The valuable and varied responses to my recent blog about the Internet as a living symbol of global oneness made me aware of a need to explain more fully the nature and purpose of symbolic consciousness: how to access the meaning and power of symbols.
A symbol is not just an image, but is like a door into the inner world of the soul, through which we can access the energy and meaning that belongs to this sacred dimension of our self. However, a symbol will only reveal its magical nature if we approach it with the right attitude, if we have the correct quality of consciousness.
Symbolic consciousness is a way of working with symbols that allows their meaning and energy into our consciousness. It is like a key that is needed to unlock the real potential, the energy of a symbol.
Today we are taught to think in an analytic, linear manner, using words to explain our self. But symbolic consciousness is holistic rather than analytic, and rather than thinking in words it thinks in symbols and images. It can be seen at work most often in our dreams, in the way our psyche communicates to us through images. Symbolic consciousness was central to human consciousness for thousands of years, and was prevalent in our Western consciousness as recently as the medieval period, as expressed in the many images and symbols that adorn the Gothic cathedrals, the great maze on the floor at Chartres. Through these images, rather than words, the stories of the Bible and the soul's journey were told.
Symbols can connect us directly to the interior world of the soul, and symbolic consciousness can enable us to realize the sacred meaning that underlies our physical existence. There is a pressing need to reclaim this forgotten language.
Through working with symbols we can have access to the energy and meaning that comes from the inner world. They can communicate more directly than words. Often symbols have a numinous quality that conveys their sacred energy, an energy which gives real meaning and nourishment to our surface lives. For example, in the Catholic mass the bread and wine are powerful symbols enabling the individual to be nourished directly by the divine. If we are receptive to the symbolic world and can develop our symbolic consciousness we are able to be nourished from within, to live our outer lives in harmony and balance with our true inner self. Without such a connection our daily lives often become shallower, which we attempt to fill with material desires or are more easily drawn into addictions.
Life is permeated with symbols. There are many different types of symbols. Some symbols, such as the images and patterns of nature, have always been around us. Other symbols have developed through religion and culture, for example the chalice or grail cup in Christianity, the Tree of Life in the Jewish Kabbalah. We may find our self drawn to a particular image, follow the spiral pattern in a sunflower, or meditate on a mandala to reconnect with our own wholeness. It is as if our own soul is speaking to us through these images, making its presence felt amidst our busy life.
In different eras different symbols were predominant, and shaped our collective life more than we may realize. New symbols are now appearing in our world that belong to our future, to the next era. These emerging images can help revitalize a civilization; they can connect us to the way life is changing and evolving. It is important that we recognize these images, become aware of how the deeper meaning of life is communing with us. These symbols may appear in unexpected places, even amidst the ordinary activities of our daily life.
I have come to believe that the Internet and other modes of global communication are not just tools to help us communicate and access information, but also have a symbolic function. They are dynamic images of a global interconnectedness and oneness that belong to life. As symbols they convey a deeper meaning and purpose than their surface function. But in order to access this dimension we have to have the appropriate attitude of receptivity. We have to accept that there is a reality beyond the surface play of events. This reality is the dimension of the soul which all previous cultures understood as being central to our human existence. We need to learn how to let these symbols of the soul speak to us, just as we learn to listen to our dreams. For example, if we are attentive to the symbolic dimension of the Internet we will find that it conveys a promise of a new model of global consciousness, an interconnectedness whose organic nature reflects the organic nature of life.
As we have recently begun to explore, our ecosystem is a living web of interconnections. Human consciousness has a similar potential to form such a web of oneness, and the Internet is a model that can help this to happen. This does not mean that it does not have a dark side of misuse and exploitation. In the oneness of life the light and the dark are both included. But it does point to a new, non hierarchical, organic structure of global consciousness, in which each individual can connect directly to the whole. This image has a far reaching potential and purpose which cannot be accessed by only seeing the Internet as a functional tool. Only if we reclaim our symbolic consciousness can we understand how the sacred roots of our being are giving us a image of global oneness that can both nourish our souls and help us, locally and globally, in our daily life.
For a further information, see this article on symbolism
For more on symbols, see C.G. Jung, Man and His Symbols.
