René Guénon
Chapter 9

CHAPTER VI THE UNION OF COMPLEMENTS

WE MUST now consider, at least summarily, another aspect of the symbolism of the cross, which is perhaps the one most generally known, although, at first sight at least, it may not seem to have much direct bearing on all that has gone before : we refer to the cross regarded as a symbol of the union of complements. For this purpose it suffices to envisage the cross in the most usual manner, namely in its two-dimensional form ; to return from that to the three-dimensional form, however, one need only remember that the single horizontal line can be considered as the projection of the entire horizontal plane upon the vertical plane in which the figure is traced. In the present context the vertical line is taken as representing the active principle, and the horizontal line the passive one. These principles are also respectively designated masculine and feminine, by analogy with the human order ; if they are considered in their widest sense, namely in relation to universal manifestation in its totality, they are then the principles that the Hindu doctrine calls Purusha and Prakriti,[27] It is not material here to recapitulate or develop the considerations arising out of the relationship between these two principles, but merely to show that despite appearances there is a certain connection between this significance of the cross and what has been called its metaphysical significance.

In the first place, while reserving the right to return to the point more explicitly later, we would say that this connection follows from the relationship between the vertical axis and the horizontal plane in the metaphysical signification of the cross. It should be clearly appreciated that terms such as active and passive, or their equivalents, have no meaning except in relation to each other, for complementarism is essentially a correlation between two terms. This being so, it is clear that a complementarism such as that of active and passive can be regarded at different levels, so that one and the same term may play an active or a passive role, according to what it is being placed in correlation with; but in every case it can always be said that in such a relationship the active term is, in its own order, the analogue of Purusha and the passive one that of Prakriti. Now, it will be seen later that the vertical axis, which connects together all the states of the being by passing through their respective centres, is the locus of manifestation of what the Far-Eastern tradition calls the “Activity of Heaven”; and this is precisely the “actionless” activity of Purusha, which determines in Prakriti the productions that correspond to all the possibilities of manifestation. As for the horizontal plane, it will be seen that this forms a “plane of reflection”, symbolically represented as the “surface of the waters”, and it is well known that in all traditions the “Waters” are a symbol of Prakriti or of “universal passivity”[27]. To be strictly accurate, as this plane represents a certain degree of Existence (and any one of the horizontal planes which correspond to the indefinite multitude of the states of manifestation could be similarly regarded), it is not identified with Prakriti itself, but only with something which is already determined by a certain set of special conditions of existence (those which define a world), and which plays the part of Prakriti in a relative sense, at a certain level in the scale of universal manifestation. Another point, which is directly connected with the notion of Universal Man, also calls for explanation. We spoke earlier of the latter as being constituted by the couple “Adam-Eve”, and it has been pointed out elsewhere that the couple Purusha-Prakriti, either in respect of all manifestation, or more particularly in respect of a given state of being, can be regarded as equivalent to Universal Man.[27] From this point of view, the union of complements must be regarded as constituting the primordial Androgyne of which all traditions speak. Without dwelling further on this question, it can be said that in the totalization of the being, the complements must in fact be in perfect equilibrium, with no predominance of one over the other. Again, it should be noted that the form as a rule symbolically assigned to the Androgyne is the spherical one,[28] which is the least differentiated of all, since it extends equally in all directions, being regarded by the Pythagoreans, for example, as the most perfect form and as the figure of universal totality.[29] In order to represent the idea of totality in this way, it is further necessary, as was said before, that the sphere shall be indefinite in extent, as are the axes that form the cross, which are three perpendicular diameters of this sphere. In other words, as the sphere is constituted by the radiation proceeding from its centre, it is never closed, since this radiation is indefinite and fills the whole extent by a series of concentric waves, each of which reproduces the original vibration's two phases of concentration and expansion.[30] These two phases, moreover, are themselves an expression of complementarism[27]; if we depart from the special conditions inherent in manifestation (in successive mode), and consider them in simultaneity, they balance each other, so that their combination is really equivalent to the principal immutability, just as the sum of the partial disequilibriums by which all manifestation is realized always and invariably constitutes the total equilibrium. There is one further point that must be mentioned. It was said just now that as the terms active and passive merely express a relationship, they may be applied at different levels; it follows that if we consider the three-dimensional cross, in which the vertical axis and the horizontal plane stand in this active-passive relationship, the same relationship can again be envisaged as between the two horizontal axes, or between what they respectively represent. In this case, in order to preserve the symbolical correspondence established in the first place, and although these axes are both actually horizontal, it is possible to say that one of them—the one that plays the active part—is relatively vertical in respect of the other. For example, if these two axes are regarded as being the solsticial and the equinoctial axis respectively, in accordance with the symbolism of the annual cycle, then the solsticial axis can be described as relatively vertical in relation to the equinoctial, so that in the horizontal plane it analogically plays the part of the polar axis (North-South), and the equinoctial will then play the part of equatorial axis (East-West).[28] Thus in its own plane the horizontal cross reproduces relationships analogous to those expressed by the vertical cross. To return at this point to the metaphysical symbolism which remains the essentially important one, it can thus be said that the integration of the human state, represented by the horizontal cross, is, in its own order of existence, a kind of image of the actual totalization of the being, as represented by the vertical cross.[27]

