Nadia Julien, after a brief spell as a teacher with the Alliance Française, practised graphology for a number of years. She subsequently became interested in esotericism and has published widely on graphology, symbolism, astrology, mythology and related subjects. She lives in Belgium.

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First published in Belgium by Marabout, Alleur, 1989

This English translation first published in the UK
as The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols by Robinson Publishing, 1996

This edition published by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2012

Copyright © Marabout, Alleur (Belgium), 1989
This English translation copyright © Robinson Publishing, 1996

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INTRODUCTION

A symbol is a material object used to denote a difficult abstract concept or an idea that has hidden truths.

Man has always employed symbols to describe thoughts and feelings, or to protect secret truths from common knowledge. This is how the mysteries evolved, with their imagery that only the initiated can understand.

Symbols have been used to express profound truths, such as explanations of cosmic phenomena, or the dynamic structure of the universe, or how the mind works, and these have been passed down from generation to generation, through folklore, fairy tales, myths and legends. You only have to reread these, and delve deeper into their meanings, to discover a mass of symbols that have a common origin, and to see how many human motivations would be difficult to understand without them.

These images and allegories belong to everyone. In fact, they have an identical value in civilizations far removed from one another. This is because, originally, primitive peoples found it quite natural to think by way of analogy. Today this seems irrational to us, because we tend to compare it with our own way of thinking, without taking into account the thousands of years of slow evolution that have shaped our minds and given us a materialistic vision, in which we see things in a matter-of-fact way that makes the symbol seem outmoded.

And yet symbols have survived, not only in folklore but in everyday life and religion. Take, for example, the Union Jack, the Cross, the Lamb of God. These are symbols that have as much meaning as the written word or gestures. Then there are customs like wearing black at funerals, crowns, wedding rings, that are symbolic props. Legends and fairy tales use a symbolic language, just like dreams. For symbolism is the only language that can be understood by the unconscious, that part of our mind affecting our behaviour and emotions, and expressed through what Jung called archetypes – primitive mental images inherited from our earliest ancestors – which hold the key to its interpretation.

And so the symbol, like Ariadne’s thread, can lead us into undreamed-of worlds; it can act as a guide to our ego and its complex mechanisms, our mutinous feelings, frustrations and desires buried deep in the unconscious, and it can carry coded messages from the unconscious that cannot be understood through normal reasoning.

Discovering the world of symbols will give you almost unlimited scope for reflection and meditation, and enable you to go right back, through thousands of years of culture and evolution, to the very origins of the human race: every symbol is like a translucent egg, containing an almost inexhaustible source of knowledge and research. You will be able to delve deeper into these images, transcending time and matter and conventional meanings. You will pass from the tangible to the intangible, rise to a world of the spirit, and profit from the experience of countless earlier generations.

Far from being just an intellectual amusement, the interpretation of symbols is an individual way of approaching the problems of life, mankind and the universe. Macrocosm and microcosm are united in these images, these eternal, universal signs.

You must use your intuition when studying symbols. Their language might seem abstract at first, so it is a good idea to ignore familiar meanings, set aside your academic knowledge and forget modern ideas about things.

Symbols generally contain more than one meaning, which can be psychological, religious or moral. Avoid digressing into a maze of detail when you interpret them, and approach them in their context. Above all, be receptive; keep an open mind to any associations they suggest.

The sources for this book have been many and various, and its scope is worldwide. I have drawn particularly on the Cabbalah (medieval Jewish mysticism), the tarot, astrology, alchemy, Freemasonry, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, but ancient Egyptian, American Indian, Celtic, ancient Greek, Roman, Persian and Assyrian and Japanese cultures are also very well represented, and it is surprising how images, particularly in creation myths, recur.

(Superscript numbers in the text refer to the Bibliography on pp. 506–8.)

CONTENTS

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

A

ABYSS

source of wisdom buried deep in the mind or the unconscious, accessible through intuition

In all the theories of the origin of the universe, the abyss symbolizes both the genesis and end of universal evolution. It is often conceived as mythological monsters who swallow humans, then regurgitate them renewed and transformed.

