The Ox
The Ox (Bos taurus) is a mature, trained castrated male bovine often used as a draft animal for heavy farm and transport work. An Ox is not a separate species or breed, but rather a role or job title.
Training is the most critical factor; an untrained steer is not an Ox. Oxen are quite intelligent animals who learn voice commands easily and work well in pairs, or larger teams connected by a yoke. Oxen traditionally have horns like Bulls, which help anchor their yoke and assist with body heat regulation.
Oxen are herbivores, they eat grass, hay, and grains, utilizing strong teeth to process tough plant matter. They need proper hoof care for their cloven hooves and physical conditioning to prevent over-fattening or exhaustion.
In a previous Essay regarding our bovine archetype, we investigated the characteristics relating to the wild Bull, especially in relation to the Divine Man in the Underworld, or Lower Ages. In this Essay we will now look to his stoic and reliable counterpart the Ox. As previously explained, these two archetypes represent the two sides of the Divine Man.
Now this Essay pertains to the Ox as opposed to the Bull, the difference being the Bull is wild, the Ox is a bovine under the yoke, meaning it is a domesticated work animal that pulls a plough in a field and has a master. You can not have an intact male Bull working on the field, because Bulls are unpredictable and still completely controlled by their instincts.
Now that is not to say that the Ox archetype is a negative, in fact symbolically it is an absolute positive when applied to the Divine Man, because he is now the master of himself, the inner beast has been brought to yoke. This iconography of the Divine Man slaying the beast, can be seen in the mythos connected to the Bull all around the world.
However the Divine Man who has returned to himself, is also aware that he serves One much greater than himself, his Creator, and he does so willingly as he understands not only the divine gifts this brings, but the responsibilities he has also been endowed with.
With that in mind, I do suggest the well studied student will benefit from reading the previous Essay regarding archetype of The Bull, and to those who have done as much, let's now begin our exploration of the archetypal symbol of the gracious and dependable Ox.
I think the best place to start is with one of the most well known symbols in Christian Iconography, and that is the symbol of the Winged Ox being among one of the Four Living Creatures. In this context the Winged Ox relates to the Yellow Race of Divine Man, and when in relation to the 12 Tribes of Israel, they are represented by the Tribe of Ephraim
The Vision of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:10), is an allegorical story about a prophet exiled to Babylon, Babylon is symbolic for the Underworld. This prophet Ezekiel sees a supernatural storm out of which emerges four angelic beings. Each individual being has four distinct faces: a Man (Angel), a Lion, an Eagle, and there is an Ox on the left side. Ezekiel explicitly notes: "In appearance their form was human."
The Four Living Creatures are said to not possess independent magical power of their own. Instead, they are a conduit for the divine power of the Shekinah, the raw, uncreated glory of God's presence. When they act, like unleashing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it is said they are executing the absolute, sovereign decrees of God.
The Four Creatures directly correspond to Four Scribes: St John - Eagle, St Mark - Winged Lion, St Matthew - Winged Man, and St Luke is related to the Winged Ox.
There is a well known medieval Legend regarding Saint Luke, called The Divine Studio Light, it was said that he was the first person to paint a portrait of the Virgin Mary. According to the Christian folklore, Luke’s studio was cramped and dimly lit. Rather than have to use lots of smokey candles to light the room, the wings of his companion Ox began to emit a soft, golden aura. This supernatural light perfectly illuminated the canvas, allowing Luke to capture Mary’s likeness with divine precision.
Furthermore, Eastern Orthodox folklore claims that when Luke painted the Hodegetria icon, from the Greek Odēgḗtria, translating to "She Who Shows the Way" or "The Directress", the Holy Spirit descended into the room, causing Luke’s face to radiate a brilliant light that temporarily blinded an unexpected visitor who peeked through the door.
In the tradition of medieval Christian folklore, the scriptorium oral lore stories were told of scribes who had visions of the Gospel authors while copying manuscripts. This was just another way they could encode more symbolic allegories around the archetype of the story.
One of these scriptorium oral lore stories, called "The Vision of the Floating Evangelist" tells of a young monk who stayed up past midnight copying the Gospel of Luke. Exhausted, he looked up and saw Saint Luke standing over him, shrouded in a bright, fiery Mandorla (a full-body aura of light).
Beside the floating saint was the winged Ox, its horns shining like polished gold, nodding in approval at the monk's hard work. In Christian iconography the the radiating Mandorla is also often attached to the symbol of the vesica piscis, however the two relate entirely different divine operations. The Mandorla relates to the divine transfiguration iconography, the vesica piscis to the divine operation of creation.
In Christian theology, to gain a Mandorla (full body aura) is the ultimate spiritual destination where the Divine Soul becomes a living, breathing tabernacle of God's Uncreated Light.
