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AXIS MUNDI, the "Hub" Or "Axis" of the Universe, Is Demonstrated Is Zeal As a Reformer

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AXIS MUNDI, the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION 2 SECOND EDITION ATTRIBUTES OF LINDSAY JONES GOD EDITOR IN CHIEF BUTLER, JOSEPH MACMILLAN REFERENCEUSA An imprint of Thomson Gale, a part of The Thomson Corporation THOJVJ50N GAUl THOMSON GALE• Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition Lindsay Jones, Editor in Chief © 2005 Thomson Gale, a part of The For permission to use material from this Since this page cannot legibly accommodate Thomson Corporation. product, submit your request via Web at all copyright notices, the acknowledgments http://www.gale-edit.com/permissions. or you constitute an extension of the copyright Thomson, Star Logo and Macmillan Reference may download our Permissions Request form notice. USA are trademarks and Gale is a registered and submit your request by fax or mail to: trademark used herein under license. 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Errors brought to the attention of the ALL RIGHTS RESERVED publisher and verified to the satisfaction of No part of this work covered by the copyright the publisher will be corrected in future hereon may be reproduced or used in any editions. form or by any means-graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, record- ing, taping, Web distribution, or information storage retrieval systems-without the writ- ten permission of the publisher. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Encyclopedia of religion I Lindsay Jones, editor in chief.- 2nd ed. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN0-02-865733·0 (SETHARDCOVER; ALK. PAPER)- ISBN0-02-865734-9 (V. 1) - ISBN0-02-865735-7 (v. 2)- ISBN0-02-865736-5 (v. 3) - ISBN0·02-865737-3 (v. 4) - ISBN0·02-865738-1 (v. 5) - ISBN0-02-865739-X (v. 6)- ISBN0-02-865740-3 (v. 7) -ISBN 0·02-865741-1 (v. 8)- ISBN0-02-865742-X (v. 9) - ISBN0·02-865743-8 (v. 10) -ISBN 0-02-865980-5 (v. 11) -ISBN 0-02-865981-3 (v. 12) -ISBN 0-02-865982-1 (v. 13) -ISBN 0-02-865983-X (v. 14) - ISBN0·02-865984-8 (v. 15) 1. RELIGION-ENCYCLOPEDIAS. I. JONES,LINDSAY, 1954- BL31.E462005 200' .3-<lc22 2004017052 This title is also available as an e-book. ISBN 0-02-865997-X Contact your Thomson Gale representative for ordering information. Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 712 AWAKUM Heikhalot terminology and its firmed the existence of the Russian church schism, which woJ philosophic vocabulary. to have a decisive influence on the ordering of Russian sol ety over the centuries to come. Avvakum was sent to the rc- tic outpost ofPustozersk from which he and his compa ions son, Sheraga. "Sifrei halakhot shel ha-R ' bad." Tarbiz 36 issued tracts and letters. More important than these w, s Av- ( ecember 1966): 158-179. akurn's apologetic autobiography composed in 1572 to "R. Abraham b. David aus Po uieres." Monatsschrift 1 3. It is a masterpiece of Russian literature and 0 e of Eu- for chichte und Wissemchaft de Judenthums 22 (1873): rope great confessional texts. 337-3 398-407, 446-459; (1874): 19-29, 76-85, Th accession of a new patriarch of Mosco (joachim) 164-182, 75-276. was proba Iy a decisive factor in taking the sta e's campaign against the Id Believers a stage further, an Avvakum, to- gether with h three companions, was sen to the stake in April 1682. A um had persuasively pr ented himself as New Sources confessor and prop t in defense of the sa ed Orthodox her- itage delivered to Mo ow, the "third membered as a martyr 0 the old fait . BIBLIOGRAPHY Avvakurn's autobiography has bee eedited from the manuscript by Andrei N. Robinson, "hizn isaniia Aouakuma i Epi- foniia (Moscow, 1963) The mo scholarly edition and Trigano, S muel L. "Intention d'amour es Maitres de l'ame, de translation of the rext i a Western E pean language is by Ra i Abraham ben David: un guide atrimonial en Lan- Pierre Pascal, La vie ~ l'archipritre Avv m ecritepar lui- g edoc au XIIe siecle." Parties 1 (1985). 