TIME
TITANS
TOAD
TOMB
TORCH
TOWER
TOWER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING
TOYS
TRAPEZIUM
TREASURE
TREE
TREES AND FLOWERS
TRIANGLE
TRIDENT
TRIFORM
TRIPOD
TRUMPET
TUNIC
TURTLE
TURTLE DOVE
TWELVE
TWILIGHT OR HALF-LIGHT
TWINS
TWISTED SHAPES
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Time
Berthelot has noted that the time-pattem usually follows from the division of space, and this applies most particularly to the week . It was indeed the awareness of the seven Directions of Space that is, two for each of the three dimensions plus the centre that gave rise to the projection of the septenary order into time. Sunday—the Day of Rest—corresponds to the centre and, since all centres are linked with the 'Centre' or the Divine Source, it is therefore sacred in character. The idea of rest is expressive of the notion of the immobility of the 'Centre', whereas the other six Directions are dynamic in character. At the same time, the 'Centre' of space and time also retains a spiritual significance. As Elkin has said, 'It must not be thought that the mythic era is now past: it is also the present and the future, as much a state as a period.' Corresponding, in the strictest sense, to this zone within the circle, the 'Centre', is spacelessness and timelessness, or the non-formal, or, in short, the 'mystic nothingness' which, in oriental thought, is the hole in the Chinese disk of jade called pi, representing heaven.
As Eliade notes, in illo tempore everything was possible—species and forms were not fixed but 'fluid'.. He goes on to point out that a return to this state implies the cessation of time . The idea that time—the week—derives from the space-pattern ought strictly to be discarded in favour of the notion that both time and space are the outcome of one and the same principle.
Titans
They signify the wild and untamable forces of primeval Nature . The astrobiological and mythic mind—rightly—found it impossible to accept the idea that there was no intermediate stage between the state of chaos and the creation of a cosmic order by man-the-conqueror-of-darkness. Antediluvian monsters and preCromagnon Man were intuited as fabulous animals, Titans, giants and Cyclops, who struggled initially with the gods, and eventually suffered defeat at the hands of the hero—the representative of the 'true man', not, that is, of the 'mass man' but of the individual who stands out as the mark of the progressive evolution of the species and; of the spirit. In the psychology of the individual this myth still persists in the shape of monsters and of certain other base beings that allude to the 'shadows'—the 'dark' or inferior side. The beginning of Calderon's play Life is a Dream is symbolic in this way: the cave stands for the unconscious; the imprisoned Cyprian lamenting his loss of liberty represents the 'dark side' of the dramatist—his baser part—mastered and rendered powerless by the sound judgement and will-power of his 'conscious side' schooled in intellectual and moral disciplines.
Toad
The inverse and infernal aspect of the frog-symbol; that ie to say, the symbolic significance is the same though in a negative sense. Or, as the traditional language of esoteric thought puts it 'There are also certain animals whose mission it is to break up the astral light by a process of absorption peculiar to them. There is something fascinating about their gaze: they are the toad and the basilisk.'
Tomb
Symbolic of the body as matter , of transformation and of the unconscious . It is also sometimes a maternal and feminine symbol of a generic kind.
Torch
Identified with the sun , it is the symbol of purification through illumination. It was the weapon wielded by Hercules against the hydra of Lerna; its fire cauterizes wounds. It occurs in many allegories as the emblem of truth .
Tower
In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, the tower is a determinative sign denoting height or the act of rising above the common level in life or society . Basically, then, the tower is symbolic of ascent. During the Middle Ages, towers and belfries held the significance of watch-towers, but also, by the simple application of the symbolism of level whereby material height implies spiritual elevation, they expressed the same symbolism as the ladder— linking earth and heaven. The tower-symbol, given that it is enclosed and walled-in, is emblematic of the Virgin Mary, as can be seen in a great many allegorical designs and litanies . Since the idea of elevation or ascent, implicit in the tower, connotes transformation and evolution, the athanor the alchemists' furnace was given the shape of a tower to signify inversely that the metamorphosis of matter implied a process of ascension.
