UARDIANS ius Sun-Door S= erm en Leese ome D Ca SU TTT Se Tero ete Pore ree Pah lhe Bilecstnts aire @lrcanonny Pe U ero assy iit Eee testams tM er rsa ar titel eRe Cerone Robert Strom+ Taste or CONTENTS + Foreword — On Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Rama Coomaraswamy . Introduction Rama Coomaraswamy .. Preface Robert A. Strom ow XIV I. The Early Iconography of Sagittarius — Krsanu ... I. The Guardians of the Sundoor and the Sagittarian Type . Il. Concerning Sphinxes .. IV. The Concept of “Ether” in Greek and Indian Cosmology: “Ether” in Plato .. “Ether” in Philo... V. _ Philo’s Doctrine of the Cherubim.. VI. The Greek Sphinx. VI. The Immortal Soul as Psychopomp ... aoc VIII. Conclusion . Appendix: L On the Etymology of “Cherubim? . I. The Rotation of the Earth ... TIL. On “Stephanos’... Bibliography ...... Other Related Fons Vitae and Quinta Essentia Titles+ Guirplans oF THE SUNDOOR + + Forrworp — On Ananpa K. Coomaraswamy + Rama Coomaraswamy NANDA COOMARASWAMY, BOTH AS A PERSON AND_AS A SCHOLAR, Is hardly remembered in our day, To some degree, this is how he would have it — for he constantly held that, if he were to be remembered, it would only be for his works and not as an individual. He repeatedly refused to indulge in autobiographical details and felt that such was aswarga, and as such against the very principles in which he believed and to which he devoted his life. In this, he was like the true artist and craftsman, whose products have always carried the stigma of anonymity. While giving a talk at the University of Hawaii, a Ph.D. candidate informed me that his request to do his thesis on Ananda Coomaraswamy was rejected because “Coomaraswamy said nothing new.” This would have delighted him, though it in no way contradicts the fact that he was able to give expression to what had already been said in clearer and better ways — etver in being more suitable to our times. Tr is, however, of value to provide some historical background. Born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1877 to an English mother and a Sri Lankan father, he retuned to England at the age of three when his father passed away from Bright's disease (now called glomerulonephritis). He schooled at Wycliffe College (college being a term used for private schools in England), where he first manifested his interest in both geology and language. After graduation he proceeded to London University, where he took his degree in both Geology and Botany. At the age of twenty-three he returned to Sti Lanka, where he conducted a geological survey which is still of value and in use today. During the course of his geological studies, he became interested in the arts and crafts of Sri Lanka, which were rapidly being destroyed by the inroads of ugly and cheaply-produced products from the west, as well as by the corruption of the tastes and values of consumers as a result of both modern education and their desire to imitate the English. It was but a short step from this to his developing interest in the nature and meaning of art itself. He then traveled extensively throughout India, both studying and collecting examples of Indian art, offering his collection to the government if they would build a museum to care for it. This offer was refused, and hence it was that the collection returned with him to England. During this period he published many articles on Indian and Buddhist Art, as well as on Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, ete. Back in England, he continued his studies and published, among other items, his classical two-volume work on Rajput paintings and Mediaeval Singhalese art, and The Dance of Shiva. During the first World War (1914-1918), he refused to fight in the British ‘Army on the grounds that India was not a free nation. As a result he was “exiled” to the United States, where he was given the appointment at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as Curator of Indian and Mohammedan Art, and where he lived for the rest of his life. It was here that his many works on art were +vi++ Foreworp — On Ananpa K. Coomaraswamy + published, such as The Origin of the Buddha Image and the History of Indian and Indonesian Art, However, with the course of time his interests in the meaning of art — and hence in metaphysics — became increasingly consuming. From about 1933 on, while he continued to publish articles dealing with art, he was able to bring to his knowledge of metaphysics both his Eastern experiences and his extraordinary linguistic abilities, producing a corpus of works which can only be described as extraordinary. While his bibliography lists over a thousand items, one might mention in passing as it were, A New Approach to the Vedas, The Darker Side of Dawn, Angel and Titan, The Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art and many significant articles, some of which were gathered together by Roger Lipsey and published in a two-volume collection by Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series LXXXIX, under the title of Collected Papers. In 1947 Ananda Coomaraswamy retired from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with the intention of returning to India, where he hoped to finish up some of his writings, translate some of the Vedas, and take Sanyasa. God, however, had other plans, and he passed away peacefully and alertly shortly thereafter. It was only his ashes, carried by his wife, which returned to both India and Ceylon. Needless to say; many of the unfinished writings were left in disarray. His wife did yeoman