I just got a copy of R.I. Page's book on runes
today, thanks to a recommendation made months ago
responding to my first question to this list. So
I thought I should celebrate the occasion by
asking another one out of left field and seeing
what new answers I could get.
I'm wondering if anyone on here knows the history
of the Sacred Heart as an icon, and if it could
have any kind of pagan ancestry in Europe. You
know the thing I mean, right? The anatomically
correct heart of Jesus, wreathed in flame and
wound in a crown of thorns? (There's also the
Marian version, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Usually less fiery, the crown isn't thorny, but
it's pierced by a sword.)
As far as I can tell after a quick look around
Wikipedia and a few other sources, the Sacred
Heart pops up just about fully formed in the
1100s based on some mystic poems written by St.
Bernard of Cluny and a French nun named... well,
I just forgot, but Mary something. This sudden
appearance seems strange to me, especially since
it coincides with, well, the odd mysticism that
coincided with the Crusades & foundation of the
Knights Templar. A bunch of East-West
cross-fertilization happening there at
sword-point, but also a kind of weird "return of
the repressed" with sex imagery in religious
writings (by the *other* St. Bernard, of
Clairvaux, among others). Downright pagan, some
of it.
So, I did a little more looking, and learned a
couple interesting things. 1. The swastika, which
pops up all over the place, is known in India as
the "heart of Buddha."
2. The swastika is also commonly seen as a
flaming wheel (thus, fiery heart), although
whether this is true in Indian Buddhism, I have
no idea.
3. The swastika has a history in Europe, showing
up in northern European church windows as a
figure commonly called a "fylfot," because it
seemed to be used as a design element to "fill"
the "foot" of stained glass windows.
4. The Vikings what wound up building some of
those churches were culturally connected to the
Novgorod Vikings, who had attacked Constantinople
in the 800s.
5. The 800s were also a period when Buddhist
missionaries and Nestorian Christians (Indian
religious folks) were popping up all over the
place, like in Tang Dynasty China. And maybe in
Constantinople.
So what I'm wondering is if there's A: some kind
of European pagan/magicky source for the image of
the Sacred Heart -- the flaming heart of the
divine figure, and B: if that iconography could
possibly have traveled out of India via the
Vikings (in the 800s), or via the Crusaders (in
the 1100s). I'm more interested in potential
Viking connections, but anything would do.
Is there something basic I don't know but should?
Who might know more about this stuff?
Thanks,
g
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grant's words: http://www.flyingfists.org, http://china.adoptionblogs.com
grant's music: http://grantimatter.com/
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