Another symbol usually mentioned in this connexion is the bronze tower in which Danae, the mother of Perseus, was imprisoned . Finally we would point to the analogy between the tower and man: for just as the tree is closer to the human figure than are the horizontal forms of animals, so, too, is the tower the only structural form distinguished by verticality: windows at the topmost level, almost always large in size, correspond to the eyes and the mind of man. It is in this sense that the Tower of Babel acquired special symbolic point as a wild enterprise bringing disaster and mental disorder . And, for the same reason, the sixteenth enigma of the Tarot denotes catastrophe by the image of a tower struck by lightning.
Tower Struck by Lightning
The sixteenth enigma of the Tarot pack, this card is an allegory showing a tower half-destroyed by a flash of lightning which strikes the top symbolically equivalent to the head. This tower should be identified with the first of the two columns known as Jachin and Boaz, that is, as a symbol of individual power and life. To emphasize that the structure is an image of the living human being, the bricks are flesh-coloured. Pieces of the tower that have fallen away are shown to have struck, first, a king and, secondly, the architect of the tower. The evil implications of the allegory are connected with Scorpio, and allude to the dangerous consequences of over-confidence—or the sin of pride, with its related symbolism of the Tower of Babel. Megalomania, the wild pursuit of fanciful ideas, and small-mindedness form the context of this symbol .
Toys
Toys are symbols of temptation. According to Diel, this is the meaning when, in Greek mythology, the Titans offer toys to the infant Dionysos . A similar trial confronted Achilles when he was given a choice of jewels and valuables, among them a sword, which the hero chose without hesitation.
Trapezium
This geometric form unites the shape of the ox's head with that of the primitive stone axe. It is a symbol of sacrifice , and also of irregularity or abnormality since geometric figures must, by analogy, express notions of degrees of perfection depending upon how regular are their shapes. The scale of regularity would run as follows: circle, square, trapezium, trapezoid.
Treasure
Treasure represents a sublimated form of the symbolism of the colour gold, a solar attribute, as opposed to gold as coins, which signifies exaltation of and corruption by earthly desires . In myths, legends and folktales, the treasure is usually found in a cave; there is a double image here embracing the idea of the cave, as the mother-image or the unconscious, containing 'the elusive treasure'. This is an allusion to one of the fundamental mysteries of life —to nothing less than the mystic 'Centre' within the spirit of man, which Jung has dubbed the Selbst, to distinguish it from the mere 'ego'. The trials and tribulations that attend the quest for treasure may, up to a point, be equated with the experiments of the alchemists in their pursuit of transmutation . Jung maintains that the treasure which the hero wins only after painful effort is
nothing less than himself reborn in the cave in which introversion or regression has confined him. The hero, in so far as he remains bound to the mother-principle, is himself the dragon, but in so far as he is reborn of the mother, he is the conqueror of the dragon and therefore of his former self .
In truth, all striving and all suffering are steps along the path of moral progress. And it is possible to equate the one with the other, for as Eliphas Levi—rightly, in our view—asserts, 'to suffer is to strive'. The truth of his remark is borne out by Rorschach's discovery that colour and movement are expressions respectively of feeling and of activity, denoting quantities that are analogous and yet opposed, as it were the two 'balance pans' of the psyche. But it is only when born of conscious choice that work and suffering contribute to progress in its profoundest sense of self-awareness, virtue and superiority. The dragon in the cave may also represent the sevenfold malignity of the seven planets as the seven deadly sins, whereas the hero's weapons are the god-given powers which make victory possible.
Gold coins, however, and all other derived concepts such as, forexample, a bulging wallet, symbolize 'treasure easily come by' that is, earthly desires, the sensual pleasures, love in so far as it is selfish love and in consequence 'easily lost'.
Tree
The tree is one of the most essential of traditional symbols.
Very often the symbolic tree is of no particular genus, although some peoples have singled out one species as exemplifying par excellence the generic qualities. Thus, the oak was sacred to the Celts; the ash to the Scandinavian peoples; the lime-tree in Germany; the fig-tree in India. Mythological associations between gods and trees are extremely frequent: so, Attis and the pine; Osiris and the cedar; Jupiter and the oak; Apollo and the laurel, etc. They express a kind
of 'elective correspondence' In its most general sense, the symbolism of the tree denotes the life of the cosmos: its consistence, growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is therefore equivalent to a symbol of immortality.
