| In the same way as the pre-Hispanic pyramid, the Christian cloister was a sacred center or microcosm. It represented the Celestial Jerusalem, the new world described in the Apocalypse, that has in its center an omphalos (cosmic navel) indicated by a well, tree, fountain, or column. There is where the Axis Mundi (axis of the world) passes as a kind of celestial stairway that connects the cosmic levels of the divine Upper and Under worlds with the human surface of the earth. The Romanesque and Gothic cloisters of Europe with religious narratives carved in the capitals or painted in the walls, were the inspiration for the Mexican monasteries which practically functioned as illustrated books for meditation and prayer of the monks. |
