slightly changed metaphorically, as compared with the ancient conception of "unio mystica," as cohabitation with the god. Emmerich relates the following of her stigmatization:
"I had a contemplation of the sufferings of Christ, and implored
him to let me feel with him his sorrows, and prayed five
paternosters to the honor of the five sacred wounds. Lying on
my bed with outstretched arms, I entered into a great sweetness
and into an endless thirst for the torments of Jesus. Then I saw
a light descending upon me: it came obliquely from above. It
was a crucified body, living and transparent, with arms extended,
but without a cross. The wounds shone brighter than the body;
they were five circles of glory, coming forth from the whole glory.
I was enraptured and my heart was moved with great pain and
yet with sweetness from longing to share in the torments of my
Saviour. And my longings for the sorrows of the Redeemer
increased more and more on gazing on his wounds, and passed
from my breast, through my hands, sides and feet to his holy
wounds: then from the hands, then from the sides, then from
the feet of the figure threefold shining red beams ending below
in an arrow, shot forth to my hands, sides and feet."
The beams, in accordance with the phallic fundamental
thought, are threefold, terminating below in an arrow-point.[28]
Like Cupid, the sun, too, has its quiver, full of
destroying or fertilizing arrows, sun rays,[29] which possess
phallic meaning. On this significance evidently rests the
Oriental custom of designating brave sons as arrows and
javelins of the parents. "To make sharp arrows" is an
Arabian expression for "to generate brave sons." The
Psalms declare (cxxvii:4):
"Like as the arrows in the hands of the giant; even so are the
young children."
