India 244: Mt. Everest (issued 10-2-1953)

Mountain Symbolism Edited by Peter Y. Chou WisdomPortal.com

Japan #226: Mt. Fuji (issued 7-10-1936)

J.E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, Philosphical Library, Inc., New York (1971), 400 pp. Mountain, pp. 208-211; Omphalos, pp. 232 Mountain: The different meanings which have been attached to the symbolism of the mountain stem not so much from any inherent multiplicity as from the various implications of each of its component elements: its height, verticality, mass and shape. Deriving from the first idea (height) are interpretations such as that of Ania Teillard (Il Simbolismo dei Sogni, 1951), who equates the mountain with inner 'loftiness' of spirit, that is, transposing the notion of ascent to the realm of the spirit. In alchemy, on the other hand, the reference is nearly always to the hollow mountain, the hollow being a cavern which is the 'philosophers' oven'. The vertical axis of the mountain drawn from its peak down to its base links it with the world-axis, and, anatomically, with the spinal column. Because of its grandiose proportions, the mountain came to symbolize, for the Chinese, the greatness and generosity of the Emperor; it is the fourth of the twelve imperial emblems. But the profoundest symbolism is one that imparts a sacred character by uniting the concept of mass, as an expression of being, with the idea of verticality. As in the case of the cross or the Cosmic Tree, the location of this mountain is at the 'Centre' of the world. This same profound significance is common to almost all traditions: suffice it to recall Mount Meru of the Hindus, the Haraberezaiti of the Iranians, Tabor of the Israelites, Himingbjor of the Germanic people, to mention only a few. Furthermore, temple-mountains such as Borobudur, the Mesopotamian ziggurats or the pre-Columbian teocallis are all built after the pattern of this symbol. Seen from above, the mountain grows gradually wider, and in this respect it corresponds to the inverted tree whose roots grow up toward heaven while its foliage points downwards, thereby expressing multiplicity, the universe in expansion, involution and materialization. This is why Eliade says that 'the peak of the cosmic mountain is not only the highest point on earth, it is also the earth's navel, the point where creation had its beginning— the root (Images et Symboles, 1952). The mystic sense of the peak also comes from the fact that it is the point of contact between heaven and earth, or the centre through which the world-axis passes, binding the three levels together. It is, incidentally, also the focal point of Inversion— the point of intersection of the immense St. Andrew's cross, which expresses the relationship between the different worlds. Other sacred mountains are Sumeru of the Ural-Altaic peoples and Caf in Moslem mythology— a huge mountain the base of which is formed by a single emerald called Sakhrat. Mount Meru is said to be of gold and located at the North Pole, thus underlining the idea of the Centre and, in particular, linking it with the Pole Star— the 'hole' through which all things temporal and spatial must pass in order to divest themselves of their worldly characteristics. This polar mountain is also to be found in other symbolic traditions, always bearing the same symbolism of the world-axis; its mythic characteristics were, in all probability, based upon the fixed position of the Pole Star. It is also called the 'white mountain', in which case it embraces both the basic mountain-symbolism with all the implications outlined above and that of the colour white (intelligence and purity). This was the predominating characteristic of Mount Olympus, the supreme, celestial mountain which Schneider sees as corresponding to Jupiter and equivalent to the principle of the number one. There is another mountain, relevant to the symbolism of the number two, and that is the mountain of Mars and Janus— that is, as the Gemini; basically, they represent two different aspects of the same mountain, but blending together the symbolism of the 'two worlds' of Atma and Buddhi, or the two essential, rhythmic aspects of manifest creation— light and darkness, life and death, immortality and mortality. This mountain has two peaks, in order to give visual expression to its dual or ambivalent meaning. It occurs constantly in traditional, megalithic culture, particularly in the form of a landscape, illustrating yet again the Protean myth of the Gemini, which bursts out in so many different forms in primitive thought and art. This mountain is also a form of mandorla consisting of the intersection of the circle of heavens with that of the earth, and this mandorla is, as it were, the crucible of life, containing the opposite poles of life (good and bad, love and hate, fidelity and treachery, affirmation and negation, the numbers 2 and 11— both equal to one plus one— and finally construction and destruction). Incidentally, the animals which correspond to this all-embracing significance of the mandorla are the whale and the shark. In Hindu legend, the castle of India was built on this mountain; whereas in Roman legend it was the castle of Mars, and the home of the thunderbolt, the two-headed eagle and the Gemini. It has been called the 'mountain of stone' and is at once the abode of the living (the exterior of the mountain) and the dead (the hollow interior). Krappe has borne this out with the observation that 'The interior of a mountain has frequently been taken as the location of the Land of the Dead: the derivation of the Celtic and Irish fairy-hills, and of the legend, widespread in Asia and Europe, of a demiurge or hero asleep inside a mountain, one day to emerge and renew all things sublunar'. This myth has obvious connexions with the myth of Entanglement— of the castle inextricably entangled in a wood and also with the story of the 'Sleeping Beauty'. All such myths are concerned with the mystery of a disappearance between appearance and reappearance. Schneider lists the following trades and professions as being associated with Mars; those of the king, physician, warrior and miner, as well as the martyr. In Western tradition, the mountain-symbol appears in the legend of the Grail, as Montsalvat (the 'mountain of salvation' or 'of health')— just as much a 'polar mountain' as it is a 'sacred island', according to Guenon; but always it is inaccessible or difficult to find (like the 'centre' of the labyrinth). In general, the mountain, the hill and the mountain-top are all associated with the idea of meditation, spiritual elevation and the communion of the blessed. In medieval emblems, the symbolism of the 'mountain of salvation' is further defined by a complementary figure surmounting it, such as the fleur-de-lis, the star, the lunar crescent, the cross, steps, the crown, the circle, the triangle, or the number three. The letter Z sometimes occurs, standing for Zion; similarly, an R is short for Regeneratio. Some of these symbols have lent themselves to a poetic treatment that is well worth examination. From the moment when the mountain, so to speak, divests itself of its terrestrial and material character and becomes the image of an idea, the more numerous the component elements pertaining to this idea, the greater will be its clarity and force. Hence, Mount Meru of India is considered to have the shape of a pure, seven-sided pyramid (corresponding to the seven planetary spheres, the seven essential virtues and the seven Directions of space) and each face has one of the colours of the rainbow. Seen as a whole, the mountain is a shining white, by which token it may be equated with the 'polar mountain' and the all-embracing image of totality (also symbolized by the pyramid-symbol), tending towards Oneness (symbolized by the peak)— to avail ourselves of the concept of Nicholas of Cusa. Omphalos: To quote Pausanias (X:16.2): 'What the inhabitants of Delphi call omphalos is made of white stone and is considered to be at the centre of the earth', and Pindar, in one of his odes, confirms this opinion. It is, then, one of the many symbols of the cosmic 'Centre' where intercommunication between the three worlds of man, of the dead, and of the gods, is effected. W.H. Roscher collected a number of documents in a work entitled Omphalos (1913) which prove that this symbol was in existence among the most diverse of races. By locating it in one particular spot, man mad of it a sacred zone around the 'centre of the world'. The material image of the Omphalos (the 'navel' in Greek) was known as the Bethel, which was made of stone and shaped like a pilaster. It has been suggested that the menhir may have had a similar significance. Another image of the omphalos may have been the ovoid stoneas it sometimes appears in Greek designs encircled by a snake or serpent. In all these images we can descry the attempt to express the sexual principles of the cosmos: the pilaster is related to the masculine and active factor, the Egg of the World is connected with the feminine principle, and the egg encircled by the serpent suggests the synthesis of both principles in the lingam. More abstract and therefore spiritually superior ways of depicting this 'Centre' (at once cosmic, temporal and spatial, physical and metaphysical) are to be found in China: the hole in the middle of the disk of jade known as Pi, for instance, where the centre is identified as the non-being of mystic Nothingness, or the quadrangular pyramid rising up in the centre of each feudal domain points and the summit represents the centre. These pyramids were also known in Ireland, according to J. Loth in his Brehon Laws.