•  In Greek and Latin, it denotes indefinite depths or heights and, universally, symbolizes the informal states of existence in which transformation can take place: evolution as opposed to a solid, fixed state. Man has to confront his personal abyss at least four times in a lifetime, that is, he has to reconsider his convictions and question his motives in order to achieve maturity (the four ages of man).

•  The depths of the abyss relate to the land of the dead and the chthonian mother (earth goddess), from whom Jung took his interpretation, which associates the symbolism of the abyss with the maternal archetypal image of a mother who is simultaneously loving and cruel.

•  The bottomless depths of the abyss are a symbol of the uncertainty of childhood, as well as the absence of distinction when life ends. However, dreaming of an abyss is positive: it is an invitation to plumb one’s inner depths, to explore the most intimate parts of one’s personality, that is, the unconscious, which contains an immense source of life and vitality.

ACACIA

initiation, and knowledge of unseen things

Acacia is similar to the thorn and hawthorn in its symbolism.

•  In ancient Egypt acacia symbolized spiritual regeneration; on some Egyptian monuments there are coffins with acacia growing from them and the motto “Osiris thrusts forth”, meaning “Out of death comes life” or rebirth. Acacia is a symbol of this in Freemasonry.

•  Acacia wood was used to make the arani, a fire-making device used by Vedic priests, and therefore has sacred associations with the sun god. The acacia tree was a symbol of immortality in Nature, and later came to denote vitality.

Its connection with sun worship has given it a religious value: in India, the sacrificial ladle, an attribute of the supreme god Brahma, was carved from acacia wood. The Ark of the Convenant was also made of acacia and plated in gold.

ACROBAT

critical situation

This is an image that appears frequently in dreams. The acrobat who can defy the laws of gravity symbolizes the overturning of established order and emancipation from everyday routine and social conventions, and reveals a critical situation, which can be resolved through movement and action.

•  Acrobatics symbolize physical ecstasy, the soaring flight towards a superhuman situation. They depict the search for an identification with divinity, as in the sacred dances of India, Java and Bali. Acrobatics are linked to the Hanged Man (the twelfth arcana of the tarot).

ADAM

origins of human life, the comprehensiveness of traditional wisdom

Adam, as the first man and the image of God, symbolizes the appearance of the spirit in material form endowed with consciousness, reason, autonomy and intelligence. Every tradition mentions a first man, a mythical ancestor. In ancient Persia there was a prototype man, Gayomart, who emitted rays of light. On his death, all the metals sprang from his body, and his soul was transformed into gold. From his sperm scattered on the ground the first couple was born. In ancient China, the first man was Pan-Ku, who is shown covered in leaves, while the Irish acknowledge a racial ancestor who came to their country from a foreign land.

•  Each great historical period has a primordial man, an Adam. The Gnostics were quick to identify this first man with an inner psychic image, and for the Hindus an immortal part of each human being was the Purusha, which appears in the symbolic myths of ancient India as simultaneously living deep in man’s heart and filling the universe.

•  In the tradition of the Cabbalah (Jewish mystical teachings based on medieval texts), Adam represents the synthesis of humanity, and encapsulates the soul of all future mankind, beyond individual life. To create Adam, God put together red, black, white and yellow earth (adamah) which had been taken from the four corners of the earth (the cardinal points). And so his soul was made up of an infinite number of strands, like a lamp wick.

•  In Christian doctrine, the first Adam committed original sin through his wish to equal God, and is therefore a symbol of the perversion of the mind and a refusal to submit, which earned him a devastating punishment, that is, death. A second Adam then appeared in the form of Jesus Christ, who, out of sheer grace and perfection, was the first man, the incarnation of the Word, the man-God who is no longer an image but a reality, and capable of conferring on humanity the grace and eternal life that his predecessor took away.

According to Jung, this new Adam symbolizes the advent of a new humanity amidst the ashes of the old. He represents the certainty of the Resurrection.

•  From a psychological viewpoint, this cosmic man is a source of psychic energies associated with “old men” and produced from painful experiences. In dreams, he appears in the guise of a monk, a patriarch, a philosopher or a pope; signifying a wise old man, associated with the archetype of the father or the ancestor.

The appearance of this sage reveals a need to progress, and realize one’s personality through synthesizing one’s potential into an integrated and dynamic whole.

