Ithyphallic Shiva - poster boy

Benares is replete with Shiva linga. The lingam of Shiva is everywhere in the city of Shiva. Pilgrims come in their thousands from throughout India to make pooja (prayers and offerings) at one or more of the lingam shrines, most notably at the Golden Temple, which is one of the twelve great lingams on the pilgrim circuit for devout Hindoos. 

The extraordinary thing about the Shiva lingam is that, while the symbol is essentially and quite obviously a stylized phallus (usually united with a yoni, the stylized female part), this fact is not at all obvious to the average Shaivite devotee. In fact, most Hindoos are taken aback and scandalized by the realisation that Europeans (and other non-Hindoos) see the lingam as a phallus and therefore see devotions to the lingam as a form of phallic worship. 

The fact that the lingam is phallic shaped does not even occur to the Hindoo, or if it does it does so via many filters of meaning and symbolism that remove it from any crudely sexual content. It is a remarkable phenomenon. Hindoo women may devote themselves to massaging the lingam of Shiva with lashings of cream and ghee, but it is only to outsiders that this seems like a blatently erotic act. The Hindoos theselves do not see it. Instead, for them, the symbol is encoded in a rich bed of mythology that mutes its phallic significance. For the Hindoo it is much more the 'pillar of light' of Shaivite cosmogony than an erect phallus (being gripped by a yoni.) The difference in what the tourist (outsider) sees in the temples of Benares and what the pilgrim Hindoo (participant) sees is truly striking. The Hindoo is genuinely offended if you remark upon the erotic nature of the lingam and yoni as symbols. He sees it, but he doesn't. And he resents having it pointed out. 

Even the ithyphallic iconography of Lord Shiva is filtered from its blatent meaning in the Hindoo mind. Shiva will be shown fully erect, with his erect phallus absolutely upright. The outsider sees the erect phallus as a signal to sexual action. He concludes that sexual potency is an attribute of Shiva. For the Hindoo, however, the ithyphallic Shiva signifies exactly the opposite to a liscentious deity. In the Hindoo view this iconography symbolizes Lord Shiva's complete yogic control over his sexual appetites. The phallus is erect, but intact, and his seed unspilled. It may seem paradoxical to the non-Hindoo, but here the Hindoo sees an erect phallus as a symbol of sexual continence and self-control. 

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The iconography of Lord Shiva is far more extensive. While there is an abundance of aniconic linga throughout Benares, other presentations of Shiva's iconography are less common. The most vivid representations to be found are in the souvenir stores that dot the crowded laneways near the Golden Temple. There, pilgrims stock up on objects of Shaivite devotionalism or "All your pooja supplies!" as the storefronts promise. These feature large full-colour wall posters of the god in all his glory, often surrounded by his family. Shiva kitsch - much loved by the Hindoo. Below are some of the posters available. Notes on the icongraphy will follow.  

Shiva and the Holy Family. 

The closed eye in the centre of Lord Shiva's forehead. Shiva as destroyer. When this eye opens, the cosmos will be destroyed. Shiva as consciousness - when the universe is destroyed, the destroyer still remains. Shiva is the consciousness that remains after the whole of creation has ended. 

The cobra around Lord Shiva's neck. The cobra is tame. Shiva has conquered his appetites and passions. He wears his passions as a necklace. 

The twin drum. Duality. 

Shiva is typically shown dressed as a mendicant and seated meditating. In one hand, the prayer beads. Perpetual mantra. 

The crescent moon. Shiva as god of time. 

The three lines of ash on the forehead - the three worlds (through which the axis of light extends). 

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

The Hyperborean Hindu

There is no religious tradition so doggedly confusing in its overwhelming complexity as that of the Hindoo. It is a tradition stretching back thousands of years and from a very early point the Hindoo people adopted a policy of never - never - throwing anything away. In every manifestation of Hindooism, great or small, there is layer upon layer upon layer of complexity, such that to an outsider it appears to have no obvious coherence. Europeans like their religion relatively clear-cut. The Hindoo prefers his religion just as he prefers his electric wiring:

The present author has been in Hindoostan for over three months as of this post. It is his fourth visit to the sub-continent. Most of the Hindoo faith - in all its variety and depth - remains a mystery to him, although a few things have become clear. The following notes concern what he discerns to be a major theme in Hindoo spirituality - a simple motif obscured by layers of tradition. Let us try to identify and disentangle a single, central strand of Hindoo religiosity...

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* Much of Hindooism concerns Hyperborean themes, which is to say themes and motifs and symbols that have to do with the north pole (and pole star) as World Axis. 

