The Comfort of Symbols: Two Ladders

A symbol for me is a shorthand expression of comfort. It can clear my thinking and calm my emotions.

In “The Flagpole,” from December 10, 2014, I wrote, “Through my forties my emotions swung from ones I enjoyed to ones I didn’t, without my knowing how to control those. The day I saw, in an inner view, a flagpole and a flag above my head, I had the insight I needed. I was a flag influenced by others’ views of me and needed instead to become the flagpole—a small, positive beginning rooted in a fond childhood memory.

One day the flagpole had a light on top, not at all realistic, but two weeks later, in astonishment I said, ‘It’s a lighthouse!’ I immediately understood a lighthouse didn’t move out to ships in the night but simply blinked its helpful warning. Nor did it budge for hurricane waves. It weathered them.”

Then on February 4, 2015, in "Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them," I shared the discovery of cultural anthropologist, Angeles Arrien, that by a choice of a certain shape, its meaning could be like looking in a mirror. Of the five shapes—square, circle, equidistant cross, spiral, and triangle—my most preferred had been (and still are) the triangle and the spiral with their meanings of “dreams and goals” and “growth.” In the triangle, I had found my driving force as being creative.

Further validation of my comfort came with the explanation of Rachel Naomi Remen, MD that “symbolism is the language of the unconscious mind, the deep wisdom that is part of how we are made. Sometimes the unconscious talks to itself and occasionally shares its wisdom aloud in the form of symbols.”*

During a period when spiritual principles were new to me, I had experienced uneven swings of a pendulum of thoughts and feelings related to their differences from my customary values, which I began to refer to as worldly to differentiate them from these new principles. When two ladders appeared in my inner vision, I found it helpful to see myself standing on an upper rung of the one that I called worldly but on the first rung of the other that was spiritual. At the time, I did not yet feel the self-esteem that I later would for my place in the work world. I compared myself to those who were happy with their careers and enjoyed the respect attached to their professional identity.

From my first exposure to spiritual information in a study group, I felt myself increasingly drawn to the meetings, where I kept feeling more inner comfort and security. Even though I didn’t understand the lessons’ fullest meanings, I asked questions weekly about how I might practically apply what I was learning. This second ladder was giving me the feeling of belonging in the world, a feeling that deeply mattered to me.

Today I sense that the ladders remain, but they appear only occasionally, having diminished in importance. After many years of spiritual study and experiences testing my willingness to change, when I stand at the threshold of a worldly value ready for spiritual redirection, I am now able to move through a transition more smoothly.

My realization is, “Words can meaningfully, and even beautifully, teach us, but at times there are leaps in understanding from symbols.”

* My Grandfather’s Blessings, The Berkeley Publishing Group, NY © 2002.