Let's go to the discovery of the symbolism of the pomegranate in the Mediterranean ecumene between myth, initiation, mysticism and literature: from the Phrygian myth of Cybele and Attis to the Eleusinian Mysteries and the imprisonment of Persephone in Hades, from the symbolism of the biblical Fall to the architectural and Masonic one of the columns of the Jachin and Boaz temple.
di Luke of James
Cover: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpine, 1874
The purpose of this work is to deepen the symbolism of the pomegranate, quite widespread in the Mediterranean area. The basic methodological option is the comparative one. In other words, we will try to review the symbolism of the pomegranate as proposed in different traditions and civilizations, highlighting the common significant core. Furthermore, more than a strictly philological criterion, which lacks in assuming a contemporary perspective in the framing of gnoseological, psychological and mythopoeic dynamics dating back to centuries or millennia ago, we resort to the association on an analogical basis between the symbolic and mythological elements approach, more in keeping with the intuitive structure of ancient thought.
In examining the aforementioned symbolism, we can start from Phrygian myth of Cybele and Attis, which has the advantage of identifying most of the issues that will be examined below. According to this myth, the assembly of the Olympic gods decided to destroy the completeness of thePrimordial Androgynous Agdistis, depriving him of his masculinity. Dionysus turned water into wine and handed the drink to the androgyne who, intoxicated, fell into a heavy sleep. The god thus had time to tie the member to a tree trunk with a rope. When the intoxication disappeared, Agdistis woke up suddenly, being fatally emasculated by the cruel stratagem of Dionysus. The gushing gushes of his blood sprinkled the surrounding soil, miraculously making a plant grow whose fruit we know today as pomegranate. Subsequently, this mysterious fruit fertilized the river goddess Nana, who later gave birth to Attis. Cybele, the primordial mother, that is the only female part of Agdistis that survived the castration, fell madly in love with Attis, but the latter, after having reciprocated the crazy feeling, abandoned him. The goddess took revenge terribly: she drove Attis mad and castrated him. The soil, again wet with blood, this time sprouted in many violets. Repentant Cybele asked Zeus to bring Attis back to life, being more or less satisfied according to the different versions of the myth [1].
This mythical narrative, of archaic atrocity, not only forges one of the oldest archetypes of resurrection of the Mediterranean area, but indicates with exemplary precision some of the key words to understand the essential meaning of the symbolism of the pomegranate: primordiality, fall, blood, death, fecundity, therefore life and even love. The antithetical nature of the concepts mentioned, far from denouncing the inconsistency of the following interpretations, makes the pomegranate, rather, a perfect symbol, capable of uniting the (apparent) opposites [2].
Other and well known are the mythological, legendary or, in any case, traditional references to the "apple with seeds" (this, etymologically, the meaning of the name "pomegranate") that will accompany and corroborate the deepening of its symbolism [3]. According to a certain interpretation, the fruit collected by Eve from the Tree of Good and Evil, which caused the Fall of the progenitors of humanity, was none other than a pomegranate and not a simple apple. This is enough to connect the garnet apple to the primordial age of humanity and to the subsequent fall from it, just as the Agdistis / Cybele myth itself is nothing but a Phrygian declination of the mythologeme of the loss of a primitive fullness, symbolized by androgyny [4].
In the context just indicated, the pomegranate takes on a cosmic meaning due to its shape and structure. It is, in fact, a pommel, whose ideal sphericity recalls the earth globe and, therefore, the whole world. This is relevant for that kabbalistic tradition according to which the harvest of the apple caused the fall of humanity because it symbolized the fascination of Life (Eve) for the material world (the spherical fruit) at the expense of Divine Wisdom (the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge ). Consistent with this hermeneutic option, it is the juxtaposition, made in Jewish doctrine, between the pomegranate and the Torah, the first having 613 seeds, according to tradition, and the second having an equal number of verses. Taking into account this juxtaposition and the rabbinic exegesis according to which the Torah was the matrix of the entire Creation [5], it can be understood how the pomegranate is colored with particular cosmogonic meanings.
