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About symbols
Since
the dawn of time, man has always used symbols to communicate.
They stimulate our imagination and emotions and express our
need to penetrate the mysteries which surround us.
Beyond the simple graphic sign, symbols create a picture and
as we perceive it, we are involved beyond the sphere of daily
thought. This coded language is by itself full of artistic
imagination. Consciously or not, we use symbols in our everyday
activity because they give substance to ourthought.
According to J. Chevalier, "the symbol has precisely this
exceptional property of synthesizing, in a sensible expression,
all the influences of the unconscious and of the conscious
as well as instinctive and spiritual forces that are at strife
or on the way to be harmonized inside each of us".
Symbols are basic pictures which talk to the subconscious.
The story of civilizations is bound by the way in wich they
are interpreted. The labyrinth is one of the symbols of our
subconscious. The knot, Inca or Tibetan, incites us to think
about the perpetual movement and the notion of infinity.
The basic symbols are the square, the point, the circle and
the cross. The square is the symbol of earth as opposed to
sky; it is an anti-dynamic figure anchored on four sides.
The circle is first of all an extended point; it contributes
to its perfection. So the point and the circle have common
symbolic properties : absence of distinction or of division.
The circle symbolizes the sky and, at another level of interpretation,
the sky itself becomes a symbol of the spiritual world.
The
cross initiates a relation between the two other basic symbols.
It comes within the circle, dividing it in four segments and
opening it to the outside. The cross generates the square
and the triangle. It has a function of synthesis and measure.
Within it, sky and earth join each other, time and space mixing
together.
The
knot is the labyrinth within which the four elements disappear.
That's the reason why we have wanted to enter, penetrate,
and explore this maze.
Throughout history, from King Arthur to the great Greek mythology
and up to the epic tale of Guesar de Ling (great Tibetan hero),
everything has been marked out by symbols which express a
human desire to penetrate the meaning of life and death.
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