“Justice is blind.” We have all heard this phrase before, and seen the iconic representation: the blindfolded Lady Justice.

That blindfold is supposed to symbolize impartiality. It represents our strict subscription to the notion that impartiality and objectivity are the principles upon which our system is built and by which it is protected. This notion that justice is blind is one rooted in equality.

But justice should not always be blind. Rather than prioritizing equal treatment, sometimes justice demands that we treat individuals differently to ensure equal outcomes. This notion of justice is rooted in the principle of equity.

Put simply, equity takes fairness as its aim. Where equality entails the equal (i.e., impartial) treatment of individuals, equity demands a nuanced approach to ensure equal outcomes.

Martin Jay in The Challenge of Images to the Law explain:

Allegorical images of Justice, historians of iconography tell us, did not always cover the eyes of the goddess, Justitia. In its earliest Roman incarnations, preserved on the coins of Tiberius’ reign, the woman with the sword in one hand, representing the power of the state, and the scales in the other, derived from the weighing of souls in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, was
depicted as clear-sightedly considering the merits of the cases before her . Medieval images of justice based on figures of Christ, St. Michael, or secular rulers likewise provided them with the ability to make their judgments on the basis of visual evidence.

But suddenly at the end of the 15th century, a blindfold began to be placed over the goddess’s eyes, producing what has rightly been called »the most enigmatic of the attributes of justice.« Perhaps the earliest image showing the change is a 1494 wood engraving of a Fool covering the eyes o fju stice, illustrating Sebastian Brant’s Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools], which was rapidly reproduced in translations throughout Europe.

The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Book VI of Plato’s Republic, about a ship with a dysfunctional crew. The allegory is intended to represent the problems of governance prevailing in a political system not based on expert knowledge. Benjamin Jowett’s 1871 translation recounts the story as follows, and it is still important in our times to consider:

“Imagine then a fleet or a ship in which there is a captain who is taller and stronger than any of the crew, but he is a little deaf and has a similar infirmity in sight, and his knowledge of navigation is not much better. The sailors are quarrelling with one another about the steering — every one is of opinion that he has a right to steer, though he has never learned the art of navigation and cannot tell who taught him or when he learned, and will further assert that it cannot be taught, and they are ready to cut in pieces any one who says the contrary. They throng about the captain, begging and praying him to commit the helm to them; and if at any time they do not prevail, but others are preferred to them, they kill the others or throw them overboard, and having first chained up the noble captain’s senses with drink or some narcotic drug, they mutiny and take possession of the ship and make free with the stores; thus, eating and drinking, they proceed on their voyage in such a manner as might be expected of them. Him who is their partisan and cleverly aids them in their plot for getting the ship out of the captain’s hands into their own whether by force or persuasion, they compliment with the name of sailor, pilot, able seaman, and abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a good-for-nothing; but that the true pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky and stars and winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to be really qualified for the command of a ship, and that he must and will be the steerer, whether other people like or not, the possibility of this union of authority with the steerer’s art has never seriously entered into their thoughts or been made part of their calling. Now in vessels which are in a state of mutiny and by sailors who are mutineers, how will the true pilot be regarded? Will he not be called by them a prater, a star-gazer, a good-for-nothing?

The concept makes up the framework of the 15th-century book Ship of Fools (1494) by Sebastian Brant, which served as the inspiration for Hieronymus Bosch’s painting, Ship of Fools: a ship—an entire fleet at first—sets off from Basel, bound for the Paradise of Fools. In it, Brant conceives Saint Grobian, whom he imagines to be the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people. In literary and artistic compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries, the cultural motif of the ship of fools also served to parody the “ark of salvation”, as the Catholic Church was styled.

Initially, as this engraving suggests, the blindfold implies that Justice has been robbed of her
ability to get things straight, unable to wield her sword effectively or see what is balanced on her scales. Other medieval and Renaissance allegories of oceluded vision, such as those of Death, Ambition, Cupidity, Ignorance orAnger, were, in fact, uniformly negative.

The figure of the nude child Cupid, as Erwin Panofsky pointed out many years ago, was depicted blindfolded not merely because love clouds judgment, but also because »he was on the wrong side of the moral world.«
By 1530, however, this satirical implication seems to have lost its power and the blindfold was transformed instead into a positive emblem of impartiality and equality before the law. Perhaps because of traditions transmitted by Plutarch and Diodore of Sicily from ancient Egypt that had depicted judges as blind or handless, the blindfold, like the scales, came to imply neutrality rather than helplessness.

According to the French scholar Robert Jacob, the explanation may also have something to do with the reversal of fortunes experienced by the symbol of the Synagogue in medieval Christian iconography. Traditionally shown as blindfolded – as well as with a broken lance – to symbolize her resistance to the illumination of divine light, the Synagogue was negatively contrasted with the open-eyed Church as in the famous early fourteenth-century statue on the south gate of Strasbourg Cathedral.

