The Cup, the Crown and the Wheel

The crown is not only overflowing power, it is also being in the center, the hollow axis in the middle of the wheel movement. And this axis is hollow, it is an empty center, like that of the cup: a mighty void. The center is the union of emptiness and luminosity, of movement and stillness, of the circumference and of the point at its center, rotates and hubs together: a paradoxical encounter, impossible for common reason, a coincidence of opposites that makes your head spin.

di Bruno Corzino

Around the year of grace 2000 I found myself face to face with a rock carving in Camonica Valley and more precisely in the locality Naquane. The smooth rock panel is cut by a path and two pairs of fighters are represented immediately above. One, on the right, is made up of two boxers with ornaments on their heads that resemble bandages that move during the fluid movements of the fight. It is even possible to distinguish the gloves on which spikes appear to be implanted (as was often done in boxing in the ancient world) and below (or above) the two fighters is the unfinished structure of a "Hut" or house of the dead. But the most interesting couple is the one on the left. Here the duelists are armed with a sword and shield. They face each other symmetrically and wear helmets that directly recall the Greco-Roman or Etruscan ones. At the center of the two symmetrical figures, taken in the moment of ritually raising the swords, an object that is difficult to identify at first sight. While with the help of the reflection of a mirror on the engraving I was trying to understand something a voice behind me says: โ€œit is the cup that goes to the winner of the duelโ€. At that moment I saw it, there cup, right in front of me, where before there was only a set of indistinct dots engraved on the rock. And, as arbitrary as the interpretation seemed to me, by now I couldn't see anything else.ย 

In the dazzling sun and the breeze through the acacia leaves a seemingly idle but actually dazzling question came into my mind: why is a trophy, a cup given to the winner of a competition? And apparently it is not an arbitrary and modern gimmick, but it has been done since time immemorial. The secret that binds the trophy, which is clearly a cup of abundance, with the winner is lost in the mists of time.

The etymology doesn't help: trophy actually indicated the place where the enemy was retreating. There the spoils of war left behind by the adversaries were piled up around a tree or poles. Shields, swords and so on. Artistic representations often show helmets and armor stacked on poles or trees with a pile of scrap metal underneath, although I don't know how much sense it makes to get undressed in the middle of a rampaging escape. But let's wait a moment. Perhaps the etymology instead gives us a good lead. The Greek term trophy in reality it indicates not only the escape, but generically the change direction once you get to a point and especially the solstices. One thing that philologists do not know what to do with it and therefore we remain on the poles with the scrap metal and the enemies that run away. There are therefore two points left. First of all, what made sure that at some point trophy became synonymous with cup? In other words, at what moment does this forgotten and unspoken element of the cup end up supplanting the pole or the pile of spoils of the fleeing enemies? And secondly, what do the maximum points reached by the sun have to do with it before going back into its orbit, that is, the solstices? The track gets lost with these two clues, like a dirt road that blurs to merge with the woods.


Cups and crowns

He offers us another clue Roberto Calaso, no The Wedding of Cadmus and Harmony, when it reports that for Homer the heroes "crowned the cups with wine". We imagine the level of the wine inside the cup to represent a crown. But there is more: the crown is the state of maximum fullness, at the edge of the chalice, when it is all filled and about to overflow. And this is exactly how the Greeks understood it, for which the maximum beauty was reached immediately before the first beard hairs. As soon as the fluff appeared it was all decaying and unraveling. The cup had overflowed, the enchantment of the perfect body of god and hero, sculpted of pure light, slain by the tooth of time. Yet the Greek world and the Mediterranean one in general were all one crown (of laurel, of ivy, of wild flowers) and a flowering of bende (red and white, the invisible bonds that connect us with the Whole). Crowns and bandages, a celebration of life in its transience and brief moments of perfection.ย 

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What is the crown ultimately? A metal circle to imitate the supernatural glow that radiates from the top of the head: the charisma that literally indicates the energy conferred by radiation from the divine plan. Here is the link with the cup: the crown is the circular rim of the cup. The overflowing surplus of life, of the energy that animates the universe. The cup collects nectar and ambrosia, ancient liquids probably entheogenic, which represent the life force itself, the drink of the gods or the blood of life. The winner is given the cup precisely so that he can get drunk and "crown himself" with it. It is the symbol of the overflowing energy of him. The crown is the same, but here it is the light that overflows, the image of divine favor, around the head of the elect or the victor. Two aspects of the same vital overabundance, of the grace (charisma) which is the same that makes the flower stems turgid and the athlete's smile shining like the sun.

