What does pomegranate mean in esotericism?

Probably everyone has moments in their life when they stop in a crowd of rushing people and ask themselves the question: where is everyone running? And why is it sometimes so lonely among so many people – strangers, and often acquaintances? And what should I do, where should I go? One symbol that the hands of deities from different cultures and different eras extend to us can help answer these questions – the symbol grenade. He is significant in culture the Greeks, Phoenicians, the Persians, ArmeniansIn Christian traditions. Take a close look at it – what makes it remarkable? Why was he called the king of fruits, a symbol of unity, life, rebirth? This is a very multidimensional symbol. U Phoenicians it was an attribute of the Sun god, a symbol of life. IN Persia – a symbol of supreme power. IN Greece – an attribute of Hera, the goddess of vows and marriage. And, of course, an attribute of Demeter – the goddess of the forces of eternal rebirth and fertility. There was a Greek legend that the first pomegranate tree was planted by the goddess Aphrodite, and the golden pomegranate on the island of Cyprus became a symbol of love and bonds. The specific name malum granatum means “grainy apple”. In structure, it represents many grains united under one dense shell, and provides an amazing example of combining multiples into a single whole, giving birth to a new quality – the undivided fruit of the “apple”. He talks about how to regain inner harmony, joy, integrity, harmony and a sense of unity – yes, yes, he tells exactly how to return, and nothing else. The sounds of harmony are not born on earth, their home is the sky. From there they descend and fill the world. Integrity is not on earth, but in heaven. From there it comes and connects the seemingly incompatible. Find a point of unity where it seems impossible, make another effort, give a chance, and not turn away in disgust – how much we all need this! An outstretched hand, another attempt to understand, not to judge, to hear – what a salvation when you receive it! And how hard it is to do it yourself. And in order to still make this effort, you need the courage to think, search and rise within yourself to the most human, the highest, almost inaccessible – what in ancient traditions was called the grains in a person. Grains of the human, divine, supreme, immortal. The symbolism of grains in Egyptian traditions: a person came to earth with grains, sprouted them and left with new grains in his heart, which were then weighed on the scales of Osiris. The grains, which are initially part of the Whole, the One, the Great, are given to us to preserve and transform ourselves. The pomegranate symbol was associated with ancient mysteries. And the mysteries always raised a person above the ground, immersed him in a space of a different scale – the space of great Harmony and Eternity. IN Greek mysteries The pomegranate seeds were eaten by young Persephone, thereby saving herself from great oblivion, and returned to the world not as a young naive girl, but as a wise woman, the true daughter of her Great Mother. It was the pomegranate seeds that helped her stay alive and unharmed in the kingdom of the dead, and then come out into the light again, to be reborn to life. Thus, an amazing fruit appears before us as a guarantee of immortality. And we continue to be concerned about questions of loneliness, love, harmony, the answers to which we look for in our favorite books, films, articles – “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “In Search of Lost Unity”. Which ones will you add? And above all this flickers the majestic image of the goddess, holding out to us an open pomegranate – the king of fruits, a symbol of rebirth, immortality, life. Many ancient peoples associated hopes for resurrection and immortality with pomegranate. All traditional world religions assign a special place to the pomegranate symbol. IN Buddhism Pomegranate is one of the blessed fruits, along with citrus and peach. IN islam it was considered a symbol of moral purification, a fruit that grew in Paradise. IN China it symbolizes abundance, fertility, a happy future. It is mentioned in a number of sacred books, including the Bible, where it appears as an image of beauty, as well as a symbol of the unity of the world. In many paintings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the baby Jesus holds a pomegranate in his hand – a gift brought by Christ to humanity, the gift of eternal life. According to one legend, Noah’s ark, which landed on the top of Mount Ararat, was illuminated by a pomegranate. Especially for the publication “ORTHODOX ARMENIANS”: http://vk.com/arm_orthodox_ru Symbol of pomegranate in world and Armenian cultures
Why is the symbolism of an object so important to us? What does the study of ancient symbols give us? A symbol in art is an artistic image that embodies an idea. Fine art speaks to us precisely in the language of symbols. Through the centuries, they carry hidden meaning, invaluable information about the self-awareness of entire civilizations, about the aspirations and hopes of humanity. “Fruit of Paradise”, “apple” of Eve, “apple” of Paris, “apples of immortality”, “Carthaginian” or “Punic” apple. What fruit is identified with fruits mentioned in ancient Greek and Scandinavian mythologies, as well as in the Bible, Koran and Torah? With the well-known pomegranate. To be more precise, with its seedless African variety, known to the ancient Egyptians and later to the Copts, whose homeland is considered to be Babylonia, Assyria and Ancient Palestine. Pomegranate (Punica Granatum) – the fruit of the pomegranate – is one of the most ancient edible fruits, which has pronounced beneficial and medicinal properties. The pomegranate tree is an example of vitality and endurance, because it is able to grow