Like a Sword resting in the heart of a blacksmith's forge, the Divine Soul has become so thoroughly saturated by the Creator's divine energy that it radiates God's exact same eternal, boundless power back out into the cosmos.
The Greek Word for this mirroring back of divine energy, is Katoptrizomenoi, spiritually, it's a product of Theosis. This is not an external practice like meditation, prayer, or diet, it's living the decree, it's the practical process of polishing the human soul until it's pure enough to radiate the divine light back into the cosmos. It's literally the transition from a Soul only looking at God externally, to actually radiating God from within.
On a day-to-day spiritual level, for the Mortal Human, Theosis starts as a slow, hidden process of transfiguration. Every time you choose forgiveness over bitterness, every time you choose humility over pride, and every time you quietly serve someone who cannot repay you, a microscopic flash of the Uncreated Light sparks inside you. It does this also in a Divine Soul, but their immortality does not depend upon it, as does the Mortal Soul.
I think we've covered the Christian theological archetype of this regal beast quite thoroughly at this point, so let's look to another mythos well known for the Ox, the Chinese Zodiac Calendar.
The Ox is the second animal in the 12-year zodiac cycle. In the myth of the Great Race, the kind and hardworking Ox agreed to carry a trickster Rat across a river. Just as they reached the other side, the Rat jumped off ahead of the Ox, making the Rat first and the Ox second.
Then we have the Chinese Folklore of the The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. It begins that once upon a time, there was a kind and hardworking young orphan named Niulang (the Cowherd). He was mistreated by his cruel elder brother and sister-in-law, who kicked him out of the house with nothing but an old, sickly Ox.
Note he is an orphan, the Story Writers will often use this in thier allegories to symbolise he was not of their bloodline, or ancestry.
Niulang took great care of the Ox, feeding it the freshest grass. Unbeknownst to him, this was no ordinary animal and he would be repaid for his kindness, it was the Gold Star Ox, a celestial deity banished to Earth for breaking a heavenly rule.
One day, the old Ox suddenly spoke to Niulang. It told him that the Seven Fairy Daughters of the Goddess of Heaven were coming down to Earth to bathe in a nearby magical lake. Among them was Zhinü (the Weaver Girl), the most beautiful and talented sister, who wove the vibrant, seamless clouds of the evening sky.
The Ox instructed Niulang to go to the lake and take Zhinü’s magical red robe, without which she could not fly back to Heaven. Niulang followed the advice. When the fairies finished bathing, they all put on their robes and flew away—except for Zhinü, who couldn't find hers. Niulang stepped out from the trees and returned her robe. When their eyes met, they fell instantly in love. Zhinü, was tired of the strict and repetitive duties in Heaven, and she decided to stay on Earth.
Niulang and Zhinü married and lived in blissful harmony. Niulang tilled the fields while Zhinü wove beautiful fabrics to support the family. Within a few years, they were blessed with a beautiful son and a daughter. However, time moves much faster in Heaven than on Earth. Before long, the Goddess of Heaven (or the Queen Mother) noticed Zhinü’s absence.
Looking down, she saw her granddaughter married to a mere mortal, which violated the sacred laws of the universe. Furious, the Goddess descended to Earth with celestial soldiers and dragged Zhinü back to Heaven in chains.
Niulang returned home to find his children crying and his wife gone. Devastated, he wept bitterly. At that moment, his loyal old Ox spoke to him one last time. The Ox was dying of old age and told Niulang, "After I pass away, skin my hide. If you put it on, it will allow you to fly into Heaven to find your wife."
With a heavy heart, Niulang fulfilled the Ox's final wish. He put on the magical hide, placed his two young children into wicker baskets balanced on a shoulder yoke, and soared into the sky.
As he closed in on Zhinü, she reached out for him, crying tears of joy. But just as their fingers were about to touch, the Goddess of Heaven looked back and saw them. She pulled a golden hairpin from her hair and slashed it across the sky.
Instantly, a roaring, celestial river of stars appeared between them—the Milky Way. The current was impassable, trapping Niulang on one side and Zhinü on the other.
Separated by the cosmic river, the lovers wept day and night. Zhinü’s tears fell to Earth as heavy rain, and Niulang’s desperate cries echoed through the stars. Their pure, unwavering devotion deeply moved the creatures of the Earth. Pitying the tragic couple, millions of magpies flew up into the sky.
They locked their wings together, claw to claw, forming a massive, living bridge across the silver river. Seeing this, even the strict Goddess of Heaven relented slightly. She decreed that on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, Niulang and Zhinü would be allowed to cross the magpie bridge to meet for just one single night.
If you look up at the night sky during mid-summer, you can see the two lovers. Niulang is the star Altair (with two smaller stars beside him representing his children), and Zhinü is the bright star Vega, they are said to be forever gazing at each other across the Milky Way waiting for their time to reunite.
