|
The Symbolic
wealth of the “Khatchkars” (Stone Crosses)
 An
encounter with “Khatchkars” is an outstanding event
that will leave its mark forever on the sensitive
mind open to every aspect of the sacred. Indeed,
one can be fascinated by their elaborate and sometimes
unusual ornaments as well as by their solemn bearing.
The
term “Khatchkar”, is composed of two words, “khatch”
meaning cross and “kar” meaning stone which refers
to big slabs of stone bearing a flat cross embossed
in their mass. These, standing flat on the ground
or on bases, isolated or lined up in groups of two
or more, offer an impressive sight.
From
the Xth century onwards, an epitaph with the date
of the sculpture, the name of the artist, the circumstances
motivating its creation and other precious details
to any historian has been inscribed in the back
of these stones. They are always westward
oriented so that any onlooker has to face east to
see them.
The motives around the cross are
not decorations, but symbols related to the message
transmitted through the slab.
The “Medz-Mazra
Khatchkar” (881) has all the typical symbols
of ancient Armenian crosses, i.e. the cross, the
number eight, solar discs, boughs, and leaves, pine
cones or palm nuts and the pyramid.
The
Cross
The cross is one of the oldest universal
signs used since the dawn of time with an unequivocal
meaning. No matter what shape has been given to
it by different civilisations; it remains the symbol
of life, of the dynamics of the world that we see.
Eight
The
extremities of the Armenian cross are indented in
order to obtain a cross with eight points. Eight
represents Christ the Redeemer. It is reckoned as
a symbol of revival, the glory of Christ, the “Logos”
through which “all is and without which nothing
can be”. Eight and its multiples have a great
importance in the architecture of the Armenian Church.
According to the “Machdots”, the church has
to be built on 16 pillars consecrated to the 12
apostles and 4 evangelists. An octagonal dome is
raised on top of the Armenian Church and that is
what distinguishes it from the neighbouring Greek
churches and Moslem mosques. Eight being the number
of Christ, the cross with eight points represents
Him: the symbols around the cross figure the essential
characteristics of Christ the invisible.
Solar
discs
The eight extremities of Armenian
crosses terminate with solar discs. The circle,
a line without beginning or end is the symbol of
infinity, and therefore of divinity, more so when
it’s centre is marked with a point. It is also the
image of the sun and, as such, it embodies the symbolic
value of the light of Christianity. In the Armenian
Church, this important symbol is emphasised during
the morning service.
“O Light born of the light, sun
of righteousness, ineffable generation, Son
of
the Father…
O Light, fountain of goodness, procession
from the Father,
Holy Spirit of God…
O Light,
indivisible Holy Trinity, we, born of the earth,
glorify thee
Always together with the heavenly…
Shine
forth upon our souls thine intelligible Light
At
the rising of the light of the morning.”
The
solar discs remind us that Christ is pure light
incarnated. The cross becomes the icon of Christ-Light.
Life
The
boughs placed at each side of the cross at its base
and the fruits hanging at its top evoke inevitably
the image of a tree. At the start, it was
thought to be the tree of life. But, the Life that
Christ promises has neither beginning nor end. It
is a conscience that pervades a reality lying beyond
the perception of human faculties and is not affected
by their destruction. It is that life that is illustrated
by the boughs, those symbols of vitality and renewal
that dash forward from the basis of the cross. And
the two pine cones or palm nuts at the top, symbols
of eternity, state that whoever tastes those fruits
will not know death. Those crosses do not
represent trees of life but make us meet the token
of Christ himself:
“I am the Way” that will
lead you to the Intelligible Father
“I am the Truth” that is the divine
Reality
“I am the Life” the Being itself,
the one that belongs to eternity.
The
mountain
From the very beginning,
the icon-crosses of the overt Word have been set
on a pyramid rising in tiers. Like the physical
mountain, the inner mountain is an invitation to
rise above the world below. These sober crosses
recall that it is up there, at the end of the ascension
that the “ultimate mystery of the soul and God will
be indescribably revealed” amidst the wonder of
the dazzling light.
The “archaic” khatchkars
have revealed to us their true identity as icons,
not of Jesus mortal, but of Jesus Alive, born from
the Alive. Armenians did not adore these singular
engraved crosses, but the radiant and enlivening
Principle of which they were only the image, and
which their distant Aryan ancestors called “Astuats”,
“Light in itself”, the name that designates God
today.
How wonderful that a few signs engraved
in a stone can have the power to illustrate such
a mysterious reality.
|