work in bringing much of the material together, but the material on the Sagittarius was so complex that she made no attempt to deal with it. In the course of several moves the text, notes and photographs were further disrupted. Several scholars to whom the collected material was shown felt that they could not deal with it in an adequate manner. For a time, I felt that his final works would probably never see the light of day. Fortunately, Robert Strom — who is probably the only person alive who has the capacity to deal with this material — undertook the task. ‘The result, a work of several years, is truly remarkable. Not only has he presented the finished product much as Coomaraswamy himself would want it done, but he has done it with the same spirit of anonymity and virtue that the original author embraced. It has been both a search for truth and an exposition of truth which leaves one a litele breathless. It is no exaggeration to say that without the work of Robert Strom, this material would probably never have become available to us. + vii +* = Guarpians of THE SuNDooR + + INTRODUCTION + Rama Coomaraswamy A nanda K. Coomaraswamy’s Guardians of the Sundoor is one of the last remaining unpublished group of essays of this prolific author, it is also in many ways the culmination of his life’s work. Although the material is presented in a scholarly manner, it is also the story of a spiritual journey: his, and possibly ours, As he wrote in an earlier essay, “When the deceased reaches the Sundoor, the question is asked, ‘Who art thou?” Depending upon the answer, one is either allowed to enter in or “be dragged away by the factors of time.” The present work aims at providing us with the correct response and at teaching us how to negotiate the difficult passage between this world and the next. ‘A.K.C. was by vocation a scholar, who dedicated the last decades of his life to “searching the Scriptures” — something made possible by his extraordinary linguistic ability. He read and spoke some thirty languages, which enabled him to seek out the original sources. Because he wrote primarily for fellow scholars, it has been suggested that an introduction — providing the potential reader with a brief outline of some of the issues under consideration, while avoiding the multiplicity of unfamiliar linguistic references — would be of use. Without this simplification — hopefully, one that does not violate the depth of content — many who would greatly benefit from the text itself would perhaps be frightened off. It is because the content is of such spiritual importance — that our very souls depend upon both our understanding and following the paths set out by the author — it is of equal importance that a few “sign posts” be provided to enable us to follow in his footsteps. The ideas and concepts discussed go back to prehistoric times, but show a consistency of meaning that those imbued with evolutionary ideation would find difficult to accept.’ Metaphysical ideas, however, are best expressed by analogy and hence by symbolism. Indeed, as A.K.C. has elsewhere explained, “symbolism is a language and a precise form of thought; a hieratic and metaphysical language and not a language determined by somatic or psychological categories . . . symbolism can be defined as the representation of reality on a certain level of reference by a corresponding reality on another... traditional symbols are the technical terms of a spiritual Janguage that transcends all confusion of tongues and are not peculiar to any ‘This is not surprising. Augustine, as a Christian, said that the very thing that is now called the Christian religion was not wanting among the ancients from the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh — “after which the true religion, which had already existed, began to be called ‘Christian’.” (Stephen Cross, Avaloka, V1, 1992, p. 56.) And Origin says, “There has never been a time when the saints did not have the gift of spiritual salvation pointed towards Christ. The Word became man at the final hour; He became Jesus Christ. But before this visible coming in the flesh, he was already, without being man, mediator for humanity.” (Commentary on Gospel of Jobn, 20.12). + viii ++ InrRopucTION + one time and place. Indeed, they are the technical language of the philesophia perennis.” As Professor S.H. Nast has said, “The symbol is the revelation of a higher order of reality in a lower order through which man can be led back to the higher sphere. It is not accidental that Christ spoke in parables.” What could be more common than a doorway? To quote Gray Henry: “It is more than coincidental that many doorways throughout the world exhibit a corresponding set of symbolic motifs that point to the One manifesting itself as duality — a duality and a world that must return to that One.” One must pass through the duality of the door jambs to the unity which is only to be found in the centre. As Christ said, “I am the door,” and “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” The passage through the door is always a passage that at least symbolically involves a change of state, and what is required metaphysically is a casting off of the “old man” much as a snake casts off his skin. In our prosaic lives we easily forget that the door both allows us “in” and keeps us “out.” We forget that the husband carrying his wife over the threshold symbolizes a psychopomp carrying the soul to another world — hopefully a paradise where the couple will be “happy ever afterwards.” Should the husband stumble, it is a