Patterns & Metaphors
Symbol
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A symbol consists of an objective image and an intended significance, message or meaning. Symbols can be created or discovered whose meaning transcends reason, reaching on the one hand into the personal subconsciousness, and on the other hand, evoking the universals and archetypes of collective human experience. In these cases meaning and image structure are inseparable. Significance is not extractable from the image as though it had been rationally invested into it. Some symbols are more meaningful, in fact, when they are multifaceted or ambiguous, and some, in their richness, present a holistic imagery of phenomenal reality. Symbols may be presented serially, in linear chains; they may be presented in parallel or tangental series; and in other ways, such as one within another in nested or concentric fashion. Such symbolic systems, as occur in works of art for example, may exhibit tantology or reinforcement by presenting more than one symbolic image for a particular signification. This may also be achieved by combining imagic media such as form or shape with colour, or tone with tempo, or by multi-sensory imagery, as for example in the classical Greek theatre where music, vocal intonation, light, gesture, and other symbolic elements were all combined. Symbols, because they transcend reason, have defied compilation and categorization by the learned, yet they are read nonetheless by a pre-existent lexicon or thesaurus that appears to lie deep within the human mind.
