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Holy Week is on the Western Christians and as it is coming closer for Eastern Christians and also in the wake of the Notre Dame fire I thought that we might want to make a video on beauty and meaning and so I want to talk about the different icons which appear during Holy Week in the Orthodox tradition and how they are interrelated and finally bring about the ultimate meaning of Easter of Pascha and the resurrection. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world. So this week has been a rather difficult week with the fire of Notre Dame. I have to admit that I was surprised to what extent it affected me. You know, on the day of the fire I just stood sat there in front of my computer and for some reason I just couldn’t stop crying for a few hours and I kept trying to reason myself and tell myself you know nobody died there are much bigger tragedies in the world and of course that’s true there are way more horrible tragedies but I thought that because this fire represented something rather profound about the state of Western civilization the state of Christianity in Europe and also a growing mirror of that in North America it seemed that watching the church burn really hit a nail and manifested in me and in so many people that I saw around a sense of dread about what is happening in Europe and what is happening to Christianity and so I think that despite that it also encouraged me in my own work and in my own purpose which is to show the beauty of our traditions to show the beauty of Christianity the beauty of Christ and in art and architecture in symbolism and so I figured what better thing to do than to actually talk about some of that beauty and some of that meaning and hopefully to wake up a few people to what it is we’re losing as Christianity is on the wane and so during Holy Week in the Orthodox tradition there are a series of icons which appear and what’s interesting about these icons is of course they take us down the story of Holy Week towards the crucifixion and the resurrection but they also exemplify something that I’ve been telling you about for quite a while now which is the interrelated aspect of symbolism how symbolism is really a pattern and so because it is a pattern there are residences which appear you could say it this way that the icons talk to each other they call upon each other and what that does is it creates a symphonic effect a symphony of imagery which all you know cross over into each other and create this interconnected web of meanings and so when we look at the icons of Holy Week we can see that happen quite beautifully and it can also help us to understand certain elements of certain icons not by analyzing the icons on their own looking at what’s in the icon but it looking at how those icons relate to other icons in the same cycle into the cycle of Holy Week and it can help us to see why certain details are sometimes put into those images and so as we start of course Holy Week we should start at the entry into Jerusalem Palm Sunday that icon represents Christ entering into Jerusalem as a kingly figure sitting on an ass or a cult and coming into the city as young children cut palms up in the trees and people take off their vestments and put them at the feet of Christ as Christ is entering onto his ass and as we look at this image what it does is it also opens up this vision that we have in in the cycle of Holy Week which is a vision of extremes and it opens up this vision of extremes the vision of extremes is to help us see the profound paradox but also the intuitively right aspect of Christ as being both the highest joining with the lowest and so being the the incarnate logos the the manifestation of the source the origin of all the world and then bringing that logos down to the bottom of the world and showing how it connects how it even unites with the lowest of the low and so that is what we see in Holy Week especially during a certain service I forget what it’s called in English but there’s a service towards the end of a Holy Week which is a service of complaints a service of mourning where that is what we cite in this service of mourning in this service of lamentation we get sentences which compare the extremes for example the the one which I find the most touching is as Christ is being put down into the grave we hear oh strange wonder new to man he who granted me the breath of life is carried lifeless into Joe in Joseph’s hands to burial another example he who holds the earth in the hollow of his hand is held fast by the earth put to death according to the flesh he delivers the dead from the grasping hand of hell and so it is this this this raising up and then bringing down and showing how both of those at the same time this total reality of of the highest joining with the lowest is what frees us from the low the the curse of the lowest is what frees us from the curse of death another example he appears now as a corpse without form or communists he who has made beautiful the nature of all things and so here is this extreme so as we start already as we start the the procession of Holy Week as we start the story of Holy Week we start with the high and so here comes Christ into Jerusalem and everybody is claiming him as the new king and and he’s entering into what seems to be a honorable place an interesting aspect of the of the icon of the entry into Jerusalem is that a later tradition somewhere around the 14th century we think a detail was added to some of those icons which which held and it was perpetuated and in this this detail what we see is we see a two young children of course these children that are taking the palms out of the trees two young children on sitting on the ground in the foreground and one of them has a thorn in their foot and the other child is trying to help that one to remove the thorn from their foot and so you would think why why would such a detail be added to an image of the entry into Jerusalem seems like a very strange thing to add and the reason seems to be related to this pattern of icons because the very next icon that we will see in the story of Holy Week is an icon called the bridegroom the