However today they give themselves medals. Of the symbolism remained the circular shape, the stylized rim of the cup or crown. The more or less noble metals of the coin correspond to Sumerian triad of Sun, Moon and Venus, or respectively gold, silver and bronze. Here we find a strange astral element. And in fact we have left the question of the solstices open. What do they have to do with all this? ย 


Heavenly crowns

Parmenides talk about orbits of the planets, which form as many concentric circles in the cosmic sphere as of "Heavenly crowns". And it is easy to imagine them as crowns if we take the circular section of the spheres, as the circles with which they are represented in an armillary sphere or planisphere. Or as chalices if we consider the hemisphere, half filled with fire-light and half filled with night-darkness. The celestial machinery is therefore made up of flaming crowns and bowls full of "celestial waters", dew or light.ย 

However, the celestial spheres have the particularity of rotating. Just like a wheel around a pivot, which for the planets is (more or less) the pole of the ecliptic. It is therefore normal to talk about the Wheel of the Year or Wheel of Time. Because, in fact, the sky behaves just like a wheel. Or, if we want to be more picky, mainly like two wheels, one inclined towards the other and penetrating it, as in the vision of Ezekiel or Timaeus of Plato (this is the ecliptic and the celestial equator).ย 

The cup of abundance is therefore the crown of the charisma but it is also the wheel of time. This wheel usually has 4 arms to represent the cardinal points determined by the solstices and equinoxes. But it can also have 8 arms (taking into account the intermediate points; thus the Wheel of Buddhist Law or that of the Celtic year) or 6 (equinoxes and maximum points of the solstices). On this aspect it is worth spending a few words because it explains the link between the solstices and the trophy. If an observer begins to observe the rising of the sun in the east he will notice that the star emerges from the horizon from a point further and further north the closer we get to the summer solstice. So he stops and goes back. Just like the enemies beaten. The same thing for the winter solstice at a point of maximum extension to the south. To stylize this shape on the wheel is obtained an X divided by a center line, just like the monogram of Christ (the belly at the top of the vertical line that forms the Rho represents the sun rising in front of us, to the east).

By joining the points of maximum elongation and tracing the median we obtain the north and south cardinal points (theoretical points of the solstices to divide time into four equal parts, therefore in equidistant spokes of the wheel). We have returned to the cross in the wheel. A wheel divided by a north-south arm, or the thistle of Roman cities, the hinge of heaven (but then the sky also opens like a door?) The other two points, on the other hand, corresponding to the equinoxes, represent the decumanus. So here it is the astral bond and the planetary hierarchies of metals, telluric planets hidden in the womb of the earth, in the world of the dead, reflecting the ascending circles of heaven. It remains to be understood which living, carnal and spiritual experience they wanted to express with this symbolism.

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The wheel of time

The term exists in Sanskrit Chakravartin what does it mean "Ruler of the wheel". Curiously, this term indicates the unearthly and impressive expression that a yogi assumes when, with his eyes half closed, he keeps his gaze fixed on the top of his head, or rather on the radial crown. This disturbing gaze, of absence-presence, which is disturbing as we already know it, in a much more fluctuating and rare way, in orgasm. By looking intently at the crown, yogis intend to achieve that union with the principle of things which they claim to manifest in: being, awareness and bliss. But what does this practice have to do with the wheel? This wheel is undoubtedly the Wheel of time or of the universe, the one that turning produces the seasons and the cycles of life and death. Men of the world call it Wheel of Fortune, because in this way it raises and lowers social status, accumulates and undoes fortunes, unites and dissolves Empires and Nations. Thus it is represented in the Tarot, with one ascending and another "falling down". Mass at number 10, which for the Pythagoreans represented the "All" or "Eternal Nature".

However "The world is made up of stairs, who goes down and who climbs them". But more, everyone knows that: "Life is a spinning wheel" with the corollary "today to me, tomorrow to you". How do ordinary people know that the world "is a spinning wheel"? The Wheel, placed horizontally, is graphically superimposable on a crown, indeed it is the crown. This makes sense because the king dominates on the horizontal plane, on this world, whose becoming, the spinning wheel, determines the making and undoing of things. The yogi, on the other hand, "pierces" the crown, ascends vertically through his immobile, empty hub, from which everything is born and from which everything is reabsorbed. This hollow hub is also the center of the universal tree, the one that with its roots and branches crosses the whole universe as a central axis.. Here the rotary movement is implicit, everything revolves around this axis represented by an immense ash tree (or oak or fir, etc.). On its branches, like a ladder, the shaman climb like the yogi. Vertical movement from the motionless center, while everything around rotates in the usual space-time.

