Symbolism of the Centre
The ancient Greeks had a stone, the omphalos, at their sacred
centre, the Delphic oracle at Delphi, the spiritual centre of the Greek world. Twice each
year the Amphictyons met there and this assembly of representatives forms the only
effective link between all the ancient Hellenic peoples. (see
footnote) *
Before we return to the main purpose of this essay, an introduction to
the interpretation of symbolic ornamentation, it is of interest that Ireland was set out
according to a plan, the four provinces and the central domain corresponding to the form
in which the high king laid out his own palace. It had a rectangular area in the centre of
the court.
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Notes:
* The Hebrew
Beithel, "House of God", relates to Betyle, which like omphalos is another name
for the sacred standing stone; c.f. Genesis 28: 16-19:
Jacob rose early in the morning and
he took the stone he had used for a head-rest, set it up like a pillar, and poured oil on
its summit to consecrate it. And he gave to this place the name "Beith-El."
Beith-El, "House of God",
became Beith-lehem, "house of bread", the birthplace of the Christ. The symbolic
relation between the stone (axis mundi) and the bread (Corpus Christi), the staff of life,
is worthy of attention, especially in light of the Eucharist.
All this must be related to the
question of "spiritual influences" (berakoth), and when one speaks of the
"cult of the stones" it must be understood clearly that the cult was not
addressed to the stone, but to the divinity resident therein (Guenon).
The Coronation Stone at Westminster,
a large black rectangular block beneath the royal seat, was brought to Scotland by
St.Columba from Ireland, where it was called Jacob's Stone, and remained there until the
fall of the Stuarts and the end of the "Jacobite" lineage. The stone was a long
time at Scone, where the kings of Scotland were crowned upon it, as Shakespeare recounts
in MacBeth. Iona, where Columba founded his spiritual centre, had been a spiritual island
to the Druids, and through the centuries it became such an important site of pilgrimage as
to merit the description "Mecca of the Gaels". The graves of forty Scottish
kings are to be found there, including that of MacBeth, in the vicinity of the Abbey.
Like Jacob, Columba also used a
stone headrest, now at Iona Abbey. This oval, slightly larger than a person's head, has
been shaped by the action of water, except for a simple engraved cross on one side. The
cross is based on a square, with a semicircle set off from the midpoint of each side of
the square and passing through the centre of the square. The four arcs so formed overlap
along the diagonals of the square, at the corners of which the overlapping petals are
broken and joined to the sides of the square to form the arms of the cross. These four
arcs imply overlapping circles or centres of emanation which converge at the fifth centre,
that of the cross itself, relating the symbolism of the five provinces and the Ming Tang
to the construction of the cross.
