Quotes About Symbolism

these sacrifices sustained the cosmic cycle: Maize became blood, and blood was then transformed back into maize. Sacrificial victims were referred to as "tortillas for the gods.

Lost objects from another life are restored to you in the belly of a carp.

But the stillness was the sleep of swords.

You rely on a sentence to say more than the denotation and the connotation; you revel in the smoke that the words send up.

The impulse to do and revere art is an ancient need - whether on cave walls, on ones own body, a cathedral or religious rite, we hunger for a way to articulate who we are and what we mean.

am interested in the farewell between black and white strangers who have, or might have, shared something significant; or who represent the end of something larger than themselves, where the separation symbolizes loss or renewal, for example.

There's an old Army officer tradition. When you leave a post, you write 'ppc' on the back of your business card and pin it to the officers' club bulletin board or similar public place. 'Ppc' is an acronym for a French term pour prendre conge, in English, 'to take leave.' It was our final departing courtesy

Every little movement has a meaning of its own.

I'm going to draw on every grave in the cemetery he continued. Why do you draw them? I asked. Why a skull and crossbones? Reminds you what's underneath, don't it? It's all bones down there, whatever you may put on the grave.

If redwoods are the backbone of California, oaks are of England.

There is a powerful need for symbolism, and that means the architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart. There is a powerful need for symbolism, and that means the architecture must have something that appeals to the human heart.

In the night I brush my teeth with a razor

Sometimes, child, we die in metaphor.

Images are not quite ideas, they are stiller than that, with less implications outside themselves. And they are not myth, they do not have that explanatory power; they are nearer to pure story. Nor are they always metaphors; they do not say this is that, they say this is.

It is re-enactment of the ritual feast, in which the eating of an animal's flesh, or a piece of cake shaped like a breast, signifies the coming together of human and divine, individual with collective, tribal ancestor with member of the tribe, human community with nature, or a woman with her own body and feelings.

Christmas trees are a nice tradition. Green in the midst of winter, light in the midst of darkness—it's all metaphors for God.

And though this encounter took place against an African sky, our brief enchantment symbolized the new world's greatest taboo - the hand of a very black man caressing the face of the blackest woman, with no shred of light entering into it, utter darkness alone representing God (71).

When she reached the final landing, she cast her sword aside for all time, and it could now be seen still tumbling across the night sky. It was dominant in spring, the sword tipped up in the "salute" position, and as the seasons progressed into early winter, the sword spiraled until the tip was planted downward in the "warrior at rest" position.

Everyone in your dreams is you.

The archetypal image decides the fate of man.

A dream that is not understood remains a mere occurrence; understood it becomes a living experience.

In order to make the language of dreams understood, we use many parallels from the psychology of primitive races as well as from historical symbolism. This is because dreams originate in the unconscious, which contains the residual potentialities of function of all preceding epochs of evolution.

Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding, we cannot constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define or fully comprehend.

It was dramatic, as it should be. Without drama, what is ritual?