Nearly every form of communication used by humans contains symbols.\u00a0 In fact, you are looking at a whole bunch of symbols right at this moment\u2026 they\u2019re called letters.\u00a0 And if we were using hieroglyphs, we\u2019d still be using symbols.\u00a0 In one sense, even if we were speaking, we would be using symbols.\u00a0 Symbols are an integral part of our magic and spirituality.\u00a0 Without them, we wouldn\u2019t be talking about them!\u00a0 The importance of symbols to Pagans is no greater than to other human beings but it is to our benefit to understand more about them because of what that knowledge can do to elevate both our magical abilities and spiritual activities.<\/p>\n
The first thing that you need to know is what a symbol is.\u00a0 The short definition is that a symbol is an analog; it\u2019s a substitute for the real thing.\u00a0 The letters that form the words on this page are symbols for sounds we make with our mouth.\u00a0 Put the letters together in one way and they become a word that means one thing (\u2018god\u2019); put them in a different order and they mean something else (\u2018dog\u2019).\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful way to communicate.\u00a0 But if we say or spell the word, it still isn\u2019t the thing we\u2019re talking about, is it?\u00a0 Even the spoken word is a symbol.\u00a0 The ability for language may or may not be limited to humans, but we\u2019ve sure made it a big part of who and what we are.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t a parent who hasn\u2019t celebrated their child\u2019s first words, even if they later grow tired of hearing them constantly going on.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably fair to say that humans are the only ones who have produced such a complex and useful way to communicate information.\u00a0 Our brains are wired to accomplish this fantastically complicated task as if it were nothing at all.\u00a0 We use it even in our dreams.<\/p>\n
To look at symbols and how they are used is to look at the very way we think.\u00a0 Carl Jung, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th Century, new this well and produced an enormous amount of work concerning the subject.\u00a0 To study it all would take many years but a quick look here will take only a few minutes.\u00a0 We\u2019ll only look at the highlights and how that information impacts our magic and our religious practices.<\/p>\n
Generally speaking, symbols come in three varieties.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to categorize a symbol into one of these three groups unless we know the specific way it is used.\u00a0 Be that as it may, let\u2019s look at those three groups:<\/p>\n
* LOGOS.<\/strong> Logos are the simplest kind of symbol.\u00a0 It\u2019s fair to say that every symbol is at least a logo.\u00a0 A logo is a very simple substitute for an object or event or thought.\u00a0 Letters are this kind of symbol.\u00a0 Symbols are ubiquitous to all of our communications, not just with others but even with our self.\u00a0 Logos are a lot like the simple substitute codes (\u2018A\u2019 = \u2018q\u2019; \u2018B\u2019 = \u2018x\u2019; etc.) most everyone learns about as a child.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t the thing, but they mean what that thing is.<\/p>\n Just like letters, which are substitutes for sounds made by us, the meaning of logos can change.\u00a0 Letters can change how they sound (Carl vs. Caesar) and other logos can take on different meanings as well.\u00a0 In fact, the mutability of logos is one of their most useful traits; they can be used for an enormously varied universe of things.\u00a0 However, that mutability can also lead to some confusion in the meaning and that problem must be considered when using them (which we do all the time). A good example of the development of an icon is the cross.\u00a0 The equal-armed cross was used by cave-dwelling humans hundreds of thousands of years ago.\u00a0 The exact meaning of it to those people is unknown, but it\u2019s likely they used it to signify some sort spiritual orientation, just as we use the four directions of east, south, west, and north for spatial orientation.\u00a0 A couple of thousand years ago, the Roman crucifix, a device of horrid torture and punishment, was used to kill an important figure in the Jewish community.\u00a0 His death was used as a springboard for the development of a new kind of Judaism known as Christianity.\u00a0 The crucifix that was used as his method of torture became iconic of that religion (it struggled for supremacy as the chief icon for a while with the secret sign followers used for a long time\u2026 a simple drawing of a fish), symbolizing a complex of liturgical features of that religion.