Mountain
centre, ascent, encounter
The sacred middle of the world and the hard climb toward the divine — where humans go to meet what is above them.
- Instances
- Meru (the cosmic mountain) · Olympus · Sinai · Fuji · 山
- The flip
- Encounter or obstruction, depending on whether you are climbing it or crossing it. Sinai, Olympus and Meru are where one goes to meet what is above; the same mass is the barrier a Chinese proverb sets a fool to shifting by hand, and the wilderness one is driven into rather than invited to.
Sources · 3
- documented Exodus 19 — the mountain as the appointed meeting place.
- documented Liezi, 湯問 — 愚公移山, the foolish old man who removed the mountains.
- traditional The cross-cultural pattern; the instances are attested individually.