AXIS MUNDI, could explain a lot

[00sco200]

http://www.lost.com/images/pendulum.jpg

the pendulum swinging behind Mrs Hawkings is creating an axis mundi
google this, it is very interesting, also Juliet gets punished by Ben cant remember what for but he brands her lower back with an axis mundi, take a look http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvw6zmKeuw. :eek: happy searching and remember to look at the images on google too.

[gingergrant]

I still think that it looks like the marking on a basketball

[Dreamingwolf]

I dont disagree that the axis mundi plays into everything, but that punishment scar has nothing to do with it. I would suspect it is more directed to a symbol of discord. They were printing on her a message that she will move in any direction.

[Fuel]

My immediate guess on aforementioned pendulum , is that it works much like a compass, in the sense that a Compass points to North.

The only change is that instead of being charged to point to North / South, that it is positively or negatively charged to the "Exotic Material" on the island.

Thus, like a compass points in the proper direction of the positively charged "point".

Where the island is going through time Shifts, it would be conceivable that its exact location / mass / altitude etc is obviously changing quite often and throwing off the pendulum. Once the pendulum comes to a steady gravitational point, in all rights should just stop on its stabilized position, thus allowing Ben and Mrs. Hawking to have a generalized location of the island in their time.

But, next would be.. (as Daniel Faraday stated) "He has to figure out a new vector" for entrance and exit.

[Monkey-Hands]

OK, I found some very interesting this about the Axis Mundi:

The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, columna cerului, center of the world) is a ubiquitous symbol that crosses human cultures. The image expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms.[1] Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all.[2] The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.[3][4]

The axis mundi image appears in every region of the world and takes many forms. The image is both feminine (an umbilical providing nourishment) and masculine (a phallus providing insemination into a uterus). It may have the form of a natural object (a mountain, a tree, a vine, a stalk, a column of smoke or fire) or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, church) or secular (obelisk, minaret, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts.[5] The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced "urban centers." As Mircea Eliade observed: "Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all.

A common shamanic concept, and a universally told story, is that of the healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world. It may be seen in the stories from Odin and the World Ash Tree to the Garden of Eden and Jacob's Ladder to Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel. It is the essence of the journey described in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The epic poem relates its hero's descent and ascent through a series of spiral structures that take him from through the core of the earth, from the depths of Hell to celestial Paradise. It is also a central tenet in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.

Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. A special status accrues to the thing suspended: a serpent, a victim of crucifixion or hanging, a rod, a fruit, mistletoe. Derivations of this idea find form in the Rod of Asclepius, an emblem of the medical profession, and in the caduceus, an emblem of correspondence and commercial professions. The staff in these emblems represents the axis mundi while the serpents act as guardians of, or guides to, knowledge.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi

[krakup]

My immediate guess on aforementioned pendulum , is that it works much like a compass, in the sense that a Compass points to North.

The only change is that instead of being charged to point to North / South, that it is positively or negatively charged to the "Exotic Material" on the island.

Thus, like a compass points in the proper direction of the positively charged "point".

Where the island is going through time Shifts, it would be conceivable that its exact location / mass / altitude etc is obviously changing quite often and throwing off the pendulum. Once the pendulum comes to a steady gravitational point, in all rights should just stop on its stabilized position, thus allowing Ben and Mrs. Hawking to have a generalized location of the island in their time.

But, next would be.. (as Daniel Faraday stated) "He has to figure out a new vector" for entrance and exit.

that is very good post. so do u think its possible to locate the island from ANY time.

[beachblinkette]

OK, I found some very interesting this about the Axis Mundi:

The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, columna cerului, center of the world) is a ubiquitous symbol that crosses human cultures. The image expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms.[1] Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all.[2] The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.[3][4]

The axis mundi image appears in every region of the world and takes many forms. The image is both feminine (an umbilical providing nourishment) and masculine (a phallus providing insemination into a uterus). It may have the form of a natural object (a mountain, a tree, a vine, a stalk, a column of smoke or fire) or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, church) or secular (obelisk, minaret, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts.[5] The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced "urban centers." As Mircea Eliade observed: "Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all.

A common shamanic concept, and a universally told story, is that of the healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world. It may be seen in the stories from Odin and the World Ash Tree to the Garden of Eden and Jacob's Ladder to Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel. It is the essence of the journey described in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The epic poem relates its hero's descent and ascent through a series of spiral structures that take him from through the core of the earth, from the depths of Hell to celestial Paradise. It is also a central tenet in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.

Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. A special status accrues to the thing suspended: a serpent, a victim of crucifixion or hanging, a rod, a fruit, mistletoe. Derivations of this idea find form in the Rod of Asclepius, an emblem of the medical profession, and in the caduceus, an emblem of correspondence and commercial professions. The staff in these emblems represents the axis mundi while the serpents act as guardians of, or guides to, knowledge.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi
Lost Freak, i really like what you have posted here. The axis mundi relates to men building of pyraminds, ziggurats (Mexico and S. America), and other temples reaching up into the sky as a place or center of the earth, where man and God meet and have communion. Jerusalem might be considered an axis mundi for the wealth of temples there and the worship of various religions concentrated in one spot.
We see a lot of the symbols in our Lost show. Let me add a few things that you didn't highlight which are found in Lost:
Jack Lying in the bamboo STALKS
The LADDER in the wheelroom
The CADUCEUS-- One of the station symbols

Dharma logo of a stylized ying yang symbol and a circle in the lower left.

The Lost pic of a city skyline of SKYSCRAPERS (reaching up to the heavens)

JACOB as the victim and repository of knowledge who is suspended on the axis between heaven and earth (HELP ME!) Maybe that's why his cabin keeps moving because the island is unstable?)

Ben's baton--a TOTEM?
Orchid's can grow on a long STALK--the ORCHID station

Shamanic practices: MRS. HAWKING, Brother Campbell, Jack's symbolic tatoo in Thailand (?) by a shaman woman.

Locke in the wheelchair at the top of the STAIRCASE--i always thought there was a greater significance to that scene--scary almost.

A VINE of anthuriums growing outside the orchid station.

Eko's STAFF or stick with bible passages referenced and the words GO NORTH--another TOTEM?

The huge TREE that Hugo was sitting under at Santa Rosa

These are just a few of the hints that TPTB might be trying to tell us that the island is an axis mundi and to destroy it ---well who knows what that might mean? If Jacob wanted it moved, then we have to think about the real reason he had Ben do it? And did Ben follow the directions exactly or did he mess with the instructions and turn the wheel the wrong way (I doubt that)? Not knowing the mind of Jacob leaves us at a gigantic disadvantage!!

[StormyKnight]

I found this defenition as well: "The Latin term, axis-mundi, (literally the axis of the world) is used to describe sacred space, here is meant to define a group that comes together around a shared idea, not to be owned by any one member of the group. Ideas for new projects may come from board members and experienced members, from a high school student, or a child. The skills and talents of the group as it exists at any moment are the tools with which projects will be created." It's in the paragraph just below the bullet points.
http://www.axismundi.us/

Makes me wonder if there's not only a connection to what is going on in the story but also how they are telling the story [when looked at as a whole].

[notsolost42]

Beach, you know that there are lots of things that you can relate to Lost but that doesn't mean they are connected! LOL!!! Like my old Aboriginal Dreamtime Theory. LOL!!!