Comments on: The Mercy Seat. Mapping out a Multifaceted Iconography.

The Mercy Seat. Mapping out a Multifaceted Iconography.

jann — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:32:26 -0800

The Mercy Seat. Described in the book of Exodus, the throne of mercy has quite a variety of meanings. Some contemporary Christians are interested in "reconstructing" an image based on Egyptian and Phoenician culture. In Judaism, the kisei rachamim is part of the narrative of Yom Kippur, as God moves from the seat of justice to the seat of compassion. In medieval Europe, and especially in Germany, the Gnadenstuhl was a perfect representation of the trinity, combining the cruxification, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit (usually a bird), into one image of mournful compassion. Nick Cave used the idea of the mercy seat as the frame for a song about murder, sin, capital punishment, and atonement/redemption, which was later covered by Johnny Cash (mp3 clip). The chair of mercy is even visually alluded to Jodorowsky's Montana Sacra, aka Holy Mountain. (Which have been inspired in part by the Ascended Masters of Mount Shasta, but that's technically another story - the bizarro California cultists story.)

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:38:24 -0800

Sorry...what??? The perfect representation of The Trinity is some old dude on a throne, with a crucified midget-man between his knees, presumably His Tiny Son, The Saviour Of Mankind, with a bird jammed in at an angle into His Head? I do not have the words to express how unbelievably fucked up that is.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:43:17 -0800

"And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you." Such detailed instructions. God sounds like a gay man speaking to his interior designer. Nice post jann.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:46:07 -0800

Nick Cave's *The Mercy Seat* was written & recorded when he was in the midst of heroin addiction. I would argue that the song is about heroin more than anything else. Into the mercy seat I climb My head is shaved, my head is wired And like a moth that tries To enter the bright eye I go shuffling out of life Just to hide in death awhile

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:50:54 -0800

Nick Cave neophytes say "WHAT?" Nice post jann.

By: jann

jann — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:52:08 -0800

will it freak you out less, if it's by Botticelli? I agree, it's a strange image. But it was one of the main ways of depicting the concept of the trinity in the German world. If you do a google image search for "dreifaltigkeit" or "dreieinigkeit", you will find a mix of depictions, including among others the Gnadenstuhl as well as the disturbing triplicate Jesus face. Honestly, I think the Gnadenstuhl is preferable to that.

By: jann

jann — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:53:30 -0800

Ps: that comment was in response to Jon Mitchell.

By: Huw

Huw — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:57:45 -0800

Great post. No mercy seat on Steven Spielberg's ark, though!

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:01:33 -0800

Great, great post. So much there. Wow; Johnny Cash/Nick Cave, Egyptology, and The Sacred Mountain all in one post. I tip my hat to you, sir. Can we talk about Jodorowsky just a bit? Maybe about the end of The Sacred Mountain, where *SPOILER ALERT* the cameras pull back, revealing the lighting, crew, and microphone booms, and the director comes out of character and addresses the audience directly? The movie as a whole seemed a bit ponderous to me (though the shit/gold scene was funny, at least), but that ending struck me as just a perfect metaphor for the artistic process...

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:03:49 -0800

Jon Mitchell writes "The perfect representation of The Trinity is some old dude on a throne, with a crucified midget-man between his knees, presumably His Tiny Son, The Saviour Of Mankind, with a bird jammed in at an angle into His Head?

"I do not have the words to express how unbelievably fucked up that is." Take a look at this. I find it touching. Heartbreaking, even.

By: bcveen

bcveen — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:13:50 -0800

Nick Cave is good for this sort of thing. I'm trying to figure out how to work a mention of his song about Christina mirabilis into my medieval studies thesis ...

By: jann

jann — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:39:03 -0800

mr. roboto, re: Holy Mountain... that movie is definitely extremely ponderous, but it pays you back in hilarity. I mean, "Rub your clitoris against the mountain! Give yourself to the WORLD!" almost became my personal tagline for awhile... and man, it's rich in symbolism in the same way that an improvised childish "experiment" with condiments, liquids, ingredients, and a blender is rich in flavor.