even on waterless desert soil, which allowed the plant to spread throughout the lands of the East, Asia, and Africa. Appearing later in Western Europe – in Spain with the help of the Moors, pomegranate even served as the name of an entire city – Granada. From Spain, pomegranate was also distributed to the countries of South America and Australia. Since ancient times, the amazing fruit has always been associated with the concepts of abundance, love and eternal life. The symbolism of the pomegranate is due to its unique properties: color, shape, internal structure. At different times, among different peoples, the pomegranate was endowed with divine properties; for example, among the Phoenicians, it was an emblem of the sun. During the opening of the Egyptian pyramids, it was discovered that a pomegranate was placed in the sarcophagus of the pharaohs who crossed the threshold of earthly existence, since the fruit was considered sacred by the Egyptians and capable of giving new life. In Ancient Greek culture, the pomegranate was considered a symbol of fertility, life and marriage. According to the pagan beliefs of the ancient Greeks, pomegranate grew from the blood of Dionysus, the god of wine, inspiration and religious ecstasy. There was also a Greek legend that the first pomegranate tree was planted by the goddess Aphrodite, and the golden pomegranate on the island of Cyprus became a symbol of this goddess. For the mythological character Persephone, the wife of the god Hades and the daughter of the goddess of vegetation Demeter, it was pomegranate seeds that became the means to remain alive and unharmed in the kingdom of the dead, and then to emerge again into the light, as if to be reborn to life. Thus, the amazing fruit again appears as a symbol of immortality. The Persians and Israelis recognized the pomegranate tree, and not the apple tree, which is more typical for Western culture, as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In Babylon there was a belief that soldiers eating pomegranate seeds before battle made them invulnerable. The pomegranate occupies an important place in Hebrew culture. For Jews, the pomegranate is a symbol of the fertility of the Promised Land. The mention of pomegranate in the Torah sounds like this: “. the number of pomegranate seeds is 613, which corresponds to the number of Commandments (mitzvot).” Israel, full of good deeds, is compared to a pomegranate fruit full of grains. The Jewish prayer contains the following poetic words: “May my good deeds be as numerous as pomegranate seeds.” Images of pomegranate adorned the columns in Solomon’s temple and the robe of the high priest. The Jewish people still recognize the pomegranate as a national symbol, a symbol of Israel. It is believed that the shape of the pomegranate sepals served as a prototype for the royal headdress, the crown itself. According to legend, King Solomon already wore just such a crown – an integral attribute of royal and royal power throughout the subsequent millennia. In the East, pomegranate is called the “king of all fruits,” and pomegranate flowers and fruits symbolize love and friendship, so it is often given as a gift when entering a home as a guest. All traditional world religions assign a special place to the pomegranate symbol. In Buddhism, pomegranate is one of the blessed fruits. In Islam, it is considered a fruit that grew in Paradise and is mentioned three times in the Koran. Pomegranate is often called an apple, adding the words “Punic”, “Carthaginian” (due to its widespread use in this country, which is now Tunisia), etc. In the translation of the Bible text into Church Slavonic, the word “apple” was used, which was the reason to consider the fruit of paradise to be an analogue of an ordinary apple, although most researchers identify the fruit of paradise with a seedless variety of pomegranate. There is an old Russian term – “sovereign apple”. The apple was the name given to the imperial, royal and royal regalia – the power. The orb is a golden ball with a crown or cross. According to one version, the prototype of the power is the pomegranate fruit. In the Russian Christian tradition, the sovereign apple symbolizes the Kingdom of Heaven and is present in religious painting and iconography as a symbol of the omnipotence of God in the Person of Jesus Christ (the “Savior Almighty” icon) or God the Father, as well as the power of the Mother of God as the Queen of Heaven (the “Sovereign” icon). In Christian culture, a pomegranate (sometimes opening) is also a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, Easter joy, and eternal life. It is one of the original Christian symbols. The presence of the image of a pomegranate in early Christian art is described in the study by N. Stepanyan “The pomegranate motif in the early medieval fine arts of Armenia.” The author mentions several ancient monuments in which the symbol is used – the floor mosaic in St. Mary’s Church in Hinton, which shows a chest-length image of Christ surrounded by “pomegranate apples” (British Museum, first half of the 400th century); image on the sarcophagus of Constantine, daughter of Constantine the Great (IV century); mosaics of the southern and eastern galleries of the Church of Santa Constanza in Rome (IV century); mosaic of the Church of St. George in Thessaloniki (circa 500); frame of an ivory diptych in Milan (c. XNUMX). In some religious scenes of Western European painting one can see that the Infant Savior holds a pomegranate fruit in His Right Hand. In this form, the pomegranate symbol is interpreted by art historians as a gift brought by Christ to humanity – the gift of eternal life. Sometimes the pomegranate is compared to the Church, uniting believers under the rule of the monarch, and the juice of the fruit is compared to the blood of holy martyrs. The pomegranate is one of the