Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 13:21:38 -0500 From: BARBARA HARRIS Subject: TECH: EXER: Symbols-14: FIG -- [ From: Barbara Harris * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] -- Hi Everyone, This symbol post is on the FIG. ("We want some figgy pudding, we want some figgy pudding, we want some figgy pudding, and a cup of good cheer! ") Bill Lantry posted a few days ago that Rilke had misused the fig as a symbol of *asexual* reproduction and pointed out that Rilke was obviously unaware of the actual nature of the fig tree's reproductive cycle. Bill said, " if he'd looked closely, he would have seen that there's a tiny opening at the bottom of each fig, that a small, specialized wasp gets in there and pollinates the thousands of flowers which are *inside* the fig, and that sexuality thus *is* involved even in the reproduction of the fig tree. In other words, if he'd looked closely, he could have seen the fig as it actually is, instead of using it as a mirror for his own fallacies." What struck me as I read Bill's post was that Rilke also obviously hadn't paid any attention to traditional symbolic meanings of the fig, beginning maybe with Adam and Eve designing loin cloths from fig leaves. So... here's what my symbol sources say about figs! From: _An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols_ by J.C. Cooper: FIG, FIG TREE, or PIPAL: Fecundity; life; peace; prosperity. The fig tree is sometimes the Tree of Knowledge and combines symbols of both the masculine and feminine principles, the fig leaf being the male, the linga, and the fig the female, the yoni. The fig leaf depicts lust and sex: "The figleaf is interpreted as denoting drinking and motion and is supposed to resemble the male sexual organ" (Plutarch). A basket of figs is fertility and represents woman as goddess or mother. Associated with the vine as a place of peace and quiet and the breast as "the tree with many breasts." Buddhist: The sacred Bo-Tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. Christian: Has been used in place of the apple in the Garden of Eden. Graeco-Roman: Sacred to Dionysius/Bacchus, Priapus, Jupiter, and Silvanus; phallic. Hebrew: Peace; prosperity, plenty; a symbol of Israel, with the vine. Islamic: The Tree of Heaven, sacred since Mohammed swore by it. Oceanic: Often a Tree of Life and the object of cultural rituals. _________________________________________________________ From: _The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects_ by Barbara G. Walker: FIG: To "make the fig" by sticking the thumb through the fingers of a closed fist is still considered an obscene insult, equivalent to "fuck you," in many parts of Europe. In England it is called *to fig*; in Italy *far la fica*, in Spain *hacer el higo*; in France *faire la figue*; in Germany *die Feige weisen*. Yet the gesture was considered a powerful charm against the evil eye and other threats. Thousands of fig -making hands carved of ivory, metal, bone, wood, and plastic are sold each year as good-luck charms. The solution to the paradox is, of course, the sexual connotation of the gesture, which used to be holy because it is a lingam-yoni. According to Ovid, a Roman afraid of meeting a ghost would invoke the life-preserving power of sex by making "a sign with his thumb in the middle of his closed fingers." Figs were classifed with apricots and pomegranates as female genital symbols. Hence, Gaulish pagan gods were referred to in medieveal Latin texts as *ficari*, "fig-eaters", perhaps as a reference to cunni-lingus. An archaic Roman festival called Nonae Caprotinae connected Juno Caprotina, Goddess of fig trees, with the lustful goat god. Similarly in Greece, a euphemism for "vagina" was *sykon*, "fig." Fig trees were supposed to arouse lust and were favorite resting places for satyrs. Significantly, Tannhauser was also resting under a fig tree when he was approached by the Goddess Venus. As in Rome, so in Greece general fertility was assured by invoking the power of sex through the fig, in an annual ceremony of touching the genitals of the king's wife with a phallus of fig wood. According to the Ananda Tantra, the fig leaf is "the conventional form of the yoni." This may account for the common use of the fig tree as a symbol of man's enligtenment, which was formerly supposed to come through his connection with the female principle. Buddha attained "perfect illumination" by sitting under the sacred fig tree. His boddhi or bo tree was identified as *ficus religiosa*, the Holy Fig. Adam and Eve placed "aprons" of fig leaves over their genitals after they had become enlightened (Genesis 3:7), which seems to indicate a male imitation of female genital symbolism. According to the Haggadah, the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was not an apple, but a fig. This hints at the probability, never very deeply concealed, that the knowledge forbidden by the Judeo-Christian God was knowledge of specifically female sexuality, which patriarchal societies have always tried to suppress. The fig tree Ruminalis was worshiped as a symbol of the Goddess herself in the Palatine temple in Rome. _________________________________________________________ Other sources have more of the same... have fun writing! Love & Light, Barbara -- @)--,--'-- @>-->-->-- @}~~~~~ @)--,--'-- @>-->-->-- @}~~~~~ @)--,--'-- Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below. -John Dryden "All for Love" --'--,--(@ --<--<--<@ ~~~~~{@ --'--,--(@ --<--<--<@ ~~~~~{@ --'--,--(@ Barbara Harris ~ TCZJ32B@Prodigy.com