Footnotes

[27]On the subject of complementarism it should also be noted that in the Arabic alphabet the two first letters, *alif* and *ba*, are regarded respectively as active or masculine and as passive or feminine; since the former is vertical in shape and the latter horizontal, their union forms the cross. Again, as the numerical values of these letters are respectively 1 and 2, this agrees with the Pythagorean arithmetical symbolism, according to which the “monad” is masculine and the “dyad” feminine. The same concordance is found in the Far-Eastern tradition: in the figures of the *K'ua* or “trigrams” of Fu-hsi, the *yang* (the masculine principle) is represented by a full line, and the *yin* (the feminine principle) by a broken line (or rather, one interrupted in the middle); these symbols, known as the “two determinations”, suggest respectively the ideas of unity and duality; this, needless to say, as in Pythagoreanism itself, should be understood in a sense quite different from that of the mere system of “numeration” which Leibnitz thought he had discovered in them (see *East and West*, pp. 72-76). In a general way, according to the *Yi-King*, the odd numbers correspond to *yang* and the even numbers to *yin* (see *La Grande Triade*, chs. IV and VIII); The Pythagorean idea of odd and even seems to recur in what Plato calls the “same” and the “other”, corresponding respectively to unity and duality, envisaged however exclusively in the manifested world. In Chinese numeration, the cross represents the number 10 (and the Roman X indeed is itself only the cross arranged differently); it is here possible to see an allusion to the relationship between the denary and the quaternary:— 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, a relationship that was also depicted by the Pythagorean *Tetraktys*. Indeed, in the correspondence of geometrical figures to numbers, the cross naturally represents the quaternary; to be more exact, it represents it under its dynamic aspect, whereas the square represents it under its static aspect. The relation between these two aspects is expressed by the Hermetic problem of the “squaring of the circle”, or, in the symbolism of three-dimensional geometry, by the relation between the sphere and the cube, to which reference has been made in connection with the shapes of the “earthly Paradise” and the “heavenly Jerusalem” (*Le Roi du Monde*, ch. XI, and *The Reign of Quantity*, ch. XX). Finally, on this subject, it should also be noted that in the number 10 the two digits 1 and 0 further correspond respectively to the active and the passive, represented by the centre and the circumference according to another symbolism (see *La Grande Triade*, ch. XXIII), which however can be attached to that of the cross if it is observed that the centre is the trace of the vertical axis on the horizontal plane in which the circumference must then be imagined as situated, and the latter will thus represent expansion in this same plane by one of the concentric waves whereby it takes place; the circle with the central point, the figure of the denary, is at the same time the symbol of cyclic perfection, i.e. of the integral realization of the possibilities implied in a state of existence.
[28]This is especially applicable to the symbolism of the swastika, which will be discussed later.
[29]Of all lines of equal length, the circumference is that which encloses the greatest surface; similarly, of all bodies of equal surface, the sphere is that which contains the greatest volume; from the purely mathematical viewpoint, this is the reason why these figures were regarded as the most perfect. This idea inspired Leibnitz with his conception of the "best of worlds", which he defined as being, out of the indefinite multitude of all possible worlds, the one that contains the most being or positive reality; but, as already indicated, the application he made of the idea is devoid of any true metaphysical meaning.
[30]This luminous spherical form, not limited and not closed, with its alternations of concentration and expansion (successive from the standpoint of manifestation but in reality simultaneous in the "eternal present"), is in Islamic esotericism the form of the Rūh muhammadiyah; it is this total form of Universal Man that God commanded the angels to adore; and the reception of this form itself is implied in one of the degrees of Islamic initiation.
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