AEROPLANE

The symbolism of the aeroplane is a combination of the car, ascension, the bird and air. It also symbolizes the idea of detachment from material things, and flight.

AGES or PERIODS

the division of time

People once thought the world was divided into four periods: (1) the Golden Age under the rule of Saturn, which was an age of happiness, innocence and abundance, where work was unnecessary; (2) the Silver Age ruled by Jupiter; (3) the Bronze Age dominated by injustice, looting and wars; and (4) the Iron Age, associated with human misfortune, greed and drought.

These periods correspond to the four stages in the process of regeneration in alchemy: the black of the unconscious, the white of air (when the anima appears in the unconscious), the red of the energy of fire, and the gold of the transformation.

•  In the Etruscan world, the seers or aruspices divided the duration of the world, society and man into periods. Human life consisted of twelve periods of seven years (a number reached by dividing the lunar month by 4), the seventh year being a critical period in each case. During the first ten periods, expiatory rites could delay the onset of death; but in old age, fate could no longer be deflected through the intervention of the gods, for “the sum of predestined events was immutable for the whole of the twelve-periods”.⁹⁸

These periods corresponded to the modifications undergone by the human body and mind, and marked the growth, static state and decline of vitality: childhood (which lasted until about seven); adolescence (until about eighteen); adulthood (until forty – the age of maturity); the change of life (until sixty); and old age. Transition between these ages required adaptation.

•  The duration of city and state life was divided into periods of an age, the length of which was based on human life (for the druids an age was equal to thirty years, the average length of human life).

AIR

spiritualization

Air is one of the four elements, the intermediary between heaven and earth, fire and water. Air is where divine inspiration, a symbol of spiritualization, is manifested.

•  In Hindu mythology, it is represented as a spiritual vehicle, by Vayu, god of the region of subtlety, and of the wind that rides a gazelle, the god whose standard floats in the eight cosmic winds connected to the eight directions of space.

Associated with Prana, a dynamic energy underlying the vital, nervous activities that underpin man’s mental energies, Vayu rules over the vital levels that connect the physical being to the purely mental one, and is identified with the Word, which is itself “inspiration”, or an intake of air.

•  In the Book of Genesis, air was an “emanation of the breath of the Spirit of God which moved upon the face of the waters to divide them and create the firmament”.³⁰

ALCHEMY

the road to perfection

In its secular sense, alchemy involved a series of chemical processes, which were meant to lead to the transformation of base metal into gold. It was also a scientific, philosophical system, directed at discovering the hidden laws ruling the universe.

In its spiritual sense, it is the art of men’s intellectual and moral self-improvement.

•  The gold alchemists strived to produce was, symbolically, human perfection.¹⁸

This spiritual alchemy used symbolic media, such as the male element of sulphur, an expansive energy coming from the heart of an individual, and the female element of mercury, as energy emanating from the exterior, which can penetrate everything. These antagonistic forces are balanced in salt, a crystallizing substance which symbolized the stable part of a human being.

•  The alchemist went through six consecutive operations: first there was calcination, a stage corresponding to the colour black and the extinction of desires; then putrefaction, which separated the charred elements; solution, corresponding to the colour white and symbolizing the wise man resisting temptations; fermentation and congelation, corresponding to the colour red and the union of opposites; and sublimation, corresponding to gold, symbol of perfection.

•  The alchemist is the sage who, “having noted its symbolic dimension, enters into a kind of ‘laboratory’ that becomes an oratory for his thoughts. He stands in the centre of the world, or more exactly in the centre of a world in the process of being formed, that he must make coherent. Then he discovers the cosmos, a harmony of heavenly voices . . . the universe, the divine word in its infinity of worlds and universes.”⁸⁰

•  For Jung, “the processes of alchemy” symbolize the process of individuation, the search for self, the essence of personality, identical to the athanor, the alchemist’s crucible. This quest begins in the total blackness of the unconscious, and continues in the analysis of the psyche and its division into separate components, until the true values of existence are assimilated into the conscious and used in the here and now.