Since the 16th century, Lady Justice has often been depicted wearing a blindfold. The blindfold was originally a satirical addition intended to show justice as blind to the injustice carried on before her,^[5] but it has been reinterpreted over time and is now understood to represent impartiality, the ideal that justice should be applied without regard to wealth, power, or other status. The earliest Roman coins depicted Justitia with the sword in one hand and the scale in the other, but with her eyes uncovered.^[6] Justitia was only commonly represented as “blind” since the middle of the 16th century. The first known representation of blind Justice is Hans Gieng’s 1543 statue on the Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen (Fountain of Justice) in Bern.^[7]

Instead of using the Janus approach, many sculptures simply leave out the blindfold altogether.

For example, atop the Old Bailey courthouse in London, a statue of Lady Justice stands without a blindfold; the courthouse brochures explain that this is because Lady Justice was originally not blindfolded, and because her “maidenly form” is supposed to guarantee her impartiality which renders the blindfold redundant.

Another variation is to depict a blindfolded Lady Justice as a human scale, weighing competing claims in each hand. An example of this can be seen at the Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, Tennessee.

• Justice as a Sign of the Law: The Fool Blindfolding Justice

The first image, known as “The Fool Blindfolding Justice” from Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools, comes from the 1497 Basel edition and is sometimes attributed to Albrecht Dürer. The 1509 London edition offers a close copy. The woodcut was one of a hundred illustrations for this popular book, subsequently printed in many languages.

The scene is one of the earliest known to show a Justice with covered eyes. The deployment is derisive, evident not only from the fool but from the chapter that the illustration accompanied, which was entitled “Quarreling and Going to Court.” Brant, a noted lawyer and law professor, prefaced the book with a warning against “folly, blindness, error, and stupidity of all stations and kinds of men.” The 1572 version is all the more insistently negative; in this rendition, the fool has pushed Justice off her throne as he covers her eyes.

However, a blindfolded judge was not a symbol of impartiality then, but rather, of a not very bright judge. A person who couldn’t or wouldn’t see reality was not one in a position to make wise judgments. Indeed, the blindfolded person was a symbol of a fool. A 1497 edition of Sebastian Brant’s ShipofFools depicts a court jester, a fool, blindfolding Lady Justice, bringing her down to his level. A 16^th century work concerning the criminal law and municipal ordinances for the city of Bamburg takes the image a step further. In this book, a woodcut entitled TheFoolBlindfoldingJustice depicts four blindfolded judges, wearing jesters’ caps, with the caption, “Out of bad habit these blind fools spend their lives passing judgments contrary to what is right.”

Blind Justice Was Not Always Just – An Exhibition at the Yale Law Library

Still, it was during the 16^th century that we began to see blind justice as representing honesty and impartiality, rather than stupidity and corruption. Andrea Alciati’s 1582 Operaomnia shows the central figure at a tribunal as blindfolded, apparently representing fairness. Interestingly, his colleagues are without hands, to show they have received no bribes. This nice touch for showing honesty never caught on. Perhaps one Venus de Milo is enough.
By the 18^th century, the modern interpretation of blind justice fully takes hold. The pieces displayed in this exhibition run from the negative of Brant’s ShipofFoolsin 1497 through 1788. By then, the images have reversed their meaning.
The exhibit is curated by Judith Resnik (Arthur Liman Professor of Law), Dennis Curtis (Clinical Professor of Law Emeritus), Allison Tait (Postdoctoral Associate) and Mike Widener (Rare Book Librarian). It will be held in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery of the Lillian Goldman Law Library of the Yale Law School.

— Behind the Picture: Sol Justitiae by Albrecht Dürer

Nearly every era, including our own, has its share of apocalypse theories and end-of-days false alarms. But amidst the death and disease of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, it’s easy to imagine how tangible worldwide mortality must have felt to the general public. As a result, Judgement Day is a prominent motif in art of the period. This engraving by Albrecht Dürer, acquired by Josef Glimer Gallery from a private collection in Austria, marks one of the artist’s many explorations of the world’s end. It was created in 1499, the year all Jews— a perpetually-massacred scapegoat for the Black Plague— were expelled from Dürer’s hometown of Nuremberg. It was also the year the Emperor’s army was defeated in the Swiss War and the year that astrologers, perhaps responding to all the tumult, convinced many to move to high ground with predictions of an apocalyptic deluge.

Despite its small size, leading Dürer scholar Erwin Panofsky deemed Sol Justitiae one of the artist’s most impressive creations.The engraving is inspired by this caption from Petrus Berchoius’ Repertorium Morale, a Biblical-moral reflective text intended for preachers, given to Dürer by his godfather:

“The Sun and Righteousness shall appear ablaze when he will judge mankind on the day of doom, and he shall be burning and grim. For, as the sun burns herbs and flowers in the summertime when he is the Lion, so shall Christ appear as a fierce and lion-like man in the heat of Judgement and shall wither the sinners.”