main symbols in the art of Armenia from ancient times to the present day. It is interesting that in modern Armenia, among the huge variety of souvenirs with the image of a pomegranate, the following phenomenon is common: candlesticks in the form of pomegranates. According to one legend, Noah’s ark, which landed on the top of Mount Ararat, was illuminated by a pomegranate. The understanding of pomegranate in Armenian culture is, in general, similar to the ideas of neighboring peoples. The pomegranate is similarly understood as a symbol of life, fertility, prosperity, as well as marriage. The dark red color of the fruit is reminiscent of blood and vitality, and the grains are a symbol of childbirth. It is interesting that in one of the ancient Armenian rituals, the bride broke a pomegranate against the wall, and the more the fruit crumbled, the more children were prophesied for the newlyweds. On the territory of the Armenian Highlands, the cult of veneration of the Sacred Tree even during the period of the ancient Armenian state of Urartu (IX–VII centuries BC) often featured pomegranate. And in later periods, until the establishment of the Christian faith on the territory of Armenia, pomegranate more or less often appears in architecture, as can be judged from archaeological excavations. Then a new wave of popularization of the symbol occurred in the Middle Ages. And again, the pomegranate symbol is actively developing in modern Armenian art. There is an assumption that initially in the Armenian tradition a single female deity of fertility, love and water was revered, which only later was divided into two main separate cults: Astghik – the goddess of love and water, and Anahit – the goddess of fertility. N. Stepanyan suggests that in ancient times the single deity was a goddess whose name sounded like Nar, the etymology of which is associated with the name of the pomegranate apple in the Armenian language (“nur”). It is believed that the disappearance of the image of a pomegranate from early Christian art of Armenia is associated with the opposition of new purely Christian symbols to pagan ones, with a complete change in the people’s consciousness, which saw the light of true faith. Grapes displace pomegranate from the ornaments of church art in Armenia for several centuries. Another possible reason is also considered to be the opposition to the art of the hostile states of Persia and Iraq, in which the pomegranate symbol was actively used in that historical period. The pomegranate was not excluded from Byzantine early Christian art, probably due to its not so important, leading role in the culture of the people even before the adoption of Christianity, in contrast to Armenia.
But already among the ornaments of many early medieval Armenian churches one can again find images of pomegranates. Let’s list just a few of them: St. Gregory’s Cathedral in Aruch, Zoravar Church in Yeghvard, St. Sargis Church (St. George according to Tamanyan) in Artik, a monument in the center of the village of Agitu. It was in the 648th century. Catholicos Nerses the Builder was able to return the image of the pomegranate to Armenian art, in which the eternal antipodes – pomegranate and grapes – began to coexist. Thus, the symbol of the pomegranate was revived within the walls of Zvartnots. N. Stepanyan explains this event: “It seems to us that these were the ideas of national reconciliation, conciliarity, the unification of various popular movements, the removal of confrontation between the pagan cults that continued to exist and the Christian Church. In this context, the choice of the pomegranate, banned in the first centuries of Christianity, as one of the main decorative motifs, obviously meant the “legalization” of the ancient, pagan, prohibited by the official church, but very deeply rooted and continued to live motif of the pomegranate fruit. Obviously, the religious and political views of Nerses III were a manifestation of the same political flexibility and desire for consolidation. In XNUMX, the Catholicos, together with the bishops and the military leader of Armenia Theodore Rshtuni, rejected the Byzantine proposal to accept the resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon. However, when four years later Emperor Constantine arrives in Dvin and again demands church union – the adoption of Chalcedonianism by the Armenians, Nerses agrees and persuades the bishops to do so.” Armenologist, architect and architectural historian N. Tokarsky writes the following about Nerses: “Nerses was an active supporter of the reunification of the Armenian Church with the Ecumenical Church (which accepted the resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon), but it was hardly only dogmatic issues that attracted him to the side of the Greeks: he was widely educated, talented, and with the foresight of a statesman he should have understood that. in the face of a formidable danger looming from distant Arabia, it was necessary to make an attempt to rely on a co-religious empire, in the event of a reunification of churches.” Unfortunately, these political ideas of Nerses were met with radical rejection. From the second half of the 7th century. The pomegranate symbol can also be found in Armenian miniatures. Thanks to the specimens stored in the Matenadaran collection, one can learn about the meaning that medieval artists and theologians attached to the pomegranate symbol. All commentaries on the horans talk about the symbolic meaning of only four plants: the pomegranate, the olive, the palm tree and the lily. The following letters tell us about the pomegranate: comments to the chorans of Stepanos Syunetsi, manuscripts of Nerses Shnorali (XII century), Vanakan Vardapet (XIV century), Grigor Tatevatsi (XIV-XV centuries), Poghos Rabunapet (XVI century) and several manuscripts of unknown people authors.
