Symbols are nothing more than a language that uses visual images rather than words to convey a message. For that matter, words themselves are symbols that represent the objects or concepts to which they refer.
Symbols speak to the subconscious mind and to the heart. Both words and visual symbols must be decoded in order to have any meaning. Understanding symbols is particularly important, for example, in the area of the fine arts and great literature. He who cannot appreciate and interpret symbols also cannot appreciate and interpret such works, both of which rely heavily on symbolism. Accordingly, piecing together and interpreting symbolism is no trivial pursuit, given the unfortunate fact that the world today is "symbol illiterate," to quote Michael Tsarion.
While MSM covered the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, what they did not bother to televise (censored) was some of the more disturbing images and symbolism from those ceremonies. We should be asking ourselves why. Fortunately for the billions of people who could not attend this year's Olympics in London, the censored images were publicized by the youtubers. What we saw in that extravaganza was enough to start a buzz on the internet, even when many of us did not understand the meaning of what we were witnessing. These images gave the semiotics theorists and the symbolists a rich supply of information with which to work.
Now, random symbols are one thing, but when they are of a certain related class, when they are compounded and clustered together, when they are used in combinations to supplement and intensify the meanings of single symbols, when they are carefully crafted and woven together to tell a story, we should begin then to sit up and take notice.
The themes we find in the symbolism of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremonies, taken as a whole, are chilling to say the least:
• Saturn: Grim Reaper-Father Time; the planet of the zodiac that signifies sudden reversal, restriction, and destruction; Priests of Saturn; the wizard "Prospero" (Shakespeare's "The Tempest")
• Illness and Death: great numbers of children in beds—not mere beds, but hospital beds
• Prodigious Head: an ill or sleeping infant with what appeared to be a "witch's caul" enshrouding it, thus suggesting a newborn and one "born under the sign of the witch"
• Enormous Bell: "Bell, Book, and Candle;" the bell that is sounded at the beginning of a ceremonial magickal working to summon the demons
• Giant Clock: Big Ben; Father Time-Grim Reaper; "time is up"
• Savage Dancers: demons from hell; "Caliban" from "The Tempest"
• Macabre Toys: menacing or frightening playthings, such as the evil jack-in-the-box
The message of this elaborate floor show was clear, and it is not a children's bedtime story told in a snug nursery, but a child's nightmare of Evil, Sickness, Death by Pandemic, and Sudden Destruction.
great article!!!
ReplyDelete