<\/p>\n Icons figure heavily in our mythology and fiction.\u00a0 They are filled to the brim with meaning and usually don\u2019t change their meaning unless overwhelmed by a radically opposing source of meaning.\u00a0 Such changes are usually due to a shift in culture.\u00a0 Travelers will attest to the difference in some icons from one country to another.\u00a0 Rarely, new information can produce a paradigm shift in a population that has a heavy influence on its icons.\u00a0 When this happens, it usually is something so mind blowing there is no border that can contain it.\u00a0 Almost without exception, such radical changes are accompanied by great social upheavals, wars, and political\/economic realignments.\u00a0 People get upset when their icons are changed. Jung explained that archetypes tap into what is generally called the collective unconscious.\u00a0 This concept states that there is an agreed-upon reality that produces certain universal ideas.\u00a0 We are not necessarily born with all of this information, but we absorb it from our psychic environment at a very early age.\u00a0 Archetypes portray meanings both gross and subtle concerning some universally understood objects and experiences.\u00a0 As an example, mother is an archetype.\u00a0 Every one of us has a mother.\u00a0 And nearly all of us have known who that person is and the millions of things that the word evokes.\u00a0 To list the complete meaning behind that word would take us nearly a lifetime of writing.\u00a0 And it would be no surprise to see two such lists look almost exactly the same.<\/p>\n The mental and emotional impact of a single archetype is enormous.\u00a0 Great speakers often use this power in calculated ways to persuade their listeners into believing and behaving in certain ways.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all seen how crowds of tens of thousands reacted to Hitler\u2019s speeches.\u00a0 He used only a few archetype symbols over and over again to raise the energy of these throngs until they were willing to follow his dictates with almost a mindless fervor.\u00a0 Such is the power of these symbols, there is always a cautionary clause when talking about their use in magic.<\/p>\n By now, it should be clear that neither our magic nor our religious activities can be accomplished without the use of symbols.\u00a0 Understanding what symbols are, however, doesn\u2019t tell us how they operate.\u00a0 Frankly, we don\u2019t know a great deal about this.\u00a0 But what we do know explains a great deal both about how our minds work as well as how magic works.<\/p>\n The enormous amount of data that our senses report to our minds is something like a giant information bank.\u00a0 Deposits are made by way of a variety of systems and in several different forms.\u00a0 Once those deposits hit the central bank (the mind\u2026 and, by the way, some of what we call \u2018the mind\u2019 isn\u2019t really part of the brain), they are sorted, routed, and transformed into information.\u00a0 The information is then related, transcribed, and stored in various ways so that it can be accessed when needed.\u00a0 All this is usually done in a split second.\u00a0 For purposes of our analogy, we\u2019ll call the unit of information a memory.\u00a0 Memories need to contain connections to other memories and to have a way they can be brought out or tapped into as deemed necessary by the thinking processes of the mind.\u00a0 When these processes are at work, they produce thoughts and meaning.\u00a0 Without a system capable of handling all of this a million times a minute, we\u2019d not be very effective at life and die out as a species.<\/p>\n Symbols are at the heart of this amazingly complex system.\u00a0 Essentially, symbols are tiny \u2018programs\u2019 for relating information and providing meaning.\u00a0 Since most of our thinking is done on the unconscious level, symbols are most effective in that area.\u00a0 In fact, symbology could be said to be the programming language for the unconscious.\u00a0 When we perform a conscious act, we tap into the information bank of the unconscious via symbols, access the information, cross-relate it in whatever way necessary to make that information into meaning, and translate that meaning into conscious thought.\u00a0 Most conscious thought is a distillate of this complicated unconscious activity.\u00a0 In fact, nearly all conscious thought is a linear pattern of meaning fed to our conscious mind in a very narrow bandwidth from the unconscious.<\/p>\n Symbols have meaning precisely because they come with well-defined relational connections.\u00a0 It\u2019s something like when checks come into a bank with codes all over them; they make it easy to process them.\u00a0 Meaning is one part definition, three parts relational connections, and five parts emotional connections.