J.C. Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols, Thames & Hudson, London (1978), 208 pp. Mountain, pp. 109-110; Omphalos, p. 122; Ziggurat, p. 198 Mountain: The Cosmic Mountain is a world centre, an omphalos, 'through which the polar axis runs and round which glide the dragons of the cosmic poqwea' [Flamel]. The highest point of the earth is regarded as central, the summit of Paradise, the meeting place in the clouds of heaven and earth, reaching up 'on high'. As axial and central it provides passage from one plane to another and communion with the gods; it is also the support and abode of the gods. It is the embodiment of cosmic forces and life; the rocks are bones, the streams blood, the vegetation the hair, and the clouds the breath. The mountain symbolizes constancy; eternity; firmness; stillness. Mountain tops are associated with sun, rain and thunder gods and, in early traditions of the feminine godhead, the mountain was the earth and female, with the sky, clouds, thunder and lightning as the fecundating male. On the spiritual level mountain tops represent the state of full consciousness. Pilgrimages up sacred mountains symbolize aspiration, renunciation of worldly desires, attaining to the highest states and ascent from the partial and limited to the whole and unlimited. The sacred mountain is also the 'navel of the waters' since the fountain of all waters springs from it. Passing between closing or clashing mountains represents passing to new spiritual planes, the passing being possibly only in the spirit and in the 'timeless moment'. Mountains with two summits are either the seat of solar or astral divinities, or, as in Sumeria and China, the seat of the sun and moon, as is also the case with the twin Hebrew mountains of Horeb, Mount of the Sun, and Sinai, Mount of the Moon. Temples built in the form of mountains such as the Sumerian ziggurats, Borobadur and Inca temples, symbolize the Cosmic Centre and the ascending planes of being and the ascent of the soul. In Christian art the four rivers issue from the sacred mountain & the throne of God. Omphalos: The Cosmic Centre; the centre from which the universe is nourished; the navel of the world; a place of refuge. It is both cathartic & apotropaic. It is the place of communication between the three worlds and every sacred place is an omphalos. It is also the point of expansion or a principal space not yet expanded. It is the navel and world centre as the sun is the centre of the universe. The omphalos is a symbol of the earth and all birth, represented often as a mountain or island rising from the waters of chaos; as a meeting place of heaven and earth it is also a dwelling place of the gods, such as Mt. Meru, Heliopolis, Olympus, Sinai, Himinbjorg, Genizim. In Hinduism there is 'Mighty Agni' stationed at the navel of the earth (Rig Veda, 11.33) Ziggurat: The Sumerian temple was built to symbolize the Sacred Mountain, dwelling place of divinity; it was a cosmic axis, a vertical bond between heaven and earth and the earth and the underworld and a horizontal bond between the lands. Built on seven levels, it represented the seven heavens and planes of existence, the seven planets and seven stages having seven metals and colours: 1. Black as Saturn, lead; 2. Red-brown, Jupiter, tin; 3. Rose-red, Mars, iron; 4. Gold, the Sun, gold; 5. White-gold, Venus, copper; 6. Dark-blue, Mercury, quicksilver; 7. Silver, the Moon, silver.

Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, Penguin Books, London (1996), 1178 pp. Mountain, pp. 680-685 Mountain: Mountain symbolism takes many forms deriving from height and centre. In so far as mountains are tall, lofty, rising abruptly to meet the Heavens, they form part of the symbolism of transcendence and, in so far as they are so often numinous places where the gods have revealed their presence, they share in the symbolism of manifestation. Mountains are places where Heaven and Earth meet, where the gods have their home and human ascension its boundary. Viewed from above, the vertical point of their peaks make them the centres of the world: seen from below, they stand against the horizon like World Axes, their slopes like a ladder to be climbed. Thus, in all lands and among all peoples, most cities have their holy mountains. The twofold symbolism, of height and of centre, recurs in spiritual writing. St. John of the Cross describes the stages of the spiritual life as though it were an ascent and St. Teresa of Avila in her Interior Castle, as if it were climbing Mount Carmel. Mountains also give expression to notions of stability, changelessness, and, sometimes, even of purity. The Sumerians believed them to be undifferentiated masses of primal matter, the World Egg, which according to the Chu-wen, brought for the 'ten thousand beings'. In more general terms, mountains are both the centre and the axis of the world, pictorially represented as right-angle triangles. They are the home of the gods and their ascent is represented as an exaltation heavenwards and as a means of entering into a relationship with the godhead, like a return to the First Cause. Chinese emperors sacrificed on mountain peaks; Moses received the Ten Commandments on the top of Mount Sinai; Shiva-Maheshvara 'ceaselessly descended' upon the peak of Ba-Phnom, the site of a capital of the former kingdom of Funan; Taoist Immortals ascended into Heaven from mountain tops and it was there that messages for Heaven were placed. The best known axial mountains are Meru in India, Kun-Lun in China, and Li-tzu's Mount Li-ku-ye; and there are many more: Fuji-yama, for which ritual purification is an essential preliminary to any ceremonial ascent; Greek Olympus; Persian Alborj; Samaritan Garizim; Masonic Moriah; Elbrus and Tabor (the latter derives its name, ignificantly, from the root for 'navel'); the Ka'ba at Mecca; Montsalvat in the Grail legend; the Muslims' Kaf; the Celts' white mountain; Potola in Tibet and so on. In every case we are concerned with mountains central or 'polar' in any given tradition. Montsalvat and Li-ku-ye stand on islands which have become inaccessible while Kaf can be reached neither by land nor by sea. Implicit in this is a removal from the primeval state like the transfer of the spiritual centre from the peak of the mountain, on which it may be seen, to the cavern lying beneath it. Dante places the Earthly Paradise on the peak of Mount Purgatory. Taoist stress the difficulties, the dangers even, of climbing a mountain without training oneself through spiritual exercises. Mountains are sometimes inhabited by fearful beings who bar all approaches to the summit. Clearly the ascent is of a spiritual nature, upwards towards knowledge. 'The ascent of this mountain', Richard of St. Victor wrote, 'belongs to self-knowledge and what happens at the top of the mountain leads to the knowledge of God.' 'The Sinai of one's being' is a symbol common to Subrawardi of Aleppo and to Ismaili esoterics. In Sufic terms, Mount Kaf is man's haqiqat, his deepest truth, his very nature as the Buddhist would say. Similarly for the Chinese, Mount Kun-Lun corresponds to the head, and its peak touches the point at which the release from the cosmos may be effected. Once again the cosmic symbolism of mountains as centres needs to be stressed. In India, in addition to Mount Meru, there were such other axial mountains as Kailasa, the abode of Shiva and Mandara, which was used as a plunger in the famous Sea of Milk episode. Apart from Kun-Lun— which was also a pagoda to nine storeys corresponding to the nine degrees of heavenly ascension— the Chinese had the four world-pillars, one of which was P'u-Chou which gave access to the Underworld, and the four mountains at the cardinal points, T'ai-shan to the east, being the best known. 