The well studied student will have identified this Chinese myth has many parallels the Chinese Legend from the Peacock Essay. In the Peacock myth it also relays that the youngest Peacock Princess of Seven Sisters has her magical Peacock Cloak stolen by a young prince who has fallen in love with her and does not want her to fly away.
Furthermore, the well studied student can also identify the skin of an animal being used to transfer the power of the magic Ox to the human wearer. In Norse mythology, mortal humans were permanently locked into their physical "Hamr" skin, only divine beings could alter their outer form.
When the god's Hamr was replaced by the Hamr of an animal, it granted the wearer of the Hamr, the animal's characteristics, such as acute vision, strength, and aerodynamics, this is denoting the Divine Soul once again has access to their "Seiðr", divine skills and abilities.
In other parable regarding the Divine Male's fall from grace is the Legend of the Jade Emperor's Message. The story begins with the Jade Emperor sending the Ox down from heaven with an important message for humans. The message the Ox was to deliver to them was that they were commanded to eat a full meal only once every three days.
However along the way, the well-meaning Ox forgot the divine decree. The Ox instead told humans they should eat three times every single day. When the Jade Emperor discovered that humans now expected to be fed three times a day, he was furious.
Because it was now impossible for humans to survive on just once every three days without starving them based on the new promise, the Ox was cast down from the heavenly palace to live a life of hard labor on Earth, helping humans plow the fields to grow all that extra food.
Then we have the Tao Legend of Laozi and the Purple Ox, which is the foundational myth linking the Ox directly to the birth of Taoism and Zen philosophy. The Legend begins that the ancient Sage Laozi, grew incredibly old, he became deeply disillusioned with the corruption and chaos of society.
He decided to leave civilization behind forever and walk into the western wilderness to live out his days in solitude. He didn't walk on foot, nor did he ride a flashy warhorse. Instead, he chose to ride a placid, steady purple Ox.
Meanwhile, a wise border guard named Yinxi was standing watch at the Hangu Pass—the final gateway leading out of China into the wild western mountains. Yinxi was a master of reading the stars and the atmosphere. One morning, he looked toward the east and saw a brilliant, glowing purple mist rolling over the horizon.
In Chinese mythology, purple signifies deep divinity, ultimate wisdom, and the presence of an immortal. Yinxi knew a great master was approaching. Soon enough, the slow, rhythmic thud-thud of hooves echoed through the pass.
Out of a purple mist emerged an old man with long white eyebrows, sitting backwards on the back of a massive, peaceful Ox.
Yinxi rushed out and blocked the path. He bowed low and refused to let the old Sage pass unless he left behind his wisdom for the world. "If you cross these mountains, your knowledge will be lost forever," Yinxi pleaded. "Please, write it down."
Laozi smiled. He dismounted his Ox, sat by the gateway, and over the course of a few days, penned a short book of only 5,000 characters. That book was the Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way and its Virtue), which eventually became the absolute bedrock of Taoist and Zen mysticism.
Once he finished, Laozi climbed back onto his purple Ox. Without a single word, the Ox turned toward the sunset, carried the Sage into the misty mountains, and to this day neither of them have ever been seen again.
In the Japanese mythos pantheon, the Ox symbol is connected to their kami/god Tenjin, he is the Shinto god of scholarship and learning and is directly connected to the divine scholar Sugawara no Michizane.
There is a Legend that says that after Tenjin died, the Ox pulling his funeral cart suddenly lay down and refused to move any further. Believing this was a divine sign, they buried him right there (which became Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine).
In this Japanese Legend the Akabeko (The Red Ox of Fukushima), it relays that in the 9th century, a temple named Enzō-ji was being built in Yanaizu. The construction was incredibly difficult, and the workers were struggling to carry massive timber logs up a steep mountain.
Suddenly, a herd of mythical Red Oxen appeared from nowhere to help carry the heavy loads. It wad said, the leader of the herd, a magnificent huge red Ox, refused to leave the temple grounds after construction finished, becoming a symbol of strength and devotion.
This deeply introspective short Medieval Aesopic Lore, called the The Oxen and the Butchers, is of Divine Man losing his position and accepting his fate. The Tale was heavily preserved in 12th-to-14th-century European fable collections (such as those by Marie de France and Walter of England).
The allegorical Tale begins with a group of Oxen, tired of seeing their brothers fattened and led away to the slaughterhouse, gather to plot an uprising. They sharpen their horns and resolve to kill all the local butchers to end the violence against their kind.
However, a very wise Ox, who had spent his entire life patiently plowing the Lord's fields—steps forward to stop them. He warns: "If we kill these skilled butchers, humans will still want beef.
Instead of professional butchers who kill us quickly with a swift, experienced hand, humans will just hire clumsy, unskilled laborers who will butcher us poorly and cause us twice the agony. No, let us bear our fate rather than invite worse torment."
