Symbols and Their Value

(This article is a work in progress…)

Symbols, by their very nature, are not concrete. This makes them inherently awkward to deal with for many. They seem too vague and wiggly, and as a result many people struggle with symbolism, try to make it more concrete, or outright reject it. I am going to attempt to clarify some of the basic pitfalls and misunderstandings that occur when dealing with symbolism.

Symbols Are Not Facts #

It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Yet this confusion is responsible for an immeasurable amount of difficulties. This mistake results in confusion, contention and outright conflict. It robs individuals of valuable wisdom, is the root of misunderstandings between friends, cultures, and belief systems. I cannot emphasize this enough. The reason this topic is so huge, in my view, is that the misunderstanding and conflict is unnecessary.

Example 1: Religion vs. Religion #

The best exhibit to begin with comes directly from Joseph Campbell. He described what it looks like if two separate cultures meet, and they both understand that the deities of their spiritual tradition are symbolic of greater, universal energies. Two such people would be able to see the similarities of their traditions, and recognize that each culture had applied different clothes to the same universal aspects of life. Now, on the other hand, if one of those groups has misinterpreted the symbols of their tradition as facts, it most likely creates contention. Instead their gods, their holy places, and their heroes are limited to only their own, and this other culture is viewed as “wrong”. By misinterpreting the symbols of their own tradition as facts, they have created a competition for the “Truth” and almost unavoidably alienated their new neighbor.

Example 2: Science vs. Religion #

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if science and religion had no conflict, and the two could coexist, both adding benefit to the culture? The good news is that is entirely how it can be. The so-called conflict between science and spiritual traditions is actually a conflict about facts. Campbell described it as a conflict between current science and the science of the 12th century. So, in a similar way to the previous example, the misinterpretation of the stories in a spiritual tradition leads to conflict over history, and how the universe functions. This leads us to our next important point.

Symbols Are Not Meaningless #

Another one that seems like it should be obvious. Before we go placing too much weight on those that have misinterpreted symbols as facts in their spiritual tradition, there is another side to this conflict. It comes in the form of the one who argues too far in the opposite direction. This occurs when someone fixates on the “your symbols are not facts” argument, and intends to discredit the entire story based on this. So the result is we get two groups in an unresolvable argument over whether or not elements in a symbolic story are “facts” or “not facts.” Perhaps you can guess where that leaves us? Both of these people have completely missed the point of a symbol. The result is not only contention between them, but neither gains any benefit from the instructional story in question.

It might be more accurate to say that symbols are not meaningless, unless you insist that they are meaningless, at which point any value the symbolic references might contain is lost to you.

Are Symbols Universal? #

Sometimes, in an effort to simplify things for others, attempts are made to solidify the meaning of a symbol. We have an established sense, from the scientific tradition, that for something to be reliable and legitimate, it must be objectively accessible. Anyone with the same set of tools should be able produce the same results, or witness the same phenomena. While this is abundantly true in the hard sciences, there are numerous areas where does not play out in this manner. Symbols can run the gamut from very uniquely personal, to deeply rooted cultural and universal. The practice of interpreting dreams provides fantastic examples of this. I will explore the basics of dream interpretation, as I have learned them, in another article (link)

Why Work With Symbols? #

Interpretation of symbols isn’t for everyone. I have known people who struggle with the nature of the process, usually yearning for something that easier to nail down. What I would suggest, is that like many practices, it gets easier the more you do it. One of the marvelous aspects of symbol and metaphor, is that they can give us a means of visceraly understanding something that is quite complex if it spelled out in words. “One showing is worth a thousand tellings”. Whether we are looking at dreams, mythology, or even a well written story or film, there is a simple availability. The story that is being told gives us the opportunity to relate to aspects of ourself and our personal struggles. If a story is instructive in a productive way, no matter how fantastic or otherworldy it might be, we can therein often find a new way to approach our own challenge.