Dive in and learn the language of symbols! symbols!

This article offers a warm-up exercise and an introduction to how content is presented, interpreted and rewritten into an understandable, universal message on this homepage.

The individual symbols and their interpretation:

• Light and Dark - The Consciousness and the UnconsciousnessThe light symbolises the realm of the spirit, the dark symbolises the realm of matter.
• The setting sun - a Christ symbol: The sun with its light is a symbol for the loving, life-creating consciousness. It "dies", metaphorically speaking, in the evening, wanders through the "underworld", through the realm of shadows, according to the imagination of ancient man. The next morning it rises again. So it is also man's path to face his own shadows "in the underworld" - his inner world and what lies hidden there. Thus he overcomes it in the power of love and rises to a new, expanded existence.
• Water - the unconscious in the realm of the soul: Water symbolises the collective unconscious and also the great feminine, life itself. Just as the sun seems to sink into the water at its setting, the loving consciousness ("Christ") gives itself completely to living matter (the word comes from the Latin mater = "mother" as living, reality-forming matter).
• Reflectionon the water surface - reflection of consciousness: Consciousness has the capacity for self-reflection: situations and behaviour can be perceived and changed.
• Gold - immortality, eternity: Gold does not corrode and cannot be decomposed by conventional acids. That is why it is a symbol of eternal life, which is based on love, which is stronger than death.

• Light path on the water - the deep wisdom of human lore: The human traditions speak the language of the unconscious with their images. But their goal is to help people achieve consciousness (light). The wisdoms thus carry man over unconsciousness and impulsiveness (like a ship over stormy tides), and show him a good path. They all follow the same principles.

The new, deeper statement:

The above interpretations of the symbols of the photo result in this new, more abstract statement:

Interpretation of the symbols as an instrument of translation

Just as an image can be interpreted, so too can the pictorial descriptions of human lore be interpreted and made accessible to the mind (see The Language of Images and the Rational Mind).

Interpretation of pictorial descriptions in traditions

This homepage examines a wide variety of human traditions and interprets their images. A wide field is covered, from the myths of the first human cultures such as Egypt or Mesopotamia, through Greek sagas to legends such as Parzival, and on with fairy tales to modern stories and heroic sagas, films and song lyrics.

All these traditions have instructive messages and, on closer examination, reveal surprising similarities.