'If the heavens were in danger of falling, wrote Chairman Mao, 'this mountain would hold them up.' To the Taoist Celestial Masters, Mount Kun-Lun symbolized the abode of immortality, rather on the lines of the Western Earthly Paradise. Its fame derives from the fact that Chang Tao Lin, the Heavenly Master, went there for the two swords which, it seems, drove evil spirits away. It was from this mountain, too, that having drunk the beverage of immortality discovered by one of his ancestors, he rose up to Heaven on the five-coloured dragon. In Taoist mythology it was upon this mountain, called 'the Mountain in the Middle of the World' and around which the Sun and Moon revolved that the Immortals went to live. On the peak of the mountain they located the Garden of the Queen of the West, in which grew the peach-tree with the fruit which conferred immortality. Guenon believes that, from etymology of her name, Cybele was a mountain goddess and this is undoubtedly true of Parvati. She was the symbol of ether and also of strength. Furthermore, she was Shiva's shakti, while he was Girisha, 'lord of the Mountain'. His role is best displayed in Cambodia, where his lingams are set up either on natural mountain peaks, such as Lingaparvata, Mahendraparvala or Phnom Bakheng, or on the tops of mountainlike step-temples such as Bakong, Ko-Ker, or Baphuon. Such temple-mountains are the centres of kingdoms, as Meru is the centre of the world. They are the axes of the universe, as were Maya or Babylonian temples. In such centres, the king was the surrogate of the Lord of the Universe, Shiva-Devaraja, being the chakravarti or Universal Monarch. The Kings of Java and Funan were Kings of the Mountain for, as the Javanese saying goes, 'where the king is, there is the mountain'. Echoes of this artificial central mountain are to be discerned in Celtic rock-piles, their tumuli and cairns; in the man-made hills in Chinese capital cities; perhaps as Durand claims, in Vietnamese citadels and watch-towers; and certainly in the sand-mountains and sand pagodas created at New Year in Laos and Cambodia. They are to be seen with equal clarity in Buddhist stupas, of which the most grandiose is at Borobudur in Java. Because mountains are ways leading to Heaven, they were the refuges of Taoists who, as Demieville observes, 'entered the mountain' when they left the world behind, as a means of identifying themselves with the Heavenly Way (T'ien Tao). Taoist Immortals are called sien, literally 'mountain-men'. In Chinese classical painting mountains are contrasted with water as yang with yin, the changeless with the ephemeral, the former being most often depicted as a rock, the latter as a waterfall. The Old Testament contains echoes of the mythological symbolism of the primordial or cosmic mountain. Like fortresses, the high mountains are symbols of safety (Psalms 30:7). Mount Garizim is called, in passing, 'the middle of the land (Judges 9:37), while such phrases as 'the everlasting hills' occur in Genesis 49:26. Hills and mountains are associated with Jehovah (Psalms 36:7; Psalms 48; Isaiah 14:12ff), while Ezekiel 28:11-19 would imply speculative thought which equated to some extent the Mountain of the Lord with the Mountain of Paradise. Such a concept cannot be found in Genesis, but surfaces in late Jewish writings (Jubilees 4:26; 1 Enoch 28:1ff; 8:3). These are signs of how popular and attractive the theme of the holy mountain was. This is transmuted into eschatological terms in two passages from the prophets Isaiah (2:2) and Micah (4:1): 'But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains.' At the cost of some modification, the symbol may be found at the very heart of the Jewish religion. Heir to the primeval holy mountain, the mountain now often symbolizes the presence or proximity of God, such as his revelation upon Mount Sinai and the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22:2) upon a mountain later identified as the Temple Mount. Elijah was granted the miraculous shower of rain (1 Kings 18:42) after praying on the top of Mount Carmel and God revealed himself to him on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:9ff). Jewish apocalyptic writings merely added to the number of these visions of revelations of the godhead on mountain tops. Nor should the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1ff) be forgotten; no doubt it corresponds in the New Covenant to the Ten Commandments of the Old, handed down from Mount Sinai. It should also be observed that Christ's Transfiguration took place upon 'an high mountain' (Mark 9:2) and his Ascension on the Mount of Olives (Luke 24:50; Acts 1:12). Furthermore, mountains were widely regarded as symbolizing human pride and pomp which could not, however, escape God's almighty power. Pagan worship was ofter celebrated upon high places (Judges 5:5); Jeremiah 51:25) and this is why Judaism and after it the early Church expected the mountains to be levelled and to vanish. This was because, when God brought his chosen people back from exile, 'every mountain and hill shall be made low' (Isaiah 40:4) and the end of the world would make the mountains disappear (1 Enoch 1:6; Ascension of Isaiah 4:18; Revelation 16:20). There are two aspects to the symbol: God reveals himself upon the mountain tops, but the mountain tops upon which men stand only to worship man and idols and not the true God, are no more than signs of pride & omens of disaster (see Tower, Tower of Babel, Ziggurat). The links in this chain of sacred symbolism— God-mountain-city-palace-refuge-temple-centre of the Earth— shine out in all their clarity in these verses of Psalms 48: Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge... We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise to the ends of the earth. As we have seen, Biblical tradition invested many mountains with the quality of holiness and in consequence they came to symbolize the revelation of the sacred. Such were Sinai or Horeb, Tabor, Garizim, Carmel, Golgotha, and the mountain of Christ's temptation, of the Beatitudes, the so-called Gradual Psalms (120-134) rise step by step to those heights. In the early Church, mountains symbolized the centres of initiation into the monastic life founded by the Desert Fathers. The Acropolis of Athens stands with its temples upon the top of a holy mountain, access being through the Propylaea for the pilgrims to the ritual and hymns of the festival of the Panathenaea. When temples were built on flatlands, a central man-made mountain was provided, such as, for example, the Mount Meru in the temple of Angkor Thom. In Africa and America, among all peoples and in all lands, mountains have been marked out as the abode of the gods who signal their reactions to human behavior by mists, clouds and lightnings. To summarize Biblical traditions and those of which Christian art gives so many examples, Chameaux and Sterckx stress three main principles of mountain symbolism: (1) mountains link Earth and Heaven; (2) holy mountains stand in the centre of the universe of which they are the image; (3) temples are identified with these mountains. In Muslim cosmology, the mountain which dominates the terrestrial world is called Kaf. Early Arab thinkers generally regarded he Earth as a flat disc and Mount Kaf as being separated from the terrestrial disc by a region which could not be crossed. In the words of the Prophet, this was a region of darkness which it would take four months to traverse. Some describe Mount Kaf as being made of emerald and its reflection as tingeing the vault of Heaven, which the West would call blue, with green. Another version claims that only the rock upon which Mount Kaf stands is composed of a sort of emerald. This rock is also called 'the post' because God created it to support the world. In fact, some mountain, the Earth could not remain steady of itself and needs a support of this kind. If Mount Kaf did not exist, the Earth would be in a state of continuous quaking and life of any sort would be impossible. Once again we have a recurrence of the symbolism of centre and navel of the world (see Omphalos). Mount Kaf was often viewed in the same light as the mother-mountain of all the mountains in the world. 