And another very telling medieval Tale about Peter the Talking Ox of the North, the well studied student would do well to identify the allegorical meaning of the Ox being transformed into a Roman Catholic Pope.
Once upon a time a peasant and his wife, had no children, so the years went by and they became richer and richer, but there was no one to inherit their wealth. The peasant couple decided to buy a red calf named Peter. The Ox is remarkably calm and seems to understand everything they say, leading the peasant couple to believe he is an absolute genius.
The peasant couple astounded by the abilities of their Ox, take it to the local parish clerk and pays a massive sum of gold to have the clerk teach the Ox how to speak human language. However, the corrupt clerk instead takes the money, hides the Ox in his barn, fattens him up, before secretly slaughtering him and selling the meat.
When the peasant couple return for a progress report, the clerk says: "Peter learned so fast that he mastered Latin, left for Rome, and has just been elected Pope!"
The ecstatic peasants believing the story travel all the way to Rome, where they see the real Pope sitting on his litter. Seeing the red face of the pope they proclaim loudly that the pope's red face is proof that Peter the Ox had transformed.
So the underlying communication in this "funny" little story is actually a warning that is probably missed on most, the Pope, has now become the Ox through ill gotten gains.
Now let's look to our Celtic Story Tellers and see how they have embellished their Tales with this majestic creature. In Welsh mythology the Ychain Bannog (also spelled Yr Ychen Bannog) are mythical, giant Oxen with huge, long horns that are known for their immense strength and legendary feats that shaped the Welsh landscape.
The hero Hu Gadarn (Hu the Mighty) used the Ychain Bannog Ox, to pull a terrifying lake monster called the Afanc out of its hiding place in the enchanted lake of Llyn Llion. Because the beast was so heavy and dangerous, the mighty Oxen had to hook their long horns onto the monster and drag it out onto dry land, saving the countryside from its destruction.
In other Welsh Folklore they link the Oxen to a magical, freckled cow (Y Fuwch Frech) that lived on a hill ridge called Cefn Bannog. People in need could milk this magical cow into any size pail, and no matter how much milk was taken, her pail-filling supply could never be emptied. She was said to be the mother of the great Ychain Bannog the Ox.
Milk is universal symbol for the celestial condensation of divine manna that flows directly from the maternal breast of the Heavenly Mother/Father. It is an endless flow of the pure, unadulterated mental essence that sustains all life in the created Universe.
In Hindu cosmology, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk (Samudra Manthan) is a monumental myth recounted in their ancient texts like the Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana, and the Mahabharata. It describes how the gods (Devas) and demons (Asuras) briefly paused their eternal warfare to collaborate on a cosmic scale.
The story begins when the Devas lose their divine strength and fortune due to a curse. To restore their supremacy, they must retrieve Amrita (the nectar of immortality), which lies hidden at the bottom of the Kshira Sagara (the cosmic Ocean of Milk). Because the task is too massive for the gods alone, they strike a truce with their rivals, the Asuras, promising them an equal share of the elixir.
To churn the infinite, milky depths, they use Mount Mandara as the central churning rod and Vasuki, the great King of Serpents, as the churning rope wrapped around the mountain. As they tug the Snake back and forth, the churning process goes on for millennia.
However, before the sweet elixir emerges, the ocean has to release Halahala, a lethal, burning poison capable of destroying all creation. Lord Shiva compassionately drinks the poison to save the universe, holding it in his throat, which turns it a permanent, iconic blue.
From the churning foam, the ocean miraculously manifested fourteen sacred treasures (Ratnas). This culminated in the magnificent arrival of Dhanvantari bearing the prize of immortality.
Lets get back to our noble and magnificent Ox in this story of St. Brigid of Kildare. In this legend, a poor farmer had his only Ox confiscated by a greedy local chieftain. Brigid blessed the farmer's land, and a pair of glowing, supernatural Oxen appeared out of the mist to plow his fields for him, performing a week's worth of heavy labor in a single afternoon.
In the Book of the Dead, the Golden Age is depicted as Aaru (The Field of Reeds), a flawless, celestial version of the Nile Delta. The ultimate spiritual reward for a righteous Mortal soul was to live on this divine land with the gods. In these myths, the souls are shown standing behind a team of celestial Oxen who effortlessly plow fields of giant, golden grain, symbolising absolute nourishment and fulfillment in the Higher Ages of the gods.
So as the well studied student can identify, this archetype of the honorable Ox is not the chaotic and untamed archetype connected to the Bull and the Divine Souls in the Lower Ages.
I had wanted to include our reliable American Indian story tellers in this Essay however their mythos is wrapped around another beast, endemic to their region, the Bison. So in due course, I will endeavor to do an Essay into that magnificent beast too.
I do hope I have succeeded in relating the symbolic differences between the Bull and Ox, and how they relate to the Divine Man in the cycle of the Ages.
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