“I am the Vine, and Ye are the Branches”

Posted by Lois Cordelia on 18 August 2010 | Views: 1057 | 0 Comments

Title:  “I am the Vine and Ye are the Branches”
(Arabic: “ana al-karma wa-antum al-agh-saan”)
Medium:  Silhouette paper-cut in iridescent green paper. Cut by hand using a scalpel.
Dimensions:  Framed size: N/A Unframed: 50 x 30 cm.
Date:  June 2010
Comments:  This piece incorporates the Arabic translation of Christ’s words: “I am the Vine and Ye are the Branches” (Gospel of John, 15:5), rendered in a floral kufic style of Arabic script. (Arabic pronunciation guide: ana al-karma wa-antum al-agh-saan)

The vine symbolises the flowing ‘sap’ or ‘lifeblood’ (energy) that nourishes the ‘tree of life’ (cosmos). Every one of us is a tiny branch on the vine. Christ, as the ‘vine’, connects us back to the source of life.
It is perhaps not immediately obvious that Dionysos, the Greek god of wine (or Bacchus, his Roman equivalent) springs from the same symbolic tradition as Christ. Dionysos similarly represents the raw potent lifeblood or energy of the universe, though in a wilder, untamed form. This energy manifests through the vine in the endless fractals of its curling fronds and tendrils, and through the grape in its abundant sweetness. When the energy is transformed further into wine, it releases the human inhibitions, sometimes to the point of revelry, violence, and uncontrollable passion. Metaphorically, however, intoxication is a path to liberation, which notion gives rise to the so-called “wine of the mystics”. The God-intoxicated mystic is one who is ‘drunk’ with the ecstasy of divine union, often to the point of being totally oblivious to the material world.

http://www.loiscordelia.com/silh_iamthevine.htm

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