OUR WORLD IS AWASH IN SYMBOLS, VIBRATING WITH MEANING. In order to grasp the meaning, of course, you have to be able to recognize a symbol, when you see one.
Everyone knows “fine art” is full of symbols. The meaning in a painting, a drawing, a print, a piece of sculpture unfolds when you engage the work, deeply and imaginatively. The same holds true for “great literature,” especially poetry, as well as for opera and other forms of “high art.”
If an image draws you in, transports you beyond itself, and gives you a sense of entering into the presence of something mysteriously transcendent, that image is a symbol — and it’s alive with meaning.
In literary analysis, a symbolic image like this is often called a metaphor. Symbols and metaphors, as their etymologies suggest, both point beyond themselves. The words are of Greek origin — “symbol” suggesting two separate things “thrown together,” and “metaphor” referring to something “carried beyond.”
A symbol, therefore, points beyond itself toward a deeper and in part still unknown meaning. A metaphor, by identifying one thing with some other thing, suggests there is in the image an unknown depth of meaning to be explored. In other words, we have two more or less synonymous words describing images that appear to be open to the transcendent.
Symbols, however, are not confined to live only in those works our culture values highly enough to set aside as “great” or “sacred” art and literature. In fact, symbols live in all sorts of “ordinary narratives”: in comic books and graphic novels, in “pulp fiction,” in television shows and movies, and in all types of popular music. You’ll find symbols in our “urban legends” and “folk tales” on social media. They’re in our dreams every night, and in those eerie coincidences Jung called “synchronicity.” Symbols even live in the stories we tell about our own everyday lives.
Don’t you think one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the human species is our storytelling? Maybe we should be called “storytelling beings,” because we’re all telling stories, of one kind or another, all the time.
Another way to say the same thing would be to say we live and breathe and have our being in myth (from the Greek mythos, meaning story, account, narrative). Long before modern, critical analysis shackled the word “myth” with connotations of falsehood, myths were valued as carriers of the most important truths — not necessarily facts, but truths.
Now that we’re developing into a more holistic, post-modern appreciation and understanding of the human experience, we’re coming to see that deep truths, unlike facts, can only be expressed through symbols (or metaphors, if you prefer). Profound truth, you see, transcends conventional facts. That’s why authentic expressions of truth remain open to transcendence. They are symbols living in myths. Indeed, our world is awash in symbols. And our lives vibrate with meaning.
Soul Spirit Wisdom 