René Guénon
Chapter 11

THE OMPHALOS AND SACRED STONES

ACCORDING TO OSSENDOWSKI'S REPORT, the 'King of the World' formerly appeared several times in India and in Siam, 'and blessed the people with a golden apple with the figure of a Lamb above it'[1]; and this detail takes on great importance when compared with what Saint-Yves says of the 'cycle of the Lamb and the Ram'[2]. From another point of view, it is even more remarkable that in Christian symbolism there exist innumerable representations of the Lamb on a mountain from which flow four rivers that are clearly identical with the four rivers of the Terrestrial Paradise.[3] Now we have said that Agarttha bore a different name prior to the onset of the Kali-Yuga, and that this name was Paradesha, which in Sanskrit means ‘supreme country', and which applies well to the spiritual center par excellence, also called the 'Heart of the World'; it is from this word that the Chaldeans formed Pardes, and the Westerners Paradise. Such is the original meaning of this latter, which should make clear why we said before that in one form or another it always signifies the same thing as the Pardes of the Hebrew Kabbalah.Moreover, referring back to what was said earlier concerning the symbolism of the 'Pole', it is also easy to see that the mountain of the Terrestrial Paradise is identical with the 'polar mountain', which, under various names, exists in almost all traditions. We have already mentioned the Meru of the Hindus and the Alborj of the Persians, as well as Montsalvat of the Western legend of the Grail; there are also the mountain Qaf[4] of the Arabs and the Greek Olympus, which in many ways have the same significance. The region in question is always one that, like the Terrestrial Paradise, has become inaccessible to ordinary humanity, and lies beyond the reach of all cataclysms that wrack the human world at the end of certain cyclical periods. This region is the veritable 'supreme country'; moreover, according to certain Vedic and Avestan texts, its location must originally have been polar, even in the literal sense of the word; and whatever its location may have been during the different phases of human history, it always remains polar in the symbolic sense, for it essentially represents the fixed axis around which the revolution of all things is accomplished.The mountain naturally represents the ‘Center of the World' before the onset of the Kali-Yuga, that is to say when it existed openly as it were, and was not yet subterranean; it thus corresponded to what might be called its normal position, apart from the period of obscuration the particular conditions of which imply a sort of reversal of the established order. It must also be added that apart from these considerations referring to cyclical laws, the symbols of the mountain and the cave each have their own raison d'être, and are truly complementary;5 moreover, the cave may be envisaged as located in the interior of the mountain itself, or as immediately beneath it.There are still other symbols in ancient traditions that represent the 'Center of the World', one of the most remarkable perhaps being the Omphalos, which is likewise found among nearly all peoples. In Greek the word means 'umbilicus' or 'navel', but it also designates in a general way all that is central, and in particular the hub of a wheel; in Sanskrit the word nābhi has the same connotations, as do various words in the Celtic and Germanic languages derived from the same root, which is then found under the forms nab and nav.7 In Welsh, on the other hand, the word nav or naf, which is obviously related to the forms just mentioned, carries the sense of 'chief' and is sometimes even applied to God; and so it is indeed the idea of the central Principle that is being expressed here. The meaning 'hub' has, besides, a very particular importance in this regard, because the wheel is everywhere a symbol of the world accomplishing its rotation around a fixed point, a symbol that must thus be compared to the swastika; but in the latter the circumference representing manifestation is not depicted, so that it is the center itself that is expressly pointed to, the swastika then being not a representation of the world but rather of the action of the Principle in relation to the world.