•  The Taoists’ art of long life and immortality was based on an internal alchemy, directed at “dissolving the form, remaking the body, refining it through the process of alchemy”. It involved breathing, gymnastic and dietary techniques. To obtain the elixir of gold and transmuted cinnabar, this base cinnabar was modelled on the yin–yang (the Chinese concept of two opposite and complementary forces in Nature) and conformed to systems of numbers. Using a symbolic language, a logical system was organized, which relied on the “fundamental idea of dynamic, transcendent connections between man, heaven and earth, and on the balance of yin and yang in the human organism; man was thought to be an exact replica of the macrocosm”.⁶⁵

The aim was to act on the primordial elements of “essence, inspiration and vital spirit”, through concentration and inner contemplation and through the practice of embryonic breathing, a kind of regression to the “state of the infant in the womb”.

Inspiration was sought “in the Sea of Inspiration, near the lower region of cinnabar . . . from where it would be brought up to the brain, then circulated throughout the whole body, ensuring that normal breathing continued, although reduced as much as possible”.⁶⁴

ALCOHOL

release of the unconscious, creative inspiration

Alcohol is a synthesis of two opposing elements, water and fire, and symbolizes vital energy, “the fire of life”; and, for Sufis, fire and love.

On an individual level, it has the effect of lifting prohibitions and taboos, releasing vital forces and the imagination.

ALMOND – ALMOND TREE

reality behind appearance

This nut, concealed in an outer skin, symbolizes the essence hidden within things of little importance: Christ, whose divine nature was hidden by his human form, the secret in the shadows, waiting to be discovered so that it can be eaten.

•  In the esoteric language of the Middle Ages, the mystic almond symbolized Mary’s virginity (and from this came the elliptical halo that can be seen surrounding her in pictures). Bodies of saints are also enveloped in an almond shape, divided by three lines representing the Trinity, to which they are united through a beatific vision.

•  In India, the almond is the vulva, the yoni, and eating it signifies the sexual act.

•  In the Upanishads it is used as a “symbol of the cosmic waters and the turbulent agitation of infinite possibilities of existence”.

•  A dream featuring almonds can mean a difficult problem about something essentially precious, very often connected with sex.

•  As the Tree of Wisdom in the Book of Genesis, the spring-flowering almond tree signifies renewal, and also fragility, as the flowers are sensitive to wintry weather.

•  In mythology it is an attribute to Atys, who was conceived by a virgin from an almond.

•  For Jews, it symbolizes a new life, and, according to a Jewish myth, the base of an almond tree forms the entrance to the underworld city of Luz, home of the immortals. Luz was also the name of the city where Jacob had a vision of the House of God (Bethel).

ALPHA AND OMEGA

wholeness

These two letters are the first and last of the Greek alphabet and are supposed to contain the key to the universe; they symbolize the beginning and end of everything that exists. Juxtaposed, they represent the cycle of time, where the end once more joins the beginning. (See Snake, Ouroboros.)

ALPHABET

See Letters.

AMBER

spiritual bond

Yellow amber (in Greek electron, hence “electricity”), which possesses the property of generating electricity through rubbing, is used to make rosaries and amulets, which can be turned into real condensers of electric current, discharging it when fingered or touched.

•  It can be likened to a psychic thread, linking individual energy to cosmic energy, and it is a symbol of solar, spiritual and divine attraction.

•  In Christian imagery the saints sometimes have amber faces, reflecting their inner heavenly light.

AMETHYST

the inner centre, resignation

The amethyst (in Greek amethustos, not inebriated), symbol of temperance, is worn by bishops who must be on their guard against all intoxication, even spiritual. Its symbolism has similarities to that of precious stones and the colour purple.

ANGELS

positive and negative energies of the unconscious

In every tradition, in both the Old and New Testament, and in religious theory in ancient Egypt, Persia, India and China, there is a belief in spiritual creatures superior to man. Creation was thought of as a ladder, with its top rung occupied by angels, immaterial beings made of pure spirit, whereas man consisted of both matter and spirit, a body and a soul.

•  According to the teachings of the Church, angels were created in a state of grace and happiness and with freedom to choose between good and evil. Some of them sinned through pride and were condemned to eternal torture; these are the demons who drive men along the path of evil.

Each individual is helped along the road to goodness by a guardian angel, a symbol of conscience.

