Symbols
The Primordial World
The Foundation of Language
The Key to Understanding Essence
The subconscious does not think in words.
Experiences and information are not stored as sentences.
They are processed and condensed.
This has also been suggested in fields such as psychology and cognitive research.
As discussed in the previous chapter,
the subconscious continually indicates direction.
That direction rises into awareness in a condensed form
and appears as a symbol.
While the conscious mind expresses through language,
the subconscious expresses through symbols.
Language is an attempt to unfold
the compressed information that has appeared as a symbol.
However, such unfolding is only an approximation.
It is fundamentally impossible to reproduce the full content contained within a symbol through language alone.
This chapter deals with the symbolic expression of the subconscious.
The subconscious indicates importance through symbols
both in the inner world and in the outer world.
Internally, this appears as dreams or images.
Externally, it appears as a tendency to direct attention—often unconsciously—toward particular objects, shapes, colors, or arrangements.
The conscious mind searches for reasons afterward,
but what moves first is the response to the symbol.
Even when the symbol itself is the same,
its meaning is not uniform.
Symbols often have interpretations that have been culturally shared.
At the same time, they also carry meanings shaped by individual experience.
When a symbol is connected to a person’s past experiences or strong memories,
its meaning for that person may differ significantly from the general interpretation.
In such cases, what should take priority is not the culturally established interpretation,
but the meaning that is actually active within that individual.
If general interpretations are presented as the “correct answer,”
the meanings formed inside the individual can easily be hidden behind fixed ideas
and become difficult to notice.
For this reason, this chapter does not define the meanings of individual symbols.
Instead, it explores what humanity’s shared recognition of symbols may originally have been pointing toward.
Symbolic expressions that evoke similar responses in many people
are repeatedly selected
and eventually become established as culture.
Religion and mythology.
Letters and idioms.
Colors and spatial composition.
Numbers and rituals.
These are not merely decorations or accidents.
They are the accumulated results of unconscious responses repeated across generations.
Symbols that have settled through long periods of time
contain the accumulated knowledge of the human subconscious.
This chapter is therefore not a guide to the meanings of symbols.
Rather, it is an exploration of the layers of unconscious accumulation embedded within the symbols that appear in culture.
Symbols Everywhere in the World
Symbols Everywhere in the World
The world is filled with far more symbols than we tend to notice.
They are not limited to special situations.
They are woven into everyday life.
From here, we will look at concrete examples of symbols that remain within culture.
Further exploration will be presented on separate pages.
(These pages will be published sequentially.)
• Religion and Culture
• Design and Aesthetic Sense
• Proverbs and Idioms
• Kanji and Pictographic Writing
• Numbers
• Color and Resonance
• Duality (such as Masculinity and Femininity)
• Triggers
• Land and Language
The Problem of Symbolic Labeling
Symbols originally function as expressions that point toward an essence that cannot be captured directly through words.
However, in modern society,
what circulates is often not the essence itself,
but forms that resemble the essence.
For example:
“An ideal way of living”
“A desirable state of being”
“A way of life that is easily admired”
Such expressions, regardless of field,
tend to be associated with particular images of completion.
These images are often constructed through specific spaces, expressions, clothing, colors, composition, atmosphere, backgrounds, and objects.
Over time, the visual form itself begins to function as a substitute for the essence.
Symbols that originally pointed toward an essence
gradually become replaced by easily recognizable finished forms as they circulate.
This is where misrecognition occurs.
People seek the underlying essence those symbols once pointed to.
However, they may come to believe that acquiring the visually completed form will automatically grant the essence itself.
So the form is copied.
But what can be copied is only the outward structure.
In this way, symbols shift
from indicators of direction
to objects treated as goals in themselves.
When the connection to essence is lost,
symbols become forms without substance.
They are no longer symbols pointing toward essence,
but visual labels from which the essence has fallen away.
Even if the completed form is obtained,
the meaning that was originally contained within it does not automatically follow.
What is described here is not a rejection of appearance itself.
On the contrary, expressing oneself through style and presentation can be deeply creative and valuable.
When outer expression is connected to inner essence,
it becomes a living symbol.
The problem arises when forms are pursued independently,
without connection to the essence.
If you realize that you are copying a certain label,
it may be worth pausing for a moment.
Ask yourself:
Was it the form you truly wanted?
Or was it the essence behind it?