Philip Goldberg: A Tribute To Swami Salinger
Susan Smalley, Ph.D.: Spirituality As A Way of Life
Spirituality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What's Your Spiritual Type - Beliefnet Quizzes
'I Want to be Left Behind': Brenda Peterson's memoir embraces spiritual mission
Sometimes it is easier to be with trees than with people. They are equally alive, and not demanding at all. The other day I had some fruit from a tree, and as I thanked the tree I felt I was partaking of it's body, and it loved to share with me. It felt like holy communion, except it was in life, and not confined to a church or something.
It is the most delicious irony that this trend of developing the world solely in terms of function should eventually lead to supremely functional inventions that evolve into a set of symbols for a global consciousness.
thank you for your contribution. Do you have a blog or a website where I can read more of your ideas? Let me know. especially maybe this blog will close out.
thank you. I don't have either - just felt inspired by Llewellyn's words and wanted to respond.
Let us hope that he will continue to write more of these articles here on Huffington Post.
Long ago, living glades of pine were decorated with lights and shiny objects at Yule (from Tree Wisdom by Jacqueline Memory Paterson), Linda. The Icelandic myth of the Rowan that I love, when 'the divine light is represented by a tree covered in stars' later became our tradition of the Christmas tree. Maybe the 'evergreen', because it is a symbol of a constant living life force, a light, that we hold onto at this darkest time?
Trees - doorways into the magic of Nature - the mystery that they take in our toxins and send out life-giving oxygen into the early dawn to which the birds sing, is wondrous. They serve life.
Tree of Life - ancient symbol of service when we lived our connection to the sacredness of all life. Symbol of our collective soul - the soul of the world - the light of the world. All those who knew this are here within us, our ancient memories. If we could honour again life in all its forms, come from that knowing that we are all part of one sacred Nature, one sacred whole, could
I have a friend who purchased a buffalo necklace at a flea market in Georgia. He told me that driving home and had to pull over, because a whole herd of buffalo appeared right in front of him. There was a buffalo trail from Florida, that's how the Scotts traders got up into the mountains.
Life comes from the inner world, and all sorts of animals are there waiting to be respected so they can be born. And an American Indian elder told me that it is written -- the buffalo will roam the great plains again -- so maybe even woolly mamoths will roam Russia one day too.
Loved your post. Thanks.
I recently watched a tv programme about the remains of a baby woolly mammoth found in the tundra in Russia. It was the most perfect find of this kind ever discovered. A treasure held in the earth for thousands of years. The scientists began drilling into its body to remove samples, an intrusive process that could apparently destroy it. I felt a deep sadness and at first could not understand why; the creature was, after all, dead. That night I dreamt that in the front garden of a childrens' nursery there stood the baby woolly mammoth; it was a sculpture made of twigs but it had the presence and humility that the actual creature would have had, had it been alive. It stood, in the darkness before dawn, on a large rectangle of grass. In the dream I was full of joy thinking of how delighted the children would be when they discovered it in the morning.
This dream may sound simplistic and naive but there are two powerful feelings that stir in me every time I remember it; joy and hope. Perhaps it is through the childlike part that sees the world through direct experience and believes in the creatures of our imaginations, that joy comes alive and hope is rekindled. Whatever its meaning, the symbol touches my heart in a way that my rational mind cannot understand.
But what I want to say is, this past Christmas, in grappling with symbols, I pondered this: why is it every household gets an "everygreen" tree and makes it the center of their room for the dark days of winter. Is this a symbol of evergreen, of the sacred tree, or of a sacred surrender through winter to ponder and reflect on?. Or is this tree speaking to us about something - some wildnerness inside us?
curious. I wonder how many people ponder these ideas or any ideas as the sit havig a glass of wine gazing at their decorated tree.
I also read in an American Indian book that for some tribes, war paint was actully branches , the tree trunk, the line going down the center of their face, for the purpose of coming under the protection of the trees. If this is true, this is something well worth redeeming, our sacred connection to trees --as more than a Christmas decoration or shading for our back yards.
If it is correct that if we can do a great healing by reconnecting to the symbolic world, like the film Avatar showed us that would be a great wonderful thing. The real problem is are we ready to be of service and not just "use" everything.
I hope we can keep this blog going and hear from people how, in some way, a symbil showed them something of value. Thank you.
Thank you for allowing this space.
It allows us to recognize the new symbols that guide us from within into the future, a future that provides life for us, life for our children and grandchildren.
Through this blog post itself and through the opportunity to sharing comments we are being given more of the possibilities to reclaim this symbolic consciousness. And even more – this conversation is a symbol on its own, living, within the whole symbol. Thanks to Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, to HP and to those who respectfully participate.
thank-you...