martes, 17 de agosto de 2010

Vestiges Hermetics and Taoists in The Basilic of Our Lady of the Pilar


TRACES TAOIST AND SEALED IN THE BASILICA DEL PILAR


"My people perish for lack of knowledge"
 Hosea 4.6.

 From the point of view of traditional philosophy of art work is a reminder, the convening of its beauty is to a thesis, to something that must be understood, rather than enjoyed. For us to be reluctant to accept this proposal today, in a world that is constantly empty of meaning, yet we find it hard to believe that the "ornament" and "decoration" are, strictly speaking, factors integral to the beauty of the work of art, certainly not in-significant parts, but rather parts necessary for its effectiveness.

This perspective helps us understand the structure and certain architectural ornaments from the Basilica del Pilar de Zaragoza have a significant character. A detail that makes it unique is that it presents the only remains of a temple symbolism in Western Taoist symbols of cosmological and alchemical character. Also, the temple has an overall structure that represents the Chinese cosmogonic process expressed by Lao Tse and further by the philosopher Shao-Young.


 These signs are composed of six lines alternately continuous and discontinuous. We refer to those made of brick and present in the outer walls of the domes of the eight domes of the aisles. They belong to ancient Chinese tradition and were attributed to primary emperor Fu-Xi, are signs of binary mathematical basis, representing the pairs of opposites, complementary, one-zero, be-all, yang-yin, masculine / feminine, light-shade , etc.

 By contemporaneous to the date of construction of Pilar, the seventeenth century - XVIII, (the day of St. James the year 1681 was the foundation stone of the new Temple), displays the influence of the Jesuits in China, and attempts translation of concepts metaphysical, religious, cosmological, with the resulting cultural exchanges.









The striking presence of these Chinese characters in the "Pilar", could be due to the influence of the Cistercian Abbot John Caramuel and Jesuit Order, particularly the PJ James Kress, professor of mathematics at Imperial College in Madrid, and that in 1696, at the behest of the Count of Peralada, played by the valuation of construction of the Basilica.
It can be argued that the religious and scientific at the time, especially P. J. Kress received a great intellectual influence of Cistercian Juan Caramuel of Lobkowitz, born in Madrid in 1606, and died in Vigevano one years after being laid the foundation stone of the new Temple of Pilar. According to Menendez y Pelayo this Cistercian abbot was: "The most learned and prolific of polygraphs XVII century art critic Bruno Zevi said:" When Alexander VII spoke of architecture knew that his faithful adviser was the Cistercian monk Juan Caramuel "

 We note that in 1655 came to the papal throne, Pope Alexander VII, and was the greatest defender of the Jesuit thesis on the subject of "Chinese rites." The main obstacle to the expansion of Christianity lay in the differences between the Christian communities, which led to the charge of the rites. The Jesuits, for his part, and the Dominicans and Franciscans, on the other, discussed how he had to translate into Chinese the Christian concept of God and, above all, whether to allow Chinese Christians worship Confucius and ancestors.


These signs were imported binary in nature, presumably by Fr Martino Martini, SJ, professor of Chinese language Caramuel. Crassus referred biographer Caramuel that this language reduced to numbers and added it to his project of the Grammatica. Furthermore, as the Chinese symbols do not respond to the language but to things, implemented a universal language method.

 This missionary was speaking before the Pope Alexander Viil to defend and support the Jesuit thesis on the subject of "Chinese Rites" defense that achieved a favorable decree in 1656, accepting the rites previously convicted.

This decree was favorable to the guarantor of the Church Roman Catholicism, was repealed later by the Constitution (Ex illa die) of Clement XI in 1715. As was found effective ban on Christian preaching in the "country means" by Kang-Hi, emperor could have dreamed of being the Constantine of China.


 Another way of relating to these symbols opened the correspondence established by the Roman College and Leibniz Fr Jesuit Joachim Bouvet, astronomer and mathematician, member of the French mission.



The first description of the binary numbering system appears in the play "Mathesis Biceps" J. Caramuel, synthesis of all the mathematical knowledge of his time, published in 1667.
 Caramuel so that is the first mathematician to describe the binary numbering system, and that thirty years before Leibniz did, his most famous popularizer.
 Considering the foregoing, we can see so this hexagram consists of six lines, alternately continuous and discontinuous, in computer language corresponding to a "byte" of six 'bit'. So that would be the first Western church figures use computer language to represent abstract ideas and symbols.