* This is the meaning of the swastika. The swastika is not a solar symbol in the first instance, as is often supposed; rather it depicts the north pole with the constellations of the Great Bear (Ursa) and their movement through the four seasons forming the arms of the cross. The Great Bear protects the World Axis. The swastika is a geometrical depiction of the movement of the polar constellations around the pole through the (solar) year. 

* The swastika is ubiquitous in India. Everywhere. The Hindoo will merely tell you that it is "auspicious" or a symbol of "good luck". In fact, it signals a very ancient and persistent theme in Hindoo spiritual cosmology - the North Pole as the World Axis (protected by the polar constellations). 

Often the swastika is used as an overtly astronomical symbol, as here, where is stands apart from the Sun and Moon. It is clearly not a solar symbol here. Rather, it symbolizes the pole and the rotaion of the cosmos around it. 

* Exactly the same symbolism is found in the ubiqitous Shaivite symbol, the lingam. Many Western students - such as Alain Danielou, who lived in Benares for over forty years near where the writer presently resides - prefer to emphasize the phallic character of the symbol, but the Hindoo himself will tell you it refers to the cosmic axis of light that is the consciousness of Shiva in himself. Its more obvious significance becomes plain when one realizes that the lingam shrine of Shiva is - in nearly all cases - aligned to the North Pole. The long neck of the yoni upon which the lingam sits points to the north. 

* Accordingly, the lingam is - as it were - a local re-location of the North Pole as ever-present World Axis. The North Pole is a symbol of a metaphysical pole which is everywhere - the omnipresent subject. Shiva is consciousness itself. From whatever point the observer may observe, there is the Centre. A lingam shrine is a local application of this principle. The Mahometans have their kiblah in Mecca. That too is an expression of the World Axis. The Hindoo has the lingam shrine on every street corner and often in the home. It is every Hindoo's private symbol of the Centre. In this respect it is, so to say, his private North Pole, his personal kiblah. 

* In terms of the swastika symbolism mentioned above, the pillar of the lingam is the centre of the swastika - the pole around which everything turns. In the case of the lingam, however, it is protected by the bull, Nandi, and, often, by the cobra. Sometimes there will be four cobras protected the lingam, as in the photograph below (which the author took in the old temple in Darjeeling): 

* From this picture we see the connection with the swastika. Rather than representing the Great Bear through the four seasons, here we see the central axis (lingam) with the four arms of the swastika shown as four cobras, one for each of the four directions. The polar constellations are here envisaged as the cobra of Shiva protecting his lingam (pole). 

* There is a typical Hindoo diversity of symbolisms, all interchangeable, in this case. Bear/bull/cobra - the essential idea is that one of Shiva's creatures guards the pivot of the lingam. The pole is adamantine. In most instances, this task falls to Nandi, the bull, but the cobra clearly serves the same function. Shiva has conquered his passions. His cobra, which in other iconography he drapes around his neck, is tamed. At root, the symbolism is stellar and Hyperborean: Shiva's creature guarding the pivot of the lingam is an expression of a celestial mythos concerning the constellations that guard the north pole. 

Nandi guarding the lingham. The neck of the yoni points north. The guardian Nandi can sit as any of the four points of the compass but in any case represents the constellations that guard the north pole.  

* The geographical expression - or terrestrial correlate - to this axial/polar stellar symbolism is the mountain as axis and the river as stellar stream (constellations/Milky Way). The mountains of the Himalayas may therefore stand as World-Axis symbol. Thus does Lord Shiva find his abode there. And the celestial river, flowing from the north/mountains is the Ganges. The waters of the Ganges - flowing through the hair of Shiva - are correlated to milk. The sanctity of the cow in Hindooism has its roots here. The lingam/yoni construction correlates, quite simply and obviously, to the mountains and the river that traverses the earth.

LINGAM = MOUNTAIN = POLE

* Many Hindoo myths concern the distribution of this mountain/pole (Hyperborean) mythology throughout the Indian sub-continent. The gods might pick up a mountain from the Himalayas and throw it down in southern India, for example. The myth concerns the transferred application of the Hyperborean spirituality into the plains of India. Stories of the Ganges travelling underground in secret networks to watercourses, lakes, wells and streams throughout India are in the same category. 

* Symbolism of an axial order - concerning the north pole (or a mountain) as world axis - runs throughout Hindoo religion, particularly in its Shaivite manifestations. A good many aspects of Hindooism are easily understood as expressions of this order of symbolism. It is very productive to approach Hindoo mythology through this symbolic framework. 

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Since this post was made on Christmas Day, 2015, let us add as a footnote that the Christmas tree, with its crowning star, is nothing less than a symbol of the World Axis in Christian folk custom, with the star indicating the Pole Star. The star is the Star of Bethlehem, yes, but - by ellision - it is the Pole Star that crowns the axis of the cosmos. 

Yours

Harper McAlpine Black