Dürer’s engraving creatively combines pagan, astrological and Biblical symbols. The central figure sitting on a lion is at once Christ, the Roman goddess of justice Justitia, and the ancient sun god, called Helios by the Greeks and Sol by the Romans. He holds Justitia’s scales and a double edged sword, but unlike the traditionally blindfolded goddess, his eyes— wide and confrontational— see all. His legs are crossed, the customary sitting position for judges in ancient law books and a stance adopted in many other Renaissance depictions of leaders. His mask is composed of three prongs of flame. While this number suggests the Christian Trinity, its beaming rays are a strong gesture toward Sol.

The duality of the Christ figure in this piece may also be influenced by ancient Roman coins, which sometimes featured overlapping profiles of emperors and gods to convey the idea that the emperor could become geminatapersona—”human by nature and divine by grace.”

The lion not only suggests biblical excepts comparing Christ to a lion but also Leo, the sign of the zodiac for July, when the sun is at its most intense. Berchorius suggests that the justice of Christ on Judgment Day will be as powerful as the July sun.

• The fabulous history of the linden tree

It’s a tree. But not just any tree. It is the linden tree, a sacred and universal tree.

Revered since ancient times, used for centuries, loved throughout the world, the linden tree is par excellence the tree of abundance, the most beneficent tree in existence. This universality is no accident. This tree that wishes us well has lived with mankind since time immemorial, and its history is as rich and abundant as its virtues. Its benefits spread like no other on the mind, body and skin, and its fragrance is a real feast for the senses. So much so that mythology and literature have taken hold of this soothing colossus with exceptional longevity. Read here more

• Sacred Trees of Slavs: Linden

Slavs know linden as a tree that absorbs curses sent by women towards men; that’s why in some areas it is believed to be a cursed and unlucky tree; however, in other places it is considered to be a gentle tree that would listen to all your troubles. Ukrainians plant it near fences so that it would absorb jinxes and curses. If linden tree by the house dried out, people expected bad news for the house and the family. The one that cuts down a linden tree would definitely get lost in the woods.

Linden blossom is widely used in love and healing magic (it is a natural fever reducer). In folk medicine, linden blossoms were used to treat cold and cough, fevers, kidney and bladder inflammations, stomach spasms, and neurosis. Linden leaves applied to the head treat headaches. Powdered leaves and seeds of linden help stop bleeding. Fresh leaves and buds soothe burns and mastitis. Linden blossoms are added to aromatic baths. Blond hair shines if rinsed with infusion of linden blossoms. Collect it on Waxing Moon, at noon.

The Slavic name for linden “lipa” derives from the word “lipnut”, i.e. to stick, for its juice was known for being sticky. Linden was associated with femininity and softness, qualities opposite to the ones of the “masculine” oak. Aside from its association with women, Slavs honored linden as “mother of trees”, giver of life – for linden bark could be used to make shoes and ropes, its wood is good for making household objects, and honey that bees make out linden flowers is believed to have healing properties as linden blossoms help reduce fever and induce sweating. Linden is frequently associated with qualities of Goddess Lada. In Russian folk art and lore beautiful linden was a lover of oak or maple (both symbols of masculinity).

In Slavic Christianity, linden was believed to be the tree of Mother Mary. People thought that whenever Mother Mary descends from Heavens upon earth, she rests upon a linden tree. Icons and holy images were hung upon this tree; according to Christian legends, the miracle-making icons most frequently appeared upon lindens. One version of a legend of Mother Mary’s and baby Christ’s escape to Egypt states that it was linden that hid the Holy Virgin and Her Child with its branches.

All Slavs considered linden a “holy”, “blessed” tree. Southern Slavs constructed their churches and temples near linden trees, or alternatively, planted a tree nearby once the church was built. These old large lindens served as courthouses and places of public gatherings and celebrations. Ritual processions stopped under linden trees, ritual feasts were held there, as well.

Linden was considered a lucky tree that people grew near their homes and planted at the graves. Sleeping under a linden tree was considered beneficial. However, in Ukraine, old lindens with many “knobs” on the trunk were avoided for contact, as the “knobs” were believed to appear from wives’ cursing their husbands. Linden’s power to absorb curses and protect men deemed it to be a good tree to grow near the property fence, but not extra-close to the house – so that the curses it absorb would not fall on the heads of people that lived in the house. By growing near a fence, the linden was also believed to absorb the ill wishes towards the family from people who happened to walk by. Linden branches were also never used to whip the domestic animals – they would die from that.

One of the reasons for sacredness of linden is common use of its dry wood to start a “living fire”, i.e. fire produced by rubbing two dry sticks. In this way, fire had been annually renewed in village hearths.

Harming a sacred linden in any way was a taboo: the tree or its branches could not be cut; people could not even “take care of their natural needs” under such tree. It was believed that the one who breaks a branch of linden would lose a horse to illness; however, the horse would recover, if the wrongdoer returned the branch. Poles did not cut lindens down out of fear of death to the one who cut the tree or one of his family members.