'The latter were joined to it by a complex of underground roots and veins and when God wished to destroy any country he had only to command one of these roots to move and an earthquake would follow.' Inaccessible to human beings and standing on the edge of the world, Mount Kaf represented the boundary between the visible and the invisible world. Nobody knew what lay behind it and only God knew what creatures lived upon it. However, the most important thing about Mount Kaf was that it was the home of the fabulous bird, the Simurg, which had existed from the beginning of the world. This wonderful bird then retired to Mount Kaf, where it lived in happy and cloistered solitude, a wise counsellor consulted by kings and heroes. Kaf owes the name which the poets have given it of 'Mountain of Wisdom' & symbolically, 'Mountain of Happiness', to the bird which made its home there. Mount Kaf is often mentioned in the Thousand and One Nights and other Arabic stories. Mystical writers have made it a more esoteric symbol. In his Rose Garden of Mystery, Shabstari asked what Mount Kaf and the simurg were. Lahiji provides the answer in his commentary that 'Mount Kaf, like the cosmic mountain, is internalized in a psycho-cosmic mountain. The simurg signifies unique and absolute Selfhood. Mount Kaf on which it dwells is the eternal human reality; which is the revelation in perfect form of divine haqiqat, since the Divine Being (haqq) is revealed in it, with all its names and attributes.' Africans often regard mountains in the shape, and playing the parts, of fabulous beings and of places haunted by gods, spirits and hidden powers which one should not risk disturbing. The sound and song of the mountains are replete with mystery, not to be understood by the uninitiated. The mountains themselves are a hidden world full of secrets, holy places which are not to be entered without a guide (mystagogue) under pain of mortal danger. They symbolize the longing for initiation as well as perils. The Celtic world provides scarcely any evidence of the general symbolism of mountains except for the mythical Welsh place name Gwynvryn ('White Mount'), from the tale of Branwen the daughter of Llyr in the Mabinogion, where it is the central place where Bran's head was buried. So long as it was left undisturbed, the head would perform the task of keeping the isle of Britain safe from all invasion or disaster. Since white was a priestly colour, Gwynvryn can only stand for a primeval centre and this detail in the Welsh tale must come from a much earlier source. Holy mountains are places of solitude and meditation, by contrast with the lowlands where mankind lives. A mountain peak rising to the sky as depicted by Leonardo da Vinci, say, or by some Chinese artists, is not just a beautiful decorative motif, but symbolizes the abode of solar deities, the higher properties of the soul, the supraconscious functioning of the life force, the opposition of the warring principles of Earth and Water, which comprises the world, and the destiny of mankind to move ever upwards. As the focal point of an area, mountain peaks symbolize the bounds of human development and the psychic function of the supraconscious which is, in fact, to lead mankind to the peak of its development.

G.A. Gaskell, Dictionary of All Scriptures and Myths, Avenel Books, New York (1960), 846 pp. Mountain or Mount, Mountains, pp. 514-517 Mount of Olives: A symbol of the soul's aspiration, and love of the true and the good. "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out unto the mount of Olives." (Matthew, 26:30) The "singing of the hymn" symbolizes the aspiration through harmony of the qualities and uplifting of the nature in prayer and psalm. And the repairing of the "mount of Olives" serves to indicate the ascent of the Christ soul ere it is enabled to make its final triumph over the lower limitations. (pp. 514-515) Mountain or Mount: A symbol of aspiration towards ideals, or the rise of the soul to higher planes of consciousness. "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain: and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth and taught them... And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him." (Matthew, 5:1 & 8:1). The going up a mountain corresponds to the ascent of the Divine nature in the soul. In that state the disciplined qualities (disciples) are instructed and brought into harmony with the Christ. The "sitting down" signifies suiting the instruction to the lower comprehension of the qualities. "While the Lord taught on the mount, the disciples were with Him, for to them it was given to know the secret things of the heavenly doctrine: but now as He came down from the mount the crowds followed Him, who had been altogether unable to ascend into the mount. They that are bowed by the burden of sin cannot climb to the sublime mysteries. But when the Lord came down from the mount that is, stooped to the infirmity and helplessness of the rest, in pity to their imperfections, great multitudes followed Him. — Pseudo-Origen, Hom. in Liv., 5. "Hence even in those (Pietistic) circle, now and again there is an insight that they must journey to the mountain-top in order to serve the Christian ideal in larger fashion, more boldly and more successfully." — Pfleiderer, Development of Christianity, p. 317. In the first division of the Tuat, according to the Book of the Gates, are to be found two groups of Gods— "One group called 'Gods of the Mountain', and the other 'Gods of the Mountain of the Hidden Land'. The Gods of the Mountain are the offspring of Ra himself, and they 'emerged from his eye', and to them has Amentet been given as an abode." — Budge, Egyptian Heaven and Hell, Vol. III, p. 119 The first division of the cycle of life (the Tuat) is on the higher buddhic plane. The Divine Ideals (Gods) have their realization on this plane, which is unapparent (hidden) to the lowerself. The Ideals are the offspring of the Supreme; they emanated from the Higher Self (his eye), and they have their abode in buddhi (Amentet). "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness." (Psalms 48:1). Exalted is the Higher Self within, and regarde with the appreciative love in the innermost heart of being, and in the soul's highest aspirations after Wisdom, Truth, and Love. "Above each man Christian morality sets the infinite life. The identity of nature between that life and his, while it enables him to emulate that life, compels him, also, to compare himself to imitate it, the more clearly he must encounter the comparison. The higher he climbs the mountain, the more he learns how the high mountain is past his climbing. It is the oneness of the soul's life with God's life that at once makes us try to be like Him and brings forth our unlikeness to Him. It is the source at once of aspiration and humility." — Phillips Brooks, Influence of Jesus, p. 65. "The 'garden' implies the condition of purity: the "vineyard", the culture of a pure spirit in man; the 'cloud', the place from which the divine voice within man utters itself; th 'mount of the Lord' within man; so-called from its representing that process of ascent inwards and upwards towards his highest and best, by means of which he becomes regenerate or 'twice born', and thereby divine." — E. Maitland, The Bible's Own, p. 64. (p. 515) Mountain Top: A symbol of the higher planes—atma and buddhi. Mountain (Lower Aspect): A symbol of self-exalted qualities of the lower nature, such as pride, vanity, ambition, greed, desire for power over others, which qualities must be transmuted into aspiration zeal, public spirit, etc. "Again the evil taketh him (Jesus) unto an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and he said unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:8-9). Again, from the lower principle, or not-Self, full of pride, ambition, vainglory, greed, etc., there came the insinuating suggestion that the various directions in which these qualities have been applied in the soul's experience are highly praiseworthy, and are sufficient in themselves to satisfy the soul's needs. To the Christ-soul is offered, if it suppress its upward yearnings, all the self-content that the exercise of its lower emotions can bring it. "Mountains we understand to be all the lofty ones of this world, who were swollen in their hearts with earthly loftiness." — Saint Gregory, Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. III, p. 419. "'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thous serve.' We can understand, then, what spiritual trials are gathered up in this symbolic narrative also. 