According to Eliade, the concept of 'life without death' stands, ontologically speaking, for 'absolute reality' and, consequently, the tree becomes a symbol of this absolute reality, that is, of the centre of the world. Because a tree has a long, vertical shape, the centre-of-the-world symbolism is expressed in terms of a world-axis . The tree, with its roots underground and its branches rising to the sky, symbolizes an upward trend and is therefore
related to other symbols, such as the ladder and the mountain, which stand for the general relationship between the 'three worlds' the lower world: the underworld, hell; the middle world: earth; the upper world: heaven. Christian symbolism—and especially Roman esque art—is fully aware of the primary significance of the tree as an axis linking different worlds . According to Rabanus Maurus, however, in his Allegoriae in Sacram Scripturam , it also symbolizes human nature which follows from the equation of the macrocosm with the microcosm.
The tree also corresponds to the Cross of Redemption and the Cross is often depicted, in Christian iconography, as the Tree of Life . It is, of course, the vertical arm of the Cross which is identified with the tree, and hence with the 'world-axis'. The world-axis symbolism which goes back to preNeolithic times has a further symbolic implication: that of the central point in the cosmos. Clearly, the tree or the cross can only be the axis linking the three worlds if it stands in the centre of the cosmos they constitute. It is interesting to note that the three worlds of tree-symbolism reflect the three main portions of the structure of the tree: roots, trunk and foliage. Within the general significance of the tree as world-axis and as a symbol of the inexhaustible life-process growth and development, different mythologies and folklores distinguish three or four different shades of meaning. Some of these are merely aspects of the basic symbolism, but others are of a subtlety which gives further enrichment to the symbol.
At the most primitive level, there are the 'Tree of Life' and the 'Tree of Death' , rather than, as in later stages, the cosmic tree and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil; but the two trees are merely two different representations of the same idea. The arbor vitae is found frequently, in a variety of forms, in Eastern art. The— apparently purely decorative—motif of hom the central tree, placed between two fabulous beings or two animals facing each other, is a theme of Mesopotamian origin, brought both to the West and to the Far East by Persians, Arabs and Byzantines . In Romanesque decoration it is the labyrinthine foliage of the Tree of Life which receives most emphasis the symbolic meaning remaining unchanged, but with the addition of the theme of Entanglement . An important point in connexion with the 'cosmic tree' symbol is that it often appears upside down, with its roots in heaven and its foliage on earth; here, the natural symbolism based on the analogy with actual trees has been displaced by a meaning expressing the idea of involution, as derived from the doctrines of emanation: namely, that every process of physical growth is a spiritual opus in reverse.
Thus, Blavatsky says: 'In the beginning, its roots were generated in Heaven, and grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being.... Its trunk grew and developed, crossing the plains of Pleroma, it shot out crossways its luxuriant branches, first on the plane of hardly differentiated matter, and then downward till they touched the terrestrial plane. Thus . . . it is said to grow with its roots above and its branches below.' This concept is already found in the Upanishads, where it is said that the branches of the tree are: ether, air, fire, water and earth. In the Zohar of 8 Hebrew tradition it is also stated that 'the Tree of Life spreads X downwards from above, and is entirely bathed in the light of the X sun'. Dante, too, portrays the pattern of the celestial spheres as the foliage of a tree whose roots i.e. origin spread upwards Uranus. j In other traditions, on the other hand, no such inversion occurs, 1u and this symbolic aspect gives way to the symbolism of vertical X upward growth. In Nordic mythology, the cosmic tree, called g Yggdrasil, sends its roots down into the very core of the earth, where hell lies (Voluspa, 19; Grimnismbl, 31)
We can next consider the two-tree symbolism in the Bible. In Paradise there were the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both were centrally placed in the Garden of Eden. In this connexion, Schneider says : 'Why does God not mention the Tree of Life to Adam? Is it because it was a second tree of knowledge or is it because it was hidden from the sight of Adam until he came to recognize it with his new-found knowledge of good and evil—of wisdom? We prefer the latter hypothesis. The Tree of Life, once discovered, can confer immortality; but to discover it is not easy. It is "hidden", like the herb of immortality which Gilgamesh seeks at the bottom of the sea, or is guarded by monsters, like the golden apples of the Hesperides.
