Art Blog/Eric Whollem: MEDUSA, AN ANCIENT SYMBOL OF INITIATION/ With Medusa Stamps From West Merreminde/ FAUX POSTAGE STAMPS by Eric Whollem

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

MEDUSA, AN ANCIENT SYMBOL OF INITIATION/ With Medusa Stamps From West Merreminde/ FAUX POSTAGE STAMPS by Eric Whollem

MEDUSA

West Merreminde

2015

Eric Whollem

cyberstamp sheet

MEDUSA

West Merreminde

2015

Eric Whollem

cyberstamp pair

MEDUSA AN ANCIENT SYMBOL OF INITIATION

Medusa, the snake crested demi-goddess, is a figure often found to be frightening by many. However in ancient times she was highly revered as a symbol of initiation.

When it was said that she would turn a man to stone who viewed her face, the literal interpretation was probably a foil created by ancient priests and priestesses to conceal her function in the Mysteries.

Often in ancient rites of Initiation a form of Symbolic Death was part of the path to Illumination. In Egypt the ancinet initiation center at Abydos had a sacred sarcophagus which was said to be used to house a neophyte into the Mysteries for three days of sensory deprivation during which time he or she would begin to visualize. These visions, like the yogic visions of India, were said to reveal mystic truths. The serpents in the hair of Medusa seem to parallel the Nagas, or serpents that accompany Hindu and Buddhist iconography. The Nagas represent the power of Kundalini.

The Pit of Initiation, called the Abaton, was an underground enclosure used in Greece, based on the sarcophagus of Abydos.

In Phoenicia, the belly of the statue of Dagon was a similar chamber of initiation where initiates were enclosed for three days. This was called 'The Belly of the Whale,' as Dagon was a child of Derceto, the Whale Mother.

In another legend of Greece, Perseus is said to have traveled to the north pole where he slew the form of Medusa with his sword, removing her head. This can be interpreted, in light of Hindu mysticism, as being similar to the symbolism of Kali in Tantric Yoga, where she is depicted on a sleeping form of Shiva. Removal of the head, could refer to the meditative practices of the East, wherein thought processes and sensory attachments are eliminated to further deeper meditation.

In Christianity, Christ's three days in the tomb and his Resurrection parallel the symbolism of Initiation found in antiquity.

MEDUSA AS A MERMAID

The Greeks said that Medusa married the god Poseidon in his dolphin form. Most of the ancient divinities of Greece were Oceanids, the children of Ocean. Thus my images of Medusa seen on these stamps shows her in her Nereid, or waterspirit form.