The Garden - designed Paradise Memory

The Garden – designed Paradise Memory Johanna Schacht ABSTRACT This article provides analysis and interpretation of the classical garden symbol in the focus of prenatal psychology with respect to cultural psychological aspects. INTRODUCTION The garden appears as a deep collective symbol as well as a concrete cultural phenomenon since Neolithic times of human evolution – as far as climate conditions of the settlement area allow gardening. Also nomadic stock breeders do not have a very close relation to the garden – except the Arabian desert nomads who travel from oasis to oasis. These fertile, cultivated green islands in the middle of a barren, wild, often hostile nature are the archetype of the garden. On classical Persian carpet the archetypal design of the garden can be clearly seen: A rectangular or square shape is divided by an axis cross into four parts. This traditional structure of garden architecture can be found in all epochs of garden art. In the center is a sacred place with a fountain or water basin and as often a tree. Figure 1: Persian carpet, decorated with the four rivers of Paradise, a central pavilion and a border with cypress and fruit trees. Bazin 1990, p 40 Paradise, in the Hebrew Bible, also obeys this striking symbol shaping principle: "A stream comes out of Eden to water the garden and from there it divides into four main streams" (Gen 2:10-14). In the center of the Garden of Eden stands - as we all know very well - the tree of life and the tree with knowledge of good and evil. I would like to introduce and analyse the following symbolical garden elements:    The 'Garden-Cross'/Mandala The Boundary The Tree The other main archetypal elements I will discuss another time.    The Fountain/Water The Grotto The Labyrinth/Maze 1 The 'Garden-Cross' The 'Garden-Cross' is highly charged symbolically because it represents the world as a whole; dividing the world in the four cardinal directions. Thus, a fundamental orientation is created in space. Mircea Eliade identified the following mythic-ritual complex in many traditional tribal societies of different times and regions of the world: the world founded in the chaos through setting a principle of order and orientation – a cross in a circle or square. The center is marked in the form of a pole or a tree that Eliade called the "cosmic axis" or "axis mundi". In many shamanic traditions of Asia, Australia and America people believe "[...] the shaman would climb into the sky by means of a tree or a pole, which is equivalent to the cosmic axis" (Eliade 1991 p. 17, citing a German edition). It is the place that connects the horizontal ordered space with the vertical dimension of the cosmos, so with the sky above and the underworld below. The center symbolizes the place of origin of the world. The act of turning unknown territory into a cosmos (Greek: cosmos = order), by symbolic repetition of the creation myth, is a universal human phenomenon. Paradise, in the Hebrew Bible, also obeys this striking symbolic shaping principle. I quote from the Genesis: "A stream comes out of Eden to water the garden and from there it divides into four main streams" (Gen 2:10-14). Earlier animist belief systems crystallize around this basic shape. Sacred Symbols, such as the Indian and Tibetan mandalas, have the same design principle. It is also found in the medicine wheels of the Native Americans. Figure 2: Navajo dry painting, Willis (Hg.): Bertelsmannn Handbuch Mythologie, p 228 Figure 3: Constructing the Tibetan sand mandala, www.tibet.ee/lhodakgaden2009/mandalae.html The Navajo shamans construct sand paintings, which are used in healing ceremonies. Colored powder from coal, pollen, inter alia, is applied on clean sand, from which the painting is made. Colored sand is also applied onto the patient, the so called Sung-over-person in the ceremony. With the end of the ritual, the image is wiped off. 2 A very similar sand mandala ceremony we find in Tibetan Buddhism. CG Jung called the mandala 'the archetype of archetypes', a symbol of the 'self'. In the notes that Jung made during an existential crisis, he describes a dream, which marked the end of his crisis: He was in Liverpool (literally 'life pond'), whose districts were arranged radially around a place. In its center was a circular pond with a small island in the middle. The island shone in the sunlight, while everything around it was shrouded in rain, fog, smoke, and dimly lit darkness. On the island a single tree, a magnolia grew up in a shower of reddish blossoms. Although the tree stood in the sunlight, it appeared to Jung as if it would also be the source of light itself (citing Stevens, pp. 34 German edition). Here are even more elements of the garden symbol gathered, arising as an ensemble which immediately makes sense. Jung s fantastic portrayal intuitively seems strangely familiar. The Boundary The concept of the garden is defined by its differentiation from usual territory. Etymologically, it goes back to the Indo-European ord ghordho , which means wattle, fence, barrier, or protective hedge. In the garden man sets himself apart from the chaotic, limitless, fearsome wilderness and thus creates a pleasant refuge of security, which enables existence and development. It is striking that the fence, the wall or the hedge is still essential for a garden. A garden which is not able to give us the feeling of security, is not a good garden. We appreciate the aura of a protected, mysterious, sacred and magical place to which only we have the key. Our term 'Paradise' derives from the ancient Persian walled pleasure garden of the ruler. The aliph s garden was called 'Pairidaeze' (pairi: around and daeza: wall). The immense size of some of the gardens meant that seclusion and intimacy were difficult. In such cases – in the gardens of all world cultures – separate retreats were created: pavilions and pagodas, green arbours, summer houses, tree houses, caves, caverns, a hedge labyrinth or a separate 'hortus conclusus' within the park. In the Christian-medieval tradition the 'hortus conclusus' is sacred symbol of the Virgin Mary (see Hobhouse 2002, p 104). The closed garden here symbolizes the sheltering of Mary's virginity. “o the garde is other s od . Figure 4: Hortus conclusus, Château de la Motte, France, www.chateau-de-la-motte.net/nous-vous-offrons/les-exterieurs.html The Tree The tree plays a very special role among all plants in the symbolic Garden universe. 