sign of bad luck or impending misfortune. On the other side of the door is the “One” or “centre” which is represented by the Tree of Life, the Axis Mundi, the Fountain of Immortality, a throne, a mountain, royalty, a sun disc, and so on. Also, the centre can refer to the garden of Paradise where the tree and fountain are located. The entrance is, however, not open to everyone — as mentioned above, the door functions both as entrance but also as an excluding barrier. And so it is that the Door or the Tree is guarded by “cherubim” who each hold “a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis U11.24). The affronted cherubim are themselves the “contraries” (of past and future, ruling and creative powers, etc.), of which the wall is built — and, therefore, the appropriate ornaments on the wall of the Temple as in Ezekial XL118. Each and every pair of affronted cherubim represents the clashing jambs of the living door through which the strait way leads — “strait,” because the line that divides past from future, evil from good and moist from dry is — literally — what is so often called “a razor edge.” Thus it is that sacred structures — churches and temples — almost invariably place flanking guardians at their entrances. As Gray Henry has pointed out, “One finds paired lions at the door of cach Burmese Buddhist shrine, sphinxes at the entrances of Egyptian temples (not to be confused with the famous Egyptian Sphinx), and affronted male and female griffins over the gates to Christian churches. The configuration still continues to be used for secular doorways, which often exhibit palmettes (representing the Tree of Life) and urns or vase motifs (indicating the Font of Living Waters). The threshold of the yurd in Central Asia is decorated with the image of the Tree of Life flanked by two mountain sheep, which are represented by their horns.” Such is appropriate and understandable when one conceives of the home as a mini-shrine or church — for a genuine “home” is a sacred enclosure. (This is why in manyGUARDIANS OF THE SUNDOOR > cultures one leaves one’s shoes at the doorstep.) One even sees an appropriate secular reminder of this in libraries (presumably the depository of wisdom), whose entrances are flanked by lions. Through time, these guardians have been of various types, including “Scorpion-men, sleepless and baleful serpents or dragons, centaurs (notably ‘Sagittarius’), Gandharvas, cherubim and in many cases armed Automate” (Symplegades). Every sacred enclosure is representative of Paradise. The central point of a Christian church, as traditionally conceived, is either the Cross — the upright stem of which is the Tree of Life — or the Dome open to heaven, under which is the Tabernacle containing the Body of Christ — Who is Himself the Door. The very cruciform structure of the church repeats this principle, as does the maze found in many mediaeval cathedrals. Again, every genuine Catholic altar has as its prototype the altar in the Holy of Holies guarded by the cherubim. Between the cherubim is the Shakina, or the Divine Presence now replaced by the Tabernacle. Similarly the well of Zam Zam situated in the sacred precincts of the Kabba in Mecca represents the Divine Centre, where is to be found the Fons Vitae, a pattern repeated in the fountains of mosques around the world. ‘The water functions to wash the “old man,” and hence to purify the worshipper. And of course our bodies are also sacred enclosures, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within the human heart. The well-guarded doorposts also represent the duality — the past and future, regret and anticipation, etc. — which must be overcome if one is to enter into the Present or the presence of God — a place where, to use the words of Eckhart, “neither virtue nor vice ever entered in.” Such statements may confuse, but not if one listens to Nicholas of Cusa, who tells us: “The walls of Paradise in which Thou, Lord, dwellest, are built of contradictories, nor is there any way to enter but for one who has overcome the highest Spirit of Reason who guards its gate.” This would seem to be a common doctrine recognized throughout the history of the world. If we are to reach the other shore — which is in Dante’s words, a place “where every where and every when are focused,” (Paradiso xxix.22) we must pass through this Door of duality, though “here, under the Sun, we are overcome by the pairs” (x1ii.67). As the Maitri Upanisad teaches: “Every being in the emanated world moves deluded by the mirage of the contrary pairs, of which the origin is our liking and disliking . . . but only those who are freed from this delusion of the pairs ... freed from the pairs that are implied in the expression ‘weal and woe’ reach the place of invariability.” As Boethius said, “Truth is 2 mean between contrary heresies” (Contra Eutychen vii). Another word for this duality is Maya, which both points to unity and at the same time obscures it. As Coomaraswamy explains, the “Vedantic maya-veda doctrine must not be understood as meaning that the world is a ‘delusion’, but that it is a phenomenal world and as such a theophany and epiphany by which we are deluded if we are concerned with nothing but the wonders themselves, and do not ask ‘Of what’ all these things are a phenomenon.” xe* Ivrropucnion + Coomaraswamy explains the process each of us must undergo. The passage through the Door is always a “Middle Way” and is frequently symbolized by the “clashing rocks” of mythology through which the “hero” must pass. As A.K.C. said in his essay on the Symplegades, “the severing Logos (itself symbolized by a flashing sword) is at once the narrow path which must be followed by every Hero, the door that he must find, and the logical Truth and Highest Spirit of Reason that he must overcome if he would enter into the eternal life of the land ‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’. This is also the ‘Logos of God’, the trenchant Word that like a two-edged sword ‘sunders’ soul from spirit (Hebrews 1V.12); ‘sunders’, because whoever enters ‘must have left himself, his ‘Achilles heel’, behind him our sensitive soul being the ‘mortal brother’ and the ‘tail’ or ‘appendage’ of which the Master surgeon’ knife — the Islamic Déw!