\u00a0 Things are defined basically by saying what they are compared to what they are not.\u00a0 What and how a symbol relates to other symbols gives it a big boost when the mind wants to understand something.\u00a0 Since a symbol comes with a code that tells the mind to access certain areas of itself for information about the meaning of the symbol, there is a better chance for accuracy of meaning as well as less processing necessary.\u00a0 Symbols are more efficient than raw data input.\u00a0 Since part of this code also seems to favor certain emotive aspects of the mind, this works to quicken the production of meaning and the mind is capable of handling more input because of the built-in efficiency that symbols have.<\/p>\n The ability to communicate most efficiently with the mind, especially the unconscious mind where all thought and motivation begins, puts symbols at the top of the list for magical tools.\u00a0 And their ability to motivate us through emotional connections makes them powerful spiritual tools as well.<\/p>\n Simply knowing about symbols and how important they are won\u2019t make us an expert in their use.\u00a0 But it is hoped that this will improve ability to analyze your magical, communicative, and spiritual activities\u2026 to provide a new perspective for understanding you and your world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly every form of communication used by humans contains symbols.\u00a0 In fact, you are looking at a whole bunch of symbols right at this moment\u2026 they\u2019re called letters.\u00a0 And if we were using hieroglyphs, we\u2019d still be using symbols.\u00a0 In one sense, even if we were speaking, we would be using symbols.\u00a0 Symbols are an integral part of our magic and spirituality.\u00a0 Without them, we wouldn\u2019t be talking about them!\u00a0 The importance of symbols to Pagans is no greater than to other human beings but it is to our benefit to understand more about them because of what that knowledge can do to elevate both our magical abilities and spiritual activities. The first thing that you need to know is what a symbol is.\u00a0 The short definition is that a symbol is an analog; it\u2019s a substitute for the real thing.\u00a0 The letters that form the words on this page are symbols for sounds we make with our mouth.\u00a0 Put the letters together in one way and they become a word that means one thing (\u2018god\u2019); put them in a different order and they mean something else (\u2018dog\u2019).\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful way to communicate.\u00a0 But if we say or spell the word, it still isn\u2019t the thing we\u2019re talking about, is it?\u00a0 Even the spoken word is a symbol.\u00a0 The ability for language may or may not be limited to humans, but we\u2019ve sure made it a big part of who and what we are.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t a parent who hasn\u2019t celebrated their child\u2019s first words, even if they later grow tired of hearing them constantly going on.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably fair to say that humans are the only ones who have produced such a complex and useful way to communicate information.\u00a0 Our brains are wired to accomplish this fantastically complicated task as if it were nothing at all.\u00a0 We use it even in our dreams. To look at symbols and how they are used is to look at the very way we think.\u00a0 Carl Jung, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th Century, new this well and produced an enormous amount of work concerning the subject.\u00a0 To study it all would take many years but a quick look here will take only a few minutes.\u00a0 We\u2019ll only look at the highlights and how that information impacts our magic and our religious practices. Generally speaking, symbols come in three varieties.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to categorize a symbol into one of these three groups unless we know the specific way it is used.\u00a0 Be that as it may, let\u2019s look at those three groups: * LOGOS. Logos are the simplest kind of symbol.\u00a0 It\u2019s fair to say that every symbol is at least a logo.\u00a0 A logo is a very simple substitute for an object or event or thought.\u00a0 Letters are this kind of symbol.\u00a0 Symbols are ubiquitous to all of our communications, not just with others but even with our self.\u00a0 Logos are a lot like the simple substitute codes (\u2018A\u2019 = \u2018q\u2019; \u2018B\u2019 = \u2018x\u2019; etc.) most everyone learns about as a child.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t the thing, but they mean what that thing is. Just like letters, which are substitutes for sounds made by us, the meaning of logos can change.