The directness of symbolism

Symbolism is a powerful portal that bypasses the controlling lens of grammar. It offers meaning or understanding that has a direct route to the interior.

Symbolism that is crude or overbearing can be crass, doing the work for you, seeking to control from the outside.

Its very power lies in its subjectivity; in its ability to be interpreted. And too often we reach for the how or the why behind symbols, when experiencing them can offer a much more direct path to something unknowable.

The striving for knowledge can be deeply oppressive. The obsession for knowledge comes from a place of insecurity in a universe that refuses to be tamed.

Symbols, then, perhaps are a route to sitting with the untamed. As if hearing a wild animal that cannot be caged, to hear a guttural roar is to connect deeply with experience. To connect with deep symbolism is to sit with that which cannot be named.

Slice, segment, name and understand at your peril. The majesty lies in the awareness of the connection, not the explanation of its power.

Perhaps awe cannot be understood, only experienced.