The two trees occur more frequently than might be expected. At the East gate of the Babylonian heaven, for instance, there grew the Tree of Truth and the Tree of Life.' The
doubling of the tree does not modify the symbol's fundamental significance, but it does add further symbolic implications connected with the dual nature of the Gemini: the tree, under the influence of the symbolism of the number two, then reflects the parallel worlds of living and knowing the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. As is often the case with symbols, many more specialized meanings have been developed on the basis of the general tree-symbolism
already outlined. Here are a few: firstly, the triple tree.
According to Schneider, the Tree of Life, when it rises no higher than the mountain of Mars the world of phenomena is regarded as a pillar supporting heaven. It is made up of three roots and three trunks—or rather one central trunk with two large boughs corresponding to the two peaks of the mountain of Mars the two faces of Janus. Here the central trunk or axis unifies the dualism expressed in the two-tree symbolism. In its lunar aspect, it is the Tree of Life and emphasizes the moon's identification with the realm of phenomena; in its solar aspect it relates to knowledge and death which, in symbolism, are often associated. In iconography, the Tree of Life or the lunar side of a double or triple tree is depicted in bloom; the tree of death or knowledge or the solar side of a double or triple tree is dry, and shows signs of fire . Psychology has interpreted this symbolic duality in sexual terms, Jung affirming that the tree has a symbolic, bisexual nature, as can also be seen in the fact that, in Latin, the endings of the names of trees are masculine even though their gender is feminine .
This conjunctio confirms the unifying significance of the cosmic tree. Other symbols are often brought into association with the tree, sometimes by analogy with real situations, sometimes through the juxtaposition of psychic images and projections. The resulting composite symbolism is, of course, richer and more complex, but also more specific, and consequently less spontaneous and of less scope. The tree is frequently related to the rock or the mountain on which it grows. On the other hand, the Tree of Life, as found in the celestial Jerusalem, bears twelve fruits, or sun-shapes symbols of the Zodiac, perhaps. In many images, the sun, the moon and the stars are associated with the tree, thus stressing its cosmic and astral character. In India we find a triple tree, with three suns, the image of the Trimurti; and in China a tree with the twelve suns of the Zodiac . In alchemy, a tree with moons denotes the lunar opus the Lesser Work and the tree with suns the solar opus the Great Work.
The tree with the signs of the seven planets or metals stands for prime matter protohyle, from which all differentiations emerge. Again, in alchemy, the Tree of Knowledge is called arbor philosophica a symbol of evolution, or of the growth of an idea, a vocation or a force. 'To plant the philosophers' tree' is tantamount to stimulating the creative imagination . Another interesting symbol is that of the 'sea-tree' or coral, related to the mythic sea king. The fountain, the dragon and the snake are also frequently related to the tree. Symbol LVII of Bosch's Ars Symbolica shows the dragon beside the tree of the Hesperides. As regards the symbolism of levels, it is possible to establish a vertical scale of analogies: dragons and snakes primal forces are associated with the roots; the lion, the unicorn, the stag and other animals expressing the ideas of elevation, aggression and penetration, correspond to the trunk; and birds and heavenly bodies are brought into relation with the foliage. Colour correspondences, are: roots/black; trunk/white; foliage/red. The snake coiled round the tree introduces another symbol, that of the spiral.
The tree as world-axis is surrounded by the sequence of cycles which characterizes the revealed world. This is an interpretation applicable to the serpent watching at the foot of the tree on which the Golden Fleece is suspended . Endless instances could be quoted of such associations of symbols, full of psychological implications. Another typical combination of symbols, extremely frequent in folktales, is that of the 'singing tree'. In the Passio S. Perpetuae xl Cambridge, 189 we read that St. Saturius, a martyr alongside St. Perpetua, dreamed on the eve of his martyrdom 'that, having shed his mortal flesh, he was carried eastward by four angels. Going up a gentle sloped they reached a spot bathed in the most beautiful light: it was Paradiseq opening before us', he adds, 'like a garden, with trees bearing roses and many other flower-blooms; trees tall as cypresses, singing the while' . The sacrificial stake, the harp-lyre, the ship-of-death and the drum are all symbols derived from the tree seen as the path f leading to the other world Plate XXIX. ;4
Trees and Flowers
In Chinese symbology, they usually symbolize fq longevity and fertility. Predominantly popular are the bamboo, the cherry-tree and the pine, called 'the three friends' because all three are evergreen. In painting they frequently appear together .