-figar — relieves us, if we are prepared to submit to his operation.” Again, this desired locus is described as a place where “shine no stars, nor sun is there displayed, there gleams no moon; (and yet) no darkness there is seen.” It is here that Dionysius’ “Divine Darkness is entered and where one is ‘blinded by excess light,” where the Darkness and the Light stand not distant from one another, but together in one another. Darkness and Light, Day and Night, are contraries that must be overcome and passed through — which can only be done at dawn and dusk, when these archetypal contraries that were divided “in the beginning” are surpassed. Christ said He was the door through which we must pass, but having done so, united to Him, we are also united to the Father — for as He said, “I and the Father are one.” Rami wrote, “Our Soul is, as it were, the day and our body the night: We, in the middle, are the dawn between our day and night.” The well at the world’s end is not to be found by walking, for it is within us. It is the Spirit within us that, having shaken off our bodily attachments (and above all our attachment to our little self or ego), can make the journey. The priest in approaching the altar prays for the joy of his youth, which as Eckhart says is the casting off the “old man.” He also prays that God will lead him to the light, the truth and the Mountain in which He dwells. Reverting to the symbolism of the “clashing rocks,” it is clear that one must pass them in a “flash.” This “moment” of transition corresponds to the “single moment of full awakening” (The Buddha is not by accident called the “Wake”), for all spiritual operations are necessarily “sudden.” Clearly the Hero's quest is never meant to be a one-way street — The Holy Grail must be brought back to the world of manifestation. The Hero becomes a “soma-thief,” where Soma is the waters of life, the Golden Fleece or the golden apples of Jason. It is also called the “vessel of plenty.” “No dweller on earth partakes of the true elixir, but only of substitutes ‘made to be Soma’ by rites of transubstantiation, participation being a prefiguration or anticipation of the blessed life of the deceased.” This transubstantiation is achieved in a ritual sacrifice that allows the sacrificer to identify himself with +xi++ GuaRDIANS OF THE SUNDOOR + the Hero who is always a Christ figure, and who as it were crosses over and brings back the Soma. It is the Catholic priest, who identifies himself with Christ, who crosses over or through the clashing rocks — between the Cherubim — and brings back Bread and Wine, (both crushed like the soma branches), the Body and Blood, for others to participate in. Space only allows us to but touch upon some of the basic ideas in this work. Tied in with these are a host of treasures explaining the symbolic meanings of a variety of associated ideas, drawn from all the genuine traditions of the world — such as the meaning of “Sacrifice,” “Ether,” “Space,” “Solar Symbols,” etc. The Sphinx, then, which Philo identifies with the Cherubim. made of the creative Fire, is also identified with the Legos and with Wisdom. The Sphinx is also represented by the Eagle or the Indian Garuda. This explains the symbolism of the “rape of the Nagi” — or of Ganymede, which is the inverse of the “Rape of the Soma.” Here, as A.K.C. explains, “the Sphinx represents the Psychopomp who bears away the soul of the deceased, as she bore away the Thebans ‘to the inaccessible light of the Ether.” Here we have a further elucidation of the traditional symbolism — for as A.K.C. explains, quoting Euripedes: “The spirit dies away into Ether” which is nothing but its return to God Who gave it. This is at once the background for Philo’s pronouncement that when, at our death, the four lesser elements are returned to their origins, “the intellectual and celestial species of the soul departs to find a father in Ether.” In the words of A.K.C.: “We have seen in the mythological formulations, verbal and visual, that winged pneumatic powers, whether we call them sirens, sphinxes, eagles or angels, convey the soul to the heavenly realms of ethereal light. The soul itself not being winged, only clings to its bearer,” On the other hand, Plato in the Phaedrus speaks of the soul itself as growing her wings; Philo, similarly, says of souls that are purified from mundane attachments that “escaping as though from a prison or the grave, they are equipped for the Ether by light wings, and range the heights for ever” (Somn. 1.139). In the same way, Dante speaks of those who are — or are not — “so winged that they may fly up there” (Paradiso x.74). In India, likewise, both formulations occur; on the one hand, it is the eagle that conveys the sacrificer, who holds on to him (7S. IIl.2.1.2), by means of the Gayatri, whose wings are of light and that one reaches the world of the