Handloom Fabric from India, 1979

 

What is a metaphysical pot? Years ago in India my husband bought a piece of handloom cloth with a decorative motif showing the gods sitting together, while one of them, apparently a potter, threw humans from clay as little pots on a wheel. On another trip I witnessed a Hindu cremation in India. Just before the pyre was lit, a large terra cotta jug filled with water was carried to the site. Then a small hole was knocked in the bottom of the jug, letting the water flow out as the jug was carried around the deceased, circumambulating the pyre, symbolizing the process of the soul leaving the body. These connections between clay and the pot form and notions of creation and transcendence are ancient. In Sumeria and Mohenjodaro, these motifs connecting clay with creation are common, and of course in the Old Testament, in Genesis, it says, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul," (Genesis 2: 7) The Sufi poet, Hafiz, connects both the themes of creation and transcendence when he writes,

"Last night I saw the angels knocking at the tavern door;
they kneaded Adam's clay with wine, and cast it as a cup.

The dwellers in veiled holiness, the purest archangels,
proceeded to serve vagrant me intoxicating wine."

Hafiz (Ghani-Qazvini, no. 184, trans. C.W.Ernst)

In other words, the angels combine the wine of the soul's divine intoxication with Adam's clay, or creation. It is the combination of these two elements—the soul and its divine longing, and the vehicle of the body—that propels the soul toward trancendence. Then, continuing the verse, the angels form the clay and wine into a cup in which they serve wine to a drunken and vagrant Hafiz.

Another similar idea is found in a divine saying (hadith qudsi) of the Prophet Muhammad:

"God said, 'I kneaded the clay of Adam for 40 days".

Traditionally, 40 days is important because it is the time needed to accomplish perfection of consciousness using certain meditative rituals.

Using the form of the pot to focus on the dual themes of the Water of Life, or the source of creation, running out and into the Infinite Ocean, or the goal of mystical transcendence, I like to think that I'm continuing this ancient symbology. The water is at once both inside of the pot as well as outside, showing the continuous process of creation and transcendence. In my "A Well of Living Waters", I extend the image to include the notion of fertility and the feminine as it connects with creation. The title comes from a line in the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) in the Old Testament (Song of Songs 4: 15). The two pieces titled "In the Reed Bed" (1 and 2) add the notion of longing, referring to Rumi's image of the reed lamenting its abrupt removal from the reed bed, symbolizing the primordial longing of the soul to be united with our origins, at one with the Creator. A number of different translations of this poem by Rumi can be found at dar-al-masnavi.org. "In the Reed Bed 2" was started in December of 2007 (finished in late February of 2008) as a commemorative piece marking the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth.

Shouldn't every household have a metaphysical pot to provide those living there an orienting spiritual perspective?