Seeking A Symbol To Find Inspiration By

 

Dear Reader,

In these COVID times, I don't always find it easy to remain 'above it all'. Trying to remain as focused as I would like is a job in itself, sometimes.

However, while busying myself on something creative the other day about family history, I was trying to think of what my family was really all about: what were (I pondered) its major characteristics. Well I considered the striving aspect in the family - no-one sat around doing nothing, that's for sure. And I considered the craftsmanship element of what had been handed down, particularly the advice not to blame one's own tools when things go wrong. My own experience transformed this advice into not to blame others for what goes wrong.

How then, I thought, do I translate all that into something succinct and which could act as an instant reminder when seeking inspiration?

What emerged from that contemplation was that an answer lies in heraldry! I had forgotten that part of the purpose of a coat of arms is to act as a reminder to that family of the principles that it stood for, that each symbol and colour had meaning - particularly the gold colour.

So, this is what I came up with to remind me of the traits and principles inherent in my own family and in my own experience:

A possible Birmingham Lerwill Family coat of arms derived from the traditional Birmingham arms, using their shield and symbol of industry (effort). This is an acknowledgement of how Birmingham has provided a home to our family. This is conjoined with the Lerwill 'lion rampant guardant' portion of our family's arms of the Middle Ages. Also included, based on the principle 'the pen is mightier than the sword', is a symbol of the pen itself being the sword. Finally, a motto.

For me at least, heraldry is not some old-hat thing that belongs only to the aristocracy and corporations, but a device that can be literally used by anyone to help them re-focus.

This topic, however, easily takes us to the more general topic of symbols, especially in their psychological effect, And what is perhaps more interesting is how symbols have been used since ancient times to convey meaning. A good example is in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

One prominent device is called the mandala and is found in India and Tibet. The eminent psychologist C. G. Jung said: "The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the wholeness of the self". He went on to say: "I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate."

One example of a mandala - this one represents "We Are All One"

The sacred geometry of the mandala draws our attention inward, unifying the centre of our being with the cosmos, attracting a state of harmony and wholeness.

The following mandala crop circle in Wiltshire seems to indicate that mandalas are pretty well known of in higher circles?!!

Just as with sacred geometry and other esoteric principles, crop circles have been marginalised by practically the entire scientific community since they challenge the current worldview simply because science is at odds to explain them.

Since the day when we decided to abandon our faith in the universal way and follow the mechanical codes of science, our consciousness has shifted from one of reverence for all things sacred to the worship of abstract materialism. Consequently, our change of attitude has endangered our living, breathing celestial sphere and it's perhaps why crop circles, with their foundations based squarely upon sacred geometry, have chosen to appear in very recent times. This is surely to remind us that if only we observe the fundamental laws of the universe we may still be in time to discover the secrets of universal harmony and salvage our very own symbol of eternal life, the Earth.

Let's deviate for a minute. What are crop circles? A most interesting author and researcher of the name Freddy Silva tries to explain at his website:

Essentially, crop circles are visible expressions of energy forms, and these forms are conscious and vibratory by nature. The Institute of Resonance Therapy in Germany discovered, over a decade ago, that unadulterated photos of crop circles contained a code that systems in distress required to rejuvenate themselves. Simply put, each crop circle acts as a piece of 'software' that tells the 'hard drive' of a biological system how to rebuild itself. By applying the image in a specially designed machine it was possible to send healing to any system in distress — a person, a tree, a forest, a river — and the results of the work performed by IRT were scientifically monitored each time. The Institute's work was welcomed by the Austrian government which allowed the Institute to apply its techniques throughout Europe to places suffering from ecological imbalance, with incredibly positive results.

Freddy Sylva goes on to explain how he has been able to positively use energy from crop symbols. His website article on this is worth reading i.m.o. And this is a link to another fascinating article by Sylva - it may be dated (1997) but still relevant I suggest.

But let's take this topic of symbols in a different direction for a moment. If symbols can be used in such a positive, expansive, way, then surely there are also other symbols that can take us in a downwards spiral if we dwell on them too much? Here, I am thinking particularly about the effect of TV through advertisements (which help to keep us fixed on the material plane), but I am also thinking of the effect of aggressive and violent media programmes, and also gaming. 

On the face of it, all these pastimes may seem innocuous to the participants, but the mind is what is affected, and as the Buddha said (my italics): “All that we are is a result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”

Therefore, to emerge from COVID in the right state, and to tackle Climate Change and all kinds of other things, positivity is needed. The right symbols can be highly effective in guiding us there.

Of course, there are various kinds of positive symbols one can use, and young people, in particular, could do well to study the lives of people who have had a positive effect on the world. In this respect, and being very keen about Birmingham history, I started writing a series of digital magazines about certain Birmingham people and their effect on the nation as a whole and beyond, and not just on the locality of Birmingham. These magazines are on-going and are available for your kind perusal at this website link. The well-known Birmingham historian Professor Carl Chinn has pronounced these as "Well worth reading."

Thank you for reading this.