icon of the bridegroom is of course in the Latin tradition called Ecehomo here is the man and we see Christ as a king he is wearing he has a reed he’s holding his staff he’s wearing a purple vestment and he also is wearing a crown but of course this crown is the crown of thorns and in this image once again we have the joining of the two extremes the an exalted imagery of a king which is then taken down to the lowest of a man who is being tortured and mocked and so they are mocking him as the king it’s a mirror image of the day of the the icon we saw just the day before which is the praising of him as the king and so now they’re mocking him as a false king or as an imaginary king and they’re torturing him and putting on his head the crown of thorns now of course I’ve talked about this before the crown of thorns is in my opinion one of the most powerful symbols of Christianity because it is taking the curse of death the curse that God put on Adam and Eve one of those curses was that the world was going to produce thorns the thorns are the hostility of the world they are also an image of death itself because they are these pointy protrusions of the of the plant to protect themselves from a hostile world and but there are they’re like nails or horns of an animal they’re dead themselves they’re not they’re not living things they’re like weapons to protect ourselves from death I’ve talked about this quite a few times before this notion of a layer of death to protect us from death and so now Christ takes this layer of thorns this curse of the fall and flips it over and brings it up into a glory and that of course is the crown of thorns now that can help you to understand why as we see Christ entering into Jerusalem we already see these two children who are at the bottom of the icon dealing trying to deal with the thorns because it is it’s to show us that this is all part of the same pattern this high cannot exist without this low it’s already to show the high and the low together even in the very icon in the next icon we show we show the lowness but we also hint at the highness by the image of the the crown and the the icon is called the bridegroom and you would think once again how very strange that an icon of Christ you know tortured this HH mo image would be called the bridegroom and it’s because the very next things thing we celebrate that we commemorate in Holy Week is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins there are wise virgins who are ready to receive the bridegroom and foolish virgins who are not ready to receive the bridegroom and the the why the foolish virgins are cut out whereas the wise virgins are held inside the house to receive the bridegroom who is coming for the wedding feast and so it is already in a certain manner an image of the Last Judgment but also an image of us preparing ourselves for our groom preparing ourselves as the church preparing our souls to receive the divine logos to receive our our divine groom in the figure of of Christ but who is this divine groom we saw it it is this tortured man and so once again this notion of the husband of the the feast of the bridegroom of the high you know of the the glorious husband who comes to take his bride to take our soul to join with our soul in this in the sexual symbolism is is also the extremes are shown because this bridegroom is manifested as as the tortured Christ in the HH image okay and so you see what like I said these extremes back and forth coming coming in and out in the story of Holy Week now as we move forward the next image that we celebrate on Holy Wednesday is the icon of the washing of the disciples feet now in the icon of the washing of the feet once again we are playing with all the different elements that we’ve seen before in the image of the entry into Jerusalem Christ comes in triumphant he’s sitting on on the ass and everybody is taking their vestments off and putting them at the feet of Christ as he enters into the town so Christ comes in and then we see him on Holy Wednesday in the room with the disciples and now he is removing his vestment in order to wash the feet of his disciples and so the contrast is amazing and you can and in the icon of the washing of the feet usually in icons we don’t we often don’t show a lot of extreme emotions things are kind of straightened out and and sobered up you could say so to not fall into sentimentality but in this icon there is the pose of st. Peter which is very remarkable and it is this pose of confusion to it to know that here is the same person who is acclaimed as the the king of the Jews as the Messiah who is now coming down to the bottom and acting as a servant to wash his disciples feet so then we move on to the next icon which is the icon of the mystical supper now here again we have to understand that this is happening on the same evening as the washing of the feet and now Christ takes up again his position as the head of the table as the head of the family as the one who is giving the food to the disciples who is giving his body who is giving his blood and so he is giving his body and his blood in a manner of authority where he is he is telling the disciples here is how it’s going to be I’m giving you my bread and my body for you to commune in and he’s doing it in a position of authority but of course we know we know what’s coming we know that that actual giving of the body and blood of Christ will happen on the cross where Christ will be treated as a criminal will be will be treated as the lowest of the low will be stripped naked and beaten and put on this cross and so once again the extremes are being seen in that very scene and you also have to understand that you can imagine that Christ washes the disciples feet and when he washed the disciples feet although it is not said explicitly in the text it is implied that all the the Apostles were there and that includes Judas and so Christ washed Judas’s feet and then during the the mystical supper during the during that evening he then tells Judas to go and do what he has to do and he also does it you know in giving him a piece of bread or sometimes it’s also Judas who reaches and takes a piece of bread so but you can