The legions of angels who make up the armies of heaven are divided into three hierarchies, which in turn are divided into three choirs: (1) seraphim, cherubim and thrones; (2) dominations, virtues, powers; and (3) principalities, archangels and angels.

•  Symbolically, these invisible powers correspond to the ladder of human values based on everyday behaviour, with the highest spirituality attained by mystics at the top, and at the bottom the total degradation of those who have yielded to their basest instincts.

Inconographically they are shown with wings, testifying to their immaterial essence, and with a white habit, symbol of purity.

In Jung’s view, demons represent inferior functions stirring in the dark areas of the human unconscious.

ANDROGYNE

mystery of creation, primordial unity

The oldest image of androgyny is the menhir, an almost round block of rough stone, standing alongside a similarly shaped stone lying on the ground, simultaneously representing the moment of birth of the new sun or winter solstice, man and woman, and by extension strength, the active male element on the one hand, and matter, the passive, life-giving female element on the other. These symbols have survived in the Hindu lingam and yoni.¹³⁶

Later, as can be seen in ancient sculptures, a great number of figures were devised that possessed organs of both sexes: gods and goddesses of the solstice with two heads looking in opposite directions, or bearded women. Even “priests came to be dressed in women’s clothes”. All these images symbolize “organized matter from primeval times, from the very moment when it had emerged from chaos, and had not as yet been permeated by the Creator’s ethereal essence”, and was therefore still undifferentiated.⁸³

•  The androgyne symbolizes the mystery of creation; it is an anthropomorphic depiction of the cosmic egg, the origin of life in the universe which began the cosmologic cycle. The androgyne is the Sumerians’ An (heaven) and Enlil (earth); the Japanese Izanagi and Izanami merging in the cosmic egg; in Egypt it is Ptah; in China Fu-hi and Niu-ka joined by their snake’s tails; in India Shiva, tightly embracing Shakti, his own energy conceived as a woman, to form a single being – this is an example of the androgyne’s informal manifestation; Cupid, god of love; the Word made flesh, described in the Cabbalah and the eleventh-century Christian Gnostic scriptures as an androgynous being;⁶⁶ and Adam created in the image of God, therefore bisexual, who becomes Adam and Eve. “The way the female element changes into a different shape symbolizes the beginning of the fall from a state of perfection into duality.”⁶⁶

It follows from this primeval androgyny that woman is man’s complement (according to Plato, marriage is an attempt to restore this androgynous unity that was lost for eternity). Woman is also man’s future, because she makes certain that his line is continued.

•  Androgyny illustrates the fundamental duality that exists throughout the natural world, expressed in T’ai-chi, in Chinese philosophy.

Androgyny is dualism and totality; like alpha and omega it symbolizes the beginning and end of time, birth and death. Death recreates the unity that originally existed, as man regains the completeness inherent in the absence and separation of the sexes.

These ancient beliefs, which echo biological discoveries on man’s bipolarity, help explain the rites of circumcision and excision, which attempt to establish gender definitively (the woman’s clitoris is considered to be a remnant of the penis, and the man’s prepuce a remnant of the female labia).

The dogma of androgyny has a wide application beyond the world of the gods: bronze, composed of copper (a female element) and tin (a male element), was regarded as androgynous and used in the magic ritual of purification: in ancient Rome, the chief priest at the temple of Jupiter could only have his hair cut with bronze razors, and the Etruscans used a bronze plough to mark the boundaries of their brand new city.

ANIMAL

instincts, conscious and unconscious, often primitive and dangerous

In ancient times, it was thought that all men, animals and plant life had been impregnated with some of the divine essence spread throughout the universe. Animal and plant characteristics were regarded not only as manifestations of divine power, but also as permanent, true emanations of its essence.⁸³

And so sacred animals – such as the deer, snake, bull, cow etc. – were held to be images of divine power.

•  The ancient hunting, fishing and pastoral cultures that preceded agrarian, astral or astronomical religions were characterized by representations of animals, some of which survived in the Chaldaean, Chinese and Mexican zodiacs and in Egyptian religion.