Linden was used as a protective charm. All Slavs believed that lightning could not strike linden and were not afraid to hide beneath its branches during a thunderstorm. Russians hung linden crosses around a neck of a person suffering with delusions. In Russia, linden branches were also stuck in the middle of the pasture while the cattle was grazing, so that the cows would not wonder off or be killed by wild animals. All Russians, thought that a witch loses her power of shapeshifting if one hits her hard with a linden branch. At the same time, Ukrainians believed that witches transform themselves into animals and objects by jumping through a circle woven out of linden bark. A swipe of a linden branch was considered to ward off a persistent demon (Chort). In Herzegovina, a branch of linden was held over the heads of the newlywed at a wedding ceremony for protection. Linden branches adorned houses and corrals on Yurii’s Day (St. George’s Day) and on Trinity Day.

As many other trees, linden was important for healing and folk medicine: various illnesses were transferred upon it. For this, bits of clothing from the ailing person, his or her hair and nail trimmings were tucked or nailed into its trunk. Sick people and cattle were censed with smoldering basswood. Linden blossoms (see above) are used in many fever-reducing teas.

A linden dying in the garden is considered a bad omen. It would not be surprising, for people thought with its death, they would lose their protection, as well as the source of many useful materials, medicinal aid, and food (linden honey).

• Lime tree in culture and Justice

Originally, local communities assembled not only to celebrate and dance under a linden tree, but to hold their judicial thing meetings there in order to restore justice and peace. It was believed that the tree would help unearth the truth. Thus the tree became associated with jurisprudence even after Christianization, such as in the case of the Gerichtslinde, and verdicts in rural Germany were frequently returned sub tilia (Unter der linden) until the Age of Enlightenment.

Slavic mythology

In old pagan Slavic mythology, the linden (lipa, as called in all Slavic languages) was considered a sacred tree.^[1] Particularly in Poland, many villages have the name “Święta Lipka” (or similar), which literally means “Holy Lime”. To this day, the tree is a national emblem of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Lusatia.^{[citation needed]} Lipa gave name to the traditional Slavic name for the month of June (Croatian, lipanj) or July (Polish, lipiec, Ukrainian “lypen’/липень”). It is also the root for the German city of Leipzig, taken from the Sorbian name lipsk.^[2] The former Croatian currency, kuna, consisted of 100 lipa (Tilia). “Lipa” was also a proposed name for Slovenian currency in 1990, however the name “tolar” ultimately prevailed.^[3] In the Slavic Orthodox Christian world, limewood was the preferred wood for panel icon painting. The icons by the hand of Andrei Rublev, including the Holy Trinity (Hospitality of Abraham), and The Savior, now in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, are painted on linden wood. Its wood was chosen for its ability to be sanded very smooth and for its resistance to warping once seasoned. The southern Slovenian village of “Lipica” signifies little Lime tree and has given its name to the Lipizzan horse breed.^[4]

Baltic mythology

In Baltic mythology, there is an important goddess of fate by the name of Laima /laɪma/, whose sacred tree is the lime. Laima’s dwelling was a lime-tree, where she made her decisions as a cuckoo. For this reason Lithuanian women prayed and gave sacrifices under lime-trees asking for luck and fertility. They treated lime-trees with respect and talked with them as if they were human beings.

Germanic mythology

Avenue with linden in the cemetery by Ringkøbing, Jutland, Denmark

The linden was also a highly symbolic and hallowed tree to the Germanic peoples in their native pre-Christian Germanic mythology.

Originally, local communities assembled not only to celebrate and dance under a linden tree, but to hold their judicial thing meetings there in order to restore justice and peace. It was believed that the tree would help unearth the truth. Thus the tree became associated with jurisprudence even after Christianization, such as in the case of the Gerichtslinde, and verdicts in rural Germany were frequently returned sub tilia (Unter der linden) until the Age of Enlightenment.

In the Nibelungenlied, a medieval German work ultimately based on oral tradition recounting events amongst the Germanic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries, Siegfried gains his invulnerability by bathing in the blood of a dragon. While he did so, a single linden leaf sticks to him, leaving a spot on his body untouched by the blood and he thus has a single point of vulnerability.

The most notable street in Berlin, Germany, is called Unter den Linden, named after the trees lining the avenue. It leads from the center of Berlin to Potsdam, the country residence of the Prussian kings.

In German folklore, the linden tree is the “tree of lovers.” The well-known Middle High German poem Under der linden by Walter von der Vogelweide (c. 1200) describes a tryst between a maid and a knight under a linden tree.

Hohenlinden (translated as “High linden”) is a community in the upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg in which the Battle of Hohenlinden took place; Thomas Campbell wrote the poem Hohenlinden about said battle.

Greek mythology

Homer, Horace, Virgil, and Pliny mention the linden tree and its virtues. As Ovid tells the old story of Baucis and Philemon, she was changed into a linden and he into an oak when the time came for them both to die.

Herodotus says:

The Scythian diviners take also the leaf of the linden tree, which, dividing into three parts, they twine round their fingers; they then unbind it and exercise the art to which they pretend.^[5]

Philyra, mother of the centaur Chiron, turned into a linden tree after bearing Chiron.

