Your Personal Symbols

A symbol represents many concepts at once, so each one is loaded with associations, many of which we may not understand. What symbols do you surround yourself with? Do you have 8-Balls or dragonflies, a Celtic knot or Chinese characters decorating your space or your person? These are your personal symbols that reflect something about your inner world.

If you aren’t sure why you find yourself identifying with your symbols, you can research their meaning for clues. You will probably find several different explanations that aren’t meaningful to you, but maybe there’s one from a different culture that will make sense. For example, if you like snakes, you might not identify with the Biblical serpent who tempted Eve, but with the Greeks, who used snakes as symbols of healing, a symbol that is still used by the medical community today. Or with the Native American interpretation that considered them to have the power of transmutation.

An 8-Ball could mean the “capriciousness of fate” or living on the edge, (among other things), as one tattoo site tells us, but perhaps it just reminds you of the Magic 8-Ball with all the answers and its association with luck. Regardless, if your committing to ink, it’s certainly worthwhile researching all the connotations of the symbol you chose. (For example the term eight ball, in addition to being a pool and billiards ball, is also slang for 1/8 of an ounce of crack or heroin.)

But whether your symbol is a bumper sticker or a piece of jewelry, a design theme in your home or the tchotchke (Yiddish for knick-knacks) on your desk, researching its meaning can help you find possible answers to thoughts and desires you perhaps never consciously knew you had.

Reprinted with kind permission from The Daily Mantra.