What's In a Symbol?

Passage from the text:
"In dealing with symbolism one enters an area where reflection, synthesis, and contemplation are more important than investigation, analysis, and science. One cannot apprehend a symbol unless one is able to awaken, in one's own being, the spiritual resonances which response to the symbol not only as sign but as "sacrament" and "presence." Needless to say, when we speak of symbol here we are interested only in the full and true sense of the word. Mere conventional symbols, more or less arbitrarily taken to represent something else, concrete images which stand for abstract qualities, are not symbols in the highest sense. The true symbol does not merely point to some hidden object. It contains in itself a structure which in some way makes us aware of the inner meaning of life and of reality itself. A true symbol takes us to the center of the circle, not to another point on the circumference. A true symbol points to the very heart of all being, not and incident in the flow of becoming."

Pg#: 55

Commentary [Deciphering]:
So symbols aren't just things that tell you what other things are.
This symbol here indicates that the image near to it is a registered trademark.

Symbols also go past a mere representation of something else.

What the each of the above symbolize is rather obvious, from left; first aid, nurse, hospital beds, nurse tending to a patient, man with an arm sling, prescriptions, blood testing, family doctor, shots, balance between grains and fruits, "natural" acupuncture (because of the leaf), and labs.

Religious symbols are usually the best at capturing Merton's purest sense of the symbol



One might say that what characterizes a good symbol is that it's purpose and symbolism is not immediately known...

#36