In the heart of the Mediterranean winter, when the other trees are still bare, the almond suddenly covers itself in white and pink blossom. It flowers before its leaves, before all others, often while the cold has not yet passed. This earliness has made the almond one of the great symbols of watchfulness, of promise and of life that overcomes winter.
The tree that watches
The biblical tradition contains one of the most famous plays on words in the plant world. At the start of the book of Jeremiah, the Lord asks the prophet what he sees. Jeremiah replies: "I see a branch of an almond tree". And the Lord answers that he has seen well, for he is "watching" over his word to perform it.
In Hebrew the almond is called shaqed, and the verb "to watch" shares the same root: shoqed. The almond is, literally, the tree that watches, the first to wake from winter sleep. Its early flowering thus becomes the sign of an attentive divine presence that does not sleep.
Aaron's rod
The book of Numbers tells an episode of great symbolic force. After a dispute over the leadership of the people, each of the twelve tribes of Israel lays a rod in the tent of meeting, bearing the name of its chief. The next morning, the rod of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, has sprouted: it has put forth buds, produced blossoms and borne ripe almonds.
The wonder confirms Aaron's choice for the priesthood. A dry stick, long dead, returns to life and passes in a single night through the plant's whole cycle: bud, flower, fruit. The flowering rod becomes a symbol of election and of life reborn from barren wood.
The menorah
The almond also appears in the description of the seven-branched lampstand, the menorah, in the book of Exodus. The cups holding the lamps are to be shaped like almond blossoms, with bud and corolla. The light of the sanctuary thus rests, symbolically, on the flowers of the watchful tree.
Phyllis and Demophon
Greek mythology knows a love story tied to the almond. Phyllis, a princess of Thrace, fell in love with Demophon, son of Theseus, on his way home from the Trojan War. The young man left, promising to return, but was delayed. Phyllis, believing herself abandoned, died of grief, and the gods turned her into a bare almond tree.
When Demophon at last returned and embraced the tree, the almond burst into blossom, as if Phyllis were answering his embrace. The tale joins the almond to waiting, to faithfulness and to a love that overcomes death.
Another myth, reported by Pausanias, tells that the mother of the young Phrygian Attis conceived him after placing an almond in her bosom: here the almond is tied to a miraculous birth.
The mandorla in sacred art
In medieval Christian art the almond's shape gave its name to a precise iconographic element: the mandorla, the pointed oval aureole that surrounds the whole figure of Christ in glory, or sometimes the Virgin. It is found on Romanesque portals, in frescoes and mosaics.
The mandorla represents a light that enfolds the sacred figure and sets it apart from ordinary space. Its shape, born from the intersection of two circles, has been read as the meeting of heaven and earth, of divine and human.
The almond in blossom
The almond's blossoming has always been an image of hope. Vincent van Gogh painted in 1890 a famous picture of flowering almond branches against a blue sky, as a gift for the birth of his nephew: a sign of new life. In Sicily, at Agrigento, the almond blossom is celebrated with a festival that each year welcomes the end of winter.
Symbolic reading
Maestro Cornelio invites us to see the almond as an image of watchful consciousness: what in us stays awake even in the time of darkness and is the first to recognise the signs of renewal.
| Element | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Early blossoming | Watchfulness, courage, promise |
| Jeremiah's shaqed | The divine that watches |
| Aaron's rod | Election, life from dry wood |
| Menorah | Light resting on the flower |
| Phyllis | Waiting, faithfulness, love beyond death |
| Mandorla | Glory, meeting of heaven and earth |
In short
- The almond blossoms first, in the heart of winter, before its leaves.
- In Hebrew its name recalls the verb "to watch", as Jeremiah shows.
- Aaron's rod blossomed and bore almonds in a single night.
- In Greek myth Phyllis, turned into an almond tree, blossoms at her beloved's embrace.
- The mandorla of sacred art surrounds the figure of Christ in glory.
