The fascinating symbolic universe of Noya: Santa María a Nova

'When Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man on the earth was great, and that all the designs of his heart were always perverse, Yahweh repented that he had made man on the earth, he ached in his heart and said: "I am going to sweep from the face of the earth to the man whom I have created, from man to domestic animals, and even to reptiles, and the birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. " But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh ... '.
[Genesis, 5, 6]

'The sons of Noah out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Cam is the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah and from them the whole earth was populated ... '.
[Genesis, 8, 18]

Does Noya's story begin here and a good part of that ancestral mystery, consigned in an unusual collection of laudas, that lie abandoned with disdain, in its great majority, in the cemetery attached to the church of Santa María a Nova ?. What is hidden, in reality, behind that abysmal Protohistory in front of which modern historians feel a vertigo or terror similar to the one supposedly felt by medieval sailors when they went beyond the Columns of Hercules and the known sea? Who was, in fact, that mysterious character called Ioan de Estivadas, whose sensational sepulcher occupies a pre-eminent place inside the church of Santa María a Nova and why, no less relevant and mysterious coincidence, his wife, María Oanes, leads the name of that enigmatic being who, according to Mesopotamian mythology, left the sea every day to teach men the rudiments of civilization ?.

Is there any relationship with that other oriental character, anonymous for more signs, whose tomb is also inside a Christian church, San Francisco de Betanzos, which rises, a few meters from another no less interesting church that carries the relevant name of Santa Maria del Azogue, in the place where it is supposed that the Order of the Temple had an important task ?. Is there any kind of relationship between the cows seen in the front of the Estivadas tomb and that other cyclic cow that can be seen above the grave of a Dona of the Pardo de Aguiar family, who, like the anonymous Oriental character at which was previously referred to, also rests in the church of San Francisco, in Betanzos ?. Is the same María Oanes, also related to wine, the one that appears precisely in the testament of Lopo Núñez Pardo ?. What is special about this small coastal town of Noya, which rises approximately halfway between Santiago de Compostela and Finisterre?

Noya, obviously, is the great Incognita; the little Axis Mundi on which, for reasons that for now escape us, the Tradition not only found refuge, but also source in which, apparently, satiated their thirst for knowledge, not only stonemasons and guilds, but also individuals who they went in search of an hermetic initiation, part of whose fragments barely survive between dust and oblivion. That is why, no doubt, for all lovers of the Symbol, it constitutes Paradise; but, paradoxically, and although it seems an exaggeration, also its descent into hell.

And even then, it is difficult, if not impossible, not to be subjugated by that forbidden fruit, knowing in advance, that every answer that apparently arises from the infinite cycle of questions that one poses hardly puts the feet inside this temple, qualified , everything said in passing, like typical marinheiras influences (1), are not, but, mere speculations; just fragmentary ends of an extraordinary skein whose true heart is lost in the innumerable labyrinths of History. Some threads and a History that, as one gets involved -or at least, tries to get involved- is presenting not only an infinity of symbols, but also a series of characters, which may or may not be related, but which undoubtedly they will attract a lot of attention, to the point of trying to find some kind of connection where, who knows, after all, nothing exists.

I think it would be a mistake, trying to derive the enigma, only and exclusively to the sphere of influence of this church from Santa Maria to Nova, ignoring a detail, relevant, as can be, likewise, the magnificent church of San Martiño, where it is supposed that worked, if not the own Teacher Mateo, yes close relatives who, apparently, followed the canteril tradition of the family. A church, and a cover, the west or main, which is a wonderful work of art, in which, in addition, in view of certain characters, like the angel who plays his trumpet, we could imply -by allusion and similarity-, even to that predecessor of the latter, Maestro Esteban: precisely the one who erected the magnificent and at the same time enigmatic cover of Platerías of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and also, the old Romanesque portal that was replaced by the Portico de la Gloria.

But not only there are interesting keys referring to the most important monuments that can be visited in a city like Noya, especially in regard to its most representative temples. We must also look at their oldest houses, the winks that some remains still make us, at the end of the centuries, and where the dog -which not only appears in the tombs, including that of Ioan de Estivadas, but also surprisingly tied by a chain to certain noble coats of arms, and he was not only a companion of mystery saints and roadmen, but also of the Son of Thunder himself - and those little chapels or chapels that, like San Antón, have still lost their original message - I wonder, what keys would not show their missing paintings - they reunite, in such a small place, relevant characters directly related to the mystery, knowledge and the Way of the Stars.

Santa María a Nova and its impressive collection of laudas - I would not say sepulchral, because, apparently, none was used for that purpose, although they were reused for it, centuries later - although important, it is not, although a priori it seems, the Noya's fundamental enigma, but, in my opinion, only part of a great mosaic, which made Noya a center of initiation of the first magnitude. And that is precisely what I intend to develop in the next entries.

Notes:

(1) In this regard, it does not stop calling my attention, the similarity, comparatively speaking, between the shape of the interior of this church of Santa María a Nova and that one, on a smaller scale, of course, which characterizes what is known as the crypt or Forno da Santa, in the Ourense town of Santa Mariña de Augas Santas. Its relation with water, or with a teaching derived from it, also seems evident.

Related video:

NOTICE: originally published in my blog TRAS LAS HUELLAS DE LOS MEDIEVALES, although the photographs shown here are unpublished. Both the text, as the photographs, and the video (with the exception of music, reproduced under the license of YouTube) are my absolute intellectual property. The original entry, which is linked to Steemit (talentclub), can be found at the following address: https://canterosmedievales.blogspot.com.es/2013/09/el-fascinante-universo-simbolico-de.html

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