As previously expressed in this system of representation, if we assign, as Leibniz did, to value a solid line and the line item to zero, we find that playing the number 42 in binary numbers.

 In the tradition of Taoist this hexagram represents the union of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, sulfur and lead, the Sun and moon, fire and water.

The total alchemical process is represented by the Hexagram, as the union and the Li Trigram Kan Trigram represents the conjunction of the two ingredients that you prepare the Elixir.


The alchemical operation is done symbolically by the descent of the broken line (yin) Li "crystallization of the spirit", and the rise of the solid line (yang) of Kan, sublimation of the seed and energy "

 This hexagram represents essentially the interpenetration of the fire with water, or the Sun with the Moon, corresponding to the traditional Christian iconography with the woman of the Apocalypse, "clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet."

In Catholicism and the Virgin Mary is represented, and so appears in the Basilica del Pilar.
 The Treaty of Alchemy, from "What K'uan Yú" says:
 "The stay at the center for the unity of heaven and earth is achieved only by joining the sun and moon.
 The sun represents the heart, and the moon, the cavity lower Tan T'ien, respectively symbolized by the dragon and tiger. When you reach the unification of heaven and earth, the lights of the sun and moon come together against the original cavity of spirit in the center of the head where the three treasures join (the generative force, vitality and spirit) , where sit the empty heart and intellect, and there is not myself or others. "

 Numerical Correspondence
 As we see in the diagram, consists of six lines, alternately continuous and discontinuous.



If we assign, as we have said, the value one continuous line and the line item to zero, ie if we look at this figure a number represented in binary, and implicit numbering system between the ancient Chinese, we find that represents the number 42.

There are two gates that mark the "Pilar" from the shrine, some figures which illustrate the closely determined by the numeric and symbolic value of this hexagram called "Wei-chi."

We can make an approach relying on the encrypted representation of the number 42, which corroborated his intent and knowledge of their meaning.
These two ports have the following images: the sun and moon, the Pillar of the Hebrew Exodus and the rainbow as a sign of the "Alliance Noaquita."

These three groups have a common bond, and is to combine bipolar relationship between the "Fire" and "Water", ie relations between the trigram "Li" and the trigram "Kan.

1 * The "Sun" and "Moon";

2 * The mainstay of Exodus was "Fire" at night and "Cloud" for the day;

3rd * and the "Rainbow" resulting from the interpenetration of light or solar fire "with the" water of the clouds. "


The right door that marks the pillar represents the "Sign of the Covenant" or rainbow, and we can see in physics that 42 ° is precisely the angle of refraction of the ray of "Sunshine" that passes through the drop of "Water."

The rainbow is the sign of the covenant with Noah, father of the three races, and therefore the sign of the Universal Alliance. This Partnership is established with the 'peoples' of the Gentile nations descended from Noah, the figure of Melchizedek, king of Salem, was among them and dramatically attests. The gentle and Job as Confucius himself belongs to the covenant of Noah, which in some ways can be considered as the scope of the religions of humanity. The Church, to worship those "Gentile saints, also attributed some validity to their acts of worship and divine service.

Noah's sacrifice, offered on the altar erected by him, is God's pleasure. Then God promises that the cosmic order is stable thereafter: "While the earth will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day" (Gen 8:22). And God sealed his covenant with humanity and with all life by the celestial sign of the rainbow (Gen 9.12 to 17). This link between worship and the cosmic order means that in the religions of humanity live genuine worship of God (Religio Perennis).


Referring to the "pillar" of Exodus we see that and Origen in his Homilies on Numbers states that the 42 seasons that the Jews spent in the desert before reaching the Jordan, in search of the Promised Land, they represent a double mystery: "Christ down to us through the 42 ancestors in the flesh, for as many seasons, and through the same number of stations that the children of Israel amounted to where it begins the promised inheritance "

 The Jewish and Christian feast of Easter is derived from Chapters XII and XIII of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt as well as the long march of forty years in the Sinai desert to the Promised Land, which was prescribed in place forty-two stages. For Philo of Alexandria (20 BC - 45 dj.C.), as for all Jews, Passover remembered the Exodus from Egypt, also representing "the passage of the soul in the world of the senses to that of reason."
Add a excerpt of the "Homilies on Exodus" of Origen, this entitled "The Tabernacle."

