Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic - John Matthews - Страница 398

The cockerel’s distinctive and raucous dawn crowing has made it a symbol throughout the world of regeneration and return. In Japan, Shinto belief sees the cockerel’s call as the call to prayer. The bird is often portrayed standing upon a drum in temple architecture. It was the cockerel who called the goddess Amaterasu out of her cave, whence she retired as the world lost its light. Cockerels are given the run of Shinto temples as sacred birds because of this.

In Islamic tradition, when Allah was creating the sky, he created a huge cockerel whose feet were upon the first sphere of heaven and whose head was in the seventh heaven where stands the Ultimate Mosque, Masjid al Aqsa, which is just below the throne of Allah. Every night, Allah creates 70,000 new angels to worship him in that mosque. One utters the call to prayer while it is still dark on Earth, and at the same moment the cockerel crows. This crowing is the call to prayer for all cockerels upon Earth who immediately call that the day is dawned. On the last day, the heavenly cockerel will crow for the last time and that will be the signal for the announcing angel to command that the dead rise up.

In Christian iconography, the cockerel is the bird whose cry announces the betrayal of Christ by St Peter when he denied that he knew his Lord. But it has remained a symbol of vigilance against evil and is often found as a weathervane on church towers. In Indonesia, the image of a cock and his hen are found in every home for their presence will stave off marital disputes and ensure faithfulness. A similar tradition is found in Judaism where the cock and hen are emblems of the groom and bride at weddings. In Chinese religion, the cockerel’s name was a word signifying luck. The white cockerel protects the innocent against evil spirits and ensures the purity of new life overcoming death, while the red cock is a guardian against fire. In Scandinavian mythology, the gold cock Vithafmir lived at the top of the cosmic world tree Yggdrasil. In the underworld, the red cock Fralar lives in Valhalla ready to waken heroes for the last days of world or Ragnorok.

The cockerel is commonly sacrificed, as in the rites of Rome where they were offered to the lares, the spirits of the house. In the rites of voudoun, the blood of the cockerel is used to open the way to the Otherworld in sacrifice. In Buddhism, the cockerel is a symbol of carnality and pride, and with the pig and snake, is depicted upon the mandala of samsara (the weary round of existences) as one of the passions that prevents one reaching nirvana or enlightenment. (See Sacrificial animals.)