Symbolism

From as early as at least 130,000 BCE we have evidence of burials. The burials were accompanied by food, tools and ornaments which are suggestive of our efforts in sending-off our dead to the world beyond. To a life after death, or the afterlife.

Another practice found as early as 100,000 BCE was painting the dead with red ochre in Israel, and the same was found in 42,000 BCE in Australia. Red ochre was used as a symbol of continued life.

We see a lot of symbolism, it seems, in religion. So what then, is symbolism? And why are symbols so prevalent, especially in the world of religion? The word “symbol” was derived from Greek, and in its early days meant “bringing together something that had come apart”. It later turned into standing in for something else, i.e., to symbolise something. And these symbols are incredibly powerful. Because it feels like something that these symbols are doing the job that words couldn’t, i.e., capture the great value and intensity of something, such as the Gods or religious traditions that were followed.

This means that these symbols meant and continue to mean a lot more to people than words could ever express. I mean, when we see flags what comes to the forefront of our minds first is the nation it represents, not just the shapes and colors on the flag. When these flags are capable of evoking such strong emotions within us when we see them, and that coupled with the national anthem in the olympics can bring us to tears, how intense then are the emotions tied with religious symbols? Religion, something that seems to be so much personal, something that we hope to connect us to God, with whom we hope and seem to have such intimate relationships with.

We can see the use of symbols in the way people conducted the burials too. The more powerful or significant you were, the bigger your burial ground. Embellished with ginormous boulders to mark the graves, we see them standing to this day in the names of the Stonehenge, the Pyramids. The Pyramids were especially symbolic. Richard Holloway describes them as “launch-pads” to launch the royals into immortality.