SYMBOL: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on SYMBOL

SYMBOL

A symbol, whose meaning is unconscious or indirect, must not be confused with a sign, which is obviously a resemblance or conscious pointer. A symbol represents something that can't be defined or expressed. Otherwise it is an allegory or a sign. A phallic symbol, for instance, is not a symbol because we know what it stands for. Nor is a skull a "symbol" of death. Nor are the cross (standing for Christ), a heart (standing for love) or a bird (standing for freedom) anything more than signs, i.e., equivalents. Examples of true symbols might be the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone, or even a personalized mandala, since we have no (conscious) idea what these things represent. Most certainly of all, Christ and Buddha are symbols of human perfection. A.B. says their purpose is pedagogical, preserving encapsulizations of truth and developing intuition. Moreover, every symbol can be read in many different ways. And there are four kinds of symbols (physical, astral, numerical, geometrical). There are also symbolic "books" of the "Masters," the words of which are interpreted by color, their position above or below the line, their connection to one another and by their "key," that is, right to left (greater cycles), left to right (lesser cycles), from above down (involution), from below up (evolution).

Postmodern man tends to believe that symbols generate meanings in infinite concentric waves from their centers. Indeed, symbols come to have different meanings in different times and places. For example, the triskelion, tripes, or "three-legs of man," originally meant the 3 ages riddled by the Sphinx or three faces of the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). But in Europe, according to Goblet d'Aviella (The Migration of Symbols) it eventually came to acquire purely political meanings, standing, amongst other things, for the "Land of the Three Capes," i.e., Sicily, for Norwegian royalty and for The Isle of Man. In our time many once very fertile and numinous symbols are all but dead.

Says Carlyle: "In a symbol lies concealment or revelation." And further, "It is in and through symbols that man consciously or unconsciously lives, works, and has his being."

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For more articles on SYMBOL , see: SYMBOL , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul.

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The definition and meaning of SYMBOL is extracted from the home page of Sacred Magick.

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