Suns. On the other hand, it is asked what is their lot who reach the top of the Tree (of Life)? The answer is “the winged, those who are wise, fly away, but the wingless, the ignorant, fall down (PB. XIV.1.12.13). Uplifted on wings of sound, “the Sacrificer both perches fearless in the world of heavenly light, and also moves” i.e. at will, “for wherever a winged one would go, all that — it reaches.” ALK.C. points out: “We are ourselves the Sphinx. Plato himself implies as much by his ‘ete.’ when he discusses the problems of man’s relation to Chimaera, Scylia, Cereberus and other composite animals. Plato equates the two parts of the composite creature with the two parts of the soul, the better+ Inrropucrion + and the worse, immortal and mortal; the composite represents the whole man, the human head the Inner man, the lion or dog, the mettle.” He might even have gone further and pointed out that the serpent tails of these creatures correspond to the appetites — equating the two animal forms, those of the lion and the snake, with the two parts of the mortal soul, as Philo assuredly would have done. In any case, Plato says, that man is one who can be described as just (or in Christian terms, is justified), in whom the Inner Man prevails and is not pulled about by the beasts, but makes an ally of the lion or dog and so cares for the other beasts as to make them friendly to one another and to himself. On this basis, one might say that the composite animal that he really was carries him off at last, either to punishment in case the beasts have prevailed, or to the beatific life if the Man in the man has prevailed: The question is really just that of the Prasa Upanisad: “In which, when I depart, shall I be departing?” Tn concluding these introductory comments I must, first of all, express my admiration for the work of the Editor, Robert Strom — who when faced with 2 confused mass of notes and illustrations, was able to collate and bring together this difficult material. Equally remarkable has been the work of Rebecca Renzi who, working from the notes of Mr. Strom, has typeset a text involving several languages with great accuracy. One must also be grateful to Gray Henry, for whom this has been a work of love as well as spiritual growth Her contributions are by no means limited to the role of publisher, for she has been responsible for the collating of illustrations — many of which she has herself found and replaced when they were missing from the original text. Finally and most important, thanks are due to Peter Schroeder, whose patronage made the entire work possible. Chimaera. Attic, 6* century 8.C. + xiii ++ —Guarpians oF THE SUNDOOR + + PREFACE + Robert A. Strom +14 HE WIDELY AND PROFOUNDLY LEARNED ANANDA KENTISH COOMARASWAMY (1877-1947), art historian and metaphysician, is not as well known as he deserves to be. In the East he is best known for his earliest works, in which the critique of the colonial economic system and the advocacy of traditional arts and crafts tend to predominate. Those who are most willing to commend his work too often exhibit a discreet silence, or have been unable to fully access and evaluate his latest and most important writings. In the West, where he lived most of his life, academia has been very slow to welcome the grand Coomaraswamian scientific synthesis, Coomaraswamy would have asserted that his work was only a beginning at restoring a fully integrated world view of the ancients. Moreover, he would have said that it leaves out the entire regimen of practice — without which any theorizing, however comprehensive, is little more than the raising of dust. On the other hand, the serious problem posed by the absence of spiritual masters in the modern world is easily overrated where the theory is not understood. The restoration of the primordial vision of man in the cosmos as offered in these essays — which are published for the first time — is another such beginning and can lead to the manifestation of a seasonally spoken, creative and life-giving Word. As for the practicum, Coomaraswamy knew the need for this very well as an ideal or not, and seriously intended to retire to a Himalayan hermitage where the truth he so assiduously pursued could be fully realized. Before that was to occur, probably in 1949, the essays presented here — along with a number of others he had been working on for years — would very likely have been brought to finish and found their way into print somewhere in the world. We believe they favorably augment his already published sewore and are important additions to the study of iconographic traditions in East and West, a field to which he had given many of his best years and for which these essays were doubtless intended to be both a literal and a figurative capstone. ++ Coomaraswamy probably began working on the first essay in this volume, “The Early Iconography of Sagittarius,” in the spring of 1943. However, it was the appearance in 1937 of Willy Harter’ “Pscudo-Planetary Nodes of the Moon's Orbit,” a study dedicated to Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy on his sixtieth birthday, which must have set his mind on course. The earliest reference to the work in his surviving correspondence dates from 4.8.43 in a letter to J.C. Cuttat: ... Your mention of Scorpio (who was originally a celestial janitor) is curious, because I am just now working +xivs+ Guirpuns oF 1H SunpooR + “Symplegades” and can be dated from late October and November of 1943, though it would not be published until 1946. From bibliographic references in