How to Read a Symbol
I don't know about you, but one of my absolute favorite books growing up was Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass. There's a lot of wisdom in this book (and the other two books in the series) but one of particular thing that always stood out to me is when the main character, Lyra, talks about how she intuitively reads the altheiometer (a divinatory device that looks like a compass and has symbols -going along the edge).
This is the exchange between Lyra and Dr. Lanselius:
“May I ask a question? Without the book of symbols, how do you read it?”
“I just make my mind go clear and then it’s sort of like looking down into water. You got to let your eyes find the right level, because that’s the only one that’s in focus. Something like that,” she said.
Even before I had ever read a symbol or knew anything about them, this passage intuitively felt right to me. And after I learned how to read symbols, I realized why: When you read a symbol, you have to let all the meanings come to you, and then you sift through them and the right one pops out. It's exactly how Lyra describes it.
If you want to learn to read astrology or use another divinatory tool, knowing how to interpret symbols is incredibly important. It's also useful if you want to understand the psychological meanings of your dreams - many of the images we see in our dreams are actually symbols with deeper meaning.
So here is a two step technique for doing symbol reading.
1. Identify the meanings you associate with the symbol.
Pick the symbol you want to work with. It may be a dream image, an astrological symbol, an image you saw on a tarot card, or even something that keeps popping up in your every day life, like a certain type of animal or object.
Now, in a stream of consciousness begin to list all of the meanings you have for the symbol. Just any meanings or associations you have with it. If you don't know a ton of meanings for a symbol, you might want to invest in a symbol or dream dictionary, or look up meanings on the internet. But try to free associate first - you'll be surprised at the results.
For example, maybe you had a dream about pregnancy - what are all the things you could associate with that?
Pregnant --> childbirth --> giving birth to something --> creativity
Pregnant --> waiting --> not ready yet --> needing time
Pregnant --> mothering--> nurturing --> what do you need to nurture so it grows?
And so on.
Another way to do it is to make a mind map.
For example, I read an astrological chart for my friend once where there was a conjunction between Mercury (communication) and the comet Chiron (a wound). Here is a mind map I could make with that combination.
Once you've gone through all your ideas, move on to the next step.
2. Let your mind go clear and feel into the meaning that fits best.
Depending on how easy it is for you to make your mind go clear, this part could be very quick or take a while. In fact, if it's really easy for you to make your mind clear, then you might not have to do the first step at all. The meaning might just be the first one that comes to you. If it's not super easy to make your mind go clear, I'd suggest meditating for a few minutes and then seeing what happens. Clear your mind, set the intention to connect to your inner guidance, and after you feel settled, revisit your initial list or web and see where your eye goes. See which level of interpretation feels clearest or most right.
Once you've done the symbol interpretation and found the level that feels right, test it out! If you've done an interpretation for a friend, ask them if you're correct. Or if you've gained some wisdom from a symbol, try to put it into practice in your life and see what happens.
With my friend with the Mercury/Chiron conjunction, the two that sort of immediately stood out to me were shyness and insecurity about speaking as well as an actual physical stutter. When I said that to her, my friend looked at me wide-eyed. "Yes, that's exactly right. I do feel very shy and when I was younger I did have a stutter."
Keep practicing and testing out your interpretations! With time and practice, you'll hone your intuition and symbol interpretation will become just like second nature!
