https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=JCezMFMe3BY
As many of you know, the logo that I’m using, that I’ve been using for the past, I guess, four years, maybe was it five years now, that logo will soon be going away. I have had another logo design, which I’ll present to you very soon. Those that follow me on Patreon have already seen it and gotten a sense of what it means. But I thought that before we say goodbye to the old image, that it would be a good idea to do an interpretation of it. And that interpretation will not, of course, just be about my logo, but will help you get some insight into the very story of creation and also how Christian art works and how iconography kind of brings elements together spatially in order to show you some of the patterns that are hidden in the stories. This is Jonathan Pescho. Welcome to the symbolic world. So this image is taken from a missal. It is, of course, the six days of creation, but it is taken from a German missal called the Stamheim missal. You can see it here in its totality. Of course, in the center are the six days, but then at the top of the image we see Christ, who’s at the origin of the world. We see two angels next to him that are somewhat like the two angels that are guarding paradise or the angels that are at the top of the Ark of the Covenant, kind of bringing all of those images together. I’ve talked about in other talks before how you often have these two angels at the top of ancient images to kind of represent this idea of the two cherub that are guarding or that are hiding or revealing the mystery. So at the bottom of the image we also have a few more things going on. We have Adam and Eve being chased from paradise here, where you can see Eve is covering herself with a fig leaf and you see the angel holding the flaming sword over here. Then you have, of course, the result of the fall, which is Cain killing Abel here on the right side. So you have the cherub, which is represented more like a seraph, but those things get a little fused together in Christian art. You have the cherubs that are guarding the garden but that are also at the top of the Ark of the Covenant. Then you have the flaming sword that is here chasing Adam and Eve out of the garden. So you can get a sense of this is really a cosmic image of how all of this is coming together. At the bottom of the image we also have King David who is holding a psalm. The psalm, I forget exactly the phrasing, but it’s something like, you know, all the works that you have done, oh God, something like that, like all of your creation, oh God. And so in the very structure of the entire image now, you have, of course, the creation here in the middle. We have Christ as the origin of creation above with a little dome here. And so you even get a sense of heaven, which is above. And then the cherub, the creation, and at the bottom you have creation answering or creation worshiping. You have the answer from above, which is part of the story of creation itself, which we’ve talked about before. So you have a declaration of creation from above and an answer of worship and of recognition from below. So that’s the base, that’s the total image. Of course that is not in my logo. I thought you might want to know a little bit what is going on. And so this image is an image which was made by someone named Wesley Swank, who is part of the Symbolic World Facebook group, very active member, very interesting member. And he was the first one to kind of work it out and do the translation of all the different parts in Latin, which is what is written in the text. So in the transversals, you have, of course, all the days which are written. So first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth, sixth day. And then in the circles you have all the verses that are compressed and written down. And so I made a black and white version of this, which I used in some of the images that I sell and some of the t-shirts that I make. And in this you will see the whole thing. And you will see each day and a basic translation. It’s not exactly the translation that Wesley did. I wanted, you know, his was very literal, literal, very direct. I wanted it to be a little more, let’s say in English, a little more cohesive. So when we look at the way that it’s structured, you’ll get a sense of how all of these images are related. So in the first day, it says, in kind. And the sixth day opens up, you can see it here, where it opens up into the central image, which is the creation of man. And what’s interesting about the way that it opens up into the center is that it is on the sixth day the creation of man, but it also becomes like the seventh image. And so it’s very particular, it’s very interesting, because of course the seventh day is the day of rest, the day that God rested. And so here there’s a relationship which is brought about, which is surprising because of the way it’s represented in space, which is that in the seventh image, which is still on the sixth day, nonetheless hints at the seventh day, or at the day of rest, where Adam is resting. But then here in this day, in this rest, Eve is being created out of Adam. So let’s look at the way that it’s structured. The artist, the way that they structure it, by doing it in a circle this way, and by having the circle separated into six sections, he is really bringing about some very fascinating patterns. And those patterns appear mostly in how each image is across from another image. And so the image in the top here is across from the one diagonally here. And what it does is it shows you a relationship between the days and how they end up, how the first three days have a certain pattern, the second three days fractally represent or fractally reproduce the pattern that was there in the first three days. And so you have it says, God said, let there be light, and there was light in the very first day. And then in the day that it’s across it, the fourth day, it says, let the lights in the, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens. And so it’s also lights again, but now it’s the lights that are in this, the second heaven. So light in the spiritual light, or like very the first light out here, and then second light over here, which would be something like the light in the firmament. And so on the second day, now we continue the same question. It says, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. And so you have the heaven and the waters below the second heaven and the second waters. And down here on day five, then you have the creation of the animals that will fill that space. So you can understand it that up here is basically the, let’s say the space