12-06-2020, 11:43 PM
Often the Cross is also described as the Tree of Life since by Christ’s sacrifice as the ‘Lamb of God’ on the ‘tree’,+ Heaven was once more opened to the human race. Hence, the name of Christ, God and Lamb, the “name of Him who can do all things” on the Great Monarch’s black and white banner as described by St. John Bosco is also symbolically represented by the White Tree of Gondor set upon a black background, a figurative representative of the Tree of Life.
Yet, what about the seven stars? In the first chapter of the Apocalypse, we discover a direct correlation between Seven Stars, Seven Angels, and Seven Candlesticks representing Seven Churches before Christ the King, (Apoc. 1:20). These symbols represent both the Seven Archangels that stand before the heavenly throne of God and the seven principal bishops of that time, also called ‘messengers’ or ‘angels’ of God’s Kingdom on earth, a direct mystical image of Christ’s Eternal Kingdom in Heaven and the Church on earth. However, the Great Monarch to come is also represented in this symbol, for in accordance with the Divine Right of Kings his arrival on the earth will be a secular representation of Christ’s eventual return to earth. As Christ restored all, the Great Monarch will help the Church renew the face of the earth before the End Times. Hence, we also see a link between Aragorn and his title ‘the Renewer’ through his Faithful Númenorean ancestors symbolised by seven stars.
We cannot help but notice that ancient maps of our own ‘Middle Earth’ depict the Mediterranean Ocean as a ‘tau’ or T-shape, and Tolkien may also have been inspired by this mystic representation with regards to the White Tree of Gondor. St. Isidore of Seville (560-636 AD) provided one of the earliest depictions of the earth in Western civilization in his famous encyclopaedia Etymologiae ~ the T-O Map ~ the World Circle represented by the ‘O’ featuring Jerusalem in the centre of the earth, with Asia (the East) situated on top, Europe (North) on the left, and Africa (South) on the right, all separated by the Mediterranean ‘Middle Earth’ Ocean and the rivers Nile and the Don, these bodies of water marking the letter ‘T’ or sacred ‘tau’ in the lower section of the World Circle. The Mappa Mundis or World Maps of Europe were drawn according to St. Isidore’s mystic plan of the earth, that is until the discovery of the New World and north was placed on the top of cartographer’s maps. Curiously, the ‘T’ in these Mappa Mundis bear a rough resemblance to a tree. Of interest, the tau was used as a symbol of Christ’s cross, the ‘Saving Tree’ of mankind, and in the medieval period a tau-cross was a sign of renewal adopted by the Franciscans. When compared with the ‘Seven Stars’ of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse situated near the west coast of present day Turkey, we see the ‘stars’ are situated roughly in the middle of the tau-cross andfigurative ‘tree’ of the medieval Mediterranean Sea. In Lord of the Rings.
+ St. Peter described the cross as a ‘tree’ in Acts 10:39: “And we are witnesses of all things that he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed, hanging him upon a tree,” also in the First Epistle of St. Peter (2:24) “Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed.”
Yet, what about the seven stars? In the first chapter of the Apocalypse, we discover a direct correlation between Seven Stars, Seven Angels, and Seven Candlesticks representing Seven Churches before Christ the King, (Apoc. 1:20). These symbols represent both the Seven Archangels that stand before the heavenly throne of God and the seven principal bishops of that time, also called ‘messengers’ or ‘angels’ of God’s Kingdom on earth, a direct mystical image of Christ’s Eternal Kingdom in Heaven and the Church on earth. However, the Great Monarch to come is also represented in this symbol, for in accordance with the Divine Right of Kings his arrival on the earth will be a secular representation of Christ’s eventual return to earth. As Christ restored all, the Great Monarch will help the Church renew the face of the earth before the End Times. Hence, we also see a link between Aragorn and his title ‘the Renewer’ through his Faithful Númenorean ancestors symbolised by seven stars.
We cannot help but notice that ancient maps of our own ‘Middle Earth’ depict the Mediterranean Ocean as a ‘tau’ or T-shape, and Tolkien may also have been inspired by this mystic representation with regards to the White Tree of Gondor. St. Isidore of Seville (560-636 AD) provided one of the earliest depictions of the earth in Western civilization in his famous encyclopaedia Etymologiae ~ the T-O Map ~ the World Circle represented by the ‘O’ featuring Jerusalem in the centre of the earth, with Asia (the East) situated on top, Europe (North) on the left, and Africa (South) on the right, all separated by the Mediterranean ‘Middle Earth’ Ocean and the rivers Nile and the Don, these bodies of water marking the letter ‘T’ or sacred ‘tau’ in the lower section of the World Circle. The Mappa Mundis or World Maps of Europe were drawn according to St. Isidore’s mystic plan of the earth, that is until the discovery of the New World and north was placed on the top of cartographer’s maps. Curiously, the ‘T’ in these Mappa Mundis bear a rough resemblance to a tree. Of interest, the tau was used as a symbol of Christ’s cross, the ‘Saving Tree’ of mankind, and in the medieval period a tau-cross was a sign of renewal adopted by the Franciscans. When compared with the ‘Seven Stars’ of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse situated near the west coast of present day Turkey, we see the ‘stars’ are situated roughly in the middle of the tau-cross andfigurative ‘tree’ of the medieval Mediterranean Sea. In Lord of the Rings.
+ St. Peter described the cross as a ‘tree’ in Acts 10:39: “And we are witnesses of all things that he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed, hanging him upon a tree,” also in the First Epistle of St. Peter (2:24) “Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed.”