Nor should it be obliterated that, due to its structure that concentrically collects numerous juicy seeds within a compact peel, the pomegranate looks like a sort of cosmogram, whose rind can indicate the external world and its profane knowledge, the heart the Truth and the numerous juicy seeds all beings, variously distant from the center according to their spiritual elevation, analogically the Islamic doctrine ofEl-Qishr wa'l-Lobb, of the "rind and the core" [6]. Beyond the sphericity, the pomegranate has a potentially toxic leathery petiole at the base, while at the top it is framed by an elegant crown, as if to incorporate within itself a symbolism of elevation and improvement.
On the other hand, the set of grains packed into the peel has always recalled the ideas of union, brotherhood, solidarity, especially in initiatory organizations that see in the concealment of pomegranate seeds an affinity with their confidentiality. [7]. The multitude of them then recalls, almost in a propitiatory way, fecundity, as abundance and perpetuation of life and its beginning. The concept of fecundity pervades the whole Phrygian myth of Agdistis / Cybele and Attis. Cybele, in fact, is an Anatolian personification of the Great Mother, who presided over the fertility of the fields, of women, of all existence. The pomegranate itself is then born from the blood of the castration of the Androgyne, connecting to the symbolism of the phallus as the bearer of the vital principle. The same knob also has an occult fecundating capacity who manages to impregnate Attis's mother at the touch. Finally, in the story, we witness the miraculous budding, respectively from the blood of the androgyne and Attis, of the pomegranate and violets. It can therefore be said that the whole myth of Agdistis and Attis contemplates, as indeed that of Demeter and Kore, referred to below, the Mystery of Fertility, which is, first of all, Mystery of the act of fertilization, sex. Not surprisingly, the shape of the open pomegranate refers to that of the vulva and, according to another tradition, this time of Hellenistic style, the apple given by Paris to Aphrodite, the divinity of love, was a pomegranate, electing her to be the most beautiful among the goddesses and having in exchange the love of Elena [8].
Sex and fecundity, however, belong not only to life, but equally, subtly, to death. Pluto, god of the Underworld, is etymologically "the rich man", because his chthonic kingdom - which is not underground, but is a place beyond earth - is eternally populated by aerial images before and after the short human life [9]. If fecundity in the world of the living is the expectation of fertilization, in the underworld it is a perennial imaginal proliferation, of images not (yet) covered with flesh and sprinkled with blood, but which preside over the inner life and support the inner sense of sexuality. [10]. The occult meaning of the myth alludes to this imaginality of the underworld Prosperpina /Kore, "The girl" evergreen daughter of Demeter, destined to reign over the Underworld and stay there for six months a year after eating some pomegranate seeds that Hades offered her [11]. The pomegranate, with its impressive number of juicy, fragile liquid, not quite palpable seeds, recalls the underworld abundance more than any other fruit.
Another element that inexorably links the garnet apple to death - this time in the most carnal sense - is the deep ruby red color of its juice, completely similar to blood. This lifeblood, liminal between life and death, health and violence, has been the subject of precepts, superstitions, reverences, rituals at every human latitude and in every epoch of history. Even if it is not possible, here, to analyze everything that could be called "the anthropology of blood" [12], nevertheless it is not difficult to understand what reverence the sanguine juice of the pomegranate could impose on the analogical and symbolic thought of ancient man, so as to make it approach the mortuary environment. But the blood juice of the pomegranate not only evokes death as a dimension, but also death as a consequence of an unnecessary human gesture in the plot of Necessity: the hunting killing [13]. Blood becomes taboo because it passes on the memory of the sacrilegious passage to the killing of the other living being, not yet an animal distinct from man, for sustenance, which has left an indelible trace in civilization [14].
