Greeting the Sun

The Song of Songs is about Remembering, of turning towards God, and transforming emotions into feeling for God. This is the essence of what in Indian thought is understood by Bhakti, or Devotion. Feelings are a primal energy, which are embodied in the human psyche. These feelings can be chaotic, and ambivalent, but it is important that we do not reject or repress them. What is required is to canalise these energies into the spiritual domain, making them vehicles for a longing for what is noblest in the human soul. That is the essential quest underlying the discipline of Yoga.

Mountain of Meeting

The journey of the soul is through a landscape that has various features. This is not just the external landscape, but is an inner world, that resembles the outer world. Pilgrimage is a path taken by those who are searching for a Holy Place in the landscape. The heros of the Mahabharata, who were called the Pandava brothers, were forced to go into exile for fourteen years. During this time they wandered in the wilderness, and went in search of holy places, where sages had settled down in Ashram retreats. This part of the Epic is known as “Thirtha yatra”, that is the pilgrimage in search of Thirthas, which means springs, or sources of water. Very often a spring, or source of water, is associated with the primal holy place. It was at such a site that they met the mysterious sage Markandeya, who told them the story concerning Savithri, daughter of the Sun.

But in contrast to the magic pool that is found in the forest, is the Holy Mountain. The mountain, in Indian poetry is often associated with the meeting of lovers. It is the meeting of earth and sky. It is from the heights of the mountain that the stream pours down to give life to the earth
The image is composed on a triangle, with its base firmly on the ground, and its apex pointing up to the sky like a pyramid. This upward pointing triangle symbolizes the Covenant that binds together heaven and earth. To the right of the Mountain form we see the sign of the letter AUM in Sanskrit. This is like fire. This primal sound, which represents the Divine in creation, can also be understood as the tree of life, or Burning Bush, in which the voice of God was heard by Moses as he pastured his flock of sheep near the holy mount Horeb.

Kurisumala : symbol of the meeting of spiritualities.

When I started to work on this series of pictures on the Song of Songs, I had gone back to Kurisumala, which is a hill in the Cardamom hills in Kerala. Here the Apostle Thomas is meant to have passed over the hills to go to Tamilnad. A hill in this area is called the Hill of the Cross (Kurisu mala), where St. Thomas is supposed to have camped. It is here that an Ashram was founded at the foot of the mountain by two monks from the West—Dom Bede Griffiths, and Francis Acharya (Mahieu), who came to India in 1955. The Ashram was formally established in 1957. It is here that I felt that a meeting of two spiritual traditions took place, one from the Contemplative tradition of the West, and the other an Eastern approach to the spiritual quest. It is in this spirit that Dom Bede Griffiths was to write of the “Marriage of East and West”

The Womb House

The Third Poem in the Song of Songs opens with the question:
“What is this coming up from the desert, like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every perfume the merchant knows ?
See, it is the litter of Solomon.”
The word “Litter” or “bed” is the Hebrew Mittah—a place used for sleep, rest, recuperation from illness, feasting and revelry (Ezek. 23.41. Esther 6.1) It is often carried on the shoulders (I. Sam. 19.15) and can also serve as a bier (II Sam. 3.31)
Royalty, and the wealthy had beds ornamented with Ivory (Amos. 6.6) or Gold and Silver (Esther 1: 6). The bed is the nuptial bed, but is also associated with death. Among the Indian Warli tribes, the newly wed couple are placed in a litter, and covered with a cloth, as though they have died together. Marriage is a dying to the old world, and a rebirth to a new life together. The poet Kabir speaks of death as a kind of marriage—a time when we are united with our true Self.

The Bride is called “Shulamite” (Song of Songs, 7:1) This title derives from Shalom, a state of fullness, being at rest, without fear. It is used in a Messianic context. Even the name 'Solomon' is linked to Shelem, an ancient fertility god. This name also appears in the city Jerusalem, abbreviated as Salem (Gen 14:18, also Ps. 76:3)
The theme of the Bridegroom coming for his bride was an important image among the school of followers around John the Baptist. Thus we read in John 3.29 “It is the bridegroom who has the bride: but the bridegroom’s friend who stands outside and listens for his voice is very glad when he hears the bridegroom speak. So this joy of mine is now complete”


In the centre of the city is the Temple where a new wholeness is discovered. The Holy of Holies in the Temple is sometimes compared to a womb, whose mysteries are veiled behind a curtain. Here the King and his Bride are wrapped together in the sacred form known as the Mandorla, which is shaped like the almond seed or chrysalis.

The Song of songs is very much linked, liturgically, to the feast of Tabernacles. The palanquin is described as made of cedar wood, its panels symbolizing love. In fact cedar wood was used extensively in the temple that Solomon constructed, probably because the cedars of Lebanon were considered to be holy groves.
The seasons play a very important part in the imagery of the Song of Songs. After death there is new life and spring. From the enclosed egg or seed there emerges a new creation. The bride comes out of the darkness of the earth to search for the light of her lover. From their meeting, symbolized by the two birds, comes the radiance and beauty of spring.

The Palanquin

The Theme of the Royal Bed, can be extended to the idea of the Palanquin. The root of this is “appiryon”, Persian “aparyan (upari-yana)”, Sanskrit “Payanka, Palki” From this image of the moveable palanquin, comes also the notion of the Pavilion, and even Palace. The early “Tabernacle” or place where God was present, among his nomadic people, was also transportable.
A symbol for the Holy of Holies is the Ark of the Covenant. We think of David dancing before the Ark. The act of marriage is a sign of the covenant, which is the faithful love shown by the Creator for the whole of creation. Here we perceived a Mandala or icon symbolizing the wholeness of creation.

The City of the heart.

Searching and meeting are like two sides of the coin. In fact in Indian Bhakti there are two forms of devotion---the devotion of one who feels separated from the Beloved, and is always searching, and the devotion of union.
The beloved seeks for her lover in the city. In a sense the image of the Bride is associated with the city. She is compared to a tower. Like Durga, she is an enclosed fortress. The search for the lost lover, is a search within herself. She is helped by various citizens, who are watchmen. Also she appeals to her companion sisters, who like the “saki” of Indian love poetry, are the maids who accompany the bride. These maids, as we are told in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, represent in a way the different emotions that attend on the soul.