#symbol study

Today, our community chose to follow the (white) rabbit …

The rabbit, arguably the most popular animal to pull out a zylinder (wouldn’t be too happy about a snake, right?) stands for many things.

Freud-fans are cheering: the rabbit does indeed stand for sexuality, fertility, reproduction, and all the sexy stuff. Playboy has likely chosen it as a logo for a reason!

But apart from the sexy things, rabbits also symbolise fear. After all, it only reproduces like it does in order to make up for all the individuals falling prey to other animals. The rabbit feels a bit like nature’s allrounder snack: There’s barely a carnivore or omnivore who wouldn’t take a bite out of a rabbit. Hence, the rabbit needs to stay alert.

With its ears peaked and its eyes wide open it keeps track of everything going on in the world around it. Fear is what keeps this little creature alive. Fear, and reproduction. In a symbolic way the rabbit tells us that fear can be overcome by growth.

In dreams the rabbit can also symbolise the willingness to become someone else’s victim, or it can be a positive symbol, representing creativity and happiness—or the bunny itself shows up as a guide on your spiritual journey. (Does this make you think of Alice in Wonderland?) Like other symbols of fertility (of which we will likely see many!) the rabbit can also be a symbol for upcoming tasks, or personal growth (or both).

White rabbits are usually perceived as lucky charms, while black ones are thought to be symbols for upcoming failure or mourning. Killing a rabbit in a dream usually represents the suppression of feelings and similar psychological topics, resulting in unhappiness. Meanwhile, eating the rabbit can symbolise being happy with one’s work.

Remember, context is key!

There’s countless rabbits in folklore and media, from the rabbit in the moon to the rabbit that sacrificed itself for Buddha, from Watership Down to the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, to several characters wearing bunny ears, or entire bunny costumes in films and cartoons…

And more than that: many of us will spot rabbits just beside the train tracks, or hiding in the meadows whenever we go outside. Some of us keep them as pets, others have them regularly for dinner. There’s barely a way around rabbits!

What do you associate with these animals?

...Welcome to the sixth Symbol Saturday

Six is a perfect fit, because it’s also the number of birds that Romulus spotted in the sky:

Mox pastores illum in Palatio, hunc in Aventino vultures exspectare viderunt.

Subito Remus vocavit: “Videte! Sex vultures! Sex vultures advolant!”

Iam victoriam suam celebravit, cum Romulus clamavit: “Duodecim, videte, duodecim vultures adsunt!”

Pastores, qui haec audiverant, hunc vicisse consenserunt, illum reliquerunt, in Palatium abierunt.

… but his brother Remus spotted twelve. What was this about?

Romulus and Remus didn’t just go out for bird spotting because the day was inviting. Instead, they went in order to decide who will be the emperor of the city they were about to found. Remus saw twelve birds, and the pastors agreed that the signs had come in his favour.

Counting birds has been a practice known in ancient times already, and to this day it is one of the popular beliefs.

Counting crows is rather popular, and easy when sticking to the nursery rhyme:

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a time of joyful bliss.

Birds often represent freedom, the soul, rebirth (especially if we look at the Phoenix), but every type of bird also has its own specific symbolism.

From the pigeon in Roman and Christian belief as a symbol of peace and deliverer of good news, to the caged Nightingale and her song, there’s plenty of stories providing different birds with different symbolism. Let’s look at a few examples:

Crows usually always comes in groups, sometimes accompanied by rooks and jackdaws. These birds are often seen as symbols of death and darkness, as especially crows used to stick near to battlefields to feast on the fallen. This aspect may have been one of the reasons the crow ended up being the symbol of the Morrigan. But crows also symbolise friends/family that can be trusted blindly (as the German saying goes: a crow will not peck out the eye of another crow). Like their bigger cousin the raven, crows also symbolise intelligence, magic and the unknown.

Robins seem to have become one of Britain's trademarks: If there’s winter, there’s Robins. These cute little critters with their red chests are often symbols for endurance, rebirth, and strength. They stay here during the cold winters and somehow always seem to make it through.

Eagles are especially popular birds as national symbols, since they’re considered strong and powerful. If you’ve ever seen an eagle’s claw, you may also know why— in Mongolia, eagles are being used for hunting foxes. Their claws are strong enough to crush their skulls. They also represent wisdom linked to strength: “What do I have to understand to make use of my power?”

Swans are another popular symbol. While white swans symbolise emotions, sensibility, marriage, and beauty, black swans often symbolise intuition in dreams— but they can also be an omen of death, like any other black bird. The popular ‘dying swan’ is a symbol of unrequited love.

Do you have any favourite bird? If so, what do you love about it?

Welcome to #SymbolSaturday!

Today we will go into detail about the dream symbol “house”. If you think back to the time we first talked about this symbol, you may remember that it came with a lot of information. I will try to break it down to the essentials, so you can work with the information I’ll give you.

But first we will need to talk about how to use this information.

Dream analysis may sound intimidating and somehow occult, yet it is pretty straight-forward. The way I do it is by taking the things that I dreamed about _without giving them any additional interpretation_. I just take them as they are (e. g. “blue house”, “broken window”, “rain”) and look them up in my lexicon (if I’m not a 100% certain about the meaning, and even then, I might still look it up).

I make sure to make notes of the different meanings one by one, and then (and only then!) I look at them as a group, looking for the connection between the symbols. Note that things like “broken window” may need to be separated into two searches (“broken” and “window”) and then combined to one image before looking at the whole group.

Now, on to the Symbol…