Later, Christianity used animal symbols extensively: to illustrate physical appearance – the gospel writers are shown as an ox (Saint Luke), a lion (Saint Mark), an eagle (Saint John) – or an animal was linked to spiritual characteristics – Christ with a lamb (symbol of the sacrifice on the Cross) or a fish (symbol of the secrecy of the early Christians) and the Holy Spirit with a dove.

One can often see animals hidden among creeping plants on the capitals of pillars in churches. These symbolize the interlacing of plant and human life where one can so easily get lost, and the need for self-knowledge in order to find one’s way.

•  The animal is a vessel for cosmic energy, and in the Middle Ages, at New Year, men and women dressed up in the skins of horse, wolf or ox so that they could be infiltrated by this vital force. “This copied an ancient Egyptian idea of ‘transformation’ in which the initiate acquired the particular virtue of each of the creatures into which he was transformed.”⁸⁰

•  Chinese and medieval art offer a wide range of mythical beasts: dragons or two-headed eagles (the duality of human nature), foxes with nine tails (the nine regions of Middle Earth), wild beasts with eight human heads (the number eight symbolizing cosmic balance), phoenixes, gargoyles, chimaeras, unicorns.

In medieval bestiaries, these same symbols from Eastern, Etruscan and Tyrrhenian civilizations served as symbolic aids in teaching doctrines and moral precepts: they illustrated the fundamental Christian virtues and helped explain the mysteries of religion. These archaic concepts are testimonies of the survival of the collective unconscious, and have survived so well long after these civilizations have become extinct that today they are found in the contemporary art world, in complex visual fantasies, particularly of the surrealist school.

•  Writers of fables (Aesop, Hesiod, Florian, La Fontaine) have also exploited animal symbolism and used it to express improving morals.

In this symbolism the animal generally depicts negative qualities in human nature, or the sublimation of instincts (using the addition of wings to reverse the symbol; for example, a winged horse, snake or dragon). Killing the snake signifies overcoming or taming an instinct.

•  These symbols are seen in psychological tests and dreams as archetypes that illustrate human characteristics and throw light on hidden or unknown aspects of the personality: passions and often repressed instincts whose unsuspected influence is endangering the dreamer’s balance of mind; or alternatively they reveal the “beast” lurking in the depths of each of us.

In fact, according to Jung, being attracted or repelled by animals and their appearance in our dreams reveals unconscious aspects of the psyche, repressed desires, the shadow, the anima, the animus, the inferior functions in their ancient form.

Whether they are life companions or wild beasts, animals reflect the rudimentary instincts that motivate human behaviour: self-preservation, reproduction, the gregarious instinct, aggression . . . And so, people’s taste for leather clothes or fur is an expression of an unsatisfied need for pleasure or luxury, and beards or long hair expresses a need for simplicity or naturalness repressed by the exigencies of civilized life or everyday routine.

If we can recognize and understand the animal within us, we can tame it, that is, we can use the repressed energy in the unconscious that it symbolizes. For it is a negative force that can dominate our conscious existence and poison relationships, because we project these animal elements and the delusive images they suggest on to others.

ANKH

eternity

The Egyptian looped cross is held in the hand by their gods and features on important people’s tombs. (See Knot, Cross.)

Ankh: the looped cross

ANNIVERSARY

memory

Anniversaries, celebrated in every country and every religion and every family, are in some way symbols of past events. The Jewish Passover recalls the exodus from Egypt, Pentecost evokes the promulgation of law on Mount Sinai. The Christian world celebrates Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension as the very days when the mysteries took place. New Year’s Day for the Romans marked the day when their city was founded. For Muslims it evoked the day when Mohammed fled from Mecca.

In China, they celebrate the birthday of Buddha, and of the goddess of the sea, Tin Hau, during the third lunar month; Taoists have their festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month.

•  As far as the individual is concerned, anniversaries symbolize the important phases in our life cycle, and mark the length of a marriage: one year of marriage = paper wedding; five years = wood; ten years = tin; twenty-five years = silver; fifty years = gold; sixty years = diamond.

ANTIMONY

the little king

Antimony is a metal that combines easily with ordinary gold, which it then purifies. It was once known as regulo (little king).

•  Practitioners of the Hermetic art (an early form of alchemy) used it as everlasting water or heavenly water to cleanse the philosopher’s gold/stone of all impurity, an operation which corresponded to the penultimate stage of the alchemist’s process of changing base metal into gold.

