SINGYO: THE SPIRIT TEACHINGS

Singyo or Spirit Teaching refers to the teachings from God. Singyo was the oldest religion in the world. As simple as it sounds, Singyo is a very deep concept with a lot of to learn about it.

Ahn Gyeong - jeon seonsaengnim, the annotator of the book 'Hwandan Gogi', said that Singyo can be translated as 'spirit teachings' or 'teachings from God'. Singyo was the world's earliest religion and the most important force in shaping the world's first civilization. The people of Hwanguk, who expressed their original qualities of purity and illumination, freely accessed the spirit world. They established their civilization through divine guidance that had been revealed to them.'

So, through this part of the book we can see that the people in the ancient times, the era of spirit teachings, were all able to access the spirit world and were able to have communion with the spirits because their soul was so pure and they were spiritually enlightened.

Ariel Golan is a scholar and researcher who has deeply researched about the archaeological symbols and iconography in the ancient times. In his book 'Myth and Symbol: Symbolism in Prehistoric Religions', he said that all the designs analysed are symbols, or more specifically, conventional graphic representations of religious notions. By deciphering these symbols, it has become possible to reconstruct the long forgotten religion, which first took shape during the Paleolithic Age, some 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, and reached its highest development among Neolithic farming tribes of Southeastern Europe and Western Asia, in the 10th - 4th millennia BC.

 

From here on, we will discuss about these ancient archaeological symbols and iconographies and their relation with Singyo. The whole discussion will be divided into various sub-topics. Our first topic is-

 

Singyo and its iconography - ORIGINAL CROSS OR EQUILATERAL CROSS

Equilateral cross is the cross having 4 sides. In his book 'Myth and Symbols', Ariel Golan also said that in the Byzantine Empire, the territory where Christianity took shape, the equal armed cross was the emblem of Christianity. It was not until the 6th century that the cross of crucification became the honorary emblem of Christianity. So, before that time, in the early stage of human civilization, the equilateral cross or the original cross was the emblem widely and commonly used in ancient times to indicate some metaphysical meaning.

 

Indeed, the cult image of crucification appeared only in the fifth century, a few years after this manner of execution was abolished, and it was not until the end of the sixth century that it was established as the venerated Christian emblem.(from ‘Myth and Symbols’)

The images of the cross shown above are around 4000 - 5000 years old, which means that people in ancient times were already using this equilateral cross and were having many diverse metaphysical and phylosophical meanings.

Baltic region refers to the countries like Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia; near the Baltic sea in Norther Europe. So, these patterns are from 5000 years ago and were inscribed on earthernware. So, Ariel Golan said that the earth was symbolised as a cross and the heaven was symobolised as a circle.

Also, very interestingly, when you take a look at the circle in the upper side, it has 12 teeth inside, along the circumference of the circle, so maybe, the ancient people already had the concept of 12 months or cyclic change of year at that only time (we are not so sure). But the concept of 12 months was first introduced in the age of Sumer, in the Sumerian civilization. It was about 4000 - 5000 years ago (we know that), so it is very probable.

So, we can see a cross and a circle combined together in one pattern. This pattern has four arcs and four corners. When we align and connect the corners one by one, they form the shape of a square. So, this square or the cross symbolises earth and the round form or the circle symbolises heaven. This iconography, a combination of heaven and earth together in one design, was very common in ancient times.

 

To conclude, heaven was symbolised in the form of a circle and earth was symbolised in the form of a square, because heaven has the power of circulation. The sun and moon rise and settle down everyday and day and night indefinitely repeat again and again. So, heaven shows us infinite circulation of everything. And also, heaven was maybe seen as something possessing supernatural or divine powers to allow sun and moon to circulate and repeat the cyclic process; whereas, the earth is symbolised as a square, because we have four directions and four seasons. 

The annotator of the book 'Hwandan Gogi', Ahn Gyeong - jeon, said that the cross is a symbol that represents: peace and bliss; oneness with the divine parents and their life forces; and the divinity of God, nature and human beings. The cross symbol is associated with Asian cosmological symbolism involving the four cardinal points - north, east, southand west.

 

So, the conclusion from the ancient times, the people of golden age, is that, they have the metaphysical concept about heaven and earth and they somehow knew about the unchanging principle happening in heaven and earth.

 

Then we can ask, are there some evidences that we can see this iconography of ancient times unfold in artifacts or historical sites. The answer is YES!

First, let us take a look at the Chamseongdan Altar at the top of Mt. Manisan, located in the Ganghwa Island, South Korea.

 

So, this altar, the Chamseongdan Altar, is located at the top of the mountain and according to the accounts of the 'Hwandan Gogi', it was established 4200 years ago. The first ruler of Kojo-san or ancient Joseon, ordered one of his royal officials to construct this altar at the top of the Manisan Mountain and to this day, every year, on October 3rd, the torch lightening ceremony for the national sports game is held here, on the top of the mountain.

So, interestingly, this Chamseongdan Altar has two different platforms. The lower platform is shaped like a circle and the upper platform is shaped like a square. So here, square on the upper platform is the symbol of mother earth, and circle on the lower platform symbolises father heaven. So, Korean ancestors also had this concept of heaven circle and earth square.

Also this concept of heaven circle and earth square were existent in the Hongshan culture about 5600 years ago. The Hongshan culture existed at the same time with the Baedal state. The Baedal state was the first nation of the Korean people.

One of the most famous archaeological sites of the Hongshan culture is the site of Niuheliang, and in the Niuheliang archaeological sites, the scholars and historians excavated temple, altar and burial cairn.

Surprisingly, the burial cairn was in the shape of a square and the altar was in the shape of a circle. The altar is a place where people gather to have a ritual to heaven, therefore, the altar resembles the shape of a circle, because it has to symbolise heaven. And the burial cairn is a place where they bury the deceased. They buried the deceased underground, so, they made this cairn in the shape of a square symbolising the earth.

 

So, the people in the Hongshan culture also had the same metaphysical concept about the heaven and earth, which is very identical to the ones that the Middle East and the North European people had in ancient times, even 7000 years ago.

 

Here is one more example -

Borobudur Buddhist Temple, Indonesia, 800CE.

This is the Buddhist Temple from Indonesia. It was built around 800 CE. This is a very magnificent and beautiful temple. When you look at the foundation of the temple, it is in the shape of a square, symbolising the earth. And the top of the temple seems to be resembling the shape of a circle. So, the top of the temple is constructed with a three tiered pedestal (there are three foundations at the top of the temple in a round shape). So, maybe the circle shape at the top of the temple and the square shape at the base of the temple signify the symbolic meaning that all human beings have to illuminate their mind and and emulate the mindset of heaven or the divine, that is full of mercy and compassion, also emulate the mindset of faith, that is orderly and upright or righteous. So, this temple gives us the symbolic meaning that all of us have to emulate the mindset of heaven and earth.

In the next topic, we will discuss about

Singyo and its iconography - SAMSIN or TRIUNE SPIRIT. 

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