Symbol Watcher

Past Ox years include 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985 and 1997.

The story goes that on a Chinese New Year long ago, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him.  Twelve came — a rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Buddha declared that each year would be named after one of the animals, rotating in a 12-year cycle. He also said that people born in an animal’s year would possess some of that animal’s personality characteristics.

January 26 is the beginning of the Year of the Ox. To Chinese who follow the tradition, people born in previous ox years (like me) as well as babies born in this year, are destined to have at least some ox characteristics.  These include being dependable, methodical, logical, hardworking, patient, stubborn, narrow minded and demanding. 

Like Western new years, the Chinese New Year symbolizes renewal, but it also means the coming year will embody many of the elements of the year’s namesake animal.  I guess that means 2009 will be a year requiring hard work and patience if we’re going to face the difficult economic and ecological times ahead.  Maybe it also means we can’t get caught up in the negative aspects of an ox year. We can’t dig in our hooves and demand things stay the same — even in the face of inevitable and much needed change — because the unknown is too scary. 2009 is a year for plowing head, steadily and strongly, into creating a healthier, more well-rounded world for ourselves and each other.   

If you want to learn more about Chinese New Year traditions, log on to 123chinesenewyear.com.  To understand more about the Chinese Zodiac, including the symbology of the 12 animals, visit Wikipedia.

– Writeye

January 25th, 2009 | Tags: Chinese New Year symbolism, Year of the Ox symbolism | Category: Current Events |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I am always entertained by the ABC show “Lost,” but I was really intrigued this week when I saw the starburst, or spoked wheel illustration during the last few minutes of the season premier. 

Those of us who watch the series know Ben set the island in motion last season by turning a giant wheel located deep underground.  Now the island appears to be free falling through the spacetime continuum. 

During Wednesday’s show, ray-like spokes were being drawn on the floor of a dimly lit room by a giant pendulum. The pendulum was hanging from the ceiling with a piece of chalk (?) attached to the end of it.  That same spoked, or starburst, image on the floor also appeared in multiple places on a map of the earth. The map was visible on the computer screen of the woman working in the room.  All the starbursts on the map were in the ocean — I think in the sourthern hemisphere.  “Event Window Determined” was displayed in large letters across the screen.   (To watch the entire episode or fast forward to this scene, click here.) 

I enjoyed all the overt and symbolic representations of movement in the show and I’m wondering what clues they hold concerning the supposed catastrophe Ben and the white-haired woman are trying to prevent.

The images on the floor and on the computer remind me of both a wheel and a starburst.  The rays aren’t contained within a circle like the spokes of a wheel, but they do intersect in the center, so they have an axis, or common midpoint.  Yet the lines aren’t contained by a border and they’re not a uniform length, so in that way the pattern makes me think of a starburst.  

I think both the wheel and the starburst might hold clues to where the storyline might be taking us. The wheel is the solar image of cosmic momentum, ceaseless change and cyclic repetition.  A perfect image for an island on the move. 

A galaxy, according to Wikipedia, is: “. . . often observed to have a burst of star formation after a collision or close encounter between two galaxies.”  Stars often represent cosmic order. So all this makes me wonder if the impending doom is that the earth, or earth’s galaxy, might be in danger of ramming into another planet or galaxy. 

Is the pendulum swinging in concert with the earth’s gravitational pull or the island’s movement?  Evidently by reading the starburst patterns, the woman is able to tell there are only 70 hours before catastrophe strikes.  And if that’s true, then I’m wondering if the reason the island is so important and seems to contain so much raw energy is because it’s the portal to the earth’s center point, its axis. 

Any thoughts?

– Writeye

January 24th, 2009 | Tags: Lost season premier symbolism, star symbolism, wheel symbolism | Category: TV Shows |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I think I’m beginning to better understand the menstrual blood dream I wrote about on January 4. I felt the dream was trying to show me that I (as represented by my female co-workers in the dream) am using or disposing of the creative life within me (the menstrual blood) in the wrong way, in the wrong place (on the floor rather than in the trash).

In the dream — even though I never see my co-workers and they don’t tell me directly — I understand they have bloodied the office bathroom because they’re dissatisfied with where they’re working and angry because they don’t believe they’re being treated well. 

I know their emotions are a depiction of my emotions — specifically, how I feel about the lack of support and faith I’ve received from my family over the last several years. My family is suspect of my choice not to seek a full-time permanent job that doesn’t involve writing. They are unsupportive of the man I choose to live with because he’s of mixed ethnicity. They are even suspect of how I spend my money and how I treat other people — including my pre-school aged nieces.  I have told them if they have questions about me or my life, all they have to do is ask. I have been upfront with them about what I’m doing and what I’m trying to accomplish. But they see me as an outsider now, no longer like them. My family would rather make comments under their breath and slither innuendo out of their mouths. 

So, yes, I don’t like where I’ve been working emotionally and I’m angry about the way I’ve been treated. My family relationships have grown increasingly toxic in the last few years — to the point where I’ve allowed their negativity to settle in me and develop into my own anger and resentment. These negative emotions have caused me to misuse, or waste, my creative energy.  I’ve spent all my time trying to understand why I am now an outsider, why I no longer have their faith and support.  I understand the dream is telling me it’s ridiculous to waste my creative life obsessively trying to understand my family’s behavior toward me.  It’s time I used my creative energy to bring new life into my life.

– Writeye

January 18th, 2009 | Tags: menstrual blood symbolism | Category: Dreams, Jungian Psychology |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

My 9-year-old cat Piglet

Yesterday we found out our cat Piglet has cancer. It’s an open, oozing, furless sore that’s taking over the left side of her face, at her mouth and jawline. It’s incurable. The vet assures us she’s not in pain, a piece of information I’m leaning toward believing because she’s still enjoying her food and our company. Piglet could undergo the painful procedure of cutting out her jawbone to remove the cancer, but it would only extend her life by a few months.  