•  In Jungian terms, it symbolizes a state close to the final stage of evolution, the state of individuation. The most difficult remains to be done, the transformation of lead into gold, releasing opacity from matter. Antimony therefore came to express the possibility of a final boost or a final obstacle. It is linked to the symbolism of grey.

APOCALYPSE

the fate of the world

The Apocalypses are the Jewish/Christian scriptures that contain revelations about mankind’s fate, the end of the world and the arrival of the day of Judgement. These works are based on symbolic data: numbers, colours, precious stones, personalities (Michael, angels, woman, the new-born, the prostitute), animals (dragon, lion, ox, eagle, beast), objects etc. The Apocalypse has come to symbolize the end of the world, with catastrophes of every kind: floods, earthquakes etc.

APPLE, APPLE TREE

the guarantee of immortality

In Irish tradition, the apple is a fruit that guarantees immortality: cut in half, crossways, it reveals a five-pointed star, the pentagram, a symbol of the “five stations from birth to death and rebirth”.

•  Apples were part of the Orphic cult and also symbolized the goddess Venus (to whom they were sacred), who, according to Robert Graves, “was worshipped as the evening star, Hesper, on one half of the apple, and as Lucifer, son of morning, on the other”.¹⁰⁷

•  Jung interpreted the apple eaten by Adam and Eve as a symbol of life.

In dreams, a red and green apple is the expression of a harmonious organic life. A maggoty apple reveals an apparently healthy relationship which has been eaten away on the inside.

APRON

work

Worn in the Middle Ages by masons or cathedral builders, the apron is the essential item of apparel for Freemasons, “builders of the symbolic temple of future mankind”. Originally it had a magnetic belt that was meant to contain a disk of etheric matter, separating the lower part of the body from the upper part so that the formidable energies that the Masonic ceremony was intended to bring into play would not escape to the lower regions of the anatomy.¹⁰⁸

•  Made of sheepskin, a symbol of purity, the Apprentice’s apron is a symbol of work and (in French Freemasonry) has a raised bib forming a five-pointed figure, a symbol of quintuple man. The Companion wears the bib pulled down, and the Master Mason has a double bib in red.

•  In England, the Master Mason of the Grand Lodge has an apron which is double and edged with blue. It has two lines of influence or spiritual energy, each ending in seven silver lines, which indicate the colours of a prism and symbolize the seven temperaments.¹⁰⁸

AQUARIUS

20 January–18 February

Aquarius is the eleventh sign of the zodiac, a fixed airy sign, ruled by Saturn (and Uranus) which is its house. The sun is in exile, and Neptune falling.

Characteristics: freedom, frankness, waves, explosion, invention.

Correspondences: wetness, winter, day, positiveness, maleness, sterility, violence. Metal: lead. Stones: sapphire, black pearl.

In the body: vessels, calves and heels, cerebral electricity, cardiac rhythms.14, ¹²²

Principal qualities: sense of brotherhood, of peace and discovery.

Negative qualities: intolerance of legitimate, established social norms, revolutionary spirit lacking creative power.

ARA

solar fire

An ara is a parrot with a powerful beak, long red tail and distinct, brilliantly coloured plumage. It was used in Mayan culture as a symbol of fire and solar energy. The people of Central America use its feathers for decoration and ritual.

ARABESQUE

Islamic mandala

The arabesque is a basic element of Islamic art. As a religious art it uses only a combination of lines and colours, since the Koran forbids the representation of living things and man.

•  As an infinite repetition of the same theme, with a regular rhythm, the arabesque serves as an aid to meditation and contemplation; it helps one escape from temporal conditioning, and is reminiscent of a maze, access to its centre being achieved only by a complicated route. It is an image of individuation directed at reaching the centre of the personality.

ARCH

See Bow.

ARCHETYPE

collective ancestral heritage

Archetypes, a term developed by Carl Jung, are special mental constructs that belong to each individual and also to everyone in general. In some ways they are the mental equivalent of biological instincts which combine to form our models of behaviour: unconscious motivations on the one hand; conscious on the other.

