I’ve been reading Jung’s, The Symbolic Life. In it he talks about the desperate need to incorporate symbols into our conscious life because of the depth and meaning they supply, both to our self and the world around us. Dream work is about exploring the symbols that arise from the unconscious and the messages they try to convey to us. Those symbols in the dream provide a bridge between what is conscious and what is becoming conscious. By working on the symbols in our dreams, we begin to incorporate their meaning into our lives. Symbols are slippery, they do not state concrete fact, in fact Jung’s definition of a symbol is that it is the best representation of something that cannot be fully known or expressed in any other way. But as we work with these symbols they begin to act as guide posts in our life. They let us know what’s going on deeper within, and give us a handle on the illusive workings of the soul.

Jung lamented the lack of a symbolic life back in the 1930’s. He felt the barbarism and lack of humanity at the time directly correlated with the lack of cultivating a personal symbolic life. In part this was due to the fact that not many people were in touch with this deeper strata of themselves. Back in that time religion was the container holding the symbolic life for the culture. It was a concrete way to allow the individual to make the connection with something deeper and more meaningful.

It feels very much the same predicament we find ourselves in today. There is very little self awareness, not many people take the time to plumb the depths. Only now religion doesn’t contain the living symbols for the culture as it use to. We are left to figure things out on our own. However, the symbol and its numinous impact, is still a constant reminder of our unseen, interior world. It acts as an anchor to the depth and beauty of life.

I think this is part of the reason tattoos are so popular right now. It’s a way to live with the symbols that inspire and embody our authenticity. Tattooing started as a way to stand out, to be unique, but the symbolic aspect has always been there. Whether it represented a company in the military, or a life event, the tattoo meant something deeper. I was reading that thousands of years ago it was used as a means of healing. You would tattoo the spot of the illness. So there has always been something symbolic about tattoos, something that helps us connect to what has deeper meaning in our life. It can also act as a reminder of who we are becoming.

“My tattoos remind me who I am when I start to feel my identity getting blurred in the thick of life. They root me when I start to lose myself. They’re about memorializing something so important it needs to be engraved on my skin.” – Zara Barrie Elite Daily

Tattoos are everywhere now, from hipsters to soccer moms. It really feels like the symbolic life is flourishing again on our own skin. I don’t know many people who get a tattoo for no reason. It either denotes a rite of passage or marks a major life event. My friends’ father was killed on the job, part of her grieving was a tattoo she got of his favorite flowers. It is a piece of him she now carries with her. Every time she looks at it she is connected back to him, their love for each other, and who she is because of him. That is a way of living a symbolic life. It cleans out those corners that we can gloss over or forget in our day to day living. And each of the symbols we choose is unique to ourselves and our journey!

Living a symbolic life reminds us of our inner journey and helps make the connection to what lies hidden inside. It’s a way to fill our material lives with the ineffable, a way to translate that very foreign language of the soul into something we can understand and grab onto. The symbols we fill our lives with point directly to the deeper mysteries within us and the universe. It teaches us to embody the mystery that surrounds us and defines us.

So many ways to live the symbolic life, what will you bring up from the depths?

kb