The Lantern, the Niche and the Olive Oil

July 2022

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis is often considered to contain allegorical themes of the death and resurrection of Jesus in Christianity. Although C. S. Lewis denied writing a Christian theological novel, he is said to have acknowledged that the themes might help some people to take Christianity into their lives. In this way, C. S. Lewis showed mastery in his use of literary devices of allegory and symbolism in storytelling, with a deep faith in the profound effect that later understandings and revelations of the deeper subtleties of hidden meanings within such allegories and symbolism may have.

Allegory, symbolism and storytelling is a communicative-thread that runs through all religions, spiritualities and philosophies, as seen in the the many paintings, frescos and sculptures on sacred buildings, as well as being contained within Holy scriptures of all religions, such as Hinduism's Bhagavad Gita, the Zen Buddhist Ox Herding Pictures, the Agam Sutras of Jainism, the Bahá'i stories of Abdul-Baha and the parables of Jesus. So, I was delighted to discover some Islamic allegorical symbolism contained within the very architectural structure of Mosques themselves - a symbolic allegory of 'the Lantern, the Niche and the Olive Oil' that tells of another kind of 'portal', not into a magical world of Narnia, but into another spiritual dimension of our ever-resurrecting 'eternal life'.

In Symbol of Divine Light, Nicholas Stone reveals that a Lantern/Lamp hanging in the centre of a niche in Islamic Mosques is symbolic of the Divine Light shining in the hearts of man. This symbolism is based on the famous Islamic 'Verse of Light' or Ayat al Nur in the Koran, which refers to a lamp in the niche as a symbol of the Divine Light and therefore much more than a purely functional accessory within the architecture of the mosque. In the Verse of Light God is referred to as Light, or Nur, as one of the sacred 99 names of God/Allah, describing a lamp in a niche as a symbol of the divine light in mankind: 'God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The symbol of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp, (the lamp is in a glass, and this glass is as it were a radiant star) kindled from a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would all but glow though fire touch it not; Light upon light. God guides to His Light whom he will and God cites symbols for men, and God is the Knower of all things'.

The Niche, or Mihrab, is symbolic of the Cave, the womb of Earth and of the Sensory World. Sufism, as the Mystical Tradition of Islam, (yet Sufism is also much broader than only the contours of Islamic mysticism) similarly teaches that the meaning of every sacred cave is the universe turned inwards, the secret world of the heart, the Sirrya, the abode of the True Self, which is illuminated by the Divine Sun of the Spirit. This links to Hinduism, too, where the 'cave of the heart' is a well-known traditional expression. The Sanskrit word, guha, generally designates a cave, but is also used to point to the internal cavity of the heart, in which the soul or atma is identical to, in the sense of being 'one with', the light of Brahman or God/Divinity.

The Divine Presence in the world, in the hearts of men and women, is compared to a light from a lamp placed in a niche. Nicholas Stone also highlights that the Islamic niche has also been compared with the prayer niches of the Virgin Mary in Christian Catholic Cathedrals and Churches, where the Virgin Mary represents the esoteric reality of the feminine divine wisdom and spirit, similar to Hinduism's feminine concept of Prakriti as the universal ineffable energy or essence of the primordial Spirit that is both virginal in purity and maternal as the ever-creating womb of all Life.

Within the niche, is a lamp with a burning flame. The niche symbolises an esoteric 'portal', (akin to the wardrobe into Narnia), of entering into the inner world of Light of the Soul and Spirit, from the material/physical world of the five senses.  Original lamps were made of glass symbolising the translucent nature of the soul. At the centre of the lamp is the flame of the lamp, fuelled by the oil, which historically came from the oil of olives from olive trees. This is why the olive tree has often been used as a sacred symbol for the Divine Spirit and found as a sacred symbol in classical art: the olive oil that symbolically fuels the flame of pure Spirit in the souls of men and women. The Lamp symbolises the light of God in the hearts of all. The Light of God is symbolically placed in the translucent glass of his/her psychic spirit or soul, which is placed in the physical niche of the heart. Therefore, the Lantern, the Niche and The Olive Oil is architecturally symbolic of the Body, Soul and Spirit, containing a deep esoteric spiritual meaning waiting to be ignited within our hearts and souls.

Whether we like the design of the new contemporary Unitarian Chalice or not, whether we see inspired in the new logo the flame of spirit in our souls, or merely a contemporary, corporate style of a logo more akin to that of a gas utility, perhaps we can look behind the contemporary image of the flame in the niched-out chalice and see into an ever deeper symbolism of the eternal flame of spirit kindled in the chalice-niche in the inner-altars of our own hearts, alongside the outer altars of our Chapels. Whichever artistically represented form of a Chalice you might prefer, in the words of Rabindranath Tagore: 'Let me light my lamp', says the star...'and never debate if it will help to remove the darkness'...'Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark'.

– Rev. Jenny Miller

First published in The Inquirer, Issue 8039, 9 July 2022 – www.inquirer.org.uk