In This Meaningful Delay…

In This Meaningful Delay…
By: Shirin D. Daghighian

Published in Farsi in July 2, 2009

Iran Emrooz www.iran-emrooz.net
Iranian National Front www.jebhemelli.net


Two thousand years ago Romans killed and crucified many people in occupied lands. Everywhere, they tyrannized those, who were defending their own human dignity.

Throughout that dark age, when people were armless, the mystical symbol was a set of bow and arrow!

Being under the harsh persecution of Romans, the spiritual leaders of the time chose the icon of bow and arrow to depict their mission. Which interpretation did lead them to choose an instrument of war and hunting as their symbol? How did they reconcile such an icon with their firm avoidance of using killing instruments, as well as with their conviction that God is the One who bestows and takes the human soul?

Philip S. Berg deciphers the code of this symbolism:

“This ancient weapon is based on the paradox that the deadly arrow must first be pulled back toward one’s own heart in order to strike the heart of the enemy and the more it is drawn toward oneself, the more distant a foe it can reach. To gather strength, the weapon must first be drawn inward… But not everything in life is obvious. What of the hidden mysteries, the divine essence of reality? Here we must delve into ourselves, pull inward toward our heart, as the arrow is pulled, to the very core of the soul…” (Education of A Kabbalist, 2000, P43)

One can find a striking similarity between the mystical implication of bow and arrow and the non-violent civil rights movement in Iran that has provoked an extraordinary climate of spiritual revival. Along the meaningful delay of the Iranians’ bow in the aftermath of the 2009 election, a huge victory has already been embraced: A people who are not merely living, but feel alive; generous hands being extended toward the destitute with no sense of arrogance; men seeing women in a different light and as their brave protectors rather than inferiors; rooftops in a nocturnal dialogue with each other on the concept of ‘neighbor’*; Iranian people having become an icon of human dignity and of the honesty of armless hands in the eyes of the entire humanity; the bow of Arash** flying to redefine the borders of human rights; and thirty birds, ‘si morgh’***, who reflect the face of legendary eagle, ‘Simorgh’, in the cosmic mirror.

And, the Iranians’ bow will certainly strike false deities when pulled back toward the heart…

July 1, 2009
Los Angeles

Notes:

Every night, as a sign of solidarity with the civil right movement, Iranians chant, “ God is the greatest” from their rooftops.
According to a Persian mythology, Arash, a simple peasant/artisan, defined the borders of Iran by the extraordinary flight of his arrow. He saved people from tyrant conquerors, but his soul departed after he pulled the bow so intensely.
Based on the narrative of “ Mantegh Al Teyr” (The Language of Birds) by the famous Persian mystical poet, Atar Neishabouri (14 A.C.), a group of birds started a spiritual journey to reach the seventh city of Heaven, ‘city of love’, to join the legendary eagle. Out of thousand participants of this journey, only thirty birds reached the seventh city. There, they found no eagle; instead, they saw a mirror reflecting their images in likeliness of the legendary eagle. The Farsi equivalent of ‘thirty bird’ is ‘si morgh’, and the legendary eagle is called ‘Simorgh’. The similarity of these two expressions alludes to the connectedness of human souls and oneness with God.
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