both early and late “Sagittarius” manuscripts, it is clear that the “Symplegades” was under way towards the Zerminus ad quem of the earliest and probably completed before the composition of the latest “Sagittarius” manuscripts, In the early summer of 1944, there was a discussion of many “Sagittarian” themes in the correspondence to G. Carey. This material, beginning with the card dated 6.13.44, was never precisely incorporated in A.K.C. formal work: ... One might also say that as red agrees with the “ardor” of the seraphim, so blue with the cooler “knowledge” of the cherubim. But this would be a moral rather than metaphysical explanation. ‘The topics were continued in a letter to Carey dated 6.14.44: From the Indian point of view (dark) blue and black are equivalent. The three, blue, black and white, correspond to the éamasic, rajasic and sattvic qualities. Indian images can be classified in these terms as ferocious, royal and mild or spiritual in aspect. Now while knowledge and love are the characteristic qualities of cherubim and seraphim, their primary functions are defensive and apotropaic and looked at purely from an Indian point of view, one would think of the colors blue and red as corresponding to this militant function. God Himself would be white — or what is essentially golden, Gold being the regular symbol of light, life and immortality. From within the Christian-Hebrew tradition one would recall that Seraphs are “fiery serpents” and connect the red with this as well as with their characteristic ardor. I am just now writing the part of the “Early Tconography of Sagittarius” which deals with Cherub and seraphs. They are both militant and fierce types that “keep the way of the Tree of Life” — and nearest to God (with the Thrones) in knowledge and love because they are his “bodyguards,” a sort of “King’s own” regiment, an elite of the angels. I am not quite able to explain the blue from the Christian-Hebrew sources. Possibly the blue is for the Virgin; considered in her aspect as Sophia . . . From my outlook blue or black is appropriate for the Virgin in view of her identity with the earth (Goddess), the Mother — of which I was reminded the other day when seeing the film, The Song of Bernadette. (Which is very fine and you+ Prerace + must see.) This is the accepted explanation of the “Vierges Noires” (of Durand-Lefebure, Evudes sur lorigine des Vierges Noires, Paris 1937 and Rowland’s article on the Nativity in the Grotto, Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, U1, 1939 (cf. p. 63). In conjunction with the above, we excerpt here a small portion of a letter to Ms. Bethune from 7.26.43: . Lwas for the moment surprised by Maria as Janua coeli (since Christ’s words are “I am the door”), but at once remembered that both Sun and Moon are the doors and no doubt itis in her lunar aspect that Mary is the door. The color symbolism would also be the subject of the letter to Carey, } dated 7.29.44: . .. Answers on the color symbolism are not quite | so easy. On the whole I agree with your remarks: However, I suggest that essentia is only apparently modified by matter, in the same way that space is only apparently modified by its enclosure in, say, a glass jar. We sce this when the jar is broken: In the same way with Essentia when the ‘material conditions determining Esse arc dissolved. So I would say “God created the universe by revealing whatever of Himself is susceptible of manifestation,” Over and above this remains all that is not susceptible of manifestation. T do not like the expression “passing Esse through Pase.” As you say: Pure Being — White both invisible Pure Potency — Black Between these two lies the colored (red) world of action, These are the 3 “unas” of Indian cosmology: Cf. Paradiso 29.31-6. ‘These are the “3 worlds” of tradition — all under the Sun and other than the otherworld, Blue, black and green are more or less the same traditionally: The implication of emptiness is right, but this is also potentiality, since emptiness demands fulfifment. “The four castes and four quarters are white, red, yellow, black. The “high lights” (as you imply) ate representative of higher values. Purple rightly associated with black: Purple connected with royalty [also mourning], as black is with death Prism: So “life stains the white radiance of eternity.” T hardly think the light returns to God by the rotation of + xvii ++ Gusrpians oF THE SUNDOOR + the wheel, but rather when it is stopped, ie., when the circumference is reduced to the centre: Then the centrifugal ray by which the circumference was, 50 to say, pushed out, returns on itself to its source. As Heracleitus says: “The way up and the way down are the same.” The wheel continues to turn until the ciucumference is contracted to the motionless centre ({the] “rolling up” of time and space). I wonder if you are not using Ese (existence) where you mean Ewentia (being), ... Essentia apparently modified by matter = Esse. Only a month later, as we see in this quotation from a letter to Marco Pallis dated 8.20.44, Coomaraswamy was still at work on the “Sagittarius ... Lam rather appalled by your suggestion of my writing a book of the nature of a critique of Occidentalism for Indian readers. . .. In the long run the long piece on the “Early Iconography of Sagittarius” on which I have been ‘engaged for over a year, with many interruptions, seems to me more important than any direct addition to the “literature of indictment” ... From a letter to Bernard Kelly dated 12.30.44, we know that the work on the “Sagittarius” had