SPIRITUALITY & RELIGION
Demystifying religious and cultural symbols
Why understanding the meaning of symbols will change the way you see the world around you.
Let me start with a disclaimer: this is no exposé in semiotics, nor am I an expert in symbols. I’m just a curious soul who is homesick, looking for a connection to my distant family and culture. I guess pandemics do that to you.
Symbols follow us from the moment we wake up: we thank the dreamcatcher above our beds for the night of sound sleep, we embark on new adventures with the right foot, and we wind down our day with prayers and meditations.
Symbols make up the way we see the world around us. They’re inherent to our cultures and traditions. They’re often unperceived, translucent to our accustomed eyes, but whether we notice them or not they still exert incredible force on us. We fear them, we honor them, we deposit all our hopes and dreams on them.
Regardless of your location or religion, I hope you’ll be able to relate to this personal story. I’m Brazilian, and part of what makes my country’s heritage incredibly rich is its many religions and belief systems. Raised Catholic in Rio de Janeiro, the home state to Umbanda — a local religion derived from African slaves and their beliefs — I will always remember the day my grandmother told me to cross and excuse myself every time I passed by a macumba (the offerings laid out on the streets to thank and celebrate Umbanda’s guiding deities and Orixás). I grew up doing just that, and some twenty years later, having developed a great admiration for Umbanda and the depth of my country’s ties with African cultures, I recalled the unease in my grandmother’s eyes as we walked past the feast by the curb that day. That fear — and automatic sense of defensiveness — follows us, humans. It comes up whenever we’re faced with something new, something we don’t understand or cannot neatly place on our repertoire of culturally acceptable information.
It’s that look when a girl braves a Tarot reading session for the first time, and spots the Death card. It’s that fear when just about any religious person comes across the Wiccan pentagram. It’s that anxiety we feel when we wake up to a nightmare — what does it mean to dream of losing all my hair? Unlike children, who will play with the Ouija board precisely because it terrifies them, adults push objects of fear aside as quickly as possible.
But when they’re our own, symbols give us hope: a Holy Book, a Turkish eye, a white dove, the Eye of Horus, a charm of red chilies. Throughout history, humans have learned from their elders what to trust and what to stay away from. Today we don’t know where most of our sayings and daily rituals come from, we just know that’s the way it’s done. Besides, what can be a more trustworthy source than grandma?
She is always right, of course, and so is every other nana out there in this world. Symbols, in any shape or form, are intrinsic to all cultures.
Culture keeps us grounded, and gives us that sense of belonging. So in this moment of reflection, I want to learn more about my own culture, and those of my friends. I want to study the symbols in Catholicism and understand the way I’ve been hardwired. I want to study the key principles of Hinduism, to once and for all banish the fear I developed when I was 13, standing barefoot in a Hindu temple, trying to process several images of Gods with multiple arms with absolutely no priming or context. I want to study about Umbanda and Candomblé and understand the power of the Orixás. I want to learn about Islam so that I can be a better companion to my loving partner. I want to learn about Astrology, the Mayans, the Pharaohs, and the Whirling Dervishes.
If that girl knew that Death in Tarot represents a spiritual transformation or a new beginning, wouldn’t she be excited rather than scared? Or if Christians, Jews, and Muslims knew that the pentagram was meant to scare off evil spirits — something they all fear — wouldn’t they look at it with more respect? Because if I had known, back then, that the many arms of Hindu Gods were there to portray mudras like blessings, courage, and charity, then the images would have been a source of inspiration rather than shock.
Understanding the meaning of symbols helps us appreciate history, respect culture, and push away some of the senseless fears that have followed us all our lives.
So I’ll write about them, one symbol at a time and, Insha’Allah, shed light on some of these invisible forces that guide us through our days. If I can understand them, I can demystify them, and I can appreciate them for all their beauty and value in the world we live in.
If this article inspires you to reflect, try pondering over these questions:
- Do you observe any rituals or superstitions in your life without knowing their background?
- What are the symbols that scare you the most? Have you googled them?
- Does your family have a coat of arms? Have you analyzed all its intricate drawings?
- Have you studied your country’s national anthem (as a rational human being, that is)?
- What are the things that bring you comfort? Why do you think that is?
- Are you compelled, for example, to knock on wood when you don’t want to jinx something? Where does that come from?
- Do you have tattoos? What do they represent?
- What are some of the wedding traditions in your culture? What about funeral traditions?
Happy thinking.