'exceeding high mountain', from which the dazzling landscapes of ambition were visible, was raised in the ardent mind itself, and the eyes that swept those far-reaching horizons were the eyes of the spirit. A whole multitude of commonplace, and indeed, hardly regarded, experiences of normal human life are collected, interpreted, and appraised in this brief story. Whosoever is brought face to face with the necessity of choosing his method of serving his own ideals, finds the choice (however subtly disguised) to come ultimately to this single alternative— worship of Satan, prince of of this world, or the woship of God." — H. Hensley Henson, The Value of the Bible, p. 240 (pp. 515-516) Mountains: A symbol of aspirations; the attainment of ideals; and the higher states of consciousness. "I praise the cloud and rain which make thy body grow on the summit of the mountains. I praise the high mountains where thou hast grown, O Homa!" — Homa Yasht, Haugh, Essays. "Praise", or the sense of appreciative love, is extended to the wisdom (cloud) and truth (rain) which are the means of accelerating the growth of the aspiring higher emotions. The "high mountains" symbolize the state of highest attainment— the Atman— and through this consummation the Self (Homa) knows and becomes Itself. "The Spirit of Wisdom answered thus—'Of these mountains which are in the world, there are some which are moderators of the wind, and there are some which are warders off; there are some which are the place and vent, the resting-place and support of the rainy cloud; and there are some which are smiters od Aharman and the demons, and maintainers and vivifiers of the creation of Auharmazd, the Lord'." — Mainogi Khirad, Ch. LVI, S.B. of E. The principle of Buddhi uttered the truth from within—Of the various aspirations which arise in the lower nature, there are some which moderate the desire-mental energy, and there are some which guide it into harmless channels. There are some which are the occasion and means, the reason and justification of the forthpouring of Truth and Love into the soul; and there are some which destroy the love of self, and self-seeking desires, and draw out and energize the higher-emotions which proceed from the Divine Nature within. "By mountains are understood those who are in the good of love, by reason that the angels dwell upon mountains; such as are in love to the Lord dwelling on high mountains, and such as are in love to their neighbor dwelling on lower ones; wherefore by every mountain is signified every good of love." — Swedenborg, Apoc. Rev., p, 336. "Let the mountains receive peace for thy people, and the hills righteousness" (Psalms 72:3). "The 'mountains' are lofty souls, the 'hills' little souls. But for this reason do the mountains receive peace, that the hills may be able to receive righteousness. What is the righteousness which the hills receive? Faith, for 'the just doth live by faith.' The smaller souls, however, would not receive faith unless the greater souls, which are called mountains, were illuminated by Wisdom herself, that they may be able to transmit to the little ones what the little ones can receive; and the 'hills' live by faith, because the 'mountains' receive peace." — Augustine, Gospel of John, Vol. I, p. 2. "The more profoundity we feel the reality of the great eternity whither we are being drawn, the greater do all things here become. When the mist lifts, and shows the snowy summits of the 'mountain of God', the nearer lower ranges which we thought the highest dwindle indeed, but gain in sublimity and meaning by the loftier peaks to which they lead up. Unless men and women live for eternity, they are 'merely players', and all tbusy days 'like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'." — A. MacLaren, Sermons, 2nd Series, p. 146. (pp. 516-517) Olympus, Mount: A symbol of the height of perfection and attainment; or the plane of atma, the summit of manifestation. "Homer was the first to divide the world into five portions. The three intermediate he has assigned to the three gods, the two extremes, Olympus and Earth, whereof the one is the boundary of things below, the other of things above, he has left common to all and unalloted to any." — Plutarch, On the E at Delphi, Section 13 There are five manifest planes (portions) of the soul (world). The three intermediate, namely, buddhi (Hera), manas (Hermes), and kama (Hades), have above them atma (Olympus), and below them sthula (Earth). Atma bounds manifestation above, and the physical (sthula) is the limit below. The highest and the lowest planes are the foundations of the rest. "And Athene forthwith was departed to Olympus, to the other gods in the palace of aegis-bearing Zeus." — Iliad, Bk I And from this time forward, in the course of the evolution of the soul, Wisdom appears to retire from the plane whereon it can be revealed to the Personality (Achilles). It is therefore said to join the "other Gods", or immortal, transcendental facts on the highest planes, which are at the origin of the Divine scheme of existence. (p. 549)

Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Citadel Press Book, New York, London, 1912 (1st Ed.), 375 pp. Mountain Symbolism in Chapter III: The Ways of Ascent (pp. 32-54) "My soul, like quiet palmer, Travelleth towards the land of heaven; Over the silver mount Where spring the nectar fountains." — Sir Walter Raleigh “And many people shall go and say: 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord'” — Isaiah Mons. Briquet reproduces upwards of 300 devices (dating from 1318) which he describes as "Mounts, Mountains, or Hills." They are emblems of what Bunyan terms the Delectable Mountains— in other words, those Holy Hills to which the Psalmist lifted his eyes, and which, according to Obadiah, "dropped sweet wine". The mystics gloried in the belief that they "walked with the Lord, treading and tripping over the pleasant mountains of the Heavenly Land", and their eyes were strained perseveringly eastward in expectation of Christ's speedy coming over the hills of Bether. (p. 34) In Allegory, hills or mountains very frequently imply Meditation and Heavenly Communion, and for this reason the legend runs that the Holy Grail was preserved on the summit of Montsalvat, the Mountain of Salvation. (p. 35) The Mountains of Myrrh and the Hills of Frankincense, to which the writer of The Song of Solomon 4:6 says he will retreat, are ideally the same as those "silver mountains" over which, according to Sir Walter Raleigh— "My soul, like quiet palmer, Travelleth towards the land of heaven." In Emblem they were represented as three, five, or six, but most usally as three. Among the Jews, the three-peaked Mount Olives was esteemed to be holy, and accounted to be the residence of the Deity. Mount Meru, the Indian holy mountain, was said to have three peaks composed of gold, silver, and