34 § The Heart and the World Egg

AFTER all the observations made so far on the various aspects of the symbolism of the cave, we have still one more important point to speak of, namely the relationship of this symbol with the World Egg. But in order to make this entirely clear and to connect it more directly with what has already been said, we must first speak of the symbolic relationships of the heart with the World Egg. This could seem surprising at a first glance which might discern nothing other than a certain similarity of shape between the heart and the egg; but such a resemblance in itself can have no real significance without some deeper underlying relationships. That a connection does exist is shown by the fact that the _omphalos_ and the _baetyl_, which incontestably are symbols of the centre, are often of ovoid form, as was, for example, the _Omphalos_ of Delphi;^[1] and it is this form which we must now explain.

What is to be noted before all else in this respect is that the World Egg is the figure, not of the cosmos in its state of full manifestation, but of that from which its development will be accomplished; and if this development is represented as an expansion in all directions from its starting point, that point must clearly coincide with the centre itself, so that the World Egg is indeed central in relation to the cosmos.^[2] The Biblical figure of the Earthly Paradise, which is also the 'Centre of the World', is that of a circular precinct which may be considered as the horizontal section of an ovoid form as well as that of a spherical form. Let us add that, in fact, the difference between the two forms consists essentially in this, that the spherical form, extending equally in all directions from its centre, is the true primordial form, while that of the egg corresponds to a state which is already differentiated, and which is derived from the preceding one by a sort of polarization or splitting of the centre.^[3] The polarization may be said moreover to take place once the sphere completes a rotation around a determined axis, since from that moment all the directions of space no longer uniformly play the same part; and this marks precisely the transition from the one to the other of these two successive phases of the cosmogonic process, which are symbolised respectively by the sphere and the egg.^[4]It only remains now to show that what is contained in the World Egg is, as we said above, really identical to what is also contained symbolically in the heart, and in the cave as well insofar as it is the equivalent of the heart. The content in question is the spiritual 'seed' which, in the macrocosmic order, is called _Hiranyagarbha_ in the Hindu tradition, literally, the 'golden embryo'.^[5] This seed is truly the primordial _Avatāra_, and we have seen that the birthplace of the _Avatāra_, as well as of that which corresponds to it from the microcosmic point of view, is represented precisely by the heart or the cave. It might be objected that in the text we then cited^[6] as well as in many other cases, the _Avatāra_ is expressly designated as _Agni_, while it is said that it is _Brahmā_ who is enveloped in the World Egg (called, for that very reason _Brahmānda_) to be born there as _Hiranyagarbha_. But apart from the fact that the different names really designate only different divine attributes which, far from being separate entities, are necessarily always connected with one another, it should be noted more especially here that since gold is considered as the 'mineral light' and the 'sun of metals', _Hiranyagarbha_ is defined by its very name as a fiery principle, and for this reason, together with that of its central position, it is assimilated symbolically to the Sun which, moreover, is in all traditions one of the figures of the 'Heart of the World'.To pass on now to the microcosmic application, we need only recall the analogy that exists between the _pinda_, the subtle embryo of the individual