Inspired in a bit by "A Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe..." I've been thinking - in the background, about the universality of man's symbols.
And there's been a few insights. My own, but probably not, probably read, forgotten, remembered again when I was ready to remember.
Mostly triggered by the observation that the the Muslim symbol for "Allah" resembles a hand.
A hand, any hand, is a maker's mark, "Action", movement made from the 2 dimensional realm of thought into the 3 dimensional realm of action. That a hand should represent God is the most overlooked "clue" that we are, in fact, our own Gods.
But let's go to the first symbol. An easy one, the circle. '0'. "Zero". '0', compassing a circle, the perfect shape, the minimal number of lines compassing the greatest area. The wholeness, the unit, and - in a queer reversal, representing nothing. Both the absence and the everything. Or a point - the beginning of dimensionality.
Next, 1 - or I (the letter, the word "I" and it's phonetic equivalent "eye") - individuation, the process of beginning, via Fibonacci the possibility of all numbers, possibilities, people and things begin. "I" as in me, myself, my own singular viewpoint upon creation, "eye", the word spelled as a pair of eyes looking over a nose (the "Y") into the distance, 2 "I"'s because of course we have 2, 2 united to form 1 point of view. Horus, the Falcon-Headed Egyptian God, depicted as 1 eye - again, the individuation, the right eye representing the sun or morning star, power and quintessence, the left eye representing the moon or evening star, symbolic of healing and regeneration. 1 - a line between 2 points, 1 dimensional.
Curious that when examined their symbolism should be so apparent, but this is the trick of religion, to hide the truth...
2 Eyes too, "two" - represent the other. You see how clever that is? From 1 - "I" to "Two" - and now we no longer have the symbol of ourselves, we have the symbol for another - looking back, reflected upon us, just as we look upon it, the other, them, the other looks back at us.
Then there is the Hand - again, the symbol of creation, the spelling of "God" or "Allah" - perhaps one of the most ancient of symbols, found spray-painted in relief in Caves, tens and possibly even hundreds of thousands of years old, symbol of our presence and action in the world, close fisted, a punch, open, a slap, a caress, the possibilities beginning from the 5 fingers flow on to the infinite.
"Breath", or breathing, this our presence as part, not the totality, of the world, breathing, as in eating or drinking ("This is the body, this is the blood") represents our portion of the whole. That even while separate we are one. While there are symbols for this - of it's nature, invisible, language - speaking, the word - best represent this.
And then symbols build on to symbols, the fish becomes the symbol of water, the unconscious, the well of creation and creative thought, birds become symbols of the air, the air, the possibilities, unbounded, and symbols of more recent import, like keys, which imply understanding, and keyholes, which provide a limited view upon possibilities as yet unrealized...
Symbols of our own creation, yet somehow have acquired a universality...
Anyways, these are my throw-away thoughts for the day, time now to finish off the atrocity on my easel and begin painting although, perhaps, given my introspective turn, it might be better to smear all the colours upon the canvas and scraping away to reveal the meaning...