1. Symbolic Archetypes
9/22 & 23

2. What is a Symbol?
A symbol is a concrete object used to represent an abstract idea.
Examples

3. Heaven - Hell Gods live in the skies or mountaintops
Evil forces live in the bowels of the earth

4. Water - Desert
Because water is necessary to life and growth, it commonly appears as a birth or rebirth symbol.
The appearance of rain in a work of literature can suggest a character’s spiritual birth.
Conversely, the aridity (dryness) of the desert is often associated with spiritual sterility.
Characters who live in the desert are often “dead” to morals or the “good side”.

5. Haven vs. Wilderness
Places of safety contrast sharply against the dangerous wilderness.
Heroes are often found in unexpected places.
Wilderness threatens civilization.

6. Circles Spheres, eggs, wheels
Wholeness, unity, infinity, continuity, and cycles

7. Civilization
Cities
Corruption, sin, lust, voluptuous materialism

8. Colors The most ancient and universal of symbols.
They can symbolize moods or emotional process.
They can represent pairs of opposites and dualism such as light and dark, masculine and feminine, etc.

9. Black (darkness) The shadow; the repressed part of the Self.
Mystery; the unconscious, the underworld, emotional darkness, hidden desires/instinct
Black represents the first step in the transformation process in which the old is destroyed in order for new creation of the Self to occur

10. Green In positive terms In negative terms Growth Fertility Hope birth
Rot
Decay
Jealousy
Envy

11. Blue
The color of spirit, the heavenly, the divine, intuition and inspiration

12. Red
Blood, life, anger
Lust and passion
Courage and war

13. Gold
Divine light, illumination, self-worth/ value

14. White
Purity, holiness, sacredness, redemption, mystical enlightenment and innocence.
Signifies
the union of opposites to form a whole
the symbolic death of transformation
renewal
In Eastern thought, white is the color of the crown chakra, what is known as the halo in Western thought

15. Yellow The sun, illumination and intellect.
The color of fire and thus the purification of flame

16. Silver
The color of the moon, magic, the Goddess, psychic nature.

17. Orange Balance, creative expression, pride and ambition.
As the color of fire, can represent burning away impurities

19. Sun Cycle
Rising sun
The East, birth, rise of the hero, goodness or optimism

20. Sun Cycle
Setting Sun
The West, death, fall of the hero, evil or pessimism

21. Seasonal Cycle
Spring
Birth phase, rise of the hero, resurrection growth
Summer
Peak of hero’s power, marriage, triumph, youth
Fall
Beginning of death, decline of hero, increasing isolation and alienation
Winter
Death, chaos, fall or death of hero

22. Seasonal Cycle continued
Deserts
Spiritual emptiness, death, hopelessness, and sterility
Gardens
Paradise, innocence, unspoiled beauty, fertility

23. Water
Sea
The mother of all life, spiritual mystery and infinity, death and rebirth, timelessness and eternity, the unconscious
Rivers
Father or protector, death and rebirth, baptism, the flowing of time into eternity, transitional phases of life cycles

24. Review
True or False
Gods live in the skies; evil lives in the bowels of the earth.
Water and desert both symbolize birth.

25. True or False 3. Heroes live in the woods.
4. Cities symbolize corruption.

26. List One Possible Meaning of the Symbol5. 6. 7. 8.

27. Colors: List One Meaning
Black
Green
Blue
Red
White

28. Time to Use your Knowledge
Get in your group and work on your Creation Myth art project