This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., 80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original author.! SYMBOLOGY Symbols are as old as humanity itself; they comprised the first languages. Although most cultures have now developed complex verbal language symbols, words have not replaced the need for symbols. Symbology is an especially important tool for those on the path of psychic and spiritual development. Most ancient knowledge has been preserved in symbolic form, such as the study of the Tarot, I Ching, and Quabalah exemplifies. In addition, symbology forms the foundation for the interpretation of dreams, meditative visions, and auguries of all kinds. Symbols are forms of immediate communication which are often used to transcend verbal language barriers. A word like dog is a sign that may be written or spoken. When you read or hear this sign and associate it with a concept in your head, you have turned that sign into a symbol. An understanding if symbols is essential to those who explore emo- tional, creative and psychic dimensions, for symbols comprise the language of the unconscious mind. Without the knowledge of meanings and functions of symbols, the psychologist would find it difficult to uncover the emotional blocks of patients; the student of literature would grasp poetry at only its most superficial level, and the psychic researcher would lose a major key to success in her studies and application of psychic development techniques. Because a symbol generally has many layers of meaning and associa-tion ranging from the general to the uniquely personal, the study of sym-bology is exceedingly complex and fascinating. Sometimes personal associations with a symbol restrict and/or alter its more common associations. For example, a dog is usually associated with loyalty, friendship, etc. However, if a per-son were attacked by a dog as a child and as an adult were still holding associations of fear and helplessness in connection with the word/symbol dog, it certainly would not denote loyalty and friendship for them. Symbols are used today with mundane meanings such as the symbols for making roads, business logos, etc., but there are symbols used in psychic workings that are designed to bring to mind an idea dealing with the applications at hand. Jung has shown how important and universal are what he terms the `archaic images' of the Collective unconscious. He points out that if the normal consciousness `turns in upon itself' (looks inward), it will turn the psychic energies loose upon the vast storehouse of subconscious levels in which preside the archetypal images. The archetypal images are those symbols such as Mother, Sun, Tree, etc. which have been found to share a common definition and interpretation in all cultures. As these images become active , they tend to rise past the censor at the threshold of the mind and emerge at the conscious levels as dreams, visions and intuitions which will project special meanings not easily verbalized upon objects and images associated with them. By voluntarily and purposefully `turning in', the psychic energy is directed consciously into the sub- conscious levels and will emerge carrying the potent images of the collective unconscious and the energy of the archetypal images which can be successfully used to understand and develop oneself. -- Karen Charbonneau -- .........from RMPJ 12/86