iron; and by Hindoos, Tartars, Manchurians, and Mongols, Mount Meru was venerated as the dwelling place of the Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. The Fleur de Lys of Light poised before our face is Christ the Lord, who will lead us to the tops of the mountains in the bonds of Charity." (p. 36) To convey this same idea of the Spirit dwelling on the mountain-tops, the deviser of figs. 73 and 74 (Google Books) has employed the familiar symbol of the Dove. The followers of the Holy Spirit were themselves considered to be Doves; an idea fostered by the injunction, "Be ye harmless as doves". In the Holy Converse between St. Francis and the Lady Poverty, it is recorded that certain men "all began at once to follow after the blessed Frances, and whilst with most easy steps they were hastening to the heights, behold the Lady Poverty standing on the top of that self-same mountain looked down over the steeps of the hill, and seeing those men so stoutly climbing— nay, flying up, ['winged' by aspiration]— she wondered greatly, and said: 'Who are these who come flying like clouds and like doves to their windows?' And behold a voice came to her and said: 'Be not afraid, O daughter of Zion, for these men are the seed whom the Lord has blessed and chosen in love unfeigned.' So, lying back on the throne of her nakedness, did the Lady Poverty present them with the blessings of sweetness, and said to them: "What is the cause of your coming?— tell me, my brothers. And why hasten ye so from the Vale of Tears to the Mount of Light?'" (p. 39) Mysticism has universally taught that every man has within himself the germs or seeds of Divinity, and that by self-conquest these sparks of Heaven may be fanned into a flame, the flame into a fire, the fire into a star, and the star into a sun. (p. 41) Each of the various Virtues and Graces had its own distinctive symbol, by means of which were expressed the s everal ways of ascent. The first of the Ways was purity and aspiration. "Who shall ascend the Hill of the Lord?" asks the Psalmist, and the condition follows, "He that has clean hands and a pure heart." (Psalms 24:3-4) The Way of solitude and Purity was symbolized by the Stag, which was also regarded as a type of religious aspiration, probably from the passage in the Psalms, "Like as the stag pants for the water brooks." There was an old belief that the stag, though a timorous creature, had a ruthless antipathy to snakes, which it labored to destroy; hence it came to be regarded as an apt emblem of the Christian fighting against evils. (F.E. Hulme, Symbolism in Christian Art, p. 176) (pp. 44-45) The mystics beheld themselves as an unbroken procession of human temples, and the Holy Grail for which each strove was the ever-expanding ideal of his own aspirations. The roadways to the Quest thus far illustrated have been Purity, Aspiration, Justice, Charity, Humility, Hope, & Unselfish Service. (p. 52)

Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects, HarperSanFrancisco (1988), 564 pp. Mountain, pp. 346-347; Ziggurat, pp. 113-114 Mountain: The letter M seems to have been based on symbols of the twin peaks of the holy mountain, which were often seen as breasts of the Great Mother. The Epic of Gilgamesh describes such a holy mountain, Mashu, whose "paps" reach down to the underworld; she gives birth to the sun and she is as high as the walls of heaven. A similar Mountain Mother, Ninhursag, gave birth to the world in Sumerian myth; she was also a Cow-goddess, milk-giver to the kings, who qualified for the throne by becoming her nurslings. The oldest deity in Greece was the Divine Mountain Mother, Gaea Olympia, the first owner of Mount Olympus before the takeover by her upstart grandson Zeus. She was called Universal Mother, Oldest of Deities, and Deep-Breasted One. She controlled several mountain shrines including the Delphic oracle, which was later usurped by Apollo. One of the oldest deities in India was Chomo-Lung— "Goddess Mother of the Universe", whose mountain shrine is now known to Westerners by a man's name, Everest. Still feminine, however, is the Himalayan peak Annapurna, meaning "Great Breast Full of Nourishment". Double peaks in County Kerry, Ireland, are still called the Paps of the Goddess Anu, or Danu, ancestral mother of one of the early colonies. The idea of universal breast milk flowing down from mountain peaks was common to both East and West. The Japanese symbol of mountains is an M-design with two beastlike peaks. The four rivers of paradise were often equated with streams of the Mother's milk, as in Iranian myths of High Haraiti, the birth-giving mountain at the center of the earth, also "the fountain of all waters". With snowcaps, melting into glacial streams made white with rock dust, probably put the idea into the heads of all people living within sight of high mountains. Often the Goddess as creator of the world began her activities with mountain-making. A Welsh title of the Crone of Caillech was "Hag of the Dribble", because she let stones dribble from her apron to form the earth's mountain ranges. However the "dribble" may have been originally her milk or her uterine blood, both of which were once considered the creative fluid whose curdling or clotting made all land masses. Magic mountains throughout Europe remained sacred to the Goddess and so acquired the reputation of witch shrines Germany had several Venusbergs. Other peaks in Italy and Britain remained matriarchal pilgrimage centers. Many pagan heroes awaited rebirth from holy mountain wombs. Merlin and Thomas Rhymer were said to sleep under the Eildon hills. Epimenides, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, slept in Rhea's holy cave on Mount Dicte. Boabdil el Chico, the last Arabian king of Granada, rested under the mountain near the Alhambra. Frederick Barbarossa slept under the Kyffhauserberg. Charlemagne slept in the Odenburg (Odin's Mountain) in Hesse, or according to another legend, in the Untersberg near Salzburg. The pagan Earth Mother was thinly disguised as a fictitious saint in western France, where she was worshipped at a holy mount by the river Sevre. She was described as "drawing from her apron the fertile seed" and throwing it into the furrow with her blessings. Miraculous growths of grain were attributed to her influence. The Mother still shelters the pagan dead as the holy mountain Helgafell in Iceland and upholds the pagan gods as Teutonic Himinbjorg or "Heaven-Mountain". Ziggurat: The ziggurat was the Mesopotamian version of the Mountain of Heaven, resembling the pyramids of Egypt and Central America in that its summit was a meeting place between deities and mortals. At the peak of the ziggurat the Goddess came down to mate with the king, or the God to mate with the queen. Sumerian towns were crowned by ziggurats as early as 3500 B.C. Ib Babylon, the ziggurat was the core of the city, Bab-ilani, "Gate of the Gods", or as the Bible calls it, Bab-El, the "tower" that purported to touch the sky. It was reconstructed by Nebuchadnezzar and officially named Temple of the Seven Spheres of the World, or Etemenanki, House of the Seven Directions of Heaven and Earth. Its seven stages were supposed to represent the seven heavenly spheres. According to a tablet in the Louvre, which gave Roman names to the Babylonian deities, the seven stages were colored black for Saturn, orange for Jupiter, red for Mars, gold for the sun, yellow for Venus, blue for Mercury, and silver for the moon. It is believed that the seven nether spheres were also represented, in the form of successively deeper pits dug underneath the structure. A similar idea of the ascending heavens formed the pagodas in China. The word pagoda is a Portugese corruption of Persian butkadah, a temple. The series of umbrella-like roofs on a pagoda— usually nine— symbolized the various heavens rising one above another.

