On Friday, we looked at that quintessential but controversial form of soul speech, dreams and dream work. There we saw that dreams speak to us in a language of symbols, images that mean more than what they appear and with which we need to spend time in order to understand. Today I thought would be helpful to dig a little deeper and look at symbols more broadly.
Symbols are everywhere around us. From road signs to national flags to architecture. Things carry a meaning beyond the obvious. For example, the maple leaf symbolizes Canada, but the stylized, simple lines of the maple leaf flag also convey a sense of cleanness and modernity. Compare this to the old Red Ensign colonial flag, which also symbolized Canada, but in a way that also conveyed tradition and connections with the British Empire. Or thinking architecturally, the lofty heights and long vertical windows of Gothic Cathedrals symbolized reaching up towards heaven and the in-breaking of the divine light into the world, whereas the expansive domes of Byzantine architecture symbolized the Church as a encompassing the whole cosmos.
This pervasiveness of symbolism continues into religion and spirituality. This includes not only the symbolic language of rituals (think the water of baptism or the bread and wine of the Eucharist),* but even all of the language we use to speak of God. (And as the Church fathers would would mind us, if we forget this, we’re liars.)
Work with symbols engages intentionally with this ‘more-than-ness’ of what we experience. It moves beyond the literal level of what something is to the sacred level of what it might mean. While symbol work refuses to be constrained by step-by-step guides or to-do lists, here are some steps that can be helpful when exploring symbols, whether in dreams, visions, or things that stick out from your conscious life.
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- Symbols are particular before they are general, so first think about their connections within the environment in which you entered them. If it’s in a dream, think about how the image functioned in that dream narrative; if it’s something that stood out to you in your waking life, think about what was happening or what you were thinking about when you noticed it. Perhaps most importantly, how did recognizing the symbol make you feel?
- Similarly, symbols are personal before they are universal, so look first for connections to your own life. Seeing a father in a dream is very different from seeing your father in a dream. And that connection may play out very differently depending on your relationship with your father. The same goes for any symbol, so it’s helpful to explore personal connections first.
- Symbols are embedded in culture, so look for connections of the images in local or national iconography, stories, folk tales, legends, and myths. In this, start local and move out towards how they function in stories from around the world. It’s more likely that a symbol will work within the tropes that are most familiar to you. Personally, I also like to give honour to the local land I’m on, so if I’m looking for imagery of plants or animals I see, I’ll look first at what they might mean in the Indigenous cultures that have an intimate knowledge of the land I’m on.
- Symbols are polyvalent, which is to say, a symbol can carry a large number of different and even contradictory meanings. So, it’s helpful to approach them with curiosity, asking “what else could this mean for me?” Symbol work is not about right and wrong answers as much as it is about exploring realms of possibility.
This approach has been very fruitful for me. It’s given me tools through which to explore not only what I experience in dreams and visions, but also in my day-to-day life. It’s important to note that, as they say, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Not everything is meaningful. But most of us will experience moments where something mundane will jump out at us, whether through coincidences (what Jung called synchronicity), or ‘just because’. And those things I find are worth paying attention to. For example, I remember a few years ago I was sitting on my mother’s back garden patio when I become transfixed by a hummingbird. Now, I saw hummingbirds in that back garden multiple times a day, so seeing the hummingbird wasn’t in and of itself notable. But for whatever reason, that hummingbird on that morning grabbed my attention. And so, I took the time to explore the symbolism and it was a truly beautiful experience.
The great thing about symbol work is that we can use it on pretty much anything: a piece of literature, a song lyric or a melody, a piece of art, or even a text of Scripture. I also find that having symbol work in my tool kit makes me more likely to notice those things that do leap out off the page or life scene at me. This awareness to what I notice is one of the biggest ways I find symbol work beneficial as a way of listening to the soul.
As with everything in this series, it’s important to approach symbols with curiosity but also with humility. These are stirrings of the soul that there is value in pursuing. And there might sometimes even be a divine message in that for us. But that message doesn’t ‘replace’ Scripture or tradition or community or even ‘common sense’. It’s an additional piece of data in the broad life of faith, nothing more but also nothing less.
Matthew Root 