This game that we have all played at one time or another, has always been an entertainment, although not always childish, because its scope is much higher than it appears. There is documented evidence from the late 16th century, although its origin is older; some authors say that it was the Templars who introduced the game to Europe, when it was already popular in Greece, based on the discovery of the disc of Phaistos in 1908 in the palace of Crete with an antiquity of 1,600 years BC, and although similar in appearance, its origin does not seem probable. Fulcanelli considered the game of the goose to be a popular sacred art. The discussion of what the symbolism of the game suggests will never end. It has been said that the game symbolizes the soul towards its access to paradise, but as any good symbol does not define it, only suggests. It could be a guide to the Camino de Santiago, or the expansion of Catharism from French Languedoc. On the map of northern Spain, we find places such as Nanclares de Oca, Valles de Oca, Villafranca de la Oca, Montes de Oca, or the place names derived from the Greek and Latin Anser (Oca) Ançares, Anson, etc. The goose is an iconographic element of a Gnostic character, represented in ancient Egypt by the god Geb, it was considered a symbol of the transmigration of the soul to the afterlife, a messenger between earth and heaven. In the game the squares are arranged in a spiral, the basic symbol of all Cosmogony and with seven consecutive segments each consisting of nine cells, making a total of 63, usual arrangement in Rosicrucian symbolism, box 64 and last unnumbered represents the garden of Eden, in numerical symbolism 6 + 4 = 10 symbol of the Unity from where all the manifested world is born. It is a trip of the outside of the manifested and temporary world, to the no manifested and timeless where the goose has led us. The squares symbolize the process that the being must carry out until reaching the final stage of life and achieving salvation, during which he must eliminate the imperfections represented by the various grotesque figures in the squares. The inflection points are seven. The bridge, representing the approach of the trip the first step and symbol of the transit. The hostel, the time we all need to think. The well, the deadly sins to be overcome. The labyrinth, representing how easy it is to lose the path of search and the utility of intuition. Prison, when you are a prisoner of yourself and your dogmas. Finally, the box 58, the death, we all die but it has to be overcome, otherwise you are forced to start again, as we are given another chance. The first games were intended for an adult audience and it was not until the end of the 19th century that it began to be made for children, infantilizing the drawings and thus losing the very intention for which the game was created.
THE GAME OF THE GOOSE
RVM