3 It also has a central role in archaic worldviews. The tree can be identified with Eliades 'cosmic axis'. In the myths of many Native American tribes the motif of the world tree can be found. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology, in connection to which the nine worlds exist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil). Figure 5: Siberian Worldview, Knaurs Lexikon der Mythologie, p 439 Figure 6: Egyptian Tree-Goddess, Schmeer 1990, p 28 In Siberian shamanism there exists a world view in the form of a cosmic egg, which contains a world tree. Also in the ancient Egyptian civilization the tree was revered as a sacred symbol. The holy sycamore that like most fig trees, exudes a milky juice, was connected with all major mother goddesses (see Dowling in German Midwives magazine 12/2001, p 17). In many Egyptian pyramids there are tombs representations of tree goddesses, who supply the dead with food and drinks drinks (see Schmeer, 1990, p.27 f.). In the center of the biblical Garden of Eden stands the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree here has ambivalent meaning – nourishing on the one hand, but on the other hand the cause of the expulsion from paradise after enjoying its fruits. In Islam, there is an upside-down tree whose roots, however, grow to the sky and the branches to the earth. This Tuba tree grows in the garden of Allah and is lit by itself (see Strassmann 1994, p 13). Trees are also present in the popular Cockaigne motif. This legend tells of a land of milk and honey with delicacies hanging on the trees; mainly bread and sweet pastries just for the picking. The residents of Cockaigne are lying relaxed under these trees and only need to open their mouths so that roast pigeons fly in by themselves. In several fairy tales the motif of the wish-fulfilling tree appears. In Cinderella for example it is a hazel o the gra e of the heroi es other. Pre ious lothes fall do fro this agi tree, tha ks to which Cinderella can go to the Ball and marry the prince to become queen. Gisela Schmeer, a German art therapist, asks: "How is this to be understood? The tree nourishes instead of the mother? The mother gives? In the form of the tree?" (Schmeer 1990, p 26). In European culture to this day, a tradition has remained connected to the maypole. Originally, these were pagan spring customs, which were then reinterpreted in the Christian tradition. The village 4 population was dancing around the maypole, which was worshiped as a "Tree of Life" and "alter ego of the community". Young men had to prove themselves worthy of a bride by setting up a Maypole for her and climbing up to its top (cf. Strassmann 1994, p 18). CG Jung devoted more than 130 pages of his book "On the Roots of Consciousness. Studies on the Archetype" to the "Philosophical Tree". He summarized the essential aspects of the archetypal tree as follows: "[...] growth, life, unfolding in the form of physical and spiritual sense, development, [...] the mother aspect (protection, shelter, roof, fruits for food, source of life, strength, duration, rooting [also: not being able to escape], age, personality, and finally death and rebirth" (Jung GW , Vol IX , p 379 cited after German edition). The tree represents life, but also stands for the death. "On the Persian garden carpets the cypress as a symbol of death and the blossoming almond tree as a symbol of life are often depicted woven together" (Bazin 1990, p 40). As an ancient symbol the tree embodies the feeling of security and rootedness (see Strassmann 1994, p 15). Nevertheless, mythological and religious traditions, such as in the Bhagavad-Gita and in the Gilgamesh epic, talk about the need to cut it down and to move away from it. At this poi t I a t hold a k pre atal ps holog ie a lo ger; I a t to reveal my hypothesis: The archetypal Garden topos is a symbolic expression of our prenatal experience! That is what makes Jungs archetypes collective. We all share the same earliest memories of another world beyond our existence in this world – it s the s ioti life i our other s womb! If one understands the image of the tree with its meanings as a symbol of the prenatal experience of the placenta, all single, conflicting aspects combine to form a meaningful unit. Our prenatal life is totally dependent on the placenta – this tree of life is nourishing and providing pleasure, but also can poison us and at birth it has to be cut and die. The tree trunk is the equivalent of the umbilical cord, as well as the sacred poles or with Eliade "axis mundi" of various myth-ritual complexes. This e plai s the ofte e tio ed red olor of the os i a is a d its dou lespiral twisted design of the stem of the tree of life in paintings or in the tradition to wrap the maypole with decorative ribbons. This obviously has its counterpart in the structure of the umbilical cord with artery and vein. Figure 7: Detail of Persian carpet with cypress and almond tree, Hobhouse 2002, p 61 Figure 8: Placenta, Nilsson 1990, p 89 Figure 9: Paradise tree with twisted trunk, detail of a paradise garden painting, Kluckert 2000, p 21 I want to refer to our Christian tradition once more: In the biblical story of creation the serpent plays an important role. The serpent is living in the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It represents the evil aspect of the umbilical cord, the poisoning one. The healing aspect of the serpent remains in the Bible as Moses holds up the serpent in the desert and a life-saving water spring arises. In ancient pre5 patriarchal myths the serpent was worshiped as a holy animal that belonged to the Great Goddess. In nearly every shamanic tradition the cosmic serpent plays a key role in mythology and as a power animal of the shaman that provides healing knowledge. Even today the Aesculapian staff symbolises Medicine. In the Old Thracian language "As" means "snake" and "klepi" = "to wind around something". Then "Asklepios" is the snake that winds around something – a stick or a tree (see https://www.thieme.de/viamedici/vor-dem-studium-infos-zum-medizinstudium-1493/a/wassymbolisiert-aeskulapstab-3690.htm). In the bible the holy cosmic serpent is turned to the absolute evil that ensnared Eve, who is blamed for the expulsion of humans from paradise. But In many archaic myths of creation the serpent is revered as sacred and divine though it also has a menacing, evil aspect. What is the essence of the new age – the so called "Age of Aquarius"? 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