Word of the Day: Cæsura

I have come not to bury Cæsar; indeed, I have not come to blog about him at all. But it is inevitable that those who see the word cæsura are likely to think of the word cæsar (or caesar).

A cæsura or caesura is a lapse; a discontinuity or interruption in the natural fabric of things. For example, if you had a bunch of good rulers, and then a backstabbing liar with megalomania and some paranoid delusions, followed by another bunch of good rulers, then you'd have to call that unusual fellow a cæsura in the tapestry.

The word is equivalent what we'd now call 'a glitch', perhaps. In fact, it comes from the Latin caedere: to end, to cut down or cut off, to break down the continuity of something.

But back to Caesar, who must still be on your mind as a lapse of sorts.

I remember once using the time-honoured phrase, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's." That, of course, is taken from the 22nd chapter of St Matthew's gospel, and compares secular authority to the Divine.

A modern would-be Stalin I know took grave offence at this. He thought that when I said it, I meant him. I laughed when I said, "No sir, you are not Caesar."

Five years later, he tried to prove me wrong. He set up crude imitations of the abomination of desolation in the courts of the righteous, the emblems of Zeus — one black, one white — according to the ancient rites.

As any student of the classics should know, the eagle is the symbol of a rapacious Zeus, the divine abuser of authority who struck at Ganymede. Neither of the eagles in the courts of the Citadel is a soaring eagle; rather, one stoops to strike and the other sits in self-satisfaction, its rump too heavy to fly.

The time in which these abominations was set up is indeed a caesura in the history of the faithful. May it end soon, and may the symbols of a malicious power be removed as soon as possible.

Eagles Of Light And Darkness

Perhaps you walk around your housing estate, in a country where large raptors are rare and hawkers are more common than hawks. And then you come across a banner, a poster, a statue, an image... of an eagle. What does it symbolise? What might it mean to you?

Politically, the eagle has always symbolised great secular power - the imperial might displayed beneath an eagle's image has been the standard of Babylon, Assyria, Rome, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the United States of America. In religion, the eagle has represented Zeus, Mithras, Apollo and other gods of the heavens. The abomination raised in the gates of the Temple at Jerusalem by Herod the Great was a Roman eagle, emblem of Jupiter. The eagle is a mighty totem of many shamanistic cultures.

The two-headed eagle is particularly potent in this regard, symbolising dualism, military might and omniscience, force and violence. The eagle is the foremost of all heraldic avians. A quick look at pages such as this will tell you why. It was also a powerful alchemical symbol.

Is the eagle then always an emblem of the malefic, the secular, the pagan? No. Not always. The eagle in flight symbolises many good things. When the Bible speaks of eagles' wings, there is no doubt that it speaks of the enlightenment, encouragement and invigoration that comes from God. It is the image of heavenward flight that links the flying eagle to the Holy Spirit and to that most theological of writers, St John of the Apocalypse. In fact, it is entirely clear that the single eagle in flight is an emblem of salvation, hope, inspiration and all things good.

Two eagles which aren't a double-headed eagle are problematic. We might leave that for another post.