The allegory of clothing is a good one when used to understand that symbols offer more intimate experiences beneath the surface layers. There is beauty beneath the surface. Is not copulating with consciousness an intimate suggestion, so to speak. We can have a more intimate relationship with them and look at the beauty that lay beneath the exterior coverings. One might wish that the mystery of 'symbol speak' would be kept intact to make things easy, complete on the surface layer. Ask yourself what is a more enrichening experience -- that someone would tell you what love means or to experience it? Would you rather keep your coat on all night, or take it off and show-off the beauty that lay beneath it? It is metaphorically the same for symbols.

In some philosophical schools people actually meditate on a symbol with no previous knowledge and then allow it to speak. Patrice Malidoma Some', tells of his journey into the layers of meaning, in his book, "Of Water and the Spirit," which describes the act of letting symbols speak. At the age of 15, Malidoma was placed by the elders of his tribe in front of a tree. They told him to sit there until the tree spoke to him. The elders came to the young man after the first day asking what he was told. Malidoma, feeling sleepy and hungry, decided to tell the elders a story. They laughed at him and said he must stay another day. The second day came with nothing eventful coming from the tree. Malidoma knew better than to lie to the elders again, so he told the truth, that nothing had happened, knowing he had to stay until it did. On the third day, the tree finally came alive to the consciousness of the 15 year old. A green liguid light in the shape of a female came out, wrapped green essence around him as if hugging him, and told him secrets he was not to tell to outsiders of his clan. He told the elders what happened and what he was told. They knew he was now being honest.

Indigenous cultures operate on a different premise than the Western world. In the modern Western world many groups approach symbol work from a different angle. Many follow the meanings they are told, never knowing if they are correct or incorrect. To use a symbol to impact the consciousness and subconsciousness by suggestive means has its place. To know a symbol on an internal level and stimulate the layers of wisdom and awareness that dwells within the symbol's field of association, a more intimate process is required. What occurs when this is done could rightfully be called 'direct upload,' as opposed to 'direct download,' although both are viable explanations when understood correctly. The symbol might also be called a key. This reveals that communication with the unseen is often accompanied by keys, similiar to getting through a locked door. Where one is attempting to enter, is however, not as spooky as it may sound. This unseen can be anything from seeking communication with gods and goddesses, to consciousness and archetypal associations in human character. The symbol, in a somewhat relative way, becomes an address for the visible to connect with the invisible, for the conscious mind to connect with the subconscious, for the devotee to connect with his object of adoration, for the ceremonialist to explore realms, planes, spheres of the microcosm and macrocosm. Whether one is interested in mind work or the advant-garde, symbols are often used. Malidoma met the essencial element that lived within the tree, a feminine green liquid light. This is not to say that she lives in all trees. It may be that staring at the tree and three days of no food, awakened an aspect of his own consciousness, an hallucination, if you will, but one that was informative. Indigenous cultures learned many things from nature about nature, such as which plants were good for medicine, and which were poisonous. It does us well to see this as clearly communication with the unseen and non-verbal life. In their case, the natural elements were the symbols.

Some schools of thought actually warn against symbol work. Aryeh Kaplan, in the Sefer Yetzirah, calls it a danger of being swallowed up in a kaleidoscope of symbolism. P. D. Ouspensky, also offers warning in his book, In Search of the Miraculous, based on the unprepared mind. This was also mentioned in Malidoma's previously mentioned text. The elders made him wait several years before they would allow him to receive a tribal initiation. He had to prove himself, because he had been kidnapped from the tribe as a young boy and Westernized in his thinking. It was a matter of logical left brain use and creative right brain, industrialism verses planetarianism. Ouspensky explained it as unconsciously overloading any one of the centers (the thinking, the emotional, the moving, the instinctive and the sex centers), causing an imbalance to the others. But for those who are prepared for such work there are great rewards. And in the least, symbols are often used in art and archetecture, considered beautiful for decor and the timeless sayings they represent to the general public. They can be used for one-pointed focus, concentration and letters can be learned by having flash cards. These symbols do enter our memory. To what degree is up to us. Not all people wish to explore their inner domains of consciousness. Not all can. Ultimately, symbols only perform more indepth work when rightly explored.

Due to the existence of such formulas like "As Above, So Below", "Macrocosm and Microcosm" or that we are made of the stuff stars are made of, it then becomes clear that symbols and letters are associated with the world of form. They can make crucial impressions within us that cause transfigurations of consciousness. Consider changing citizenship and what a new country's flag means to a person. The Hindu use of yantra is symbolism used for liberation. Ouspensky's diagnostic of symbols is one of climbing from being imprisoned in dual perspectives into triune aspects, then to transformations of quaternity and quinternity, a movement firstly into the pentagram of self and the six-pointed star of self, a symbol associated to an ancient king named Solomon. It is probably not by chance that so many seekers of wisdom often find themselves at the doors of the symbolic. Like letters, there is something in the essence of symbols worth taking note of. We live in a symbolic environment, after all. The DNA helix is a profound symbol that lives within us. There are geometric shapes throughout nature. While scientists see this geometric phenomena as natural processes of matter interacting with itself, those who search beyond the level of gross manifestation, wishing to find multi-dimensional layers of understanding in the human experience, see symbols as gateways to communities of consciousness.