What appears from the survey carried out so far is that the pomegranate not only welcomes the opposite concepts of fall, abundance, death, life, but, clearly evoking also "intermediate" elements such as fertility and blood, introduces a whole symbolism of the transition, especially on an existential or ritual level. For this reason, the pomegranate can take on a particular role in the context of the rite of passage par excellence, the initiatory one, aimed at introducing the initiator to a new life, with palingenetic implications. In particular, anthropological studies [15] have found a tripartite structure of initiation, in which the following are distinguished:
- the pre-liminal phase of separation and isolation from a previous human, cultural, social context;
- the phase of liminal transition, strictly ritual or examination, characterized by the ambiguity of the personal condition of the initiate;
- the post-liminal phase, of reintegration into a new one status.
The pomegranate, due to the aforementioned symbolic developments, is particularly inherent in the intermediate and liminal phase. It obviously appears in the context of Eleusinian Mysteries, especially in the Great Mysteries, inspired by the mythological story of Demeter and Proserpina. There the ban on eating pomegranates, along with other foods such as broad beans, apples, some fish [16]. But the pomegranate rises to fundamental importance, more than for ritual roles, for the fundamental symbolic-mythological role, being the fruit which, eaten, binds Proserpina to the Kingdom of the Dead. Indeed, a Greek terracotta of the fourth century BC depicts Prosperpina kneeling on a pomegranate, as if to emerge from it. This confirms how much the fruit was intended, in the Greek world, as a sort of compendium of the entire Eleusinian mystery philosophy, in which the character of liminality is concretized, mythopoietically, in the perennial division of Prosperpina / Persephone between the underworld and the superficial world, having to reside in each one, for six months a year, without any possibility of achieving a reintegration into a definitive status.
Still in the initiatory sphere, the pomegranate finds its place in the architecture of the Masonic temple. If it is no secret, in fact, that the Masonic temple is inspired by the Temple of Solomon, it should be noted immediately that the element of the pomegranate in the Masonic tradition differs from the biblical description. In the Old Testament, in fact, we read that Hiram, the legendary architect,
he cast two bronze columns, each eighteen cubits high and twelve in circumference. He made two capitals, cast in bronze, to be placed on top of the columns; both were five cubits high. He made two lattices to cover the capitals that were above the columns, a lattice for one capital and a lattice for the other capital. He made pomegranates in two rows around the fence to cover the capitals above the columns; in the same way he did for the second capital. The capitals above the columns were in the shape of a lily. There were capitals above the columns, applied to the projection that was beyond the grid; they contained two hundred pomegranates in a row around each capital. He erected the columns in the vestibule of the temple. He erected the right column, which he called Iachin and erected the left column, which he called Boaz. (1 Kings 7,15: 21-XNUMX)
In Freemasonry, however, the two columns Boaz and Jachin they differ from each other, symbolizing, with their own characteristics, the universal dualities. The pomegranate, in particular, is found on the Jachin column, while a water globe is placed on Boaz. The position of the pomegranates as an ornament of the entrance columns of the two temples, the biblical and the Masonic, goes well with their liminal symbology, as mentioned above. Just as Prosperpina, through the pomegranate, sanctions her irreversible (even if not exclusive) belonging to another world, the underworld, in the same way, the initiator into Freemasonry, passing and stopping for the pomegranate, prepares to abandon profanity and rebirth started.
Having said so much, the numerous pomegranates that adorn the Temple of Solomon are explained through various references to the biblical tradition, as will be seen later. In the masonry field, on the other hand, the meaning of the pommel is understood in the context of the stratified dualistic symbolism of the two columns. The left column, white, called Boaz, that is "in strength", is surmounted by a globe of water, while the pomegranate adorns the top of the left column only, the red Jachin, whose name means "it will be solid". The spermatic white of Boaz and the reference to an active power, connote it in a masculine sense. Jachin's menstrual red and the reference to a receptive being firm connote it in a feminine sense. Thus sexually characterized [17] and in terms of their respective activity and receptivity, Boaz and Jachin are apt to symbolize any duality. Boaz's activity, then, must be represented graphically by the vertical line, a symbol of the upright position of life. Jachin's passivity is rendered, on the contrary, with the horizontal line, which recalls the idea of death. Consistently, therefore, the globe of water above Boaz reconnects with the idea of life, while the pomegranates on Jachin overlap, once again, the mortuary area. The Masonic initiatory journey, on the other hand, proceeds through the symbolic alternation of death and return to life of the freemason [18].
