Tarry with us, friend, for a moment . . .
SOUL TO SOUL
Tat Tvam Asi
The Path of Fire
the divine yoke - mystical union
In Mystical literature the soul, anima, seeks union with its counterpart, the divine Animus, or God. In the above fanciful graphic, the mythical unicorns sport as spirit mates, revelling in the heavenly love of soul for soul. Drawing on middle eastern imagery, in the biblical Song of Songs, the Shulameth says, "Set me as a seal upon thine arm: for love is as strong as death; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. [in its value it is beyond purchase. Its worth is superlative.]" My title might be
In the west it was first mentioned by the Greek historian Ctesias in 398 BCE. According to him they lived in India and he described them as 'wild asses which are as big as a horse, even bigger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red and their eyes are deep blue. They have a single horn on their forehead which is approximately half-a-meter long.' This description was based on the tales of travelers, and is a mixture of an Indian rhinoceros, the Himalayan antelope, and the wild ass.
The horn itself is white at the base, black in the middle and with a sharp, red tip. It is believed to possess healing abilities. Dust filed from the horn was thought to protect against poison, as well as to heal many diseases. It could even resurrect the dead. Amongst royalty and nobility in the Middle Ages, it became quite fashionable to own a drinking cup made of the horn of an unicorn, not in the least because of its reputed healing powers and the fact that it was supposed to detect poison.
The belief in the healing abilities of the horn is probably based on a medieval story. In this particular tale, many animals once gathered around a pool in the midst of night. The water was poisoned and they could not drink from it, until a unicorn appeared. He simply dipped his horn in the pool and the water became fresh and clean again. The horn had miraculously purified -- had healed -- the waters.
Another medieval story tells of the capture of a unicorn by a maiden. The unicorn was far too fast and wild for the man that was hunting him. He could only be tamed by a maiden who sat lonely underneath a tree in the woods. Attracted by the scent of purity he would lay his head on her lap and she would rock him to sleep. Then she would cut of his horn, and leave him for the hunter and his dogs.
There have been attempts to give these tales a Christian interpretation. In the first tale the horn symbolizes the cross and the pool the sins of the world. In the second story the maiden was the Bride, the holy city (civitatem sanctam Hierusalem novam), while the unicorn was none other than Jesus Christ and the horn was a representation of the unity of the Father and the Son. Jesus, embodied in the unicorn, was sacrificed for the sake of a sinful world.
