Dear readers:
I now send you the second engraving of the sequence of four in total made by the Flemish artist Gérard Van Groeningen in 1573. This is the series of engravings encompassed under the title The Four Ways of Living on Earth.
Specifically, this engraving is entitled…
…CULTURA MUNDI
─’The Way of the World’─
Engraving No. 2
This work portrays, in this case, the identification of the social masses with money and, on this occasion, driven by greed and avarice.
In the foreground, we see a couple receiving bags of gold from an old man. This old man carries on his head the globe representative of the world. This is to indicate to us that, indeed, humanity, human beings, we greedily seek the riches of the three-dimensional world and are willing to dedicate our lives only to the pursuit of material things. This shows that our Consciousness, in its sleeping state, takes for something transcendental that which is perishable, fatuous, etc., such as money and material riches…
On one side of the aforementioned couple we see another woman who is also carrying a bag of gold in her left hand and is looking at a castle that can be seen in the distance. Mysteriously, this other woman also beholds an angel who is blowing a trumpet and wears a garment that shows many eyes. This is to caution us to open our eyes wide so that we do not fall defeated before greed. Many of us exchange our birthright for a bowl of lentils, especially when we try to tread a spiritual path. I have known people who swore at an altar that they would devote their entire lives to the search for their inner reality and, only after a few months, they left the rocky path precisely because they had found a job in the three-dimensional world that promised them a lot of money….. And I have seen this in both men and in women. It is very difficult to remain faithful to our Father who is in secret, because the world and its pleasures exert a spectacular fascination on our ─sleeping─ psyche .
The globe on the old man’s head has a cross on it. This is to tell us that even the Christian world is swallowed up by the greed of the Ego. The animal “I” does not respect anything or anyone.
Above the woman who makes up the couple in our engraving we see in Latin the word Avaritia, which is to be translated as ‘AVARICE’. Near the old man, specifically at his feet, appears another Latin word: Mundus, which means ‘WORLD’. Likewise, in the sky, near the trumpet sounded by the angel, appears the word Fama, meaning ‘FAME’. Certainly, people want to be famous, rich, avaricious, greedy, all of which belong to the continent of the ANIMAL EGO. The multitudes of our day only want to become famous in order to be admired, and therefore seek to surround themselves with money and the various riches of the material world.
At the feet of the woman who accompanies the couple, there can also be seen a Latin word that expresses Ambitio, which speaks to us of ‘AMBITION’. The process of the “I” is based on the “more”: more money, more property, more fame, etc., etc., etc. This is how ambition acts in human beings. Crimes are committed out of ambition, ideals are betrayed, families and empires are destroyed, etc., etc., etc.
In the background, the castle we see is on fire and we see a confrontation between people who are inside that dwelling and others who are outside. Both sides are at war, and this is to indicate that the paths of greed and ambition sooner or later lead to wars between the peoples of our world. Today, in our days, countries go to war moved by the ambition caused by the desire to take possession of the oil riches of various areas of our world, the greed for gold that lies hidden in certain places in our geography, the desire for precious stones that abound in certain lands located in certain areas of this or that country… All this has our human race engulfed in the nightmare of wars…..
It is interesting to see that between the old man and the one who receives the bags of gold there is a kind of exchange, for we see one receiving the money and the other as receiving a wreath of flowers, meaning that we venerate the world to the point of offering it something like a laurel wreath…
At the bottom of our engraving we can read the following sentence in Latin:
«Tristis avaritie rabies nummiq cupido,
Et leuis ambitio, perfusaq Gloria fuco
Ad predam strepituinq lucri suffragia Vertunt.
Sic manifiesta patet falsi fallacia mundi».
Translation: ‘Sad avarice and brilliant ambition, imbued with the color of glory, madly desire money –they are madly greedy for money–. To the trophy –booty or prey– and to the noise of winnings the votes are directed. Thus the falsehood of the world is manifested.’
I now give you a few sentences to reflect on:
«Bis vincit qui se vincit in victoria».
─‘He conquers twice who, at the time of conquest, conquers himself’─.
Publius
«Bona fides contraria est fraude et dolo».
─‘Good faith is the opposite of fraud and deceit’─.
«Accipere quam facere praestat iniuriam».
─‘It is better to be the object of an injustice than to commit it’─.
«Humilitas occidit superbiam».
─‘Humility kills pride’─.
«Non metuit mortem qui scit contemnere vitam».
─‘He who knows how to despise life is not afraid of death’─.
DIES IRAE, DIES ILLA, SOLVET SAECLUM IN FAVILLA.
─‘The day of wrath, that day, will dissolve the world in ashes’─.
Kwen Khan Khu