In the different religious and mystical sphere, the pomegranate, on the other hand, begins to have a more positive connotation, highlighting its sweetness and aromas, as well as its typical abundance. In the Jewish tradition, in addition to what has already been reported above and to important ornamental functions (eg of priestly vestments), the pomegranate is one of the fruits that abound in the Promised Land (Deu. 8: 8) and, in the Canticle of Canticles, peak of biblical mysticism, the beauty of the Beloved, soul, People of Israel or Church whatever it is, is described through graceful references to the apple (Ct, 4,3; 6,7), while love with the Beloved, the Lord, can only be consumed when the pomegranates in the garden of the Beloved are in bloom (Ct 6,11). Also in the Quran the pomegranate grows in the gardens of Paradise (55: 068). In these cases, the pomegranate symbolizes, with the due differences, states of paradisiacal fullness, which is, also and first of all, a return to a primordial condition already known to the symbolism of the fruit.
In the Christian tradition, certainly the most influenced of the Abrahamic ones by Greek culture, the red juice of the pomegranate makes it reunite with blood, making it a symbol and omen of the passion of Christ and inaugurating the motif, very recurrent in European painting of the fifteenth century. , of the Child or of the Madonnas holding the fruit in their hands (see the Madonna of the Pomegranate by Botticelli or the Madonna "Salting" by Antonello da Messina). Still within Christianity, however, the sweetness of the fruit attracts the ecstatic accents of mystical poetry, as in the case of St. John of the Cross [19]:
pomegranates represent the highest Mysteries of God, his deepest judgments and his most sublime greatness. The pomegranate seeds are a symbol of the innumerable effects of divine perfections. The round shape expresses the eternity of God, which, like the circle, has neither beginning nor end. Pomegranate juice indicates the enjoyment of the soul by means of communion and love, of the nature of God's attributes, and the admirable joy it derives from possessing him.
The conclusion of this work is now entrusted to the splendid testimony of the poet del duende, Federico Garcia Lorca, who in his "Oriental Song", with short and vivid verses, sang the opaque sweetness and the ancient omens of this fruit that has accompanied the soul of man for millennia.
The pomegranate is prehistoric times
of the blood we carry,
the idea of blood, closed
in hard and acidic blood cells,
which has a vague shape
heart and skull.O open pomegranate, you are
a flame above the tree,
carnal sister of Venus,
windy garden rice.Butterflies surround you
believing you a steady sun
and for fear of getting burned
worms escape you.Because you are the light of life,
female of the fruits. Clear
star of the forest
of the brook in love.I could be as you are, fruit,
passion for the countryside!
Note:
[1] CATTABIANI A., Calendar. The festivals, myths, legends and rites of the year, Rusconi, 1994, pp. 106 and following
[2] The pomegranate is a fruit dear to the Hindu god Ganesha, called “Bijapuraphalasakta”, “he who likes fruit with many seeds”, whose figure brings together and balances the opposites of the masculine and the feminine, Shiva and Shakti.
[3] Genesis 3: 6 refers only to "fruit", the identification with the apple is posthumous. However, thinking that the Promised Land replicates the vegetation of Eden and that, according to the prophecy, wheat, barley, vine, fig, pomegranate, olive tree and date palm are present in it (Deu. 8: 8). The only apple among these is the pomegranate. See GRILLI CAIOLA M. - GUARRERA PM - TRAVAGLINI A., Plants in the Bible, Gangemi, 2014.
[4] Above all, ZOLLA E., The androgyne: the human nostalgia for wholeness, Red editions, 1980.
[5] From the Seder Zeraim (Hebrew: סדר זרעים?, Lit. "Order of Seeds"), first and shorter Seder ("Order") of the Mishnah, one of the major works of Jewish law.