itself or the principles themselves, and then below are the things that fill it. So above you have the firmament and the waters, and below you have, let the water swarm with life and the birds fly above. So you have that which fills, that which is below, which are the fish, and that which fills that which is above, which are the, which is in the heavens. And you see of course the same thing happen on the third day, which is that it says, let the earth bring forth vegetation that yields seed. And so you have a sense of the earth and its plants, but then across from it now you have the earth and its animals, the animals that exist on that earth. And so there’s an interesting relationship which happens which shows you like this fractal pattern that is going on in the six days of creation, all across from each other. It’s interesting that this part here, you know, this, the plants that come about, they come about before even the lights in the heaven. And so there are all these relationships going on that are very fascinating to see. So interestingly enough, one of the things that are, that is missing in this image is of course that which comes before the first day, or that which comes in the beginning. And this in the beginning part, I think, is fair to say that it is captured by the first, the image, the full image in the Stamheim Missal, which is you see, let’s say outside of the six days, you see Christ above as the origin of all things and then below the answer of earth, the worship of that which is below the first, let’s say, heaven and earth represented that way. That’s what it seems to me at least. But then it is brought into the image, let’s say more subtly, by what is written around the creation of Adam and Eve because it says, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. So by making God, by making man in his image, this of course accounts for why man is at the center of all of creation. Man is that which all creation is kind of leading towards, the center in the sense of also the reason for creation, but then also, you know, we’ve talked about this to a certain extent, how there is a kind of mysterious way in which man is there already at the outset of creation. We see that especially in the second creation narrative. But then it also repeats the pattern of the in the beginning, which is that it says God, he created male and female, he created them. So by creating them male and female, you get a sense in which the act of creation itself. And so this is something that I’ve wondered quite a bit, why is it that the image shows Eve coming out of Adam? I always kind of wondered why was this image that they had chosen to put in there, because it’s not necessarily the most traditional version of the creation of man. Usually the most traditional version just shows Christ sitting on the cosmos and then, you know, with his hand blessing and you see Adam who is there in front of him. But I think the reason why they put this version is because they wanted to imply the act of creation itself, and they also wanted to imply male and female together as being this microcosm of all of creation. That’s my, at least my impression of why they wanted to do it this way. And, but at least for us what’s interesting, at least for me, what was interesting about this image, and one of the reasons I chose it was because if you’ve noticed, if you’ve seen in my videos, I do end up talking quite a bit about the power and the importance of feminine symbolism in the Bible, in the world, you know, all over the place. Also talking about how feminine symbolism, in my opinion, has been quite distorted and in a certain manner there’s a lack of respect or a lack of love in the contemporary world for the feminine symbolism, which is disguised as feminism actually, but is actually just a kind of fetishization of male power and of masculinity and a kind of pushing aside or a desire to get rid of all the powerful and beautiful imagery in feminine symbolism. So I thought that it also made sense to have this particular image as the one that represents my videos, just because I knew that this is something that I would be talking about quite a bit. And so I hope that this gives you a good idea of what is going on, of why I chose this image for the symbolic world. It has served me very well. I love it very much, but it also is, it is very complicated and very complex and it kind of lacks the simplicity of a logo. And so very soon I will be presenting you with my new logo as finally my website, which I started last year and then that whole process collapsed. I had to change the people that were making the website and it was very, it was a lot of trouble. And then as God’s Dog was kind of coming into play, I had to put that aside for a while, but now I’m back on track with the website and hopefully in the next few months it will appear with all the things that I wanted in there, including the forums, which are important to me to move away from control by the social media company so we can have a space of our own where we can discuss all these things. And the website is done by someone who is an expert on security and is working with several servers and people that are, let’s say, working towards resisting what is going on and avoiding to get shut down easily by the government. Of course they can always do it if they want to, but at least to make it as hard as possible to shut you down as things move into more and more crazy spaces. So hope you enjoyed this interpretation of the symbolism of my logo and looking forward to present the new logo to you very soon. As you know, the symbolic world is not just a bunch of videos on YouTube. We are also a podcast, which you can find on your usual podcast platform, but we also have a website with a blog and several very interesting articles by very intelligent people that have been thinking about symbolism on all kinds of subjects. We also have a clips channel, a Facebook group, you know, there’s a whole lot of ways that you can get more involved in the exploration and the discussion of symbolism. Don’t forget that my brother Mathew wrote a book called The Language of Creation, which is a very powerful synthesis of a lot of the ideas that explore. And so please go ahead and explore this world. You can also participate by, you know, buying things that I’ve designed, t-shirts with different designs on them, and you can also support this podcast and these videos through PayPal or through Patreon. Everybody who supports me has access to an extra video a month, and there are also all kinds of other goodies and tiers that you can get involved with. So everybody, thank you again, and thank you for your support.