Sarah Densmore, aka "Writeye"
My name is Sarah Densmore and I am a symbol watcher. Actually, “watcher” is a bit of an understatement. I’m a symbol lover really. Ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated by the deep feelings that can be stirred in us by the sight of objects we have never touched and people we have never met.
Psychologist Carl Jung made it his life’s work to understand how symbolism (chiefly as expressed in dreams) affects us individually and collectively. He did much to foster that understanding among his fellow psychoanalysts. Unfortunately, I believe it’s only a small percentage of the general public that is conscious of the powerful impact symbols have on our lives — through the dreams we experience, the books and movies we enjoy and the public (and private!) figures we become enamored with or enraged by.
I’ve read many books about the various cross-cultural meanings of images and I’ve undergone more than three years of psychoanalytic study and counseling with Jungian analysts and teachers. Although my study of symbolism began nearly 20 years ago in the same Midwestern American town where I live today, I think a seed of interest was planted in me when I was a small girl living in Norfolk, Virginia.
I was about 7-years old and I was at home with my mother, who was watching one of Billy Graham’s Crusades on television. The camera showed Rev. Graham talking passionately about Jesus Christ, but on a level my young mind didn’t understand. As he was talking, the camera panned the crowd and I saw many people in the audience were crying. I asked my mother why they were so sad. She told me they were crying because Jesus made them think about all of the sins they had committed and they felt ashamed.
That moment never retreated very far into my memory. And as I matured and reflected on that day, I came to understand that all of the grief and sorrow I saw on the faces of those crusade attendees was not merely because of Jesus himself, but because of what the crucified Christ represented to them in terms of their own lives and experience as human beings.
So Symbol Watcher is my attempt to start a wider dialogue among the general public about how symbolic meaning permeates our day-to-day existence — whether we’re conscious of it or not.
I frequently post my experiences with the symbolic life by sharing my dreams, as well as my thoughts on the symbolism I see in movies, books and current events.