149-172. mime; 2d ed. (Pari, 1960). Even so, Robins utters words of caution about he redaction on which the t slation is based. It was aI 0 Pascal who provided a magnifice treat- ment of Aw m and his times in Avvakum et lesdeb du Rasko!:La 'se religieuseau dix-septieme siecleen Russie, ed. (Pari, 1963). AWAKUM (162011-1682), Russian Orthodox ar SERGEI HACKEL (I 987) priest; founding father of the Old Believers; martyr Av- vakum as ordained to the priesthood at the age of enty- two, servi in the area ofNizhni Novgorod; eight}) ars later he was pro oted to be archpriest. By then he ad amply AXIS MUNDI, the "hub" or "axis" of the universe, is demonstrated is zeal as a reformer. Followin n the wake a technical term used in the study of the history of religions. of the Muscovi "God-seekers," an influe ial group of It comprises at least three levels of reference: the images scholarly zealots, n sought to revive liturgic life and public themselves, their function and meaning, and the experiences morality. The resent ent which this proved led to his dis- associated with them. placement and his firs visit to Moscow 652). There he was Vivid images of the axis of the universe vary widely, welcomed by the leadin God-seekers nd introduced to the since they depend on the particular worldview entertained tsar. by a specific culture. Foremost among the images designated by the term axis mundi is the cosmic mountain, a sacred place deemed to be the highest point of the universe and per- haps identified with the center of the world and the place where creation first began. Well-known examples of the cos- mic mountain are Mount Meru of South Asian cosmology, Haraberazaiti of Iranian tradition, and Himinbjorg of Scan- dinavian mythology. The cosmic tree, at whose top abides the celestial divini- ty, is another frequent image standing for the axis of the world. The roots of such a tree may sink into the under- worlds, while its branches traverse the multiple world planes. At the center of the classical Maya vision of the world stood akum and his companions wer brought back to Yaxche, the "first tree," the "green tree," whose place marked ow and anathematized at a church c uncil of 1666- the center of all meaningful directions and colors of the uni- 16 7; he in turn anathematized the council. Thus was con- verse. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION AYURVEDA 713 A cosmic pillar may also serve as an axis mundi. Such SEE ALso Architecture; Mountains; Trees. is the case with the Delaware (Lenape) Indians and other Eastern Woodland peoples of North America. The center BIBLIOGRAPHY post of their ceremonial cult house supports the sky and pass- For a wide-ranging discussion of the general concept of axis es into the very hand of the celestial deity. The Milky Way mundi, see Mircea Eliade's Patterns in Comparative Religion is often viewed as another form of cosmic pillar that supports (New York, 1958), pp. 367-387, which concern the "center the heavens and connects them with earth. of the world," and pp. 265-303, which treat the question of the axis mundi manifest as cosmic tree. See also Eliade's The Many other images fall under the designation axis Sacred and the Profone: The Nature of Religion (New York, mundibecause they share in the symbolic meaning represent- 1959), pp. 20-67, and Images and Symbols: Studies in Reli- ed by a cosmic mountain, tree, or pillar that joins heaven, gious Symbolism (New York, 1961), pp. 27-56, which pro- earth, and underworld. This category includes cities, espe- vide bibliographies tracing the history of this concept in cially imperial capitals deemed "heavenly" sites by virtue of scholarly study of religion. proximity to the divine realm; palaces or temples that contin- For contemporary studies representing investigations of specific ue the imagery of the cosmic mountain (e.g., the Babylonian aspects of axis mundi, the following may serve as illustrations: ziggurat); vines or ropes that pass from heaven to earth; and for the image of mountain, 1.W. Mabbett's "The Symbolism sacred ladders such as the seven-rung ladder, described by of Mount Meru," History of Religions 23 (August 1983): 64- 83; for cosmic tree, Y. T. Hosoi's "The Sacred Tree in Japa- Origen, that brings the candidate in the cult of Mithra nese Prehistory," History of Religions 16 (November 1976): through the seven heavens. 95-119; as a city, Werner Muller's Die heilige Stadt (Stutt- None of these images has a static function. They are all gart, 1961) and Paul Wheatley's The Pivot of the Four Quar- places of active passage and transition. As places of dynamic ters: A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character of union where beings of quite different natures come together the Ancient Chinese City (Chicago, 1971), esp.
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