nor indeed is it possible to do so, except by linking their diverse 'localisations' to the characteristics that belong to the corresponding traditional forms, as we have just done for those of the _sapta-riksha_.

With the Greeks, the revolt of the Kshatriyas was represented by the hunting of the wild boar of Calydon, a transparently Kshatriya version of the struggle according to which they claim for themselves decisive victory, since the boar is killed by them. Athenaeus, following earlier authors, reports that the boar of Calydon was white, ^[14] which clearly identifies him with the _Shweta-varaha_ of the Hindu tradition. ^[15] What is no less significant, from our point of view, is that the first blow was struck by Atalanta who, it is said, had been suckled by a bear; and the presence of her name in this context might indicate that the revolt had its beginning in Atlantis itself, or at least among the heirs of its tradition. ^[16] As to the name of Calydon, it is to be found precisely in Caledo-nia the ancient name of Scotland: apart from any question of a particular 'localisation', it is precisely the country of the 'Kaldes' or Celts; ^[17] and the forest of Calydon is no different from that of Broceliande, the name of which is again the same, though in a somewhat modified form and preceded by the word _bro_ or _bor_, that is the very name of the wild boar.

The fact that the bear is often taken symbolically in its feminine aspect, as we have just seen in the myth of Atalanta, and as is seen also in the denominations _Ursa Major_ and _Ursa Minor_, is also significant, for several reasons, in respect of its attribution to the warrior caste, custodians of the temporal power. In the first place, this caste normally has a 'receptive', or feminine part to play in its relationship with the sacerdotal caste; from which it receives not only the teaching of the traditional doctrine but also the legitimation of its own power, whence, strictly speaking, its 'divine right'. Then, when this same warrior caste, reversing the normal relationships of subordination, claims supremacy, its predominance is generally accompanied by that of feminine elements in the symbolism of the traditional form modified by it; and sometimes, even, as a consequence of this modification, also by the institution of a feminine form of priesthood, such as that of the Celtic druidesses, for example. This last point is merely touched on here, since to dwell on it would lead us too far afield, especially if we wished to search elsewhere for corresponding examples. But we have at least said enough to show why it is the female bear rather than the male that is symbolically placed in opposition to the wild boar. It should be added that the two symbols of the boar and the bear do not always appear in opposition or struggle, but that in certain cases they may represent the spiritual authority and the temporal power (or the two castes of Druids and Knights) in their normal and harmonious relationships as may be seen for example in the legend of Merlin and Arthur. In fact, Merlin, the Druid, is also the boar of the forest of Broceliande, where he ends, moreover, not by being killed like the boar of Calydon, but only by being put to sleep by a feminine power; and King Arthur bears a name derived from that of the bear, _arth_.^[18] More precisely, this name is identical with that of the star _Arcturus_, taking into account the slight difference that is due to their respectively Celtic and Greek derivations. This star is in the constellation of the Waggoner^[19] and by these names one can again see reunited the marks of two different periods, the 'guardian of the Bear' becomes the Waggoner when the Bear herself, or the _sapta-riksha_, has become the _septum triones_ that is to say, the 'seven oxen' (whence the appelation of 'Septentrion' to designate the North); but we are not concerned here with these transformations which are relatively recent in relation to what we are considering.^[20] All that has been said so far seems to point to the following conclusion as regards the respective parts played by the two currents that contributed to the formation of the Celtic tradition: at the beginning the spiritual authority and the temporal power were not separated as two differentiated functions, but were united in their common principle; and a vestige of this is still to be found in the very name of the Druids (_dru-vid_, 'strength-wisdom', these two terms being symbolised by the oak and the mistletoe).^[21] In this respect, and also insofar as they represented more particularly the spiritual authority which has sole charge of the higher part of the doctrine, they were the true heirs of the Primordial Tradition; and the essentially 'borean' symbol, that of the wild boar, pertained to them in their own right. As for the Knights, whose symbol was the bear (or the she-bear of Atalanta), it would seem that the part of the tradition more especially destined for them comprised above all elements proceeding from the Atlantean tradition; and this distinction might even help to explain certain more or less enigmatic points of the later history of the Western traditions.