Nadia Julien, Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. New York (1996), 524 pp. Mountain: axis of the world, pp. 281-282 Mountain: axis of the world Every country has a sacred mountain in answer to a need for providential protection: there is the Portala in Tibet, the Hindu Mount Meru, the Celts' White Mountain, the Jews' Mount Tabor, the Moslems' Qaf, the Chinese K'uen-luen, the Christians' Golgotha (summit of the the cosmic mountain and Adam's tomb). • In flat countries the mountain had a substitute, such as a cairn (a heap of stones sheltering Celtic tombs in Gaul and Great Britain), a tumulus, a pyramid, a monument (the Buddhist stupa, the Islamic Kuba, an Arab building made up of a cubic base and covered by a dome built over the tomb of a venerated person), the Omphalos at Delphos, a menhir (erect stone), or bactyl (a sacred meteoric stone). The belfry or clocktower in a village is a modern equivalent of the cosmic mountain. Temples and towns were assimilated into the cosmic mountain: the Temple of Barabudur built in the form of a mountain, the Babylonian ziggurat, the Buddhist nine-storied pagoda in China. • The summit of the cosmic mountain is also the starting point of creation, the navel of the world in which the first man was created. 'Paradise where Adam was created from mud was, of course, the centre of the cosmos, and, according to Syrian tradition, was on a mountain that was higher than any other, and where he was also buried, that is to say, on Golgotha, where the blood of the Saviour would redeem him. Generally the mountain forms a real link between heaven and the underworld. • The mountain is simultaneously the centre and axis of the universe and as such is thought to contain divine inspiration. Its summit is the centre of the world, the junction between heaven and earth. As the pilgrim climbs it, he grows closer to the centre of the world, and as he reaches higher ground he enters a new level, transcending profane, heterogenerous space, and entering a pure land. And so the mountain is a symbol of transcendeny, the culminating point of ascension and spiritual elevation.     It is on a mountain summit that the prophet enters into communication with divinity (Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai). • In ancient China, mountains 'guaranteed the solid permanence of the universe' and symbolized immortality (a mountain landslide is an infallible sign of the end of a dynasty, the presence and proximity of the gods).     Worship of the five mountains situated between the five cardinal points was practiced. The five mountains were dominated by a Taoist temple, refuge of the immortals, who thus found themselves nearer to heaven, and it was from here that they flew to the isles of paradise. It was on these mountains that 'the ten thousand things [an infinite number] have their origin and yin & yang alternated. • Mountains cause clouds and rain: in the iconography, a mountain encircled by clouds symbolized the earth. • In dreams a high mountain symbolizes danger or a perilous situation. Climbing a mountain depicts inner elevation.

Wolfram Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London (1986), 332 pp. Mountain: shan, pp. 194-197 Mountain: shan In ancient China, mountains were special objects of veneration. Indeed, mountains played the same sort of role in Chinese cosmology as the Emperor did in society: they ensured cosmic order and permanence. The cult of the 'Five Mountains' (Wu yue) has persisted into modern times. From time immemorial these five mountains have been places of sacrifice. They represent all five directions. Tai-shan is in Shandong in the East; Heng-shan is in Hunan in the South; Song-shan is in Henan in the Centre; Hua-shan is in Shanxi in the West; and finally, Heng-shan is in Shanxi in the North. (Heng in the latter word is written with a different character from that used for the Hen-shan in Hunan.) All five are wooded, which is a rarity in China, and numerous Taoist temples crown their summits. Along with these five mountains there are a few more which are sacred to Buddhists, especially O-mi in the western province of Sichuan.     In ancient times, the West was seen as the realm of the mountains. In the mysterious North-West towered the Kunlun, which we might well compare with the world-mountain Sumeru of Indian legend: each had nine terraces. In the fabled Kunlun were palaces, hanging gardensm springs from which the water of life flowed. Whoever succeeded in climbing all the steps leading up to the Kunlun attained immortality. Indeed the 'Supreme One' (tai yi) dwelt in the Kunlun. The only divinity who received visitors in the Kunlun, however, was the Queen Mother of the West (Xi wang-mu). This is probably connected with an earlier belief according to which mountains especially the Kunlun were regarded as the place where 'the ten thousand things have their origins and where yin and yang alternate with each other forever'.     The Chinese cosmogony differs from the Indian one in that the Kunlun is located not in the centre of the earth but in the West, at the source of the Yellow River. As Buddhism made inroads into China (i.e., since about the 1st century AD at the latest), Indian and Chinese cosmological concepts began to mingle with each other. Sumeru was now seen as the source of four great rivers which flowed north, south, east and west; and the Yellow River was, of course, the one flowing eastward.     Virtually every mountain had it resident mountain god. The late classical belief that the spirits of the dead live in the mountains, persisted in North China, and sacrifices were accordingly made to mountains. In later times we find many reports of governmental attempts to ban the cult of mountain spirits, partly perhaps because of their erotic character: for example, young girls were 'married' to the mountain. The Wu-shan mountain in the western part of Central China is celebrated because a goddess once appeared there to a great prince with whom she performed the 'clouds and rain game'.     It was the mountain which generated clouds and rain, the Chinese believed. In pictures, cloud-capped mountains symbolize the earth, while waves symbolize the sea. The expression 'mountains and seas' (shan hai) refers to China as a whole; and this is also the title of the oldest geography book. A most solemn oath was to swear by 'mountain-oath and sea-oath' (shan men hai shi). The expression 'middle mountain' (zhong yue) may refer to the human nose. A landslip in the mountains was taken as an unmistakable sign that the ruling dynasty's days were numbered: for mountain and Emperor corresponded to and reflected each other.     The ancient tale of 'The Old Simpleton' (Yu-gong) acquired unexpected fame as a parable in the Mao era. This tells how the old man could no longer put up with having to go round a chain of mountain in order to get to the nearest village. Undeterred by the fact that he was alread 90 years old, he made a start by digging a way through the hills. A scholar pointed out to him that he was really too old to take on such a task; whereupon the old man reminded him that his children were helping him and that his grandchildren and great-grandchildren would certainly bring the work to a successful conclusion. It is obvious why Mao should have found this tale useful as an exercise in moral propaganda, but it is noteworthy that he invariably omitted to mention the end of the story as told in Lie-zi's original version: here, the gods of the mountains and the seas take pity on the old simpleton and report his case to the supreme god, Shang-di, who orders his demiurges to cut a way through the mountains forthwith.