\u00a0 Letters can change how they sound (Carl vs. Caesar) and other logos can take on different meanings as well.\u00a0 In fact, the mutability of logos is one of their most useful traits; they can be used for an enormously varied universe of things.\u00a0 However, that mutability can also lead to some confusion in the meaning and that problem must be considered when using them (which we do all the time). * ICONS. Icons are much less mutable than logos.\u00a0 Much of the power of myth depends on iconic symbols.\u00a0 In his work, The Hero\u2019s Journey, Joseph Campbell described how the iconic figures that surrounded the central focus of the hero in myths around the world represent the same sort of things within the culture from which the story emerged.\u00a0 And even some visual symbols such as the equal-armed cross or the spiral, which are so wide spread in ancient times as well as today, are iconic.\u00a0 Icons take on very complex structures of meaning.\u00a0 They are much more powerful symbols than simple logos and usually come about though a long history of them gathering this power of meaning. A good example of the development of an icon is the cross.\u00a0 The equal-armed cross was used by cave-dwelling humans hundreds of thousands of years ago.\u00a0 The exact meaning of it to those people is unknown, but it\u2019s likely they used it to signify some sort spiritual orientation, just as we use the four directions of east, south, west, and north for spatial orientation.\u00a0 A couple of thousand years ago, the Roman crucifix, a device of horrid torture and punishment, was used to kill an important figure in the Jewish community.\u00a0 His death was used as a springboard for the development of a new kind of Judaism known as Christianity.\u00a0 The crucifix that was used as his method of torture became iconic of that religion (it struggled for supremacy as the chief icon for a while with the secret sign followers used for a long time\u2026 a simple drawing of a fish), symbolizing a complex of liturgical features of that religion. Icons figure heavily in our mythology and fiction.\u00a0 They are filled to the brim with meaning and usually don\u2019t change their meaning unless overwhelmed by a radically opposing source of meaning.\u00a0 Such changes are usually due to a shift in culture.\u00a0 Travelers will attest to the difference in some icons from one country to another.\u00a0 Rarely, new information can produce a paradigm shift in a population that has a heavy influence on its icons.\u00a0 When this happens, it usually is something so mind blowing there is no border that can contain it.\u00a0 Almost without exception, such radical changes are accompanied by great social upheavals, wars, and political\/economic realignments.\u00a0 People get upset when their icons are changed. * ARCHETYPES. Of the three varieties of symbols, archetypes are both the easiest and the most difficult to understand.\u00a0 They are by far the most powerful in that they impact us on almost a cellular level and are virtually universal in their meaning.\u00a0 Archetypes are like icons on steroids! Jung explained that archetypes tap into what is generally called the collective unconscious.\u00a0 This concept states that there is an agreed-upon reality that produces certain universal ideas.\u00a0 We are not necessarily born with all of this information, but we absorb it from our psychic environment at a very early age.\u00a0 Archetypes portray meanings both gross and subtle concerning some universally understood objects and experiences.\u00a0 As an example, mother is an archetype.\u00a0 Every one of us has a mother.\u00a0 And nearly all of us have known who that person is and the millions of things that the word evokes.\u00a0 To list the complete meaning behind that word would take us nearly a lifetime of writing.\u00a0 And it would be no surprise to see two such lists look almost exactly the same. The mental and emotional impact of a single archetype is enormous.\u00a0 Great speakers often use this power in calculated ways to persuade their listeners into believing and behaving in certain ways.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all seen how crowds of tens of thousands reacted to Hitler\u2019s speeches.\u00a0 He used only a few archetype symbols over and over again to raise the energy of these throngs until they were willing to follow his dictates with almost a mindless fervor.\u00a0 Such is the power of these symbols, there is always a cautionary clause when talking about their use in magic. By now, it should be clear that neither our magic nor our religious activities can be accomplished without the use of symbols.\u00a0 Understanding what symbols are, however, doesn\u2019t tell us how they operate.