The following interpretations of the pomegranate motif are common, which N. Stepanyan summarizes: “<.>the bitterness of the peel symbolizes the Old Testament, and the sweetness of the grains – the New Testament and the Church; the bitter peel containing many pomegranate seeds are the bitter parables of the prophets, carrying the sweetness of the Good News; the bitterness of threats, captivities and troubles that fed the pagans is contrasted with the sweet fruit of all the trials they endured, found in the Church; the life of the righteous, full of bitterness and trials, carries within itself the sweetness of the fruit of immortality acquired after the resurrection.” In the symbolism of the pomegranate, the most important semantic accentuation is multiplicity in unity. Accordingly, the pomegranate is a bright symbol of the Church, as mentioned above. Each of the internal individual elements, grains, is an integral and indivisible unit, united with others similar to itself, under a common “dome”. This serves as an excellent illustration of the presence of free individuals in the Church. The personality is completely preserved in connection with the multitude, without dividing, without dissolving. This is one of the main differences between Christianity and Eastern beliefs, which believe that human liberation is possible only through the loss of one’s own identity and dissolution in the general “soup” of universal, cosmic energy. That is, the pomegranate is a symbol that affirms the personal principle in the Divine plan for love. Similar in meaning in Christian art are the vine and the grape branch. By the way, grapes are also represented as a traditional symbol of Armenia, and, according to legend, the appearance of the first vineyards after the Flood is attributed to this ancient country. Today, for the Armenian people, the pomegranate is the main symbol of the Armenian diaspora, scattered throughout the world due to a historical catastrophe – the genocide that occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century on the territory of historical Western Armenia, the Ottoman Empire, and modern Turkey. The pomegranate has firmly taken its place in the modern fine, decorative, applied, and cinematic arts of the Armenian people. “The Color of the Pomegranate” by Sergei Parajanov is a poetic manifesto to the symbol of life through the prism of the personality of the great Armenian medieval poet and musician Sayat-Nova, the lush canvases of Martiros Saryan, the counters of the Vernissage in Yerevan – these are vivid examples of the significance of the pomegranate symbol in the self-consciousness of the Armenian people. The rich symbolism of this hardy tree, making its way through drought and merciless winds, with heavy fruits, covered with a strong dry skin and concealing a scattering of iridescent ruby ​​grains, is embedded deep in the people’s memory, in the traditional figurative system. And it is of particular importance for the expression of basic national, Christian ideals and principles through the folk and church art of Armenia. So, we see that many ancient peoples associated the aspirations of gaining resurrection and immortality with pomegranate. Pre-Christian pagan beliefs considered the fruit sacred, mythologizing and deifying its properties. And already in Christian culture, after the salvation of mankind has been accomplished through the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, after all the aspirations and hopes for the Resurrection from the dead, for eternal life have been justified, pomegranates have been deprived of veneration and worship as a sacred fruit, as if having a source of life in itself , became only a symbol for Christians. However, how rich and eloquent this symbol is when the greatest dogmas and fundamental images of earthly and heavenly existence are reflected in it! References:
*Stepanyan N. Pomegranate motif in early medieval art of Armenia
*Pokhlebkin V. Dictionary of international symbols and emblems
*Dal V. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language
*Wikipedia 1. Blooming pomegranate. Martiros Saryan. 1947
2. Still from S. Parajanov’s film “The Color of Pomegranates.” 1968
3. Proserpine. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 1877
4. Eve with pomegranate. I.P. Köhler-Viliandi
5. Madonna with pomegranate. Sandro Botticelli. 1487 Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
6. Floor mosaic depicting Christ with pomegranate symbols.
St Mary’s Church, Hinton
7. Mosaic floor with garnets
Kursi, Israel
8. Still life with pomegranates. Martiros Saryan. 1913
9. Etchmiadzin Gospel 989