Universal Psychic Symbols Versus Personal Symbology

Meaningful symbolism is everywhere, including in our dreams and subconscious minds. The earliest symbols known to modern man can be traced back to paleolithic caves of the early Stone Age. Spontaneous artwork done by both adults and children in a psychotherapy session often includes many archetypal symbols. Symbols are not only present in mythology, art, religion, and occult practices, but also in chemistry, road signs and even on the product packaging in supermarkets.

Symbols can convey a powerful, instant message and this is why people, often the young and vulnerable individuals, can be easily influenced by the media and the subliminal messages contained in the cleverly encoded symbols in political campaigns and advertising, for example. The everyday subliminal influence of symbolism in our lives is profound. Symbols speak to our mind, body and spirit.

Specific symbols make up a universal language and people with speech disabilities, or those with difficulty in communicating, use symbols and symbolic languages as an alternative method of communication. When doing animal telepathy our pets pick up the images and symbols we project to them, as opposed to words we might try to send them. Hence the need, for example, to send our animals happy images of being reunited with us if they are lost, rather than fearful images of them being lost and alone.

Symbols are the foundation of divination. Every Tarot, Rune or I Ching symbol, for example, has a documented, universal meaning, as well as a personal interpretation for the individual diviner. This is why it is important for a psychic reader to relay any symbol she receives during a reading to the client, because it may just be of great personal significance.

The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform ~ Charles Baudelaire

When I am teaching Tarot classes, I encourage my students to look for Tarot symbols in their everyday affairs. For example, seeing a white horse will tweak their minds to thinking how many times they see a white horse in Tarot. I always emphasize that their Tarot is not my Tarot, and the symbols will come to life for them in a way that is unique to them.

A good example of divination symbols being highly personal and unique for every person is the Death card. It typically never represents the actual death of a person in a reading. Instead, the potential passing of someone in a Tarot spread will usually show up in various card and card combinations that does include the Death card.

Life would be stunted and narrow if we could feel no significance in the world around us beyond that which can be weighed and measured with the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical symbols of the mathematician ~ Sir Arthur Eddington

Immediately after the diagnosis of my father’s pancreatic cancer mid 2005, and whilst hoping for a miracle, I went straight to my Tarot cards to see if a miracle might still be possible. No matter how many times I approached this question and consulted different decks, the Judgment and the Ten of Pentacles cards consistently came up together. The symbology of this card combination has since become for me the calling of a particular ‘soul to go home to the spirit world.’ Although this interpretation is to my knowledge not to be found in any Tarot books or courses,  it has become my own personal symbol for a soul’s transition to the other side.