Cancer is an odd disease. It is growth and destruction all at the same time, like a wild fire I suppose. It destroys our tissues, blood, organs and bones as it picks up speed and proliferates until there’s more of it than us.

Thinking about cancer over the last few days has reminded me of the importance of both health and “dis-ease” from a symbolic perspective.

Our dreams often speak of our psychological health in terms of physical illness. For instance, if I dream I have brain cancer, then I need to ask myself, “What is taking over and threatening to destroy my brain life (the intellectual, cognitive, unemotional side of my life)”? Or, “In what way am I allowing this side of my life to grow out of control and dominate other areas of my life”? 

If I have cirrhosis of the liver in my dream, I have to ask myself, “What are my associations with the liver”? The liver metabolizes nutrients, breaks down fats, filters toxins. In ancient times, the liver was said to be the seat of anger, but it is also the only organ that can regenerate itself. So if my liver is dis-eased, my dream might be telling me that I am having difficulty processing my negative emotions and moving on. It may be telling me that I am having trouble processing what life is sending my way (nutrients, fats and toxins = good and bad life experiences).

What if I have suffered a heart attack in my dream? Most of us can think of many things the heart symbolizes. It is the seat of human emotion, the carrier of love if it’s open and hate if it’s closed. It’s the doorway to the individual soul and, anatomically, it’s the pump that keeps our life energy (blood) flowing. 

So whenever we dream that some part of our body is diseased, it is helpful to think about our associations to that body part and how those associations might translate into a symbolic message concerning our psychological health.

Please let us know if you’ve ever had a dream of a diseased body part that made you realize some psychological aspect of your life was out of balance. Also, has anyone ever had an actual illness that you think was a physical manifestation of a psychological ailment? I’d like to hear your story too. Thanks.  

– Writeye

January 17th, 2009 | Tags: brain symbolism, cancer symbolism in dreams, disease symbolism in dreams, heart symbolism, liver symbolism | Category: Dreams, Jungian Psychology |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Blood letting was modeled on the process of menstruation, stemming from the belief that menstruation functioned to purge women of bad humors. Source: Wikepedia

For many of us, the sight of blood — whether in conscious life or in our dreams — can be a scary thing.  It is, after all, our very life energy coursing through our bodies.  It is the divine force. To some of us, blood represents our actual individual spirit. If we are drained empty, we return to dust.

Blood’s magical associations can be seen in many ancient traditions and modern-day idioms. In Mithra and Cybele cults, the blood of a sacrificed bull was poured on people in the belief that the doused would take on the life energy of the powerful animal. And, of course, the ritual of drinking the Eucharist wine provides Christians with the ability to embody the life force of Christ. 

Common phrases such as “bad blood between them,” “cold-blooded,” and “blood thirsty” are all succinct ways in which we describe someone’s life energy.

Although we earthly creatures all share the collective experience of being blood born, there is one type of blood that is unique to being female.  That, of course, is menstrual blood. Menstrual blood contains within it the ability to create new life — someone who is a part of, yet separate from, the woman. Symbolically, menstrual blood represents a woman’s creative life. This life can be either physical and psychological, or both. Some myths emphasize that even shed menstrual blood will make soil fertile wherever it flows.

And unlike men, women can bleed without dying. It’s a fact that we see has caused some patriarchal societies who are fearful of being overpowered by the feminine to label menstruation as dirty and impure. Some cultures throughout history have even gone so far as to separate women from their communities while they are menstruating.

So if we dream of blood, we have to ask ourselves what is our interaction with that blood — that LIFE force — in our dream? Or if it’s menstrual blood, what is our interaction with that CREATIVE life force? Are we drinking it? Whose blood is it? Are we trying to internalize the energy of that being and make it part of who we are?

For instance, are you trying to stop a bleeding wound because your life energy is leaving for some reason? How successful are you at stopping the bleeding?  What part of the body is bleeding? Analyzing which part of the body is bleeding can provide further insight into the root cause of the life force injury.

Are you drowning in a room full of blood, feeling overtaken by life energy?

These are only a few of the many possible associations of blood symbolism that may appear in our dreams.

Maybe you’ve had a dream similar to the one I had last night. I’m still trying to make sense of all the particular symbolic details but the dream expressed my core problem as follows:

I am at work (my office in dream life, not conscious life). I walk into the women’s restroom and find the floor covered with menstrual blood and used tampons and maxi pads. I’m disgusted by the sight. The blood is everywhere in the stalls. I can’t believe the women who work here would just throw their feminine protection on the floor and not keep the bathroom clean. I think they are doing it because they are disgruntled, dissatisfied with where they’re working. Now I am in one of the stalls and feel something wet dripping down on me. I look up and realize blood is dripping down on me from the ceiling. I know the women on the floor above me are doing the same thing as the women on my floor. I see that blood has dripped on the front of my clean white blouse, right on the stomach area. I am angry about this.  

I’ll provide an interpretation for this dream as soon as I have a better idea of what it’s trying to tell me.  I know the women who’ve left the menstrual blood all over the bathroom are a part of me.  I feel the place I work is the place I’m working at, or through, psychologically. But other than that, I’m still trying to understand the message.  In the meantime, please post any insights or symbolic interpretations you have for my dream or for blood symbolism in general.

 –Writeye

January 4th, 2009 | Tags: blood symbolism, menstrual blood symbolism | Category: Dreams, Jungian Psychology, Symbol Brief |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (5)