see like I said the extremes who just repeat themselves over and over so then of course we then come to Holy Thursday we come to the actual crucifixion of Christ holy Thursday in the evening which is already Holy Friday that’s another complicated issue but it’s fine you can understand that we now come to the crucifixion and so now we see where all of this has led to where all of this has come to which is this image which is the image in which all is accomplished and it is the image of Christ at the cross and so in this image of Christ we see all the extremes coming together and so once again the extreme of him being tortured like a criminal on a strip naked and tortured publicly on this cross but then just like when he was beaten he had on his head the crown of thorns now again we put on his head or above his head we put a sign which says Jesus Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews and in the Orthodox tradition iconographic traditions often people will write Jesus Christ king of glory or just the king of glory and so this idea to try to make it this image into a cosmic image to make it to say that yes of course Christ is the king of the Jews but what’s happening here at the crucifixion is a cosmic event and he is becoming in this moment of extremes which are smashing together in one moment these the highest and the lowest coming together in this moment he is resolving all the opposites and it is a cosmic event of course the cosmic event is shown not only with Christ on the cross but it is also shown by images of the Sun and the moon which appear on the icon of the crucifixion we often see sometimes they’re made they’re figurative sometimes it’s a it’s a two characters usually one blue one red and they’re hiding themselves from the event sometimes they’re more abstract just shapes of the Sun and the moon and sadly for people for some strange insane reason have been asking me about this image and thinking that it is UFOs which are represented in this in this instance it is not UFOs it is the Sun and the moon this is just a universal Christian image which has been there forever and so don’t give up with the conspiracy theories okay and so here we have Christ extending his hands out and the Sun and the moon are there inside and so as he extends his hands out and and contains let’s say all the opposites he’s also containing all of the cosmos within that moment he is spreading his hands out to stretch out to the ends of the world is a way to understand it and so being stretched out on the cross is a moment of death it’s a moment of torture but it is also a moment where he’s filling up the hierarchy both the vertical and the horizontal hierarchy filling it up completely with the divine logos and that of course again is in this this paradox of reality you know that we’re seeing on the cross now from that moment of the crucifixion what we start to see is there’s a few more icons which come after the crucifixion and many of those icons are already contained within the image of the crucifixion so let me explain what I mean at the bottom of the cross you see there is a cave or the earth is splitting and in that cave you see a skull that skull is the skull of it is the skull of man it is dead man it is the the man who has been taken by the curse of death and you see Christ’s blood which is pouring down on his on his legs on the cross and which is often you see it you don’t always see the blood but in some images you see the blood is pouring down onto the skull of Adam and so this of course has all to do with the fact that Christ the the place where Christ was crucified it’s called Golgotha which is the place of the skull and then in the tradition it becomes a strange compression of many things where the Golgotha the place of the skull is recognized in some traditions to be the place of burial where Adam was buried in other traditions it comes to be the place of paradise itself you know the the place of the tree of life all of this kind of comes together where the cross becomes the tree of life but also becomes the place where Adam died the two extremes smash together we end Christ enters into paradise on that in that moment but also goes to the end of death at the same time those two things are happening at once and the image of the blood coming on to the skull of Adam is showing us something which is happening in in another icon which is the icon of the resurrection or the icon of the Anastasis the icon of the resurrection is actually not an image of the resurrection proper it is an image of what we call the descent into Hades and so as Christ descends into death you see him now entering this cave it is the very cave that you saw under the cross and what’s happening there under the cross is now shown explicitly you know what is happening on the cross when Christ is dying and we see Christ going down into death and there he goes and he grabs Adam and he grabs Eve he grabs the first people to to show us that it’s all of us right it’s all men who are you know in that let’s say in Adam’s womb we could say the way that that the Bible talks about being in the womb of Abraham in the in the not the womb sorry the bosom of Abraham so in the bosom of Adam we are all contained in the bosom of Adam and so Christ is pulling out Adam and Eve out of death and we see in the image the the the breaking of the doors of hell you see those doors underneath Christ’s feet you see also usually there’s Hades who’s down there in the dark place who is chained and held sometimes that’s Hades and the devil as well and Satan who are both chained up down at the bottom of hell and then you also see bits and pieces of iron and so these bits and pieces of iron are actually let’s say pieces of the door that is pieces of the locks and pieces of the of the hinges of the door of hell and you might think well that’s a very strange kind of random thing to it’s important because what it shows is that that this dark space of death is the space we talk about it is the space of chaos it’s a space where things stop having meaning and so so having these bits and pieces of iron that are broken and have no recognizable are not recognizable anymore or barely