T-O Map

One of the very early types of spiritual map, attempting to show the layout of the Egg, was called a T-O map.  The following is just such a map and shows a three part division of the egg.

Mappa Mundi in Jean Mansel la Fleur  de les Histoires.

 The spiritual nature of the map can be clearly seen by the use of the mountain at top centre [with the Ark on it] , the use of the Water Element, the Air and then the ring of Fire before the stars are seen.

This is thus a symbolic mapping, an attempt to show the layout overlaid by spiritual objects [ark, mountain,  island and so on].

The mapping is a reversal of the egg [the inside out view] done to ease representation. 

In some maps where no naming of the islands is used the representation can simply be of the three parts are the Trinity - the Creator,  Created and ‘Implemented’ – soul cones.

But there can be a different interpretation if the areas are named as though they are continents.

All the above are T-O maps and their extremely simplistic notation should show them to be symbolic.  On one the Orient is clearly marked – most maps having the ‘East’ at the top marked as the orient are spiritual.  All show soul allocation.

T-O Map and ‘the children of God’

Once Darwin had appeared to say we were all descended from apes, science has been bent on trying to find where the ape originated.  The ‘physical’, mis-interpreted evolutionary view, neither proposed by Wallace or Darwin, states that every version of man must have evolved on earth from a previous version and there was some ‘accidental’ genetic twist of fate [a number in fact] which gradually evolved an ape into man.  

But the more mystic theory is that a number of different versions of man were placed by the Intelligences geographically apart, separated by seas and mountains on continents that were distinct, in order to test them out and see how they did.  They were given equal but different characteristics suited to the environments they were in, but intellectually they were the same. 

And the three main groupings were ‘Europe’, ‘Africa’ and ‘Asia’.  Man didn’t travel all the way from Africa to Finland and turn blue eyed and white on the way by a miraculous series of genetic mutations, the people of ‘Europe’ were given blue or green eyes, fair [or red] hair and a fair skin, by the Intelligences, because they were destined for a very cold part of the planet, with low light levels and only weak sunlight.  In contrast, those destined for an area with considerable sun were given pigmented skin to stop them burning and darker eyes to protect them from glare.  The distinctive ‘almond’ shape eyes of those from the east is to protect the eyes from glare in a region which gets sun, but because of the height is not as hot.

There is no racist intention in the mystic view, it is simply a theory based on the unity and diversity that was known to exist.   It is possible that when this theory was first expounded millennia ago, the different versions of man were far more distinct.

The T-O map is then a simple representation of this, showing relative placings both in the Egg and the planet. 

As we know now, man travelled and inter-married/inter-bred and as a consequence we have a very diverse range of people now, but they met because those from the north travelled south, those from the east travelled west, and those from the south travelled north, sometimes because they were nomadic and roamed by nature, sometimes because their land was flooded or their land disappeared under ice and they had to move, and sometimes for trade.

It is important to note that in T-O Maps ‘America’ is not shown, it may not have been known.

The link with the orb

Below is the use of the T-O Map on a Tarot card combining the symbol for an orb and cross, eagle, sceptre and crown.

Observations

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• Ancient Egyptian - The symbolism of the scarab
• Ancient Egyptian - The symbolism of the stag beetle
• Dante - Paradiso - Mars, Courage and bravery
• Delos - 10 T-O Map
• Hugh Brody – Maps and Dreams - Mapping the Egg
• Isidore of Seville - Etymologiae
• Lambeth Palace or Reading world map
• Malta - 06 Tarxien Temples
• Malta - 10 Ħaġar Qim
• Mapa Mondi Figura Mondi, 1442 - world map by Giovanni Leardo (oriented with East at the top)
• Mircea Eliade - On Drum Maps and Drumming
• Pauli, Wolfgang - Dream of 23rd January 1938
• Rudimentum Noviciorum
• Sacred geography – Picts – Citadels 01 – Mither Tap
• Tepe Sasanian Gur
• The Psalter Map, British Library Additional Ms 28681, f.9 recto. Circa 1260
• The Saami - A Cultural Encyclopaedia - The Power of the Drum
• The Saint-Sever Beatus world map, made at the Abbey of St. Sever in about 1050
• Various symbolic objects - Babylonian World map