continued up to that time, but now we also find mentioned the earliest reference in the extant correspondence to the “Ether” essay, the fourth of those presented in this volume. Tam just now working on two rather difficult papers, one on aighr, akasa as quinta essentia and name of God, | the other on the early iconography of Sagittarius who is ultimately a Cherub or Seraph, guardian of the sources | of life. Only a month later, in a letter to R. Parker, dated 1.27.45, we find a similar picture: Lam still deep in Sagittarius and have started a piece on Gr. aighr and Skr. akasa, both = quintessentia — fascinating material! But I get so much interruption . .. It was much the same a few days later in a letter to G. Sarton, dated 2.6.45: I have a number of things in the press that will interest you. [am still working on the “Early Iconography of Sagittarius,” but am almost bogged down in the mass of material (cherubs, centaurs, Jarua coeli, Rape of soma, etc.); and on the concept of Ether in the Greek and Sanskrit sources. + xviii ++ PRerAceE + As it cumed out, he was stymied and both manuscripts of “Early Tconography of Sagittarius” end at that point where the material corresponds to and is continued in the “Ether” essay. This is possibly reflected in a letter to Gretchen Warren dated 4.2.45, which incidentally contains the earliest reference in the correspondence to the “Sphinx” essay, the third of those presented in this volume: Both “Sagittarius” and “Ether” became so extensive that I paused to write up the material on the Sphinx (wf the Egyptian “Sphinx”) separately and hope at least to finish that this month. Less than a week lates, on 4.7.45, he would send this pertinent card to E. Goodenough of Yale, the prominent Philo scholar, with whom many of these subjects had been explored: --- Re the Hermetic 2 dorujorei that a comparison with Rep. and with Phaedo 107f. shows that both are called Agemren and daimeug and one is the guardian angel of the past life and one the guardian angel of the new life, Representing thus the souls past and future they correspond to the Cherubim, the opposites, between which (as Symplegades) stands the Now through which our Way — the very strait leads. ‘We see in a letter to Ethel Mary Coomaraswamy Mairet, dated 6.1.45, the state of these manuscripts at that time: At the present time I have long been working on the early forms of Sagittarius; I have had to separate from that a discussion of “ether” in Greek and Sanskrit doctrine; and from that again to separate out a long paper on the Sphinx (not the so-called Egyptian variety, of course), which may get finished this summer. All this has to do with cherubim, and with the distinction of Destiny from Necessity — i.e, Dharma from Karma. I, too, hope to live a number of years more; at the same time I do prepare for death, as far as possible, in the Platonic manner. In a few years more we plan to go home to India (northern) permanently, when I will in a certain way retire, rather than dying in harness; that is, I want to contact and realize more immediately the actuality of the things of which my present knowledge is more “intellectual” than direct. The contemporaneous letter to Walter Shewring, dated 6.5.45, will be extensively quoted: As to moira (“share,” gismet and bhagam) and cimarmenh these represent our participation in the divine + xix ++ Gusrpuans oF THE SUNDOOR + nature, and our “freewill” is as to whether or not we shall consent to and cooperate with the wil! which these imply, whether we seek or not to reach our destination. Nothing could be more un-happy than to be amoira. Moira as will and destiny then corresponds to ddarma, of which each one’s allotment is his sva-dharma, vocation, the natural means of his entelechy. On the other hand, anaghh represents the ineluctable operation of mediate causes, and corresponds to AAarma, which may help or hinder our destiny, but with respect to which we can only submit with a good grace, endeavoring to fulfill our destiny as best we can. This endeavor itself becomes a mediate cause in turn and thus creates a better anaghh — kharma for tomorrow. Thus our lives are actually determined in part by our intentions and in part by our environment. .. . [Note] the valuable treatment of moira, etc. in Philo and Hermetica, etc, As Philo maintains God alone is truly free, but we are given a share (moira) in this freedom: And all such shares are in amounts proportionate to our receptive capacity — all is offered. Tam still at work on Sagittarius, Ether, and Sphinxes, and shall try to complete articles on these three closely related themes, in the reverse order, ic., Sphinxes first. The concepts ridiculous. Sjiggw has practically never this sense, but = dew (in desmos and dei) and is almost always used with respect to the Golden Chain that unifies all things. On the other hand the verb of which Sphinx is most often the subject is arparw, to carry off And you know how and of whom this verb is used in NT. In other words, the Sphinx, like the Eagle, appears in tombs chiefly in the capacity of psychopomp — who, as Euripedes says “carries off the Cadmena kin to the untrodden light of Ether” — or as Philo says, “to find a father in Ether” (a reminiscence of the early equation Zeus estin aighr). That is a very brief outline of what the Sphinx article is to be. After I had got this far I was delighted to find that Clement of Alexandria explains the Sphinx in precisely the same way. (Of course, Tam talking about the Gk. and Western Asiatic Sphinx only, not the so-called Egyptian Sphinx of which the origins are different, although there is, as biologists would call it, a “convergence.”) Trecently came across this admirable aphorism: “Our choice is (as it always was) between metanoia and paranoia.”