[6] See GUENON R., Writings on Islamic esotericism and Taoism, Adelphi, 1993, chap. II. According to this doctrine, which takes a fruit as a metaphorical image, the rind would be there Sharia, the external religious and social law, the core constitutes the Metaphysical Truth. The infinite journeys that, in the pulp, make space from the rind to the heart of the fruit are the Turuq, the initiatory paths.
[7] See MAINGUY I., Masonic symbolic of the Third Millennium, Mediterranean Editions, 2009, pp. 165-166.
[8] See BOUCHER J., Masonic symbolic, Atanor, 2015, pp. 145-146. Significantly, the author states “it is almost always necessary to imply the pomegranate, when it comes to the apple in myths and popular customs relating to marriage”.
[9] Reflections masterfully carried out by HILLMAN J., The dream and the underworld, Adelphi, 2003, pp. 50 and following
[10] HILLMAN J., on. cit., p. 61: "Hades that is in Dionysus says that there is an invisible meaning in sexual acts, a sense for the soul in the phallic parade, that all our vital force (...) alludes to the underworld of images (...) Dionysus is also an underworld divinity (which draws down, like a depressive experience) (...) The other side of that mysterious divinity, the Dionysus who is in Hades, means that there is a zoe, a vitality, in all the phenomena of the underworld (…) The images of Hades are also Dionysian: not fertile in the natural sense, but in the psychic sense, imaginatively fertile. There is, under the earth, an imagination overflowing with animal shapes, gasping and making music. There is a dance in death. Hades and Dionysus are the same god. "
[11] It is very interesting to note how, in southern folklore, dreaming of sharing food with dead people is a bad and macabre omen.
[12] See the excellent article that appeared in this same magazine, EUSEBIO R., The metaphysics of blood, 2020.
[13] Bloodshed, even in the context of war, has always been a serious transgression of the pre-established order. Again in Rome, the feial augur, before the battle, threw a bloody javelin into the field occupied by the enemy, thus calling upon the gods as a witness and removing the war from the sphere of transgression. It is not difficult or strange to think that the first hunting killings have imprinted, in the primitive psyche of man, the memory trace of an ancestral guilt translated into a more or less veiled taboo of blood.
[14] See, above all, CALASSO R., The celestial hunter, Adelphi, 2016. From the twist: “There was a time when, if you met other beings, you didn't know for sure if they were animals or gods or lords of a species or demons or ancestors. Or simply men. One day, which lasted many thousands of years, Homo did something that no one else had yet attempted. He began to imitate those same animals that haunted him: predators. And he became a hunter. It was a long, upsetting and rapacious process, which left traces and scars in rituals and myths, as well as in behavior, mixing with something that in ancient Greece was called "the divine", tò theîon, different from but assumed by the sacred and from saint and even earlier than the gods. Numerous cultures, distant in space and time, associated some of these dramatic and erotic events to a certain area of the sky, between Sirius and Orion: the place of the Celestial Hunter. The stories of him are intertwined in this book and branch out in multiple directions, from the Paleolithic to the Turing machine, passing through ancient Greece and Egypt and exploring the latent connections within the same, not circumscribable territory: the mind ".
[15] In particular, VAN GENNEP A., The rites of passageBollati Boringhieri, 2012.
[16] MAGNIEN V., The Mysteries of Eleusis Origins and ritual of the Elusive initiations, Editions of AR, 1996, p. 219.
[17] It should be added that the names of the two columns, on the contrary, appear to be, considering only the consonates, ZB and NK, which in Hebrew mean respectively "phallus" / "fertilizing organ" and "coitus / copula", cf. J. BOUCHER, Masonic symbolic, Atanor, 2015, p. 186.
[18] Above all, also with reference to the names of the Columns and related symbols, REGHINI A., The sacred and passing words of the first three degrees and the greatest Masonic mystery, Atanor, 1994.
[19] JOHN OF THE CROSS, All the works, Bompiani, 2014, pp. 303 ff.
