the cosmic egg

"the ancient symbol of the orphic mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified cosmos as encircled by the fiery creative spirit. the egg also represents the soul of the philosopher; the serpent, the mysteries. at the time of initiation the shell is broken and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration." —the secret teachings of all ages by manly p. hall

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in the ancient greek orphic tradition, protogonos (first-born, primeval), also known as phanes (manifestor) or eros, is the first god hatched from the cosmic egg, which had a serpent wrapped around it. that primordial egg was believed to have come from chronos (time) and ananke (necessity) or nyx (night). like the sun, he was imagined to drive a chariot and be the source of light, but unlike the sun he was considered invisible, perhaps like the yolk inside an egg. in an orphic hymn “to protogonos,” he is called “ineffable, hidden and brilliant”, “forever in whirring motion.” in this tradition heaven and earth were believed to have been made of the two halves of the eggshell.

similarly, as cirlot notes in his dictionary of symbols, in hinduism brahma hatched from an egg; also in chinese belief the first humans sprung from an egg dropped by tien to float upon the waters. the egyptians were fascinated by the idea of “a secret animals growth [coming] about inside the closed shell” (cirlot). therefore they equalled the egg with the hidden, occult phenomena. earle de motte summarizes the role of the egg in hermopolitan cosmogenesis in this way in his egyptian religion and mysteries:

“… life in potentiality was the cosmic egg, laid on the primeval mound (the island) by the ‘great cackler’ (ibis, as thoth). ra … is said to have emerged from this egg and created all life.”

the great symbolist rene guenon also wrote on the world egg that it contains in seed all that the cosmos will contain in its fully manifested state, all that is essential to create life. ancient rituals of initiation placed the would-initiates in caves so that they can incubate and wait for a vision, which would bring them rebirth in the upper world “in the same way as the chick crawls out of the egg.” (quoted after the book of symbols by aras).

guenon adds that the world egg is the navel of the world, occupying its very centre and radiating life outwards, like the greek omphalos. in mysterium coniunctionis, jung quotes from the alchemical treatise turba philosophorum: “the sun-point is the germ of the egg, which is in the yolk, and that germ is set in motion by the hen’s warmth.” “the book of symbols” summarizes the egg meaning in this way:

“the egg is the mysterious ‘center’ around which unconscious energies move in spiral-like evolution, gradually bringing the vital substance to light.”

or, as it was put in theosophy, “within the egg, the universe is breathed out and breathed in.”

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In the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, there is a myth of the world being created from the fragments of an egg laid by a goldeneye on the knee of Ilmatar, goddess of the air:

One egg's lower half transformed
And became the earth below,
And its upper half transmuted
And became the sky above;
From the yolk the sun was made,
Light of day to shine upon us;
From the white the moon was formed,
Light of night to gleam above us;
All the colored brighter bits
Rose to be the stars of heaven
And the darker crumbs changed into
Clouds and cloudlets in the sky.

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Oh
light of the middle way,
enclosed in the egg,
embryonic,
full or ardor, oppressed.
Fully expectant,
dreamlike, awaiting lost memories.
As heavy as stone, hardened.
Molten, transparent.
Streaming bright, coiled on itself.
—Carl Jung; Red Book.

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