It is then clearer why many of the Celts go around carrying a wheel: specifically Teutates, but also Epona and Cernunnos. Cernunnos, then, he is always seated in the lotus position just like a yogi and his power is emphasized by the serpent he holds in one hand, the torques (another circle) in the other and deer antlers. We find it the same in India, in Mohenjo-Daro (about 2000 BC), only here they call it Pashupati. Cuckold are also those whose partner / companion gets busy with others: the generating power becomes an element of mockery. Do the horns with his hands he wards off misfortunes. Moses and Alexander the Great are also represented with horns: they are powerful. But the crown is something else. The crown is not only overflowing power, it is also being in the center, the hollow axis in the middle of the wheel movement. And this axis is hollow, it is an empty center, like that of the cup. A mighty void.


The lost symbol

Among the symbols that we have ringed up to now, the most enigmatic, the one that has remained buried most deeply in the geological layers of the collective unconscious is undoubtedly that of the cup. We know very well, in fact, the crown and we can intuitively connect it to the nimbus, that is to thataura of light that radiates from the top of the head of saints, prophets and thaumaturgy kings. We also intuitively associate the wheel with the rotation of the heavens and therefore with Time, the cyclical flow of events in the universe. As well as the fact that the central axis, the hub of the wheel remains motionless while the circumference spins in a whirlwind. And here is a focal point that seems to have been lost, a key tied to the cup. Yes, because the axle, the hub is actually hollow. The center is empty. And it is this original emptiness that radiates everything. We must think of the cup as the line of the celestial sphere that turns and contains all beings in an embrace. But it is also the hollow center of the original tree, that "nothing" from which everything arose. The instant in deep sleep before opening your eyes and letting the original light radiate towards the outside world. The cup holds the secret of this emptiness.

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The yogi carries on the top of his head, horizontally, the wheel of Time which is also a crown and a chalice that collects the nectar that falls from above, in that anatomical part that is called the cranial crown. To be more precise this wheel revolves around him, because it is the sky and the world and living things that revolve, change and flow around him. He is crowned by placing himself in the center and the center is the hub of the wheel, the immobile and empty point. In this emptiness there is also the virtue of the vase, as Lao-Tze teaches. With that cauldron or trophy or grail collects the nectar, the pure experience of emptiness which is being, consciousness and bliss. The same cup that accompanies the peak moments of fullness of the symposium and of the victory, the cauldron of Dagda which can feed a thousand men and when one is wounded or dead it raises him, like that of the witches. The embrace of All things, the belly of Isis it is the secret of this welcoming emptiness, which is "nothing" because it is creative and radiant: all beings arise from the primordial waters. From the central void.


The radiant Voidย 

But many wheels, for example the potter's lathes and in particular the celestial wheels, also have an intermittent motion, that is, they do not turn in one direction only, but in both, alternately. The same movement that is made with a stick to light the fire. And more precisely with a stick (male) that rubs itself into a wooden base (female). And it is precisely this fire that is another symbol of time that devours (and generates) everything, as our conscience devours every experience to digest it and make it its own. Thus the sacred fire often stands under the cauldron or cup, just as the yogi's asceticism produces heat (Tapas), just as the alchemist's fire perfects materials and that of the sun makes fruits ripen. The The fire it is the radiating element of the void, the same as the whirling movement of the wheel that makes things flow and grinds them, but at the same time always brings new ones to life.

Fire is the primordial heat that makes the cauldron boil, the life that bursts into the ten thousand creatures that are continually born and die within it, within the round line of the horizon, the rim of the cup. This fire or light may seem to contradict emptiness, its stillness, darkness and silence. And here we meet the last key of our journey. Because they are actually the same thing. There is no distinction between the wheel-cup and the empty central axis around which it rotates. It is our mental distinction, like that between the axis of the celestial equator and the equator itself: neither exists, it is our way of dividing an experience that in itself is united, completely beyond the conceptualization. There is no pole and there is no circular horizon. There are no spheres. There is no becoming and there is no eternity.

The center is the union of emptiness and luminosity, of movement and stillness, of the circumference and the point at its center, rotates and hubs together: paradoxical encounter, impossible for common reason, coincidence of opposites that makes your head spin.

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