When the intent of symbol work is one where the goal is to reach the higher faculties of consciousness or intimate relations with the non-verbal, beyond intellectual ideas and interpretations, the seeker finds themselves heading in a direction toward root causes. It is beyond linguistics and the intelligence. This is difficult to comprehend when the student of symbols must access those arenas via the mind. The mind is a transmitter, but often gets tangled up with emotional reactions, memories and projections. To get to a symbol's root meaning, these entanglers in the mental make-up need to stay out of the way. If a symbol is to be experienced beyond aesthetic appearances, preparation of the mind becomes necessary, but what is this preparation and why is it apparently contradictive that the mind is used but must not interfere.

Ouspensky defines preparation in the previously mentioned title, as the study of symbols, their construction and meaning, forming a very important part of the preparation for receiving objective knowledge. Harish Johari, talks about the use of Yantra symbols in his work, Tools For Tantra saying, "Symbols are precise and crystallized means of expression, corresponding to the essence of the inner life, which is intensive and qualitative, as opposed to the external world, which is extensive and quantitative...It is a creative representation of the inscrutable...As a tool, yantra is used to withdraw consciousness from the outer world and direct it to the inner world, to help the sadhak (student) go beyond the normal framework of the mind to the altered state of consciousness known as turiya. Leonora Leet, in The Secret Doctrine of Kabbalah says "...numbers, sounds and forms provide a unique key to the unraveling of cosmic mysteries...integrated by a metalogic beyond our power to explain but whose existence can be demonstrated by the correspondences that can be uncovered among these three factors permitting perception. It is this capacity for demonstration that entitles the study of such correspondences to be considered a science. Since these correspondences are truly occult, however, leading not to rationally constructed theory of explanation but rather to mystery, it must also be considered a science of the sacred." If I were to sum this up, being influenced by Leet's work, I would say that we are speaking of gateways of synesthetic perception where sound and sight become interconvertible and ancient intuition is utilized. Harish expounds on this when explaining that the use of yantra and mantra enables the two hemispheres of the brain to engage both sides equally rather than separately.

The preparatory work is a preliminary work with construction and meaning of symbols. On initial levels, the act of drawing symbols teaches the mind how to concentrate. On deeper levels "the very process of making a yantra is an archetypal activity that works with encoding of the genes, so that the divine revelations repeat themselves during the process. It is a process by which one moves from concrete reality to abstract truth." (Harish) And although Harish goes on to give meaning to the preparatory symbols of the point, then a line, a circle, a triangle, the square, the six-pointed star, Ouspensky says symbols cannot be interpreted, only experienced, but this in the sense that self-knowledge has to be experienced by each person. For he does explain "if a man brings the work of the five centers within him to harmonious accord, he then 'locks the pentagram within him' and becomes a finished type of the physically perfect man...And then man becomes the six-pointed star, that is, by becoming locked within a circle of life independent and complete in itself, he becomes isolated from foreign influences or accidental shocks; he embodies in himself the Seal of Solomon. How to accomplish this is a science in itself, which all the authors mentioned within this article go into in rich detail. The Bibliography is listed below and offers a few titles for the serious student of symbols.

Symbols are everywhere. There are numbers and geometrics. There are letters and words. There are complete systems of symbols in magic, alchemy, tarot, kabbalah, tantra, astrology, and other schools such as Sufism. Ouspensky says, "Each one of these systems can serve as a means for transmitting the idea of unity. But in the hands of the incompetent and the ignorant, however full of good intentions, the same system becomes an 'instrument of delusion.'" This is akin to an article here at the Website that explains about MATRKA, the Mother of Letters in the Saivite school of liberation: to know her is to be liberated, to not known her is to be deluded by her.

Symbol study then becomes a question of one's personal goals. The symbols direct the journey for those who are ready to seek those fundamental shapes. They speak in a language beyond that which we verbalize. They speak in a language that is beyond the constant mind wars of dual forces. They open doorways and portals. Symbol work in the mechanical man will remain a spectator sport.

Bibliography

P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous
Leonora Leet, The Secret Doctrine of Kabbalah
Harish Johari, Tools For Tantra
Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah
Pat Zalewski, Kabbalah of the Golden Dawn

Unique Speak Article, Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved

About Us | Accessories | Adinkra Symbols | Article Archives | Bio | Blog | Books | Boutique | Children's Items |
Contact | Free eCards | Galleries Main Page | Gift Sets Hebrew Letters | Home | Japanese Kanji Sayings | Lighting | Meditation Tools | Ordering Information | Product Information | Rune Symbols | Sanskrit Alphabet | Search | Site Map | Wholesale Information