The notions of God, mother, father, anima and animus, horse, snake and others are “primordial images, innate in the human mind” according to Jung. They have been present since the human race began, and have persisted across thousands of years, forming a sediment in the mind of every human being.

ARIES

21 March–20 April

A masculine, cardinal fiery sign. Aries is in the house of Mars. The sun and Pluto are exalted in Aries, Venus is in exile, Saturn falls.

Characteristics: intrepidity, courage, love of action and of conception, speed, ardour, vitality.

Correspondences: red, ruby, spicy plants. Loyalty, swords, sabres, daggers, iron, industry, factories, metals, sheep, buck, lancets, burins, anything that cuts.

In the body: head, brain, nose, face.¹²²

Negative aspects: instinct for destruction, unruly impatience, impulsiveness, egocentricity, egotism.¹⁴

ARK

the house of God

Egyptian temples contained God’s holy ark wrapped in precious veils, which was solemnly carried by priests in processions.

It is found again as an object of veneration by Jewish nomads in the Ark of the Covenant. Jews thought of it as God’s earthly home.

The rectangular wooden chest plated in gold (a symbol of the divine character of the glorified Church) had a lid of pure gold called a propitiatory, on which were placed two cherubim in beaten gold (cherubim symbolizing divine love, divine power). This kapporet (Hebrew for propitiatory) symbolized justice, Jehovah’s immutable principle.¹⁹

As a materialization of Jehovah’s design he had conceived before the beginning of creation, the ark symbolized God’s eternal design, the hidden mystery, the Christ.

This Holy of Holies was the very heart of the Temple, itself in the heart of Jerusalem, in the heart of the land of Israel, at the heart of the world.

ARM

power

Arms symbolize physical vigour, authority, power and protection.

•  In the Middle Ages, the power of lay judges was referred to as the secular arm; they had the responsibility of carrying out the orders of the ecclesiastical judges (in, for example, the case of Joan of Arc).

•  In India, the goddess Kali, who symbolizes “cosmic power, the totality of the universe, harmony of all opposite couples” is herself symbolized by her four arms, representing her universal power.

•  In Christian liturgy, arms are raised to signify a prayer for grace to descend on the supplicant, and for his soul to receive God’s blessing.¹ Raising the arms is also an act of submission and surrender, of giving up the fight.

ARROW

the father-protector

The arrow is the most widespread popular symbol of the Heavenly Father and of human fathers in general, and is linked to the symbolism of the sun’s rays, a fertilizing element of Nature, the origin of the obelisk. This explains the words of the psalm: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.”

•  The arrow embodies an intrinsic idea of elevation. Sagittarius symbolizes overtaking and excess.

•  A bow and quiver, Diana’s attributes, symbolize female power, which can be both creative and destructive.

Solar rosace of a female archer (drawing on an Assyrian obelisk)¹²¹

AURA

colours of the soul

Buddhists think that the aura, the magnetic field surrounding the human body, reveals the colours of the soul and reflects an individual’s state of health and feelings.

This halo is the vital force itself, formed by coloured radiations emanating from various parts of the body.

AXE

separation, penetration

All ancient traditions associated the axe with lightening, water and fertility, and attributed the power of making or stopping rain to it.

In antiquity it appears as a sign of divinity and royalty in almost every religion. There were cults of the axe in Egypt, Assyria, Greece and among the Parthians. In Egyptian hieroglyphics, “the sign of the axe meant separation because oaths or sacred matters were separate from other things”.⁹

•  It is a symbol of spiritual penetration “(to the very heart of the mystery), as well as an instrument of deliverance. It opens up the ground and enters it; that is, it symbolizes union with heaven, fertilization.”¹

•  It is an instrument of separation, of differentiation; it cuts, separates, grades. With the blow of an axe to Zeus’s skull, Hephaistos brought Athena, goddess of wisdom and intelligence, into the world, armed and helmeted. (This act also illustrates lightning intuition, enlightenment.)

•  In the hands of warrior gods, it is a symbol of destruction and anger.

•  In China, the axe (fu) is one of twelve insignia of imperial power; it is the symbol of the patron of carpenters and of a mediator.

•  The axe was used symbolically in wedding ceremonies to cut branches (the betrothed) from two tree trunks (the respective families), which were then bound up into faggots.