In northern China

For a long time, in northern China, because there is no Bodhi tree, the sacred tree of Buddhism, and the leaf shape of the “椴樹/Tilia” tree is similar to that of Bodhi tree, it was planted in temples to replace the sacred Bodhi tree. They are also often called Bodhi trees, just like the two Tilia trees next to the 英華殿/Yinghua Dian – the place where the empress dowager, empress and concubines worship Buddha – in the Forbidden City in Beijing, planted by Empress Dowager Li, the biological mother of Wanli Emperor about five hundred years ago.^[6] Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty even wrote two poems for them: “菩提树诗/The Poem of the Bodhi Tree (in the Yinghua Dian)” and “菩提树歌/The Song of the Bodhi Tree (in the Yinghua Dian)”, and carved them on stone tablets and placed them in the stele pavilion in front of the Yinghua Dian.^[6]

See also Symbolism of the linden tree

The Virgin Mary and the Lime Tree

The Virgin Mary is often represented asThe woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet in Chapter 12 of Revelation. As Bruegel and the Family of Love see it:  She is the love of God.
We find her often associated with the Lime tree.The lime tree was traditionally a sacred and magical tree. Lime trees were often found at three-way junctions. Mostly these places were old cult places that later became Christianized and in which a little chapel was hung.In other places one finds the lime as a court tree, the tree under which the  Vierschaar sat.

A Vierschaar is a historical term for a tribunal in the Netherlands. Before the separation of lawmaking, law enforcement, and justice duties, the government of every town was administered by a senate (called a Wethouderschap) formed of two, three, or sometimes four burgomasters, and a certain number of sheriffs (called Schepenen), so that the number of sitting judges was generally seven. The term Vierschaar means literally “foursquare”, so called from the four-square dimensions of the benches in use by the sitting judges. The four benches for the judges were placed in a square with the defendant in the middle. This area was roped off and the term vierschaar refers to the ropes. Read also Cornersone and Arkan by Rene Guenon

The Dutch expression “vierchaar spannen” refers to the tightening or raising of these ropes before the proceedings could begin. (Accompanied by the question whether the sun is high enough, ‘hoog genoeg op de dag‘, since the practice stems from the Middle Ages when these trials were held outdoors.) Most towns had the Vierschaar privilege to hear their own disputes, and the meeting room used for this was usually located in the town hall. Many historic town halls still have such a room, usually decorated with scenes from the Judgment of Solomon.Later it has been tranmsformed in great and impressive buildings as The Palace of the Dam in Amsterdam

The lime tree was the symbol of civil liberty and often we see lime trees as liberty trees in the village centers.We know from the annals that the dukes of Brabant took their oath under a lime tree.

The lime leaf represents truth and sincerity and many countries have a linden tree or linden leaf in their shield.This is the case, for example, in the Czech Republic. In former Prussia, the lime blossom was the national flower. Linden was also known as a witch tree. In the popular belief, witches, nymphs and ghosts hid in the bark and in the armpits. It was considered dangerous to go past old lime trees during the night, because then one could be ridden by a witch.That is why they used to hang chapels and they became “chapel trees” that the evil powers no longer had any control over. In chapel trees, deceived girls came knocking nails while under the effigy of the Blessed Virgin pampering and blaming their ex-lovers. This form of fetishism is called “nailing”.

As the oak is the symbol of strength, courage and fame, the linden symbolizes desire, love and tenderness. It is therefore not difficult to understand that the linden tree is the Mary tree par excellence and so many statues of Mary and Mary shrines are situated in or in the vicinity of a linden tree.

It is not just that this chapel is called “Our Lady under the Linden”. The linden is a sacred tree associated with the goddess. In the Dutch language, linden is female. Strangely enough, this is also the only tree that is female with us. Anyway, in Norse mythology, the linden tree was dedicated to the goddess Freya (there is a reason that there is a linden tree on the Kattenberg in Heiloo) and among the Slavic peoples to the love goddess Krasogani. In legends and fairy tales, the lime tree is considered to be the home of the white or wise woman. Romantic poets felt that this tree once had a religious significance. Often a lime tree stood near a well in the middle of a village. It was once the center of folk festivals. Many madonna statues are made of the soft lime wood. Sometimes Mary figurines are attached to a lime tree. So the linden is connected to Mary, our Lady, with the Goddess.

This custom is still alive as we see in Uden ( the Netherlands)

• “Onze Lieve Vrouw ter Linde” –Our Dear  Lady under  the Linden in Uden ( the Netherlands)

“Our Lady of the Linden returns to its roots in Uden. Next month, a lime tree will be planted near the Crosier Chapel in Uden, depicting Mother Mary. Just like before”. May 2019

