The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel (Read as: Allah; deep in to the earth; tall as a tower; a missile; the number 7 in circle and the number 1) 2010 graphite on marble, 16 ¼ x 36 inches. Private collection, Canary Islands

 

Tower:
“… It is Humanity, which carries within itself its own death, which is represented in the missile (peak of the destructive “work” of the human being)”.
-Ada García Valido, Havana, May 2010

Likewise, for this reason, the sixteenth arcanum of the Tarot expresses the catastrophe in the form of a tower struck by lightning. *(In this case “the lightning” is proposed in reverse = mishap. Reproduction of natural powers). However, in the symbolism of the tower, it is possible to find an ambi-tendency. Its ascensional impulse would be accompanied by a deepening; the higher the height, the deeper the foundations. Nietzsche spoke of descending to the extent that one ascends. Nerval, in “Aurelia” specifically, he refers to the symbolism of the tower and says: “I was in a tower, so deep in its foundations, sunken into the earth, and so high at its apex, a needle from the sky, that my entire existence seemed forced to be consumed. going up and down.”

“In the Egyptian hieroglyphic system, a determining sign that expresses the elevation of something, or the action of rising above the vital or social norm. The tower, therefore, corresponds primarily to ascending symbolism. *(Babel is visualized in a helical ascent / In the Middle Ages, towers and bell towers could serve as watchtowers, but they had a meaning of scale between earth and heaven, by simple application of the symbolism of the level for which material height equals spiritual elevation. The tower, due to its closed, walled appearance, is emblematic of the Virgin, as shown by numerous allegorical paintings and engravings and reminiscent of the litanies. As the idea of ​​elevation, mentioned above, implies that of transformation and evolution, hence the athanor or oven of the alchemists had the symbolic shape of a tower, to express -inversely-, that the metamorphosis of matter implied an ascensional sense. The bronze tower in which Danae, the mother of Perseus, was imprisoned. Finally, we want to indicate an analogy: tower, man *(Number 1=individual). Just as the tree is closer to the human figure than the animals, which advance with their bodies horizontal, so the tower is the only form of construction that takes the vertical as its definition. The top floor windows, almost always large, correspond to the eyes and the thought. For this reason, the symbolism of the tower of Babel is reinforced as a chimerical enterprise, which leads to failure and mental loss…” –C.G. Jung; Transformations and symbols of the libido, Buenos Aires, 1952

Number 7 (7 ships):
“Complete order, period, cycle. It is made up of the union of the ternary and the quaternary, for which it is given exceptional value (43). It corresponds to the seven directions of space (the six existing ones plus the center) (7). It corresponds to the seven-pointed star, to the connection of the square and the triangle, by superimposition of the latter (heaven over the earth) or by inscription inside it. Essential range of sounds, colors and planetary spheres. Number of the planets and their deities, of the deadly sins and their opponents. It corresponds to the three-dimensional cross. Symbol of pain.”

-Author’s notes