+ PREFACE + The summer of 1945 may have been occupied with other tasks so that by September 25, in a letter to Helen Chapin, Coomaraswamy would confess that “{his] work on Sphinxes, etc. seems rather slowed up.” One of these new projects was the composition of the essay “Reveda” 10.90.01 “aty atiftthad datan, guldim,” later published in the spring of 1946 by the JAOS. This excellent work has never been republished and is in need of careful editing, It contains many echoes of the essays we publish in this volume, with “Note 36” especially relevant to the “Ether.” We believe that most of the first three sections of the “Sphinx” presented below were probably composed by the late summer 1945. A new effort to order and refine the material presented itself with an invitation to lecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, early in 1946. A.K.C. would write to his host, James Marshall Plumber, on 1.26.45 as follows: =. I think my talk for you must be on “The Riddle of the (Greek) Sphinx” because I have worked on that last and have good material for slides, which I must get made in time, ‘This lecture was given at the university's Student Religion Association, Lane Hall, on January 2, 1946. It survives in two manuscripts with indicated illustrations in the margins, Both manuscripts are closely related, and appear to have been composed “back-to-back” over a short period of time, As in the manuscript published below, the main concern is with the Greek iconographic and literary traditions. The “riddle” itself is given short shrift; Coomaraswamy saw the answer in the nature of the Sphinx herself. We have used part of the latter of these two versions in a “Conclusion” to the essay. After returning to Boston, the “Sphinx” ‘manuscripts may not have been worked over again, as we can infer now from letters dated 5.13.46 to Mrs. Roger Foster and Willy Hartner from 8.1.46. By that date, Coomaraswamy’s last book [published in his lifetime], Time and Eternity, was in preparation and would occupy his attention for a few months. Towards the end of 1946, the project of a book titled Reincarnation would develop in which Coomaraswamy would return to the study of “ether’ “for the early but finally only tentative chapters. A portion of this material, our Section I of the “ether” essay in this book, titled “Ether’ in Plato,” was completed and sent to the Journal of he Hellenic Society early in 1947 but was apparently not accepted. Later that spring, Coomaraswamy’s heart condition worsened and he was able to do very little in finishing the essays printed in this volume. On the moming of September 9, 1947, Ananda Coomaraswamy passed away at his home outside Boston. His ashes were returned to Ceylon and the Ganges eighteen years later, in September 196s, + xxi ++ Chapter] + ‘Tre Earcy Iconocrapny oF Sacrrrarius — Krganul! “LAsie Occidentale applique les lois d'une iconographie rigoureuse,” G. Conteneau, Manuel d Archéclogie orientale, p. 377. HATEVER ASTRONOMER’S PURPOSE THEY MAY SERVE, THE ACTUAL FORMS. of the signs of the Zodiac are of mythological rather than astronomical origin? Te is proposed to discuss the older background of the sign Sagittarius (coEdtns), of which the surviving type is that of the centaur-archer whose place lies between Scorpio and Capricornus and below Aquila and Serpentarius — collectively a significant ensemble, The fundamental questions to be asked will be, At what is the archer shooting? and What is he defending? Intimately connected with these questions is the problem of the Islamic iconography in which the centaur-archer’ tail is not that of a horse, but that of a snake or dragon (Fig, 1). This problem has already been ably discussed by Dr. Willy Hartner, who remarks that “This combination ... evidently originates aot in a doctrinal astrological conception, but in a purely mythical, or rather metaphysical one”; while as regards the dragon tail he says that “the question remains entirely unsolved as to why this dragon was combined with the constellation of Sagittarius .. . some of the features belonging to the scorpion also seem to have passed over to Sagittarius; and, still, we must not forget that the scorpion itself had always been closely related to the snake, symbol of the inferior, antisolar world, the region of the dragon.” He is, in fact, entirely on the right track in going on to say that “the solution of the problem has to be sought in the ancient oriental mythology — indeed, there certainly exists a connection with the ‘scorpion man’ watching, in the Gilgamesh epic, at the entrance of the inferior world.” Except that we should have preferred to say “other” rather than “inferior” world,! this is a "The present title, expanded by the addition of “Kran,” follows that given in Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy's “Symplegades,” see R. Lipsey, Ed., Coomarasweamy: Traditional Art and Symbolism, Princeton, 1977, Note 29, p. $34. — Ed.) Hardly any of the Greek, Chinese or modem signs of the Zodiac are recognizably manifested by the actual arrangements of the stars; they cannot have been derived from, but have been imposed upon the visible starry sky. Willy Hartnes, “Pseudoplanetary Nodes of the Moon's Orbit,” Ars llamica, V. pp. 138, 149. ‘The “inferior” and “superior” worlds, Zeus and Hades are very often in the Greek sources only