Triangle
The geometric image of the ternary and, in the symbolism of numbers, equivalent to the number three. In its highest sense it concerns the Trinity. In its normal position with the apex uppermost it also symbolizes fire and the aspiration of all things towards the higher unity—the urge to escape from extension signified by the base into non-extension the apex or towards the Origin or the Irradiating Point. Nicholas of Cusa said of the triangle that, truncated without its apex, it served the alchemists i; as a symbol of air; inverted with apex pointing downwards it symbolizes water; and inverted but with the tip cut off, it symbolizes Is earth. Two complete triangles, one in the normal position and one -. inverted—representing, respectively, fire and water—superimposed so as to form a six-pointed star called Solomon's seal, constitute a it symbol of the human soul. A triangle surmounted by horns was the next Carthaginian symbol for Tanit or Tanith .
Trident
Various interpretations of the trident or three-pointed spear have been advanced, ranging from Eliade's suggestion that originally it was a representation of the teeth of sea-monsters , to Diel's explanation which we will discuss below. It is an attribute of Neptune and of Satan. According to Bayley, it is a corrupt form of the cross , adapted, that is, in such a way as to suggest a vicious character. More precisely, every instrument, object or being having three members or parts where one would normally suffice realizes a trebling of its symbolic force or potentiality . This is born out by Zimmer's comment that the trident denotes threefold hostility. The third point might well correspond to the third eye of Shiva or Siva the Destroyer, since the trident is also an attribute of this god. The fact that the trident was the weapon of the Roman retiarius is highly significant, for the net which he also used relates him to the Uranian deity, whereas the sword wielded by the mirmillo gladiator suggests the heroic, solar son. Hence, the trident, in the hands of the retiarius, would seem to be an attribute of archaic, paternal power opposed to the unique heroism of the solar son.
Diel, with his moralist approach carnes the negative implication of the trident to its logical conclusion, suggesting that it symbolizes triple sin, corresponding to the perversion of the three 'vital urges' of nutrition or preservation transformed into possession, property and authority; reproduction lust; and spiritualization or evolution which, in its negative aspect, becomes vanity. Hence it is an attribute of the god of the unconscious and of sin—Neptune, whose realm is the haunt of monsters and base forms of life. The triple character of the trident is an 'infernal replica of the Trinity' comparable with the three heads of Cerberus or of triform Hecate i. on the other hand, a favourable interpretation has also been ascribed to the trident; Charles Ploix, in La Nature et yes dieux, associates it with the wand used in water-divining , although this interpretation seems to rest on somewhat dubious grounds. According to Father Heras, the trident was, in the proto-Indian era, an attribute of god.
Triform
A second name of Hecate, who, with her three heads, presided, according to Servius, over birth, life and death representing the past, the present and the future. This is a teratological application of the principle of triplicity or triunity . Similar in significance is the Trimurti embracing creation, preservation and destruction formed by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva . Triform symbolism conforms to the general symbolism of ternary forms, in its depiction of power as holiness, science and armed might, in turn clearly corresponding to the spirit, the intellect and vitality .
Tripod
Dontenville regards this as a solar symbol, not because it has a circular top but because of the three supports which can be said to correspond to the three solar 'moments'—the rising, the zenith and the setting . The symbolic figure of the triskeles— three legs joined together to form a kind of swastika—is similar in meaning according to Dontenville , but Ortiz holds that it is expressive of 'swift movement' .
Trumpet
Since it is a metal instrument, it corresponds to the Elements of fire and water and also to the twin-peaked Mountain of Mars. Metallic instruments pertain to nobles and warriors, whereas wooden instruments, from their associations with the valley, are more properly related to the common folk and to shepherds . The trumpet symbolizes the yearning for fame and glory . on the other hand, the horn, because of its shape, is connected with the symbolism of the animal-horn .
