Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Legend: Egg

Please see the Introduction To Rabbit Hole Legend A-Z post for information about sources and purpose.

Eggs (Eggmen):"I am the Eggman, they are the Eggmen, Goo Goo G'Joob!"

"The egg is as powerful in its symbolism as it is potent as a life-force. The World Egg is a ubiquitous symbol for the egg from which the Universe is said to have hatched, an idea that appears in creation myths from all parts of the world. The Celts, Hindus, Egyptians, Greeks and Phoenicians and many more agree about this idea.

The form this cosmic hatching takes is variable though. Often the egg risen from primeval waters and is incubated by a bird; in Hindu belief, this is the Hamsa, a goose [(See link after "swan" entry)]. When the egg hatches, the yolk and the white become heaven and earth.[...]

The egg is a symbol of new life, and this idea is borne out with chocolate eggs at Easter, which in itself is a celebration of the pre-Christian fertility goddess, Eostre, who also gives her name to the hormone estrogen. The subsequent celebration of Christ's death and resurrection meant that the egg kept its significance as a symbol of immortality and rebirth.

In alchemy, the Philosopher's Egg symbolizes the seed of spiritual life, and depicts the place wherein a great transformation takes place. " (ISS)

"To ancients in all lands, the egg was the symbol of generation and immortality. In Scandinavia and Russia clay eggs were put in tombs to ensure life after death. A similar idea was signified in ancient Egypt by the winged egg floating above the mummy, carrying the soul to another birth. The Chinese believed that the first archetypal man sprang from an egg dropped by Tien, a great bird. The alchemists spoke of the philosophical egg which combined all the elements of life, the container of thought and matter. The Greeks thought of the egg as the seven-fold vault of space, a symbol originally  compounded in the dual septenary planes of the Cosmic Egg of Hindu tradition.

Reverence for the egg is evoked by its form as well as by its mystery. Its elliptical form describes the movement of heavenly bodies and of the earth itself. It describes the sphere of light that surrounds all living things. It is in the oviform that the potency of spirit in matter manifests. The Katakopanisad teaches that in the Spiritual Egg, Purusha or Divine Spirit stands before primordial matter and from their union springs the great Soul of the World." <Read more at Sources site>



And then there's "Humpty Dumpty", the great Eggman, and his famous last words, "Goo Goo g'Joob"; which are a little less clearly sourced then many folks believe it to be, most likely from Finnegan's Wake, "GooGoo Goosth", but attributed by the Beatles-fans as being the last thing he says after falling off the wall, "He was an Egg, after all".
                             
                       

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