Symbolism

A collection of symbols and meanings, useful in both craft and writing.

Symbols can be primary symbols, secondary symbols (meaning comes from a related primary symbol such as a colour), or complex symbols made up of more than one symbol.

Symbols can represent:

  • Qualities (feelings, attributes, concepts)
  • People (e.g. the symbol of a saint)
  • Places (e.g. a country can have a symbol)

Contrariwise, people can not only have symbols, but they can have qualities, such as cunning, which in turn could be represented by more than one symbol.

A symbol can represent both positive and negative aspects of the same quality (e.g. Stubbornness vs Determination). Some symbols represent both a quality and its opposite; most particularly if the symbol is darkened/dulled/corrupted, it usually represents the negative quality. For example, Yellow can represent truth, and dull yellow represent deception; a bird's nest with eggs represents life and hope, while an empty nest can represent death and despair.