Unicorns are complex symbols. They are the ultimate representation of innocence, as well as love and devotion. They stand proud on coats of arms, emblems of courage and strength. They are also symbols of sacrifice, as we know from our tapestries, woven records of hunts for them. They are avatars of the sacred beauty of nature, and the curse of its fragility. They represent something older and just beyond humanity’s understanding- something pure, which we are not.
Tears too, are complex. Tears flow with any emotion felt deeply, wether it be elation or dismay, or rage, or fear, or relief. Crying is something deeply primal that we cannot control, like hunger and bleeding, yet what other animal cries? Tears are a cleanse, a chance to reset and try again, to become for an instant, something pure.
—
My first submission to this year’s Month of Love challenge! This week’s prompt was “Tears,” which got me all swept up in my feelings.
For more of my recent work, visit mywebsiteandinsta!
Scarabs are engraved stones representing the Scarab beetle (Scarabaeus sacer), which rolls each of its eggs in a ball of mud and may be seen on sandy slopes in the hot sunshine of Egypt; rounding the pellet by pushing it backwards uphill with its hind legs, and allowing it to roll down again. The ancient Egyptian compared this living germ to the sun, which brings matter into life, and the Scarab became the symbol of creation, and sacred to their Sun-god, Khepera. It was their custom as far back as 4,600 years B.C. to bury these engraved Scarabs with their dead, and frequently one was placed in the heart itself. It was an emblem of re-creation, and symbolized this evolution of the soul through eternity.
The sinister aspect of Saturn; the winter solstice; the death of the old year and birth of the new, dies natalis solis invicti, the birthday of the unconquerable sun; the passage from chaos to cosmos; the suspension of time.
The dead return during the twelve nights of the duration of Saturnalia.
It is also the time of the sacrifice of the old king, or his scapegoat, as waning fertility, and instigating the enthronement of the new king as virility.
The twelve days of chaos symbolize the patter of the coming months of the year.
The period of chaos is governed by the Lord of Misrule, or the King of the Bean and the Queen of the Pea.
Transvestism is a feature of the time of chaos in Saturnalia, orgies carnivals, etc. and signifies a form of return to chaos.
Babylon held the twelve days of duel between Chaos and Cosmos; in Christianity these are the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Purging; purification; an apotropiac. In Christianity, it signifies penitence; humility; its purgative properties depict innocence regained, hence baptism.
Egyptian: The material to be worked upon to achieve perfection through creative activity; the rough ashlar is unregenerate man, the perfect ashlar is the spiritual and perfected man.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
The mysterious; the enigmatic; power; Ra, god of the rising sun; wisdom; royal dignity; vigilance; strength.
With the head of a man, or woman, body of a bull, feet of a lion and wings of an eagle, it represents the four elements and combination of physical and intellectual power, the natural and the spiritual power incarnate in the Pharaoh.
The androsphinx is human-headed and represents the union of intellectual and physical powers; the criosphinx has a ram’s head and depicts silence; the hieracosphinx is falcon-headed and is solar; an all-lion-bodied sphinx, without wings, signifies power.
The Theban sphinx is funerary, a protector of graves and denotes wanton destruction and is an enemy of mankind.
The Greek sphinx is female-headed; the Minoan sphinx wears the ‘lily crown’.
The human-headed sphinx is also suggested as human spirit overcoming animal instincts.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
Like darkness, the night signifies the pre-cosmogenic, pre-natal darkness preceding rebirth or initiation and illumination, but it is also chaos; death; madness; disintegration; reversion to the foetal state of the world.
Night is also, according to Hesiod, the ‘Mother of the Gods’, the enveloping, maternal aspect of the feminine power, usually symbolized by a female figure with a star-spangled veil, holding a child, one black (death) and one white (sleep), on either arm; or by the crescent moon, or poppies, or the owl, or black wings.
As all-devouring time, day and night can be depicted as a white and a black rat.
Going by night symbolism esotericism.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
Sacred to all Virgin Goddesses, the Mother and Maid, the One and the Many.
The lily also represents the fertility of the Earth Goddess and later of the sky gods.
The lily in the West shares the symbolism of the lotus in the East.
A branch of lilies depicts virginity, also regeneration and immortality.
Alchemic: The white lily is the feminine principle
Christian: Purity; innocence; the Virgin Mary; its straight stalk is her godly mind, its pendant leaves her humility, its fragrance is divinity, its whiteness is purity; it is also a symbol of the Annunciation and of virgin saints, as chastity; it is the flower of Easter. Dante calls it the ‘lily of faith’. The lily among thorns depicts the Immaculate Conception as purity in the midst of sins of the world. In art a lily on one side and a sword on the other depict innocence and guilt.
Egyptian: Fruitfulness, but the lotus is more frequently used in Egyptian symbolism.
Graeco-Roman: Purity; it sprang from the milk of Hera and is an emblem of Hera/Juno and of Diana as chastity.
Hebrew: Trust in God; emblem of the tribe of Judah.
Islamic: Its symbolism can be taken by the hyacinth.
Minoan: Chief attribute of the goddess Britomartis.
Sumero-Semitic: Fruitfulness; fecundity.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
Like trees and flowers, plants symbolize death and resurrection; the life-force; the cycle of life.
Plant and flower symbolism is closely connected with the Great Mother, goddess of the earth, of fertility and vegetation; it is also associated with the fertility of the life-giving waters; the sap-filled plant is motherhood.
Plants and trees are often regarded as mythical ancestors and usually associated with the moon cult.
Plants or flowers which grow from the spilled blood of a god or hero represent the mystic union between man and plant and the birth of life from death, life flowing from one state to another, e.g. violets grew from the blood of Attis; wheat and herbs grew from the body of Osiris; and pomegranate from the blood of Dionysus, anemones from the blood of Adonis and red roses from the blood of Christ.
In Chinese symbolism the plant Polyporus lucidus is the plant of immortality and is the food of the Taoist genii or immortals.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
“Persephone”, “Hermes” by Vera Bousiou. A modern dialogue between the two gods that were often associated with matters of the soul. The two figures were drawn in a spontaneous way, emerging straight from the unconscious mind, the mystical cave or gate of imagination and creativity. Persephone, the fruitful and the uncanny, standing for the primordial female, all embracing, element, while Hermes representing the analytical, spiritual processes, the “animus” of the artist.
![L'Étudiant / The Student, Autoportrait [1874] Artist: Ferdinand Hodler](https://64.media.tumblr.com/0d713947e958b87b93219f64aa336454/80ae9cfc3ce20e34-d9/s1280x1920/cfcd80e30310ff3ec7e69f7ef441ce156f4e802c.jpg "L'Étudiant / The Student, Autoportrait [1874] Artist: Ferdinand Hodler")
