The Garden of the Ocas

One of the curiosities that make a visit to the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona constitutes an enriching recreational-cultural experience, is the new Garden of the Ocas - and I clarify the novelty, not because it is new or recent, but because I have no record of any another place of its characteristics that possesses it - that every visitor can contemplate as an added attraction that complements the visit to the cloister of the cathedral.

A cathedral and a cloister, in addition, where the art lover will find a small treasure with which to relax, immersed in those peculiarities that authors like Fulcanelli branded argóticas - for its convoluted symbolism and given to multiple interpretations - and architects like Antonio Gaudí considered incomplete and liked to study, especially in those exponents on whose ruin nature added a touch of nostalgic romanticism: the Gothic.

Anyone who has done or simply heard, read or commented on the Way of the Stars, Way of the Milky Way or Camino de Santiago, will appreciate, even in a symbolic and comparative way, the importance that the game of the goose has implicit for the pilgrim and remember box number 64, the last stage or goal of such an ancient and fascinating game, realizing that the garden that is represented on the board is, after all, very similar to this other and perhaps, also, to that of Gnostic meanings much deeper still-of which CG was well nourished Jung- where they located the abode of Sophia, Wisdom.

Count that divine treasure that is the Tradition, that the thirteen ocas - not one more, not one less - that there is in the garden, do not constitute a whim of the canons that one day, you will know why, they decided to increase the symbolism of the cathedral with such an attractive element, but, on the contrary, the thirteen ocas - in the background it makes sense, because the goose, like the dog, the wolf or the horse have a chthonic aspect as guards, guides or conductors of souls to the other world- would correspond, in reality, with the thirteen wounds suffered during his martyrdom, by Saint Eulalia, Patroness of Barcelona.

Not Merida, which curiously is usually represented with a bovine at his feet and had and retained a memory very widespread by the Principality of Asturias, being the nexus of union, possibly, the livestock transhumance that the Asturian herders had with Extremadura, but another martyr -although, who knows, considering how paradoxical is the world of symbolism and the many surprises that it contains-, that unlike the former, it is always represented with an aspend cross or cross of Saint Andrew, coincidentally identical to the one also, According to some authors, they carried the Knights Templar who fought with the rebel William Wallace - Mel Gibson played it, in the movie Braveheart - in the famous Battle of Bannockburn, once the Order dissolved and refugees in Scotland.

And an added curiosity: do you know how a goose sleeps? A lame leg.

Related movie:

NOTICE: this post was originally published in my blog MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM, although the present entry, is corrected and enlarged in part, being unpublished photographs. Both these, as the text, and the video (except music, reproduced under license of YouTube), are my exclusive intellectual property. In addition, this Steemit entry is linked to the blog, as can be seen at the following address: https://jc347.blogspot.com.es/2014/12/catedral-de-barcelona-el-jardin-de- la.html