Ritual and Symbol

A cross, a Star of David, the Stars and Stripes, a crucifix. A veil, a Mennonite women’s cap, a yarmulke, a hijab, an orange robe. A lotus, a lily, a bodhi tree. Your wedding picture, the photos on your mantelpiece, the photos on your fridge. The bibelots and knickknacks on your window sill, your bedside table, your desk.

What you hang from your rearview mirror, what you hang around your neck, what you wear on your ring finger. The cherished gift you received from someone who loves you; the gift you give someone you love. The tattoo, the initials carved on the desk, the tree, in concrete; what he said when he proposed; what you screamed when you left.

All these are symbols–objects, emblems, and language representing our relationship to persons, to the universe, to the sacred. They are concrete realities communicating universal truths.

People may mistake a symbol for what Joseph Campbell called the final thing. They miss the spiritual substance–the mystery–altogether.

Writing about symbolic representations of reality–and mysteries–Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has this to say about the Christian celebration of communion: ¹

The body of Christ is the body of God, the body of ultimate reality, the ground of all existence. We do not have to look anywhere else for it. It resides deep in our own being.

The Eucharistic rite encourages us to be fully aware so that we can touch the body of reality in us. Bread and wine are not symbols.
They contain the reality, just as we do.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

What is this reality that every person contains, whether they are aware of it or not?

In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote:

Wherever a hero has been born, has wrought, or has passed back into the void, the place is marked and sanctified. A temple is erected there to signify and inspire the miracle of perfect centeredness; for this is the place of the break-through into abundance. Someone at this point discovered eternity. The site can serve, therefore, as a support for fruitful meditation.

Such temples are designed, as a rule, to simulate the four directions of the world horizon, the shrine or altar at the center being symbolical of the Inexhaustible Point.

The one who enters the temple compound and proceeds to the sanctuary is imitating the deed of the original hero. His aim is to rehearse the universal pattern as a means of evoking within himself the recollection of the life-centering, life-renewing form.
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces ²

contemplate & convey

Share something about a meaningful personal symbol.
Look around. What are some symbolic items you keep nearby–on your desk or dresser, hanging from your rearview mirror, worn around your neck or on your finger? Do you have a tattoo?

This week, notice how symbolic gestures and items center and renew you.

footnotes

Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ. New York: Penguin, 1995, pp. 31-32. ↩︎
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973, p. 43. ↩︎

January 9, 2024

Eve

Soul & Symbol: Perspectives in Depth Psychology

Symbolic Perception

2 responses to “Ritual and Symbol”

MaryJaneHurleyBrant

January 16, 2024

Love the symbolic life, Anne, and your photo. Is that you on the far left among those adorable children?

I have numerous symbols in our home: holy water fonts by two doors that I picked up in Italy. A picture of a mosaic of the Angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she was to be the mother of God. I purchased it in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy. A delicate windchime of mirrors hangs in my office window reflecting light. It’s a sweet reminder of where I purchased it: Galloway, Ireland, shortly after a gypsy kissed me in a church and then grinned. My companion and I played hooky from the conference we were attending. She herself was Irish and lived in Connemara, Ireland. She quickly told me it was fortunate that I didn’t turn away from this poor old street soul for she would have cursed me. A confirmation to me that it’s wise to pay attention to our intuitions. Hail Mary.

My family of origin photos are everywhere. My children’s photos – both here and on the other side of the veil – sit along framed with my husband and grandchildren. My artwork is everywhere and is frequently moved from room to room once it’s varnished and framed in my studio. I have nothing in our home that holds a bad thought. I follow all things chi and the rewards of my sensitivities to time, space, place and impermanence work pretty well.

Warmly,
MJ

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1. Anne
  
  January 16, 2024
  
  MJ, thank you for visiting and commenting. Everything you’ve shared here resonates like the voice of a sister. We would love each other’s homes and company–I’m so sure of this. I, too, have two holy water fonts tucked inside a short passageway between entry and kitchen; one, an antique from France, has a lovely relief of Mary offering the infant Jesus her breast; the other is a small Mary, Queen of Heaven. I love the Mother and mother archetypes and keep them dear to my heart.
  
  Also in that same hallway in a lighted niche one sees upon entering the house is an old Russian icon of the Archangel Gabriel–herald of visions, patron of communication, revelation, and the delivery of important divine messages–all of which you know, I’m sure. I greet him every morning as I make coffee and then take it into my office.
  
  I like the idea of your mirrored wind chimes. Send me a photo! I have a lot of light in my office coming in from the east, south AND west and don’t know why I never thought about using that. I’d love something that reflects it.
  
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