With the tree and the statue, the chapel community honors the basis of the Maria worship in Uden. This is exactly where the centuries-long worship of Mother Mary in Uden started. As early as the thirteenth century, a Virgin’s chapel stood here. Initially no more than a statue in or near a lime tree – hence the lime tree – but documents from 1358 show that there is already an Osse pastor who keeps this chapel.
Pilgrimage:
The worship of Mary really takes off when the Kruisheren are driven from Den Bosch and in 1648 decide to build a monastery in Uden. Initially this is on the Veghelsedijk, the monastery where the Birgittinesses still live, later they move to what is now the Kruisheren chapel and the monastery.Centuries ago people from all over the country go on a pilgrimage to Uden:People from all over the country, as far as Amsterdam, go on a pilgrimage to Uden. In its heyday, there are seventy processions per year, in 1786 30.000 pilgrims are given Holy Communion. The fact that at least nine miracles are attributed to OL Vrouw ter Linde will certainly have contributed to this. The annual holiday of OL Vrouw ter Linde is on October 23.The original statue of OL Vrouw ter Linde is housed at the Museum of Religious Art in Uden for security reasons. That is the famous wooden, gold-colored statue from circa 1520. The museum also shows all kinds of gifts that pilgrims have given to Mary over the centuries. The stone statue of OL Vrouw ter Linde, dating from 1400-1500, is located in the vault of the Heritage Center of Dutch Monastic Life in Sint Agatha.

With the tree and the statue, the chapel community honors the basis of the Maria worship in Uden. This is exactly where the centuries-long worship of Mother Mary in Uden started. As early as the thirteenth century, a Virgin’s chapel stood here.In the time of Bruegel the Lime tree was branding:In 2019 the Lime Tree and The Virgin Mary as Love of God come again to live!Prior to the blessing, there was a celebration of the Eucharist in the chapel that revolved around the great importance of Mary as a “humble but strong woman.” Everybody was happy with the return of the tree as it stood in front of the chapel for centuries and which resulted in well-attended pilgrimages to Uden.
The new tree is the great achievement of artist Ine van Grinsven. She also made replicas of the famous statue of the Virgin Mary. One was placed at the roots of the tree when it was planted in February. The other is attached to the trunk and, if it is good, will be absorbed by the trunk as ever, the original.
The tree of faith, a 50-year-old lime tree, is made up of three layers: the bottom layer symbolizes all people together, the second layer the group of leaders – from politicians and artists to priests – and in the top God the almighty.

• The Concept of Divine Law

From the time human society first began and peaceful co-existence was seen as essential, laws were created to safeguard the rights and privileges of individuals. These laws were a system of rules of conduct and rights recognised by family, tribe, or community and prescribed by the authority within the group structure. As human society evolved and developed, the rules of conduct expanded to distinguish between what is permitted and what is prohibited. This process of formulating laws continued and eventually led to the formation of the court system, which dates back to around 4000 BC in Egypt. Under this system, the word of the king or ruler was the absolute authority and the law. The palaces were centres of law with judges administering justice. The oldest written code of law is that of Hammurabi, compiled in approximately 2100 BC. It controlled commerce, family, criminal and civil law.

It was in the first century BC that the Romans took over the legal system. When the Roman Empire conquered new nations, it introduced to them a unified code of law which extended from England to Egypt. The laws of this code were cast in bronze plaques and were attached to platforms in public places in order that all citizens might read and understand them.

The development of this legal system in the successive centuries created what is today known as civil law and common law. It is interesting to note that, according to Abdu’l-Bahá’s testimony, Muslim theologians were instrumental in the development of the present day law governing European nations. That law has been directly influenced by Islamic Laws and ordinances.

“…. the laws and principles current in all European countries are derived to a considerable degree and indeed virtually in their entirety from the works on jurisprudence and the legal decision of Muslim theologians.”

The influence of religious thought and doctrines on the establishment of law and order for the administration of the affairs of society is clearly apparent in the teachings of different religions. It should be noted that certain features of the various religious dispensations have been markedly different. For example, the special sphere of emphasis by some of the religious founders are known to be as follows:

1. Moses is known as the law giver and the divine laws released by him greatly influenced the community of the faithful for many centuries.
2. Buddha was a promoter of spirituality with special reference to prayer and meditation for the transformation of humankind. Even now the followers of Buddha put their energies into prayer and meditation as the means of spiritual enrichment.
3. Christ encouraged love among the believers and the thrust of His mission was individual salvation. Probably that is one of the reasons for the deeply seated love of Christians for the figure of His Holiness Jesus Christ.
4. Muhammad considered justice the fundamental pre-requisite and means of keeping order amongst the faithful. Hence he revealed His Book of Laws (Quran). Throughout the Islamic dispensation the Muslims rallied around the content and laws of Quran more than the personage of the prophet himself.

The question remains: What is the reason the weighty laws, injunctions, ordinances, guidelines and teachings which constitute divine law and lead nations and societies to the height of their administrative power, and which are effective, just and instrumental in the rise of civilisations, cannot sustain their momentum and subsequently make inevitable the fall of these world renowned civilisations? The study of the failure of these civilisations indicates that almost invariably their collapse was initiated from within. Great external forces of opposition could not weaken the momentum of these civilisations. Opposition, in fact, vastly strengthened their bonds and they further expanded. But then they collapsed suddenly from internal disintegrating forces. The reason for the failure of civilisations in these instances was that the believers began to disobey religious laws and eventually lawlessness became a pronounced feature of their religious communities.