The symbol of the Omphalos could be situated in a place that was simply the center of a determined region, the spiritual center of course, rather than the geographical one, although in certain cases the two might coincide; in cases where the latter held true, this was because, for the people who inhabited the region in question, the place concerned was truly the visible image of the 'Center of the World', just as the tradition proper to that people was only an adaptation of the primordial tradition, expressed in a form that best fitted its mentality and its conditions of existence. The Omphalos that is best known is the one in the temple at Delphi, which was quite certainly the spiritual center of all ancient Greece;[9] and without dwelling on all the reasons that could justify the assertion, we will only note that it was at Delphi that the twice yearly Council of the Amphictyons assembled. This Council was composed of representatives from all the Hellenic peoples, and moreover formed the only effective link between these peoples, the strength of which link lay in its essentially traditional character.The physical representation of the Omphalos was generally a sacred stone, commonly called a 'baetyl', a word that seems to be none other than the Hebrew Beith-El, or ‘House of God', the name given by Jacob to the place where the Lord appeared to him in a dream: 'Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it." And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven." So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel [Beith-El], but the name of the city was Luz at first.'[10] We have explained the meaning of the word Luz above; moreover, it is also said that Beith-El, ‘House of God', later became Beith-Lehem, ‘house of bread', which is the city where Christ was born;[11] and the symbolic relationship existing between stone and bread is moreover most worthy of attention.[12] We should point out that the name Beith-El applies not only to the place but to the stone itself: 'And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God's house.'[13] So it is this stone that must be the true 'divine habitation' (mishkan), according to the designation given later to the Tabernacle, that is, the seat of the Shekinah. All this is naturally connected to the subject of the 'spiritual influences' (berakoth), and when we speak of the 'cult of stones' that was common to so many ancient peoples, it must be understood that this cult was not addressed to the stones themselves but to the divinity whose dwelling-place they were. The stone representing the Omphalos could take the form of a pillar like the stone of Jacob, and it is quite probable that among the Celtic peoples certain 'menhirs' had the same significance; and the oracles were uttered close by these stones, as at Delphi, which is easily explained by the fact that they were considered to be the dwelling-place of the divinity, the 'House of God' being moreover quite naturally identified with the 'Center of the World'. The Omphalos could also be represented in the form of a cone, like the black stone of Cybele, or of an ovoid, the cone recalling the sacred mountain, symbol of the 'Pole' or 'World Axis', and the ovoid form relating directly to another, very important, symbol, the 'World Egg'. [14] It should be added that the Omphalos, although usually represented by a stone, sometimes took the form of a mound or sort of tumulus, which again is an image of the sacred mountain; thus, in China for example, a mound in the shape of a quadrangular pyramid and formed from the earth of the 'five regions' was formerly raised in the center of every kingdom or feudal state; the four faces corresponded to the four cardinal points and its summit to the center itself. [15] Strangely enough, these 'five regions' are also to be found in Ireland, where the 'standing stone of the chieftain' was raised in a similar way at the center of each domain. [16] Among Celtic nations it is in fact Ireland that furnishes the most information relative to the Omphalos. The country was formerly divided into five kingdoms, of which one bore the name Mide (still extant in its anglicized form 'Meath'), from the ancient Celtic word medion, 'middle', identical with the Latin medius.[17] The kingdom of Mide, which had been formed of portions of land appropriated from the other four kingdoms, became the rightful appanage of Ireland's supreme king, to whom the other kings were subordinate. [18] At Ushnagh, situated almost exactly at the center of the country, there stood a gigantic stone called the 'Navel of the Earth', also called the 'stone of the portions' (ail-na-meeran) because it marked the place where the dividing boundaries of the four original kingdoms converged within the kingdom of Mide. On the first day of May each year a general assembly was held there very like the annual reunion of the Druids at their 'central consecrated place' (medio-lanon or medio-nemeton) in Gaul, in the land of the Carnutes, the similarity here with the assembly of the Amphictyons at Delphi being evident.This division of Ireland into four kingdoms, together with the central region where its supreme ruler resided, is linked to very ancient traditions. It was indeed for this reason that Ireland was called the 'isle of the four Masters', [19] but this name, as well as that of 'green isle' (Erin), had previously been applied to another, far more northerly land called Ogygia, or rather Thule, now unknown and perhaps vanished, but once one of the principal spiritual centers, if not even the supreme one during a certain period. The memory of this 'isle of four Masters' is also found as far away as China, although this seems never to have been noticed before, as witnessed by this Taoist text: ‘The emperor Yao took a great deal of trouble, and sincerely believed he had reigned in an ideal way. However, after his visit to the four Masters on the distant island of Ku-she [inhabited by 'true men', chen jen, that is to say those who have been reintegrated into the 'primordial state'], he realized that he had spoilt everything. The ideal, he discovered, consists of the indifference [or rather the detachment in activity that is non-action] of the superior man [20] who allows the cosmic wheel to turn. [21] From another point of view, the 'four Masters' are identified with the four Mahārājas or 'great kings' who in the Indian and Tibetan traditions preside over the four cardinal points, corresponding at the same time to the elements, [22] while the Supreme Master, the fifth, who resides at the center on the sacred mountain, represents the Ether (Ākāsha), the 'quintessence' or quinta essentia of the Hermeticists, which is the primordial element from which the other four proceed;[23] and analogous traditions are also to be found in Central America.