By: jann

jann — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:02:27 -0800

oh I forgot: the throne of grace.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:12:13 -0800

Riffing on "Mercy Seat", go! "That's a funny thing to call your commode." "That's all I need to complete the set, I already have the Wrath Dresser, the Jealousy Endtable and the Charity Bed." "It's an ugly person's version of a love seat." Hm, only three jokes before I ran out of steam, I'm slipping.

By: bunglin jones

bunglin jones — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:33:20 -0800

I would argue that the song is about heroin more than anything else. That may well be the case, and it's certainly not an uncommon way of seeing that song, but "The Mercy Seat" was also written during Nick Cave's preparation for his role as a death row inmate in "Ghosts... of the Civil Dead". He was further developing a previously evident (see "Knockin' on Joe", on "The Firstborn is Dead" for example) interest in death row itself. Oh, and William Blake has this to say: Mutual Forgiveness of each vice, Such are the Gates of Paradise, Against the Accuser's chief desire, Who walk'd among the stones of fire. Jehovah's Finger wrote the Law; Then wept; then rose in zeal and awe, And the dead corpse, from Sinai's heat, Buried beneath His Mercy-seat. O Christians! Christians! tell me why You rear it on your altars high?

By: acrobat

acrobat — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:04:17 -0800

A perfect post. Excellent!

By: bim

bim — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:36:05 -0800

Interesting post. Thanks. When I hear talk of the trinity, recreating and rebuilding things mentioned in the old or new testament (temples, arks etc.) all I can think of is the theologian Rudolph Bultmann and his writings on demytholgizing the bible. In a similar vein, Thomas Jefferson decided to do a little editing of the bible to get to its essence without all the mythology. The result was the Jefferson Bible.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 06:30:24 -0800

nice post, jann! I've always been a fan of the Ultra Vivid Scene song Mercy Seat (circa '88) So bind me to the Mercy Seat and heal me I promise not to flinch and ring that bell as loud as you please it can only make me well there's only one way to bring a new day help me to recall I'm just a man and that's all I am

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 07:10:11 -0800

"The perfect representation of The Trinity is some old dude on a throne, with a crucified midget-man between his knees, presumably His Tiny Son, The Saviour Of Mankind, with a bird jammed in at an angle into His Head? I do not have the words to express how unbelievably fucked up that is." *facepalm* Forget it, Donny, you're out of your element.

By: kuperman

kuperman — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 08:52:12 -0800

Damn, someone beat me to the UVS reference!

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:05:04 -0800

I adore posts such as these. thanks.

By: Emotive Adamantium

Emotive Adamantium — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:06:34 -0800

I'm with Jon here. Taken as art it's lacking spirit. Taken as something spiritual it's lacking art. What you've got there is three hopelessly cliche pieces of one god's posse pie depicting procedural sectarianism colored by the stained glass of faux mercy. Really deep, yes, in the sense that the velvety gums of the Dionaea Muscipula may appear warm and inviting to a passing fly. Disturbing to the undeluded.

By: jann

jann — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:41:53 -0800

Here's another great collection of Gnadenstuhl depictions. Emotive, I don't know what standards you are using, but I find the Gnadenstuhl to be a fairly powerful devotional image, along the lines of the Man of Sorrows and more interesting to me than the more modern things like the Immaculate Heart.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:56:12 -0800

Dang, some of you have some real hang-ups. This thread is incredible. Thanks, linkers!

By: spock

spock — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:15:25 -0800

I do not have the words to express how unbelievably fucked up that is. That pretty much sums up the trinity doctrine for me. The sad thing is how many people think it is a scriptural teaching rather than what it is, a veiled attempt by the church of the third century to "christianize" earlier "extra-biblical" origins (some would insert the word "pagan") and thus broaden their appeal. See: http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/beliefs/trinity.htm Nice post, by the way.

By: bardic

bardic — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:01:10 -0800

Cool post jann.