It also must be understood that with the coming of new Messengers from God the laws of the preceding religion became inoperative. One notes that at these times in history many governments abandon religious laws in favour of civil and man-made ordinances.

In the midst of conflicting opinions, humanity is trying to find answers to such issues as capital punishment, abortion, homosexuality, treatment of criminals, premarital sexual relationships, use of hallucinogenic drugs, and the destruction and pollution of the environment. People suggest vastly different remedies to these problems. A fundamental difficulty in offering solutions is that the problems are basically global in principle while almost exclusively the solutions are regional or national in scope. It seems that what is needed in this age, or for that matter in any era, is the existence of an undisputed standard, firm benchmark or authority which is wholeheartedly accepted by all. History shows that one such standard is repeatedly established by the undisputed authority of the messengers of God for the period of their successive dispensations.

The significance of the Divine Law may be best demonstrated by the study of the existing state of the society and comparison of some of the features of the Divine Law to that of civil or sectarian law. Sin or wrongdoing is not the speciality of our time. Throughout history, man has committed sins and will continue to attempt to do so in the future. If we examine the community around us we find that the general mentality of many people is that nothing is illegal until one gets caught. Offenders are not penalised if not caught when breaking the laws. In fact, the praiseworthy attitude that “the means justify the end” is substituted by the well known phrase “the end justifies the means”. Many people are willing to commit any act of wrongdoing in the course of their endeavours to achieve their materialistic goals in life. One reason for this type of attitude may be the fact that our society is fundamentally governed by man-made laws and principles. These are always open to dispute and debate in the light of the lack of authoritative Divine Laws and in view of the fact that there is no unique value system imposed. It is often found that the implementation of the law is exercised with varying degrees of severity for a similar wrong doing. The basic problem is that what one person considers illegal, another considers perfectly legitimate. That is why we find society, including our law makers and law enforcement agencies, in the midst of confusing dilemmas about the proper treatment of certain issues. One nation advocates capital punishment, another opposes it; one nation legalises homosexuality, another abhors it; one country encourages abortion, another prevents it; one society accepts euthanasia, another rejects it; and so on and so forth. These contrasting opinions result in the continuous and repeated confrontation between enforcement agencies and the public all over the world. This trend of behaviour has created chaos in the world. That chaos is often associated with destruction and damage to property, criminal acts and world-wide dissatisfaction of citizens. How can we make this world a better place to live with this kind of value system? There are several aspects of man-made laws which make them inadequate for the regulation and control of order in the society; namely:

1. Lack of absolute and unquestionable authority.
2. Dependence largely on external agencies for enforcement.
3. The absence of a unique value system.
4. Territorial nature of laws while facing global problems.
5. Limitation and constraints by the dimension of time – laws generally based on past experiences.
6. Lack of spiritual values – the spiritual dimension and its contribution is not considered when formulating laws.
7. Secular laws are determined through a debate process rather through a single absolute authority.
8. Laws are fundamentally based on punishment alone rather than on both reward and retribution.
9. Man-made laws are enforced with compromise. Some even advocate education rather than punishment.

The Divine Law on the other hand avoids all of the above deficiencies. It has on the contrary the following strengths:

1. It enjoys the authority of God Himself.
2. It enshrines the enforcement factor within it.
3. It introduces a uniform and unique value system and establishes the standard or benchmark.
4. It is universal in nature – it applies everywhere equally.
5. It contains a vision of future and experience of the past, because of the all-encompassing knowledge of God.
6. It is endowed and revealed with a special spiritual potency and significance.
7. The authority of Divine Law is a single unerring source which flows through the channel of the Manifestation of God and not through debate and man’s logic.
8. Acceptance and obedience to the Divine Law insures reward, spiritual as well as material, and its rejection warrants punishment in both worlds.
9. Divine laws are applied with justice and are entirely free of compromise.

•   Lime Tree of Wisdom and justice in our time

The seeds sown by the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution culminated in the Enlightenment project. The warning of The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Book VI of Plato’s Republic, about a ship with a dysfunctional crew. The allegory is intended to represent the problems of governance prevailing in a political system not based on expert knowledge. This warning is still very important for our times.

The Renaissance have contributed to a deracinated psychology of being that has rendered human beings one-dimensional. The bifurcation of the inner and outer facets of the person has produced a fissure in consciousness, thus divorcing the soul from its transpersonal center. Furthermore, the denial of our tripartite nature as Spirit, soul, and body has proven profoundly traumatic to the psyche. To heal this scission, there is an urgent need to return to a metaphysical framework that integrates diverse modes of knowing and healing, with a view to gaining a deeper understanding of mental health and justice. Without an ontological foundation rooted in the spiritual traditions of humanity, the quest for an effective “science of the soul” that can cure the ills of the spirit will remain elusive.

