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Symbols

Symbols. Definition Shared understandings about the meaning of certain words, attributes, or objects. Characteristics Displacement Our ability to understand that a certain symbol means a certain thing. Arbitrary

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Symbols

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  1. Symbols • Definition • Shared understandings about the meaning of certain words, attributes, or objects. • Characteristics • Displacement • Our ability to understand that a certain symbol means a certain thing. • Arbitrary • A symbol has no direct connection with the thing it refers to. Meaning is a construction of the human mind. • Openness • Our ability to create and use symbols as we see fit.

  2. Circle with dot • Egypt: • The Sun, Ra • Greek philosophy of the Monad • The First, the seed, the essence, the builder the foundation. All is one, there are no fundamental divisions. A unified set of laws govern nature. • Contrast to dualism, i.e. yin yang: 2 underlying, opposing powers incorporating and governing reality. • Pythagoreans • From the Monad came the Dyad (2-powers); from it numbers; from numbers, points; then lines (2 dimensional entities), then 3 dimensional entities, celestial bodies (stars/planets), culminating in the four elements of earth, air, water and fire from which the rest of the world is built. • Flatland (1884) Edwin Abbott Abbott

  3. Hexagram • Earliest examples: 800-600 B.C.E. • Antiquity: symbol for Jewish Kingdom. • Star/shield of David. Symbol for Jewish faith. • Alchemy symbol in middle ages representing the combination of fire and water • Alchemy: A practical science concerned with the art of transforming elements and compounds, and a religious-philiosophical system resting on the idea of the existence of a substance called the philosopher’s stone which could change base elements into more precious substances (i.e. gold). • Other alchemy symbols: Ouroboros • Represents same thing as Indian yoga (unity), Chinese yin-yang, Christian ascendance to God, Buddhist Nirvanna, etc.

  4. Pentacle • A type of Pentagram (5-sided figure) • Probably discovered as a result of astronomical research in ancient Mesopotamia (~4,000 BCE): It is the structure that results if one plots the movement of Venus as seen from earth in the Zodiac. • The goddess Venus (Ishtar) from the ancient Mesopotamians appeared both as the Morning (battle/hunting) and Evening (beauty/fertility) star • Pythagorean mysticism • Numbers/values constitute the true nature of things. Can know God through mathematics. • Symbolizes the human being and mathematical perfection. • Christianity • 5 wounds of Christ, 5 senses • Islam • Used in the Morning Star and Crescent to denote the Islamic faith. • 5 points of star represent 5 pillars of Islam (the profession of faith, the prayer, giving a portion of one’s income to the poor, fasting during Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca • Judaism • Official seal of the city of Jerusalem during 300-150 BCE. • Satanism • Inverted star, symbolizing the rejection of Christian Holy Trinity. • Wiccan/Neopagan • Symbol of Wiccan faith. Represents 4 elements and the Spirit.

  5. Sacred Art • Formed from a myriad of religious symbols. • Ex: Cathedral • Not art for art’s sake (i.e. not based on creative urges of the artist). Rather art as a collection of symbols meant to convey a specific religious message. • Ex: • Byzantine and Egyptian religious art • Does not mean that these artists were incapable of drawing a more fluid/natural body. Needed this structure to convey the correct meaning. Art in this case is a symbol. To change the style of the symbol would be to change the meaning.

  6. Sacred art and sacred space • The Sarcophagus of Lord Pakal (book) • The symbols combined create a passageway through which Pakal passes to reach the Underworld and then be resurrected as a God. • Psychoduct: A passageway for Pakal’s spirit to pass from his Tomb to the Temple during rituals. Made of brick and running along the stairway • Egyptian spacetime • With its orientation to the heavens, sacred space in Egyptian architecture represents a dimension where heavenly time reigns (a sort of space time mix). To build a sacred space was to establish not only a spatial but also a temporal link with the heavens; it was a realization of eternity. In the Old Kingdom all the construction work done by the state concentrated on the pyramid as the epitome of sacred space: a structure built for the king to touch and enter into eternity. • The Tomb of Knum-Hotep (Beni-Hassan, Egypt) • An elaborate example of a Psychoduct…

  7. The Tomb of Knum-Hotep (Beni-Hassan, Egypt)Entrance and Offering Chamber Offering Chamber Tomb Entrance False Door located on side of Offering Camber Beginning of the Psychoduct

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