The World is Emblematic

The title of this post if a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the prefacing statement in a book by one of my favorite poets, Dr. Nick Bozanic.

I took two semesters in high school of literature classes taught by Dr. Bozanic. Of the many incredible class offerings I had the opportunity to take or choose from at my school, his classes were probably some of the most meaningful ones to me. I made a lot of mistakes in that class, and discovered that my personal best wasn't good enough, and cried when I failed a test. Me, the one who floated by in school and didn't ever seek to excel academically - I was devastated by that failure. In the end, though, the grade I received (I passed, barely) couldn't possible measure what I had learned.

I discovered that my ability to learn was a chain of interconnected and simultaneously occurring processes that I had yet to truly explore. And probably even more importantly, I found that I wanted to explore it. School was never a priority to me, but those classes changed my perspective about education and allowed me the place and time to find out more about this key part of my personality.

Learning occurs at many levels for most of us. While some learn best theoretically (in the mind), others are more suited to hands-on and experience-based learning (through physical acts). One of the things that seems to bridge the gap between these two modes (mental and physical, or internal and external) is a constant theme documented by anthropologists in every culture: symbols. (Dr. B, forgive me, I know you dislike that word, but I'm using it in its absolute form, here.) A symbol is an idea or concept encapsulated by an image - the mental made physical, so to speak. Dr. Bozanic preferred Emerson's word choice, emblems.

I could get into detail about the symbols all around us, but the point I really want to make in this entry is this: we create symbols for ourselves, and actualize the potential inside us by focusing on the meaning being imbued in those symbols. I offered some ideas on vision boarding in a previous post - that's a way of finding symbology that works for you. You might also try this:

1. Write down your ideas about birth. (This is an exercise recommended by Pam England in her book Birthing From Within.) Don't overthink anything, just get it all out on paper.
2. Then, simplify the main themes of your writing into one or two words each.
3. Cut out some card stock or construction paper into about 6 rectangles (or make 4 squares, which ever works for you). Make as many cards as there are themes you've come up with.
4. Draw an image that represents each theme on the cards you've made. Don't be afraid of any lack of artistic skill - the graffiti on ancient cave walls wasn't elaborate, but it still got its message across! You might want to stick to one or two colors, or maybe one color per image. Try using big, bold marker strokes; or maybe get some pastels or charcoals.
   

The results are ideas made tangible - you've worked art's alchemical trick to make mental objects into physical ones! You can use these symbols in a variety of ways:

• Like with a vision board, you can put the symbols someplace where you'll see them every day - your fridge, your bathroom mirror, your dashboard, your desk...
• Strategically place positive or 'antidote' symbols on top of or next to the symbols of your fears, or put the fears in a box when they overwhelm you.
• Showcase positive symbols in pretty picture frames.
• Got a particularly nagging fear? Photocopy the symbol and cut it into pieces while you think about all of the reasons that fear doesn't control you. Or find research studies about your fear and paperclip them to the symbol - you won't have to read the studies more than once or twice to know, when you glance at that stack of papers and the symbol, that your fear is either reasonable or unfounded.
• Build a diagram of how you're going to cope with a concern with its symbol at the center and the coping mechanisms surrounding it. You could write-out the coping ideas, or you can make a symbol for each one.
  
• Celebrate the things you're experiencing and looking forward to by dressing up your symbols in party hats and streamers.

Connect with your inner compass (your alethiometer, if you prefer). The world is full of words and images that are our emblems, and that can be sign posts on the path if we know what to look for. Making that connection is a learning process; even the cells of your body, which are programmed by genetics to know what to do, have those first moments of being bathed in new chemistry during childbirth and need time to adjust to the changes. Whether you're expecting your first child or your 19th, you can facilitate that process by learning and observing your patterns, working within them and pushing their boundaries as necessary. Symbols are a tool you might find useful in this process.