Modern man suffocates and cries:  “i can’t breathe” , because  a human without “the living Breath” is always dying. It is his only certainty in life, man shall once die and all traditions in the world teach us to take care of our Soul, our “Living Breath”, always in our daily life, but sure at the moment when we are dying. Modern man is the only one of all the traditions of the world who dares to think that he is right to live without his soul and without his “Living Breath”. What an arrogance and Vanity! But remember Vanity is the quality of being vain, something that is vain, it is always empty, or valueless.

The Reign of Quantity gives a concise but comprehensive view of the present state of affairs in the world, as it appears from the point of view of the ‘ancient wisdom’, formerly common both to the East and to the West, but now almost entirely lost sight of. The author , Rene Guenon, indicates with his fabled clarity and directness the precise nature of the modern deviation, and devotes special attention to the development of modern philosophy and science, and to the part played by them, with their accompanying notions of progress and evolution, in the formation of the industrial and democratic society which we now regard as ‘normal’. Read more here

The Essential Rene Guenon: Metaphysics, Tradition, and the Crisis of Modernity

A prolific writer and author of over 24 books, Rene Guenon was the founder of the Perennialist/Traditionalist school of comparative religious thought. Known for his discourses on the intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of the modern world, symbolism, tradition, and the inner or spiritual dimension of religion, this book is a compilation of his most important writings. A key component of his thought was the assertion that universal truths manifest themselves in various forms in the world’s religions and his writings on Hinduism, Taoism, and Sufism are particularly illuminating in this regard.

Look also:

Crisis of the modern world

The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times

• Wolfgang Smith : Vertical Causation

According to the experts of standard cosmology, we live in a universe which is uniformly egalitarian — a meaningless homogeneous mass of subatomic particles — and this so-called “cosmological principle,” we are told, holds true from the furthest observable reaches of the universe to the ordinary moment of lived experience. For over 35 years Wolfgang Smith has been gradually chipping away at this cosmological impasse, and his project has reached its zenith in Physics and Vertical Causation: The End of Quantum Reality  (Angelico Press, 2019) — the latest and likely final work of the author, whose life and thought is the subject of the Initiative’s upcoming documentary film, The End of Quantum Reality. In many ways the true sequel to the author’s paradigm-shifting 1995 monograph, The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key— picking up precisely where the latter left off, namely the discovery of “vertical causality” — Physics and Vertical Causation  explores the presence of this hitherto unrecognized form of causality with respect to several spheres of inquiry. While it may not be readily apparent by its title, this work is fundamentally a study in cosmology; the title is simply a recognition of whence cosmology must, in our time, take its point of departure. And if, as the author maintains, quantum mechanics is the  foundational science — physics, as it were, “come into its own” — then our entire cosmological vision is necessarily affected by how we interpret quantum theory. Indeed, Smith’s interpretation has implications for every domain of science. … ( see Wolfgang-Smith-Science-Myth )

What constitutes perhaps the most astonishing realization — especially to those unschooled in metaphysics and classical philosophy — is the author’s analysis and appropriation of what he calls the “tripartite cosmos,” manifested, in its respective ways, in both the macrocosm and the microcosm. His analysis of the “cosmic icon” (shown on the book cover) presents us with a symbolic depiction that effectively encapsulates the author’s entire cosmological vision. The magisterial final chapter (“Pondering the Cosmic Icon”) brings into full view this fecund symbol to which he has referred several times in his previous works as a kind of primordial archetype whose presence reverberates throughout the history of traditional cultures, but whose meaning and import has apparently not been articulated in any surviving sources.

The decoding of the cosmic icon constitutes the rediscovery of the “integral cosmos,” a conception which vanished from the Occidental worldview centuries ago. Basing himself upon traditional sources, Smith maintains that the cosmos consists of three tiers, or domains — the corporeal, the intermediary, and the spiritual.

What differentiates these domains are their “bounds”: 

whereas the corporeal world is manifestly subject to the conditions of space and  time,

the intermediary is subject to time alone,

while the spiritual is subject to neither space nor  time. And one should note well that the corporeal domain in its entirety constitutes but the lowest stratum  of the tripartite cosmos.

This paradigm proves to be the key to the major worldviews of antiquity, what some refer to as the cosmologia perennis. The author strenuously contends — not only in the present work but ever since his 1984 classic, Cosmos and Transcendence— that it is high time to break through the barriers of our contemporary prejudices, our intellectual “provincialism.”

For what actually confronts us in the architecture of the cosmic trichotomy are rudiments of a long-forgotten wisdom, a higher knowledge which is, in a sense, not man-made — truths which, since the advent of the so-called Enlightenment, have been decried as mere vestiges of “prescientific superstition.”

The blame for this predicament, of course, falls upon us: for inasmuch as we have reduced all causation to its horizontal — and in fact its lowest — mode, the traditional cosmology has become incomprehensible to the contemporary mind. We need to realize that our vaunted differential equations simply do not apply above the corporeal plane, for the simple reason that they presuppose the spatial bound. Whereas vertical causality acts from the highest reaches of the ontological hierarchy, physics — by virtue of its modus operandi — is restricted to what might be dubbed the “lower third” of the integral cosmos. …