E.T.C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China Graham Brash Ltd, Singapore (1984), 454 pp. Mountains: pp. 127, 242, 253-254, 345-346 Sacred Mountains in China There were three Censors who lived in the reign of King Li (Li Wang, 878-841 B.C.) of the Chou dynasty... They appeared to protect the Emperor Chên Tsung when he was offering the Fêng-shan sacrifices on T'ai Shan in 1008 A.D., on which occasion they were canonized with titles of Superior, Medium, & Inferior Causes, as before, conferring upon them regencies of Heaven, earth, & water respectively. (p. 127)     These gods are called the Wu Yüeh, 'Five Mountains', and are worshipped in the temple San-i Ko at Ju-kao, especially in outbreaks of contagious diseases and fevers. A sufferer goes to the temple and promises offerings to the gods in the event of recovery. The customary offering is five small wheaten loaves, called sho ping, and a pound of meat. (p. 242)     Po Ya suggested to the King Miao that the God of Hua Shan, the sacred mountain in the west, had the reputation of being always willing to help; and that if he prayed to him and asked his pardon for having shed so much blood during the wars which preceded his accession to the throne he might obtain an heir. Welcoming this suggestion, the King sent for Chao Chên and ordered him to dispatch to the temple of Hua Shan the two Chief Ministers of Ceremonies, Hsi Hêng-nan and Chih Tu, with instructions to request fifty Buddhist and Taoist priests to pray for seven days and seven nights in order that the King might obtain a son. When that period was over, the King and Queen would go in person to offer sacrifices in the temple. (pp. 253-254)     The Demon-king saw him from the top of the mountain and said to himself: "This Monkey is famous for his magic, but I will prove that he is no match for me; I will yet feast on his Master." So, descending the mountain, he transformed himself into a lame beggar and waited by the roadside. The Master, out of pity, persuaded the Monkey to carry him. While on the Monkey's back, the Demon, by magic skill, threw Mount Meru on to Monkey's head, but the Monkey warded it off with his right shoulder, and walked on. Then the Demon threw Mount Omei on to Monkey's head, and this he warded off with his right shoulder, and walked on, much to the Demon's surprise. Lastly the Demon caused T'ai Shan to fall on his head. This at last stunned the Monkey... When the Monkey found that he was being crushed under the mountain he was greatly distressed about his Master... The guardian angels and local gods then recited some prayers, and the mountain was removed. (pp. 345-346)

C.A.S. Williams, Chinese Symbolism & Art Motifs Tuttle Publishing, Rutland, VT (1974), 473 pp. Mount Meru p. 195, Mount Omei p. 334, Mount T'ai p. 376, Mountains p. 409 Mount Meru The Heavenly Guardians or Deva Kings (Sanskrit, Lokapalas) were four Indian brothers. They are also called the Diamond Kings. These four celestial potentates are fabled in later Buddhist tradition as ruling the legions of supernatural beings who guard the slopes of Paradise (Mount Meru), and they are worshipped as the protecting deities of Buddhist sanctuaries. Pu K'ung, a Cingales Buddhistm is said to have introduced their worship in the 8th century A.D. They protect the world against the attacks of evil spirits, and their statues, gigantic in size, are to be seen at the entrance to Buddhist temples, two on each side. (p. 195) Mount Omei P'u Hsien (Sanskrit, Samantabhadra), the "All Gracious", a Bodhisattva who, though not very prominent in Indian Buddhism, is very popular in China. He is the patron saint of Mount Omei in Szechuan, where there are many temples in his honor. His Sanskrit name means "Great Activity". He is represented with a greenish face, wears a yellow robe with a red collar, and rides upon a white elephant. This elephant could change into a man, and fought with P'u Hsien, was conquered by him, and allowed him to ride on his back. Some representations of this deity have a very feminine appearance, which is due to the fact that the gods have the power of changing their sex at will. (p. 334) Mount T'ai Mount T'ai, in Shantung, has the epithet of "eminent" attached to it as it is the most famous of all the mountains of China. A stone from this sacred mountain is believed to have the power to ward off demons, though any local stone may be employed. The following inscription is ut upon it: "This stone from Mount T'ai dares to oppose", and it is sometimes erected at sharp turnings of the road where evil influences are considered likely to strike against it. No doubt the origin of the motto is partly due to the security offered by Mount T'ai in times of flood and Yellow River disaster in Shantung, and to its former use in the worship of the sun. (p. 376) Mountain as one of Twelve Ornaments Many of the designs employed in the decoration of textile fabrics are undoubtedly of great antiquity. Among the earliest is a group of symbols known as the Twelve Ornaments, which signified authority and power, and were embroidered on vestments of state. They are as follows: (1) The Sun with a three-legged raven in it; (2) The Moon with a hare in it, pounding the drug of immortality; (3) Three Stars: Orion, Musca, Draco; (4) Mountains; regarded with great appreciation by the Chinese, who hold some of them as sacred; (5) Dragon: symbol of strength; (6) Phoenix: symbol of peace; (7) Two Goblets with an animal on each; (8) Spray of Pondweed: purity symbol; (9) Flames of Fire: brightness symbol; (10) Grains of Rice; symbol of nourishment; (11) Axe: symbol of courage; (12) Figure Ya: Two chi back to back, symbolizes capability to make a distinction between right & wrong. (pp. 409-410)

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