Tunic
Whereas the cloak symbolizes the outer bounds of the personality or the 'mask' which envelops the Jungian Selbst, the tunic may denote the self or the soul, that is, the zone in most direct contact with the spirit. An individual clothed in an orangecoloured tunic is 'afire', since orange is the colour symbolizing fire and passion. The tunic of Nessus, which was the cause of Hercules' death by burning, was of this same colour. Holes in the tunic or a suit, or tatters, are equivalent to scars and symbolic of the wounds n in the soul. Concerning the orange-coloured tunic, Zimmer relates that in India this was the garment in which criminals were clothed
when condemned to death for terrible crimes .
Turtle
The turtle has a variety of meanings, all of which are organically related. In the Far East its significance is cosmic in implication. As Chochod has observed: 'The primordial turtle has a shell that is rounded on the top to represent heaven, and square underneath to represent the earth' . To the Negroes of Nigeria it suggests the female sex organ and it is in fact taken as an emblem of lubricity. In alchemy it was symbolic of the 'massa confusa' . These disparate senses have, nevertheless, one thing in common: in every case, the turtle is a symbol of material existence and not of any aspect of transcendence, for even where it is a combination of square and circle it alludes to the forms of the manifest world and not to the creative forces, nor to the Origin still less to the irradiating Centre. In view of its slowness, it might be said to symbolize natural evolution as opposed to spiritual evolution which is rapid or discontinuous to a degree.
The turtle is also an emblem of longevity. An engraving in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili p. 7 depicts a woman holding a pair of outspread wings in one hand and a turtle in the other. The counterbalancing of one with the other would suggest that the turtle is the inversion of the wings; that is, that since the wings signify elevation of the spirit, the turtle would denote the fixed element of alchemy although only in its negative aspect. In short, then, it would stand for turgidity, involution, obscurity, slowness, stagnation and highly concentrated materialism, etc. Perhaps this is the explanation of the turtles in Moreau's painting of Orpheus with their disquieting negativeness.
Turtle Dove
A symbol of fidelity and of affection among human beings . It is to be found in many allegories and is sometimes confused with the dove.
Twelve
Strictly, of all the numbers, twelve is the broadest in scope, for the Tarot formulas are such that they contain two groups of eleven and four of fourteen, but the components of these numbers have no archetypal significance. Given that the two essential proto types of quantity are the numbers three and four signifying respectively dynamism or inner spirituality, and stability or outer activity, it can be argued that their sum and their multiplication give the two numbers which are next in importance: seven and twelve. The latter corresponds to the geometrical dodecagon; but it may also be associated with the circle, since their symbolic meaning is practically identical. For this reason, systems or patterns based upon the circle or the cycle tend to have twelve as the end-limit.
Even when structures are made up of less than twelve elements at first, they later tend towards the superior number of twelve, as, for example, in music, where the seven-note modal scale has developed into the twelve-note system of the Arnold Schoenberg school. Other examples are: the twelve hours on the clock-face; the twelve months of the year; the twelve major gods of many mythologies, as a kind of amplification of the seven planets; and the markings of the wind-rose corresponding to Eurus, Solanus, Notus, Auster, Africus, Euroauster, Zephyrus, Stannus, Ireieus, Boreas, Aquilo, Volturnus. All these examples, then, prove the existence of an order founded upon patterns of twelve, which can be split up either into the 'inner' three-part division of the 'outer' or circumstantial pattern of four, or else into the 'outer' four-part division of the 'inner' and actual pattern of three. For the Vedic Indians, the twelve middle days of winter from Christmas to Epiphany were an image and a replica of the entire year; and a similar tradition exists in China .
In our view, the symbolism of the Zodiac lies at the root of all these systems based upon the number twelve, that is, the idea that the four Elements may appear in three different ways levels or grades, giving twelve divisions. It is for these reasons that Saint-Yves draws the sociological conclusion that, among groups of human beings in the line of symbolic tradition, 'the circle which comes highest and nearest to the mysterious centre, consists of twelve divisions representing the supreme initiation the faculties, the virtues and knowledge and corresponding, among other things, to the Zodiac'. Guenon who quotes the above adds that the twelveformula is to be found in the 'circular council' of the Dalai Lama, and quite apart from the twelve apostles in the legendary knights of the Round Table and the historical Twelve Peers of France. Similarly, the Etruscan state was subdivided into twelve minor states, and Romulus created twelve lictors .
