Symbols
So this all comes out of a conversation that I had with a very odd and very intelligent girl that I work with.....I ended up somehow musing on the nature of the symbols that humans create, both large archetypal unconscious symbols and the most exact symbols that we possess....words and letters....
Language, words and letters, are like any symbol, but are incredibly refined. When they are arranged in specific patterns they form a specific concrete idea. They link our greater spiritual and unconscious "self" and its thought and images to matter. They can trap a section of an ever evolving greater reality into something of the earth and manageable.
Where more general archetypes and and symbols open us up to a multitude of ideas and images, language has the opposite effect. It breaks things down to very small ideas and images. This is a useful tool in day to day existence, but when we put it into the context of spirituality it is only a shadow of the whole of reality.
Archetypes and all that they represent are the strongest and broadest of symbols, they are a much fuller representation of humanity's spiritual side and the cosmos at large. Applying language to these larger symbols, especially in great detail, can cause a fluid universe to become rigid for us and can more easily be broken.
This is important when considering our relationship to religious texts....it seems to me that when we take them most literally and allow narrow interpretations of them that this is when people most easily distort them and end up taking actions and living lives that go against the very essence of the faith....
anyhoo, just some random thoughts for the day...feel free to ask questions or discuss, I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts....
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