The Arcane Symbolism in Sri Aurobindo´s Work, I Part

This article is a bit complex, but it's the only open door I know to something Sri Aurobindo considered so relevant to justify the Revelatory Vision.
It is indispensable you get first on my post https://sriorobindo.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/the-vision-of-savitri-i-part.html of which the following is an explicative work.

Please follow it and excuse me in advance for not being able to explain it in simpler words, they are concepts totally new even for myself.
But as I understand, it is of fundamental importance for any student of the Integral Yoga, or even better of an Integral Truth, and it would certainly elevate our understanding of the Supermental Realization.
I offer it to you as a service to the Masters and your beloved hearts.

As you will see, in the mentioned post of the Vision, we have a cube surmounted by pyramids on all its sides with Savitri entering in it.

fig.0 this image is only indicative.



So this article is not a speculation of my own, as it results far evident that the Master was representing his own symbol but in a three-dimensional shape.
Why this?
To explain it is the aim of this post.

fig.1

There is only one place in the extensive  work of Sri Aurobindo where his wisdom was laid down without the use of a single word. (fig.1)

When we observe the emblem of Sri Aurobindo: an open lotus floating in a pond enclosed within a square, and the square within an ascending and a descending triangle, we have no doubts it conveys a subliminal, spiritual meaning.

We probably think of the ascent of the human being or of Matter itself, and the descent of the Supramental Consciousness, and the blossoming of the inner Self centered as the lotus in the pond.
All of this sounds reasonably true and probably is, and yet, there´s the possibility that something else remains concealed in the symbol.

It would be sufficient only with a superficial look to be persuaded of the similarity of the Sri Aurobindo´s emblem with that of the kabbalistic tradition, (fig.2)

                                                                              fig.2

though we found it as a recurrent symbol, carrying almost an identical meaning, in the context of different arcane cultures, as for instance the vedic. (fig.3)

                                                                             fig.3

                                                                  a vedic yantra

We positively know that the substantial difference between the star of David and that of Sri Aurobindo is the direction of the triangles: while in the Star of David the ascending triangle is the Spirit and the descending represent Matter, in that of Sri Aurobindo it is the reverse.

So that there can be hardly any doubt that Sri Aurobindo purposefully represented the sense of his work connected with the ancient traditions by using their very symbols and meaning the same principles.
And if we admit such a cultural/spiritual link for the triangles, there is no reason why the square would represent the exception here, as, every single element of the emblem has its own explication. On the contrary,the square had stupendous reasons to be there, describing so to say a pan-cultural trajectory, a comprehensiveness of traditions, a mystical circle around them all.

And it was not for any geometrical or aesthetic solution to contain the lotus and the pond that the square appear, as for that purpose, even a circle would suffice or nothing at all.
Instead, we have the introduction of an additional emblem. The Square. (fig.4)

                                                                                fig.4


And the Square takes us directly to another ancient tradition, that of the sacred geometry.

We can truly say that if it was not for the square in the middle of the triangles, there would be little or no distinction from the kabbalistic symbol. Though it has nothing of casual, the square ought to be there too.

But after all, what was contained in the humble square to be adopted not only as a graphical sign but as the device for, as we will see, a new dispensation of His Work and a farther discover for ourselves?

There were a number of good reasons why the star of David was implemented with a square.

Since the most ancient times the Arcane Symbolism  utilized four lines parallel and convergent (the square), to symbolize the Four Elements of the Chaos Naturae.(fig.5).

The square was considered the proper symbol of the interrelation of the four elements and each of them had in the square its own corresponding place and movement: fig5

fig.5 representation of the Chaos of Nature ( 4 Elements ) as an ordered movement: Ascending Fire, Descending Water, Upper Air, Lower Earth.

It is but evident for anyone that the four elements develop their activity within a three-dimensional world, not in a two dimensional one, so that the true representation of the works of Nature is

fig.6


the Cube, and the Square a devise, a symbol of it.

We can truly say that the Cube is the inner soul of the square, to which the square silently points.
And truly was so in the ciphered language of the ancient Initiate.

There should be hardly any dissension about it, because we know the cubic stone was carved by the ancients with the name of the divinity and ceremonially placed as cornerstone of the sacred buildings. (The foundational stone in public buildings in our modern era is a remnant of that ancient tradition).

fig.7 the kan (the Square) ancient Egyptian instrument of masonry

With his Kan the Egyptian Mason gave measure and dimension to the formless and irregular stone ( which was to him the chaos of nature) taking order out of disorder (by giving shape to its secret soul, the cube), rendering it apt for the edification of the Temple.

We reach a first human attempt of reducing to an ordered movement the otherwise unresting and uncontrolled forces of Nature, and we reach a first emblemization of the Work. (emblemization: symbolical representation of an esoteric-spiritual work or of a concept).

As well, the synchronization of the 4 Elements, produces and sustains Life. So that in first instance the square is a dynamic and not a static symbol, and in second instance, the elements act into three dimensional space, so that the true representation of matter and life becomes intimately connected with or rather shifts from the exoteric square to the esoteric cube.
It is the cube which explains life, not the square.
(In the Vision, the Water ascends and forms a cube which Savitri enters, and is Savitri which justify the cube, not the reverse. So to say, is the last element that enters which explains all the others. In Evolution, it would be the involved spirit finally deploying itself in matter, as for Sri Aurobindo's vision of Evolution).

While the square is the representation of the sum of the works of Nature, the cube is its inner sense.

And it is the square and not any other symbol, because in the square there is the symbolic representation of the four elements by means of lines comprehensive of the whole manifestation and activity of Nature operated from their respective directions and locations: fig 8

To the eyes of the ancient Initiate the Square or the Cube were not empty.

When we unite the lines appears the square

fig.9

with the fifth element delimited by it and delimiting it, its secret Matrix, the Lac Virginis of the Alchemist, the invisible Etheric Light support and container of all the existing, the Prana of the Rishi.

So that in last terms is the Cube and not the square what really symbolizes the activity of the four Elements.
So we can see that if we allow such a treatment to the square, and if the square and the triangles were meant to mean something, the whole emblem of Sri Aurobindo would synthesize within a few lines the core of the relevant traditions both of the East and the West.

....end I part
.