\u00a0 Frankly, we don\u2019t know a great deal about this.\u00a0 But what we do know explains a great deal both about how our minds work as well as how magic works. The enormous amount of data that our senses report to our minds is something like a giant information bank.\u00a0 Deposits are made by way of a variety of systems and in several different forms.\u00a0 Once those deposits hit the central bank (the mind\u2026 and, by the way, some of what we call \u2018the mind\u2019 isn\u2019t really part of the brain), they are sorted, routed, and transformed into information.\u00a0 The information is then related, transcribed, and stored in various ways so that it can be accessed when needed.\u00a0 All this is usually done in a split second.\u00a0 For purposes of our analogy, we\u2019ll call the unit of information a memory.\u00a0 Memories need to contain connections to other memories and to have a way they can be brought out or tapped into as deemed necessary by the thinking processes of the mind.\u00a0 When these processes are at work, they produce thoughts and meaning.\u00a0 Without a system capable of handling all of this a million times a minute, we\u2019d not be very effective at life and die out as a species. Symbols are at the heart of this amazingly complex system.\u00a0 Essentially, symbols are tiny \u2018programs\u2019 for relating information and providing meaning.\u00a0 Since most of our thinking is done on the unconscious level, symbols are most effective in that area.\u00a0 In fact, symbology could be said to be the programming language for the unconscious.\u00a0 When we perform a conscious act, we tap into the information bank of the unconscious via symbols, access the information, cross-relate it in whatever way necessary to make that information into meaning, and translate that meaning into conscious thought.\u00a0 Most conscious thought is a distillate of this complicated unconscious activity.\u00a0 In fact, nearly all conscious thought is a linear pattern of meaning fed to our conscious mind in a very narrow bandwidth from the unconscious. Symbols have meaning precisely because they come with well-defined relational connections.\u00a0 It\u2019s something like when checks come into a bank with codes all over them; they make it easy to process them.\u00a0 Meaning is one part definition, three parts relational connections, and five parts emotional connections.\u00a0 Things are defined basically by saying what they are compared to what they are not.\u00a0 What and how a symbol relates to other symbols gives it a big boost when the mind wants to understand something.\u00a0 Since a symbol comes with a code that tells the mind to access certain areas of itself for information about the meaning of the symbol, there is a better chance for accuracy of meaning as well as less processing necessary.\u00a0 Symbols are more efficient than raw data input.\u00a0 Since part of this code also seems to favor certain emotive aspects of the mind, this works to quicken the production of meaning and the mind is capable of handling more input because of the built-in efficiency that symbols have. The ability to communicate most efficiently with the mind, especially the unconscious mind where all thought and motivation begins, puts symbols at the top of the list for magical tools.\u00a0 And their ability to motivate us through emotional connections makes them powerful spiritual tools as well. Simply knowing about symbols and how important they are won\u2019t make us an expert in their use.\u00a0 But it is hoped that this will improve ability to analyze your magical, communicative, and spiritual activities\u2026 to provide a new perspective for understanding you and your world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n* ICONS.<\/strong> Icons are much less mutable than logos.\u00a0 Much of the power of myth depends on iconic symbols.\u00a0 In his work, The Hero\u2019s Journey, Joseph Campbell described how the iconic figures that surrounded the central focus of the hero in myths around the world represent the same sort of things within the culture from which the story emerged.\u00a0 And even some visual symbols such as the equal-armed cross or the spiral, which are so wide spread in ancient times as well as today, are iconic.\u00a0 Icons take on very complex structures of meaning.\u00a0 They are much more powerful symbols than simple logos and usually come about though a long history of them gathering this power of meaning.<\/p>\n
\n* ARCHETYPES.<\/strong> Of the three varieties of symbols, archetypes are both the easiest and the most difficult to understand.\u00a0 They are by far the most powerful in that they impact us on almost a cellular level and are virtually universal in their meaning.\u00a0 Archetypes are like icons on steroids!<\/p>\n