Chinese Taoist
symbolism revered the dragon as a spirit of "the Way", bringing
eternal changes. It was shown coiling among clouds, revealing only
parts of itself. Often the dragon was the guardian of the Flaming
Pearl (spiritual perfection).
In Moslem mythology,
paradise is a pearl representing complete sexual
fulfillment. Each blessed hero will live after death with his
houri in a mass of pearls; male and female will join together as a perfect
"spherical man," or androgyne, signifying the
Pearls of Wisdom that used to mean perfect knowledge of the Goddess.
Because of these connotations of male-female
combination, it was often said that pearls are formed of male
fire and female waters. Another,
more poetic, tradition said pearls are formed by the merging of water and
moonlight.
Pearls were sacred to Aphrodite Marina as Pearl of the sea, who was vaguely Christianized as the mythical Saint Margaret ("Pearl") via several different legends. The most popular of these held that Margaret was a former priestess of Aphrodite, a wealthy sacred harlot who suddenly turned Christian and gave all her property to the church. In other words, she was the Goddess converted. But Aphrodite's "pearly gate," the symbolic yoni leading to her sexual paradise, also became a Christian tradition. (That gives a whole new meaning to the pearly gates of heaven! - F. P,)
Taken from 'The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects' by Barbara G. Walker Harper Collins 1988.