Footnotes

[1]Ossendowski, Beasts, Men and Gods, p310.
[2]It is worth reminding the reader of references made elsewhere to the connection between the Vedic Agni and the symbolism of the Lamb (The Esoterism of Dante, chap. 8, and Man and His Becoming according to the Vedānta, chap. 3), in India the ram representing the vehicle of Agni. Furthermore, as Ossendowski repeatedly points out, the cult of Rama still exists in Mongolia, so that there is something other than Buddhism there, contrary to what most of the orientalists claim. From another source we have heard of memories of the ‘Cycle of Ram' that still linger in Cambodia to this day, a piece of information so extraordinary that we have preferred not to rely upon it, and that we mention only for the record.
[3]Note also the representations of the Lamb on the book of seven seals mentioned in the Apocalypse; Tibetan lamaism also possesses seven mysterious seals, a coincidence that we do not think can be purely accidental.
[4]It is said that the mountain Qāf cannot be reached ‘either by land or by sea' (lā bil-barr wa lā bil-bahr; compare what was said earlier of Montsalvat), and among its other names is 'Mountain of the Saints' (Jabal al-Awliyā), which can be related to the 'Mountain of the Prophets' of Anne-Catherine Emmerich.
[5]This complementarism is that of two triangles placed inversely one upon the other, in this way forming the 'seal of Solomon'; it is also comparable to that of the spear and of the cup mentioned earlier, and to many other equivalent symbols.
[6]In a work entitled Omphalos, eine Philologische, Archäologische, Volkskundliche Abhandlung über die Vorstellungen der Griechen und Anderer Völker vom ‘Nabel der Erde' (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1913), W. H. Roscher has assembled a considerable number of documents establishing this fact for the most diverse peoples; but he is in error when he claims that this symbol is linked to the conceptions of peoples concerning the shape of the earth, for he imagined it to be a question of a belief in a center on the surface of the earth in the most grossly literal sense, an opinion that implies a complete misunderstanding of the profound meaning of the symbolism. In what follows we shall make use of certain particulars found in a study by J. Loth entitled 'L'Omphalos chez les Celtes', published in La Revue des Études anciennes (July-September 1915).
[7]In German Nabe, ‘hub', and Nabel, ‘navel'; similarly, in English, nave and navel, this last word having also the general meaning of center or middle. The Greek omphalos and the Latin umbilicus derive moreover from a simple modification of the same root.
[8]In the Rig-Veda Agni is called the 'Navel of the Universe', which comes back to the same idea; the swastika is often, as we have already said, a symbol of Agni.
[9]There were other spiritual centers in Greece, but they were more particularly reserved for initiation into the Mysteries, such centers as Eleusis and Samothrace, whereas Delphi had a social role concerned directly with the entirety of the Hellenic collectivity.
[10]Gen. 28:16–19.
[11]The phonetic similarity between Beith-Lehem and the form Beith-Elohim, which also figures in the text of Genesis, should also be noted.
[12]‘And the tempter came and said to him: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread" (Matt. 4:3; cf. Luke 4:3). These words have a mysterious meaning, connected with the following: Christ was indeed to accomplish such a transformation, but spiritually, not materially, as the tempter demanded; now the spiritual order is analogous to the material order, but inversely, and the mark of the demon is to take everything backwards. It is Christ himself who, as a manifestation of the Word, is 'the living bread descended from Heaven,' whence his response: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' In the 'New Covenant' the bread was to be substituted for the stone as the 'House of God'; and what is more, this is why the oracles have ceased. In connection with this bread that is identified with the 'flesh' of the manifested Word, it may be of interest to note also that the Arabic word lahm, which is the same as the Hebrew lehem, has precisely the meaning of 'flesh', and not 'bread'.
[13]Gen. 28:22.
[14]Sometimes, and notably on certain Greek Omphaloi, the stone was encircled by a serpent; this serpent is also found coiled at the base or at the summit of certain Chaldean boundary-stones, which should be considered true 'baetyls'. Moreover, the symbol of the stone, like that of the tree (another figure of the 'World Axis') is in a general way closely connected with the symbol of the serpent, and the same holds true for the symbol of the egg, notably among the Celts and the Egyptians. A remarkable example of the figuration of the Omphalos is the ‘baetyl' of Kermaria, the general shape of which is that of an irregular cone, rounded at the top, and bearing on one of its faces the sign of the swastika. J. Loth, in the work mentioned earlier, provides photographs of this 'baetyl', as well as of other stones of the same kind.
[15]The number five has a quite special symbolic significance in the Chinese tradition.
[16]Brehon Laws, cited by J. Loth.
[17]Note too that China is also called the ‘Middle Empire'.
[18]The capital of the kingdom of Mide was Tara; now, in Sanskrit the word Tara means 'star', and more particularly the polar star.
[19]The name Saint Patrick, which is usually known only in its latinized form, was originally Cothraige, which signifies 'the servant of the four'.
[20]The ‘true man', being placed at the center, no longer participates in the movement of things, but in reality it is he who directs this movement by his presence alone since the 'Activity of Heaven' is reflected in him.
[21]Chuang Tzu, chap. 1, Father Weiger translation [in French]. It is said that the emperor Yao reigned in the year 2356 вс.
[22]A connection could also be made here with the four Awtād of Islamic esoterism.
[23]In cruciform figures, such as the swastika, this primordial element is also represented by the central point, which is the Pole; the four other elements, as well as the four cardinal points, correspond to the four branches of the cross, symbolizing moreover the quaternary in all of its applications.
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