20 posts tagged “association”

The circle is the most used geometrical symbol and its shape reminds the shape of the Sun and the Moon.

For ancient philosophers, such as Plato, the circle represents the perfect shape. It is said that the Temple of Apollo in the land of Hyperborean had a circular shape – which reminds the shape of Stonehenge in South England as well as Plato’s description of the island of Atlantis.

Mystical systems represent God as a circle that has a center everywhere and the circumference is nowhere – proof that God’s perfection is unattainable to man.

The Egyptian symbol of eternity was a string closed by a buckle, in other cultures infinity would be depicted as a serpent biting its own tail (Ouroboros).

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the circle?

Paulo Coelho

www.paulocoelhoblog.com

The triangle is one of the most elementary symbolic figures due to its geometric aspect: it’s basically the simplest way of linking three points in space with straight lines.

Yet not all triangles have the same meaning. In excavations made near to Lepenski Vir in the Danube, there was found many blocs of stones shaped like triangles and inscriptions in bones also with triangular shapes. These vestiges date from the Stone Age and are mainly composed of inverted triangles which most probably refer to the feminine sex.

In more recent times, including in Alchemic texts, the inverted triangle would symbolize water (reproducing in a geometric fashion the shape of a drop) whilst the triangle with its point up would refer to the masculine element of fire.

In the system drawn from Pythagoras (Born between 580 and 572 BC, died between 500 and 490 BC), the delta letter symbolized the cosmic birth, whilst for Hindus the same letter would represent the goddess Durga – source of life and incarnation of femininity.

In the Christian era, the triangle was increasingly used as a symbol of the Trinity and later on, during the Baroque period, God’s eye was incrusted at its center. Such a vision can also be found in the Zohar: “God’s eyes and foreheads form in the sky a triangle and they reflect mutually in water in the shape of a triangle.”

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the triangle?

Paulo Coelho,
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

The eye is always associated in traditional cultures with light and spiritual perceptions. According to ancient beliefs, the eye was not a passive receiver of light, but rather a source of light.

It is believed that such was the power of the eye that certain creatures would have magical powers in their eyes. It is the case of Medusa in Greek mythology that would petrify anyone that would look at her. In Ancient Ireland, Balor, the king of Fomorians,, would use in the battlefields his bad eye against his enemies. This belief in the bad eye gave rise in many cultures, especially Mediterranean ones, to many amulets supposed to protect people.

The positive connotation of the eye is nevertheless wider and thus the eye is associated with knowledge and by extension with the power of foresight. But the access to this type of vision – that goes beyond the mere appearance of things - is usually achieved by the sacrifice of this very organ. The wise man Tiresias, Apollo’s priest, was blind. The Scandinavian God Odin also gives one of his eyes to the Giant Mimir for knowledge. In Christianity the All Seeing Eye of God is represented inside the sun of a pyramid – which means that God sees all everywhere and always.

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the eye?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

The hand is the part of the body that most often is used symbolically. We find it already in prehistoric drawings in caves such as Gargas and Pech Merle in France as well as in other continents such as South America and Australia.

The hand expresses actions and feelings that can be either positive or negative depending on the circumstance. In Semitic cultures, the hand represents power and very quickly it was used as a symbol for royal power. To touch then something with the hand is a magical act. We can also find this in the West, where it was believed that the king of France could cure his subjects by simply placing his hand on them.

There is also a distinction between the right and the left hand. In Ancient China for instance, the right hand would mean the way of action, whilst the left hand would lead to the way of non-action. In the west, the right hand would be seen as the way of the just whilst the left hand would lead people to the wrong path.

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the hand?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Bells represent in many European civilizations not only musical instruments but also cult objects supposed to gather humans and supernatural creatures. That’s how they became symbols of cults in many traditions.
In Ancient China there were many legends that spoke of bells that could fly towards very specific places and announce, by the sound they would emit, good or bad omens.
In Tibet, they are opposed to the symbol of the diamond and are considered as the feminine and the material world whereas the diamond symbolizes the perfect world.

Now you take the floor : what do you associate with Bells?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

The traditional symbolism doesn’t link wine with the state of drunkenness. The only exception is when the drinker is in a state of “mystical drunkenness” - meaning in communion with the divine.

Wine in Ancient Cultures was reputed to dispel curses, reveal lies (in vino veritas) and could also be drunk by the dead when people would spell wine in the earth.

The idea that wine is “the blood of the vine” goes back to very ancient perceptions that later on were incorporated to the Christian symbolism of the Eucharist.

In Islam, the attitude towards wine is double: for the mystic current of Sufism – wine is considered to be a way of attaining the divine, whilst in other currents, wine is believed to be a curse that the angels brought to mankind after the fall of Adam. It is believed though that in paradise, people would drink the sweet wine of eternity.

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with wine?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Bread is the nutritional cornerstone of all the civilizations that handle the growth of cereals and the art of baking.

The Egyptians knew for instance 40 different types of bread and of cakes and they would commonly use the words “bread” and “beer” during their rituals. These two essential types of food would be the present in the afterworld.

In ancient Orient, bread was never cut but always “broke” which meant figuratively that “many would eat together”. Gradually this food was considered in the symbolic sense and the twelve bread shown in the Temple (Ancient Testament) are the symbol of the food for the spirit.

In the New Testament, reference is made to the fact that “man cannot only live of (material) bread” and so, during the Eucharist, men receive with the wine, the bread of life, which is the food for the soul.

The cycle of transformation of the cereal can also be transposed to the life of man: being planted, then mown and cooked. This way the soul would also be prepared for the divine feast.

So now you take the floor : what do you associate with Bread?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

With the disappearance of the nomad hunters of the glacier age, the house became the symbol of the center of existence for the new sedentary. The house is then disposed most of the time according to cosmic orientations, houses as well as cities being built in relation to the stars.

The eldest houses in the world were discovered in Jericho and at Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia. They were built 6500 years B.C, meaning before the appearance of urban civilizations and contemporary to the development of agriculture.

The house then crystallized the beginning of civilizations. It became then the symbol of stability for mankind inside the cosmos. In Buddhism, the house is associated with the body, and one is supposed to destroy the roof in order to evade the material world of illusions.

In psychotherapy, the presence of house in dreams represents the very dreamer: the house can than appear as in construction, new, abandoned…

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the house? Furthermore, if you were to describe yourself as a house – how would it be?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

The boat transports in many traditions celestial bodies across the sky – such as the Sun and the Moon – or the dead to the afterworld.

We frequently find drawings in megalithic tombs (towards the end of Prehistory) depicting the voyage towards the Island of the blessed.

In Scandinavians regions, drawings of boats made during the Bronze Age symbolized another reality, the cosmic revolutions. In Egypt, solar boats were placed next to the Great Pyramid of Giza and were believed to transport the sun across the sky during day time, whilst during the night, these boats would shed light in the kingdom of the dead.

In Christianity, the boat retained basically the symbol of journey, of the crossing of life.

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the boat?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com

This instrument used by the Mediterranean Sailors is considered since Antiquity as a symbol for the Gods of the Sea. The anchor assured stability and security – becoming then a symbol of trust.

In the beginning of the Christian era, its crossed shape was associated with the secret symbol of deliverance (crux dissimulate).

A poet in the XVIIth century, W.F v. Hohberg, wrote the following lines about it: “When a sailor sees the tempest approaching, he throws the anchor and stands still. That’s why – when a soul asks for strength from God’s love - neither grief nor fear can disturb it.”

Now you take the floor: what do you associate with the anchor?

Paulo Coelho
www.paulocoelhoblog.com