Year and a Day: Day 7

A Week into studies and going strong!

Witches and Sacred Symbols

Symbolism is an important topic in Wicca as much of our beliefs, practices, spellwork, and ritual relies heavily on symbols.

A Symbol is a form that represents something else. They are usually used to understand and explain abstract ideas, philosophical points, and religious concepts.
Pretty simple, yes?

Symbols change from culture to culture, from place to place and can even change from coven or group to group. However, underneath all these symbol changes, there is a similar or same basic idea defining them.

The problem with using symbols is that all too often the symbol is taken for the thing or concept itself. An example is a brass horn symbolizing might, triumph, victory, masculine power, etc. Now, the problem arises when someone says "he blew down the walls with his brass horn" and people take it literally that the horn blew down the walls rather than the might and power the horn symbolized.

When symbols are taken literally, spirituality becomes dogmatic.

In Wicca we use symbols for so many things.
In your studies you will see symbols used to represent, sympathize and connect to broader ideas and beings. You will use a Chalice of water to symbolize the Mother Goddess and Her womb and the Athame to symbolize the Heroic God and his phallus and a step further, their mating by dipping the tip of the blade into the cup.
You will also learn how symbols in your daily life can be considered Omens and how to read them as messages from your subconscious, your Higher Self, and/or from the Divine.

Homework!
Pick a symbol, it can be anything, but pick one you are accustomed to and have seen and dealt with regularly.
In your Book of Shadows, contemplate the meaning of this symbol. Are there multiple meanings? What does it mean for you personally?

An Example:
An Apple
An Apple a Day keeps the Doctor away! Making it a symbol of nutrition and health.
Eve ate the Apple in the Garden of Eden and lost Paradise. The Apple is a symbol of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as well as of Sin.
The Apple, cut in half on its side reveals a star in the middle surrounded by a circle made by the peel - A Pentagram, the symbol of Wicca.