Symbols and their meanings

[phee]

*spin off from another thread*

What is the power of symbols? How do their meanings change over time? Are the symbol and the thing it represents inseperable?

[SaGa]

*spin off from another thread*

What is the power of symbols? How do their meanings change over time? Are the symbol and the thing it represents inseperable?

doublesymbolspeak yes i mixed a orwellian word and put symbol inbetween. i know im just that damn creative

symbols are a blank slate untill something gives it a meaning and a large people accept that meaning. there are some symbols which where stolen and used for other things. in order to rid it of its original meaning. rev probly could give examples much better then i.

[asphyxian_doll]

Symbols have no set meaning.

It is the memory instilled and belief in said symbol that gives it meaning,

The two are NOT inseparable.

In fact, thoughts are symbols.

how "powerful" symbols are all depend on who you are, and how unconscious you are.

Reference

BOOK: Dissolving Co-dependency,

great spiritual tool, read, and source of unbiased information.

half.com sells this book for less than 10 dollars.

[Gauge]

isnt saying that a symbol has no meaning and then following that up with a symbol kind of. . .contradictory. for that matter if symbols have no set meaning how can you make sence of what people on the board are typing? i can use a cute little to show im happy, its a symbol, to anyone almost anywhere its going to mean the same thing. to say (esspecially so generally) that they have no meaning, no power just seems kind of ignorant

[pomba gira]

isnt saying that a symbol has no meaning and then following that up with a symbol kind of. . .contradictory. for that matter if symbols have no set meaning how can you make sence of what people on the board are typing? i can use a cute little to show im happy, its a symbol, to anyone almost anywhere its going to mean the same thing. to say (esspecially so generally) that they have no meaning, no power just seems kind of ignorant

It only means something to people who are familiar with 20th-21st c. Western and Internet culture. It wouldn't mean anything to someone, say, who had just time traveled from the 19th century... or a contemporary, traditional-living !kung tribesperson. It means something to us because, well, we all "know" what it means. We can make sense of what is said on the board because we share a common cultural background and we are all literate in the English language as it's spoken/written in the early 21st c. Someone who didn't have that background or knowledge would not be able to... the symbols would have no meaning to them.

I have long been fascinated by the way symbols can change meaning over time and distance... for example the swastika. It amazes me that it went from being a ubiquitous good-luck charm in Western culture, to being completely taboo, almost overnight as these things go. Then there is what most of us think of as the "peace sign" gesture. To people who came of age during WWII, the gesture of raising the first and second fingers in a "v" shape has a completely different meaning. I could go on... but I'm afraid I'll start talking semiotics and be chased off the board by a (deservedly) angry mob.

[Homicidalheathen]

symbols are a part of magical geometry...everything has power, shapes...colors...sounds, its not magic so much as science we are just beginning to understand

i dont use the

anymore even though it was a rune/symbol for many a tribe in various cultures across the globe, and since the meaning was usually the same or similiar, that to me proves humans psychically tapped into it

(aztecs had one, not just druids)

just like messages in water, thoughts effect things...and now when i see it i feel uneasy, so its tainted at least for me.

[freydis]

The problem is, symbols vary from the literal, as in signage (stop sign, peace sign, whatever) to the figurative. Symbols dont just hold mystical or representational meaning, but psychological and semiotic meaning, too. Our language alone is rife with signs and symbols. To deny that they have any meaning is to deny language itself. It just doesnt make any sense.

It's also a statement unsupported by academia.

Signs and symbols can be very fluid, and change menaing, but to call them meaningless is just silly.

[Head Wreck]

symbols are a part of magical geometry...everything has power, shapes...colors...sounds, its not magic so much as science we are just beginning to understand

i dont use the

anymore even though it was a rune/symbol for many a tribe in various cultures across the globe, and since the meaning was usually the same or similiar, that to me proves humans psychically tapped into it

(aztecs had one, not just druids)

just like messages in water, thoughts effect things...and now when i see it i feel uneasy, so its tainted at least for me.

Hindu symbol, thats the female form, the male form is good luck and represents the sun.

[SaGa]

The problem is, symbols vary from the literal, as in signage (stop sign, peace sign, whatever) to the figurative. Symbols dont just hold mystical or representational meaning, but psychological and semiotic meaning, too. Our language alone is rife with signs and symbols. To deny that they have any meaning is to deny language itself. It just doesnt make any sense.

It's also a statement unsupported by academia.

Signs and symbols can be very fluid, and change menaing, but to call them meaningless is just silly.

aside from pointing symbols to natural things. as in the shape resembles something familiar. if the symbol does not have this, then it was meaningless if someone was just drawing for the sake of it, and accidently created the symbol. then gave it a meaning. the eye of ra vrs lets say the 7,9, or 11 pointed stars and lets not forget the 5 pointed star. the most popular symbol to bash on bye cristians. which can be interpreted in numerology about a billion different ways. depending on what you use that numerology on. say kaballah, or you can see it in occult. this has created a opposing view on the same symbol where some people see the symbol as good while others damn it as evil.

[Mizuna]

The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

[Homicidalheathen]

grrrr! i was sooo pissed he took that symbol for himself! another one i wont use now

i love prince but he should have made his own, bad call.