"If anyone understands well the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, or the passage of the Red Sea and the entire path through the wilderness, and each of the 42 sites of the camps, if it was capable of these things and so has received God's law written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, if any, say, comes to these things as progressive degrees, so that compliance in spirit each of the stages, has also achieved growth the virtues that they symbolize, that consequently may also reach the vision and understanding of the tabernacle. "

And yet in the Homily V, commenting on the reading from Exodus, made in (1 Cor 10, 1-4):

"You see how far apart the historic interpretation of the interpretation of Paul, what the Jews think it is over sea, Paul calls baptism, what they consider cloud, Paul is presented as the Holy Spirit ..."

I quote the verses to which I refer: Exodus 13, 21-22

21. And the Lord went ahead to show them the way, day in a pillar of cloud and at night in a pillar of fire. provides guidance on the trip, day and night.

22. Never missed the column of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night in front of people.

The exodus of the Israelites in the desert, guided by this division in 42 stages to reach the Promised Land, instead of Wisdom and Peace, has rich meanings for Origen, one of the most profound and original Fathers of the Church. I add more reviews of this Father of the Church on the pilgrimage from Egypt to the Promised Land, the desert stages and degrees of spiritual life, they say:

"These successive camping in the desert are the stages through which to complete the journey from earth to heaven. Ouien "may be found sufficiently capable, sufficiently aware of the divine secrets, to describe the stages of this trip, the ascent of the soul, explaining the work or breaks that are unique to each of these stops? If anyone dares to explain the meaning of each of the stages and intelligence make their names the features of each of the camps, I do not know if your spirit will be able to withstand the weight of such great mysteries, or if your listeners will be able to understand ... As you are concerned, they do not want to fall in the desert but to come to the country that was promised to your parents, do not accept to stay in any part of this land, you have nothing in common with her. May the Lord be your single lot, and you will not fall forever. This is the climb from Egypt to the land of promises: the mystical descriptions that have been made teach us, as I said, the soul's ascent to heaven and the resurrection of the dead. "

Origen also says on transit, "you get through the washing of regeneration ... In the regeneration by the water we are buried with Christ in the regeneration of the fire and the Spirit, we are made equal to the glorious body of Christ. "

Also, the Sun and the Moon, from the astronomical point of view, correspond with the number 42, we have been trying.


 This relationship will find it when you set your astronomical conjunction, ie when solar eclipses occur. These eclipses can be expected in families whose members are separated by Saros cycle.

Saros During this period occurs the same number of solar eclipses, in particular 42.


The number 42 has a similar symbolism between the ancient Chinese tradition and the Catholic, as we intend to show.

Solar eclipses can only occur at New Moon, and near the nodes of the orbit of the moon. The time between successive passages of the Moon through its nodes is called Draconic month, and is equal to 27.2 days.



The time between successive new or full moons is called the synodic month and is equal to 29.5 days. If we take 223 synodic months and 242 months compared with draconic we can see that they are almost equal. This period is called the Saros, and amounts to 18 years, 10 days.

This means that eclipses can be expected in families whose members are separated by Saros cycle.
 These "Saros Cycle" the Venerable Bede studied (673-735) Doctor of the Church found in the Holy Chapel

Bede's cosmology is exhibited in his De Rerum Natura, and De Temporibus, we are particularly interested treaty to mention the Saros cycle, related to the number 42 and Metonic calendar, still used by the Jews, whose calendar, every month begins at or near the Moon.


The main interest was solilunares Bede by Saros cycle, was because they are decisive in the calculation of the date of Easter. Is the answer to several technical improvements since the beginning of the eighth century, when Bede created his timing and his "finger calculus" until the current era of "digital computing," in which there is still a difference between Orthodox and Catholics on the date of Easter, which remains controversial.

I dare apostille if bowing his head at the Virgen del Pilar, reach the "center" space and "time" temporary, as being all that she represents as a holder of the "Wisdom of the Centre", so that accordance with accepted symbolism, unify through a partnership (iris) time (saros) and place (column of the exodus).
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEperiodicity.html 
Link to a video with images of intuitive nature of these relationships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFtkqhldK9c