MYTHICAL BEINGS Angel Whatever the nature of their “overshadowing,” an- Who or what they are we do not know, but they gels fatefully alter our lives. Within the fi re of their love have stirred the imaginations of artists, writers, mys- lies the latent power for igniting terrifying judgment. tics and ordinary individuals of virtually every age and We can wrestle with the angels, lose or fi nd ourselves culture. Their name deriving from the Greek angelos, in their cascading glory, shudder at their prescient dec- denoting “one who announces or tells, a messenger,” larations. Though not always benign and often por- angels are agents of supernatural revelation, proclama- trayed as morally ambiguous, they are irresistible. Lu- tion, aid and guidance. They approach us as emissary cifer (“light-bearer”) illuminates the paradoxical dreams, visions and meditative states; manifest as ce- association between rebellion and the fall into con- lestial voices or choirs, human or animal shapes, male, sciousness. The angels in Genesis 6:2 seduce human female or androgynous, star, cloud or fi re. Their great women and sire destructive giants, yet in the Book of wings are tokens of access to supernal regions of knowl- Enoch they also teach humanity the secrets of horti- edge and information unavailable to ourselves except culture, metallurgy, astrology and jewelry making. An- in the bedazzling angelic moment. They enthrall us gels may embody the potentially saving or the poten- with the lovely subtle stuff of their “corporeal incorpo- tially annihilating. reality” and “unearthly voluptuousness” (Zimmer, 2 1. Colorfully attired angels compose a choir of celestial 2. An unknown Italian artist depicts this “messenger” bridesmaids attendant upon the from transpersonal realms Virgin’s assumption into heaven. Angels Dancing in as a being neither human nor god, animal nor force of Front of the Sun, by Giovanni di Paolo (ca. 1403–82), nature, yet incorporating aspects oil on panel, 15th century C.E., Italy. of each of these orders. Fresco, early 14th century C.E., Northern Italy. 1 680 681 6678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LITHO_GB.IND5678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_GB.IND578-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LGIBTH.INOD_5G B 6806.I8N0D5 680680 003.08.201004.08.201034.08.2010 15:32:5912:39:12152:329:5192 UhrUhr 6678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LITHO_GB.IND5678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_GB.IND578-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LGIBTH.INOD_5G B 6816.I8N1D5 681681 003.08.201004.08.201034.08.2010 15:32:5912:39:12152:329:5192 UhrUhr MYTHICAL BEINGS 120). We delight in images of seraphic aerodynamics, tering in-breakings of ecstasy and overfl ow, they “dic- the sweet rapture of child angels at the manger, the glo- tate” the passionate words of philosophers and poets: rious assemblage of angelic hosts in a night sky. Their guardian images surround us. You see them Who, if I cried out, would hear me anywhere you go: engraved in an ancient rock wall, among the angels’ looking out serenely or militantly from the stained- hierarchies? and even if one of them glass windows of a church, painted in ancient tombs or pressed me etched on a gravestone. Hindu or Buddhist apsaras, suddenly against his heart: Tibetan dakini-angels, the winged attendants in Indian I would be consumed carvings, or ba-fi gures in Egyptian myth evoke them. in that overwhelming existence. They appear as fl ying spirit men in the great vision of For beauty is nothing Black Elk. Alchemists depict angelic guides in their il- but the beginning of terror, which we lustrations. Winged fi gures of Sleep and Death escort still are just able to endure, pagan souls beneath the earth. The angel Gabriel com- and we are so awed because it mands the illiterate Muhammad to “Read!” and thus serenely disdains to assume a preeminent role as Allah’s messenger. In to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying. near-death experiences, angelic “beings of light” have Rilke, “The First Elegy,” Duino Elegies lovingly encompassed the dying, returning them to life. The profound nature of angelic encounter is one of nu- Rilke, Rainer Maria. The Selected Poetry of Rainer minous insight or immediate, portentous intimation of Maria Rilke. NY, 1989. possibilities consciousness scarcely comprehends. An- Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art gels trumpet us to religious and creative awakening; and Civilization. NY, 1946. 4 herald sacred birth and psychic unfolding. And, as shat- 5 3. With animated faces, two Islamic angel scribes write the names of the blessed in the Book of Life, suggesting angels’ ongoing and attentive interest in human affairs. Recording Angels, book illustration, 1280 C.E., Wasit, Iraq. 4. The fallen angels who defi ed their creator in pursuit 5. An angel prods Adam and Eve into exile, his of radical self-determination become inverted demeanor evoking uncompromising adherence to divine intermediaries between Lucifer and humankind. Fall of law. Expulsion from Paradise, detail, from the Cortona the Rebel Angels, detail, illuminated manuscript from Altarpiece, by Fra Angelico, tempera on wood, ca. Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Limbourg 1432–3, Italy. Brothers, ca. 1416, France. 3 682 683 6678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LITHO_GB.IND5678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_GB.IND578-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LGIBTH.INOD_5G B 6826.I8N2D5 682682 003.08.201004.08.201034.08.2010 15:33:0012:39:12152:339:0102 UhrUhr 6678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LITHO_GB.IND5678-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_GB.IND578-791_VA_BOOK_OF_SYMBOLS_06703_LGIBTH.INOD_5G B 6836.I8N3D5 683683 003.08.201004.08.201034.08.2010 15:33:0012:39:12152:339:0102 UhrUhr WATER River … one cannot bathe twice in the same river rivers fl ow downhill from their source, fi nally termi- because already, in his inmost recesses, the nating in a sea or confl uence. Creatures can be driven human being shares the destiny of fl owing to swim upstream, like the salmon, and others just go water .... a being dedicated to water is a being with the fl ow; rivers carry things and are transporting in fl ux. He dies every minute; something of his in ways both literal and metaphorical. And rivers can substance is constantly falling away. run dry, their beds worn and empty, signs of a chang- Gaston Bachelard ing course or season, nature living in time. Language is a river of words … a river of poetry and music trans- As a great fi sh travels along both banks, porting the head of Orpheus; rivers are weary, strong, the nearer and the farther, even so a person fl owing, sparkling, gushing, falling, rapid, smooth, travels along both states, the dream state heavy, bright. Everything that lives partakes of the and the waking state. quality of riverness. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Book IV.3:18 Mythologies speak of how the great waters came to earth as river. The rivers diverged into four in Para- Orinoco, Achelous, Mississippi, Nile … Ganges, dise and into seven in ancient India … waters of life Hudson, Danube … Styx and Lethe … Namings of mov- fl owing from the source into the world need to multi- ing waters fl owing between two banks, waters rolling ply. The Ganges, the holiest of the three holy rivers in as Time itself, as if veins of the Great Mother Earth. India, fl ows from Vishnu’s toe through heaven, earth River is vital fl uidity; the rivers move through both the and the world below. Once upon a time the Holy river upper world and the lower world, over ground and un- of Ganga wound round Mount Meru three times in the derground, inside and outside: rivers of fertility and city of Brahma. Then one day Bhagiratha prayed for prosperity, rivers of forgetting, rivers of binding oath, the river Ganga to descend from the highest abode of rivers of commerce, rivers of blood and rivers of water, the gods to earth and beyond to the depths that they rivers of rebirth, rivers of death, rivers of sorrow, all may reach and revive the 60,000 Sagaras, his ances- presided over in our mythic history by benefi cent de- tors, whose ashes lay in the underworld. His prayers ities, dreadful nixies or changeable river spirits. Rivers were answered, but the might of the holy waters was have been central to civilizations locating along their far too much for the earth to withstand, so Shiva of- banks, offering fresh or freshening water, living fi sh, fered his matted hair to catch the river in her descent clay, fertile soil, fl ood cycles and waterways as famously so that her landing might be softened for humankind. along the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates. The rivers have She emerged from Shiva’s hair in seven streams, one been the abode of immortals who have offered these of which is the Ganges. In the underworld, the waters many gifts as well as the gifts of purity, cleansing, grace cascaded and fl owed over the ashes of the 60,000, at and a mythic passage to the “other shore.” Nefarious which point their souls rose to the heavens. Over a mil- water spirits can just as easily take life, claiming the lion Hindus journey to Varanasi, where the three holi- bodies of those who drown in swift and unpredictable est streams meet, each year to bathe in her waters, currents. The river speaks of life as fl ow, freedom, cleansing themselves of the karma of previous lives, movement, dangerous currents, drowning, running and assuring an auspicious rebirth. The waters of the ever along, running its course, fl ooding, also as con- river can promise rebirth, as the River Jordan was a fi nement, direction, holding, channeling. The river re- baptism of souls into a new life in spirit. “Shall we minds us that we can never rise