recognizable or are broken or are fragmentary this is all related to the symbolism of death itself which is this fragmentation you know this breaking a part of meaning the decomposition all of that is shown by by you know in the image of showing these bits and pieces of doors and locks and pins that are flying out you know from this flying out from this this moment of the resurrection and so so what like I said what’s important to understand is that this image is already there in the image of the crucifixion when you look at the image of the crucifixion what you see down at the bottom of the cross is already the image of the Anastasis it’s as if the image of the Anastasis is inside the crucifixion and then we’re kind of we’re kind of going in and opening it up so that we see what’s behind the crucifixion what’s behind the crucifixion is this glorious moment where Christ is pulling Adam and Eve out of the out of death and so the other the other image also of Holy Saturday which is the older image actually of the resurrection is not once again the image of the resurrection interestingly enough in Orthodox iconography tradition ancient Orthodox iconography people did not show the actual resurrection because it’s not described in the Bible and so we don’t have an image of you know Christ coming out of his you know coming out of his grave what we have is this imagistic image of Christ in death saving Adam and Eve from from Hades and then we also had this other image which is the angel who is showing the women who come to the tomb of Christ he is showing the women the empty tomb and if you look at the empty tomb you see a lot of the things that I talked about first of all you see this cave this this opening in the ground which is the same opening that we had in this the icon of the Anastasis and is the same opening that we had in the image of the crucifixion but it’s also an other opening it’s also the same opening that we had in the icon of the birth of Christ if you look at the icon of the birth of Christ you see Christ lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes and the way that we represent the manger is very similar to the manner in which we then represent the tomb of Christ and now here are these same swaddling clothes here are these here is this linen which was Christ was wrapped in and it is empty and so it it connects us the end to the beginning and it also shows us that this was the purpose from the start that the entering of Christ in the entering of the logos into creation was already a dying you would say it was already a dying but at the same time like I said a full filling up death with light filling up death with life those two those two contradictions at the same time and so as you can see the images which are chosen for Holy Week there’s also of course the image of some of them that I didn’t show which are the the the taking down of Christ from the cross and also the burial of Christ where we see Christ laying down on on the tomb and that image is extremely important as well because it shows us the the relationship as Christ is shown lying down this is a little more complicated for people to understand but in iconography and in imagery to show someone lying down is not random it is meaningful to show someone lying down is to show them dead or asleep because that’s when you lie down and so to have have him lying down is also pointing to this mystery where on the cross you saw him up standing up and filling up the hierarchy now lying down and coming down into death it also connects the the image of Christ laying down sleeping dead to the image of the of what’s happening at the same time secretly inside so you see him lying down on the on the grave but then in the Anastasis image you see him standing up glorious and often he’s holding his cross in his hand in the image of the resurrection to say here’s the tool of my of my torture and my death and now it has become for me a banner of victory a weapon of victory and so he holds his his cross in his hands like he would hold a banner or he would hold a sword or something like that to show these extremes this contrast coming together and so what’s important to understand of course when I talk about these extremes is not just the extreme because Christianity is obviously not a religion of dualism is not a religion of duality it I mean it is in a certain manner a religion of duality but a duality which comes to be united united without confusion and so does not become a joining together the opposites does not become a kind of of chaotic mush you know of nonsense but rather it is a you a perfect union of opposites a perfect union of diversity into unity which preserves the multiplicity and preserves even the duality we say that Christ is both perfectly God and perfectly man united you know without mixture and perfect distinction between his two natures it’s like it’s so strange to that Christians insisted so much on those definitions and it is really this is really the secret and you can see it in the story of Holy Week where it is the fact that those two extremes are to are there and are brought together without negating the extremes but but that that’s how the world exists you know and this is really the mystery of how the world exists which is that unity and duality unity and multiplicity need to coexist I need to exist in a manner which does not dissolve one or the other and so I hope this little explication of the icons of Holy Week have been helpful for those of you who are celebrating are in Holy Week this week and are moving towards Easter this Saturday this Sunday I want to I wish you a blessed Easter and I wish you all the best and for those of us who are going to celebrate next week as well I wish you a you know a a fruitful Holy Week and hopefully we can move beyond you know the the news and beyond all the things that are pulling us apart I myself during this period of Lent has I found this period of Lent extremely difficult feel like I’ve been on a rollercoaster of being pulled apart and so I I ask I ask God that this Holy Week I can find a find the the peace that he that he brings us at Pascha and so thanks again everybody and I will see you soon