Twilight or Half-light
The half-light of morning or evening is a symbol of dichotomy, representing the dividing-line which at once joins and separates a pair of opposites. Frazer relates an Indian legend which embodies a curious mythic stratagem: 'Indra swore to the demon Namuci that he would slay him neither by day nor by night.... But he killed him in the morning-twilight' . Half-light
is characterized by lack of definition and ambivalence, and is 2 therefore closely related to the space-symbolism of the Hanged Man or of any object suspended between heaven and earth. Evening-light | is associated with the West, symbolizing the location of death. Dontenville suggests that it is, therefore, not by chance that Perseus goes westward in his quest for the Gorgon's head. And the same may be said of Hercules in his journey to the garden of the Hesperides, since the place and the time of sunset imply the end of one cycle corresponding to the zodiacal sign of Pisces and the beginning of another. According to legend, Merlin buried the sun in Mount Tombe. King Arthur fell mortally wounded in the West, and there he was healed by Morgana the Fairy a name deriving from Morgen —morning .
Twins
In representations of the sacrificing mithriacum, the two dadophori, Cautes and Cautopates, are very frequently shown, one with his torch pointing upwards and the other with his turned downwards: the one is alight, the other extinguished. Cumont considers that they symbolize life and death. Sometimes one dadophorus has the head of a bull and the other that of a scorpion, confirming Cumont's conclusion. They also signify the two essential aspects of the sun: its alternate appearance and disappearance— day and night . A careful study of Primitive traditions and of the mythologies of the more advanced cultures has enabled us to draw the conclusion that most of them incorporate the symbol of the twins, such as the Vedic Asvins or Ashwins, Mitra and Varuna, Liber and Libera, Romulus and Remus, Isis and Osiris, Apollo and Artemis, Castor and Pollux, Amphion and Zethus, or Arion and Orion. On some occasions the addition of a third figure brother or sister permits of further associations, as, for example, Castor and Helen, or Osiris and Set.
They are always mythic beings born of an immortal father and a mortal mother. The respective characteristics of their parents—expressed in landscapesymbolism by the dualism of the mountain representing heaven and the valley or water representing earthSare not fused in their offspring, but discrete. Thus, one brother may be a fierce hunter another a peaceful shepherd . In sum, these beings are usually beneficent deities . Through the influence of totemism or of animalistic symbolism, they appear fairly often in the symbolic guise of animals: as birds 59the myth of oviparous human birth is a parallel manifestation of this, or as lions that is, the wild lion and the tame lion, or day and night ; or as horses, one white or chestnut, the other black. The twin Indian Ashwins or Asvins are depicted in this latter form, one in light and the other in darkness as if the chariot they draw is ever running along the borderline of dusk. But most commonly one of the twins signifies the eternal side of man, his inheritance from his celestial father as a reflection of the zeros gamos, or, in short, his soul, and the other twin indicates the mortal side . However, they also symbolize the counterbalancing principles of good and evil, and hence the twins are portrayed as mortal enemies.
This is what lies behind the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Set and the Persian myth of Ahuramazda and Angramainyu or Ahriman as well as the Iroquois myth of Hawneyn and Hanegoasegeh and the Slav myth of Bielbog and Chernobog or Zcernoboch the 'white god' and the 'black god' . Since the life-principle is usually allied with evil, the principle of good has to fall back upon ascetic spirituality; it follows then, that, in order to achieve immortality, it is essential to accept the maxim 'Deny thyself'. In India, such duality is precisely exemplified in the two names of Atman or individual soul and Brahman world-soul; up to a point, they are pantheistic in tendency. Frederich Nietzsche exactly described the mystic message implied in this partial negation necessary for the salvation of the spiritual essence of Man, with his advice: 'Cast into the abyss that which lies most heavily upon you. Let man forget.... Divine is the art of forgetting. If you would raise yourself—if you yourself would dwell among the heights, cast into the sea that which lies most heavily upon you'; yet Nietzsche, as a Westerner, does not succeed in escaping from self.
Twisted Shapes
These fall within the broad group of symbolic abnormalities, in so far as they deviate from the norm in shape and significance where, for example, the normal shape is straight or curved.