Carpets and the kingdom of heaven - Part 2
Carpets with focus on body
In order to find the ultimate bliss of enlightenment you need a healthy and strong body. From ancient times the Persians were trying to find the golden key to produce strong and healthy offspring and also to enhance their health with spices, herbs and traditional medicines and also, through their alchemists, the way to eternal life.
All the traditionalists and philosophers and alchemists of Persia throughout history, in order to achieve all these goals, focused on the birth place of a child. They secretly accumulated all their wisdom and knowledge in figurative forms and motifs to resemble the womb and its relation to the Mother Goddesses, eg. Anahita (the Mother Earth, the Goddess of Fertility and Birth) or Nahid (the Wife, the Sister, Mother of God). In all Semitic religions in the beginning there was the concept of God the Mother or the Wife of God. This feminine concept is the most influential elements of the body. The focus on the mother of a child and her health and strength was of utmost importance in ancient Persia. In Persian philosophy the womb is the holiest place and resembles the Earth that is the body of Cosmos. The concept of yoni is one of the main figures that shows itself either as a medallion in the middle of the carpet or a flower or sometimes as a boteh (teardrop) design. This womb or Earth, has the seed of life that if nurtured correctly passes through different phases of life to blossom and become the flower of life and later the tree of life. Usually this seed of life, or cosmic egg, needs to be protected by guardians, but the carpets that resembles the womb is the early stage of life which is focused on the body. The colour choices of these carpets correlate with the lower vibration of the womb that are the warmer colours, in this case, red and orange which is the Fire element and the oven of life which through heat and fermentation evolve into a new stage of life. These carpets are produced subconsciously to improve and heal the root chakra which is the lowest vibration of the colour spectrum. The relationship of any man with the mother, Mother Goddess and Divine Feminine Energy is critical in the development of the psyche and spiritual growth
In Part 3 I will move to carpets with focus on spirit.