Centuries of seekers created the body of knowledge from which we draw. A great fountain of history and wisdom is there if we care to drink from it. Then, we can return the blessing and add water to the fount, assuring plentiful supply for future generations.

From Symbology ReVision: Unlocking Secret Knowledge - Introduction

The eyes are a sensory organ; the information supplied by our vision is recorded in our memory, and builds a library of images and meanings. All language starts with nouns. From birth we learn about things and our comprehension of them lays the foundation of our internal dictionary of cardinal images, or nouns. This visual language is then expressed with images and symbols; abstracts of concepts like life, death, and love are communicated more easily with shape and color than with verbal language. And so it has been since the beginning.

Images are an important part of oral tradition, accompanying the stories and legends that are told from old to young through numberless generations. They become part of every culture, fundamental to its traditions and its history. Symbolism as a nonverbal, nonliterary, visual language contains records of knowledge, historical information, information about cultural traditions, religions, customs, affirmation of principles, and moral concepts; images that reflect, as well as influence cultural development. So it is that pictures and images surround us every day, competing for our attention. They tell us about things we could have, do, and avoid. From road signs to computer icons, they tell us what we need to know. Logos for businesses convey more than just the image - we understand the type of product or service offered, just from the image. Shapes are to a symbol what letters are to a word. Words are made of alphabet symbols which, when placed in a certain order, convey information. Pictorial symbols are constructed of shapes and colors which, when placed in certain formations, likewise pass on information. Unlike letters, however, shapes also carry significant individual associations.

At the most basic level, a symbol is an abstraction of a concept or thing. Symbolism is the art of thinking in pictures, in cardinals, and creating images which convey meaning. For example, the use of a bird within a symbol can represent the connection between the Earthly and the Heavenly. Before phonetic writing was invented, ancient civilizations passed on information orally in mythologies, accompanied by visual symbols. In The Language of Pictures, David Bell speaks of the art of painting as language - a means by which human may communicate with human. He says that the urge to express is really the urge to share experience, and it is an almost universal urge; art is one way of accomplishing this expression. Paintings, like letters, are capable of an infinite number of combinations and variations; we can regard the parts of a painting to be like parts of speech. Aristotle said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

Symbols are not assembled randomly, they can have underlying, specific geometric matrices. For example, in alchemical symbols, images placed on a vertical plane carry an association with macrocosm and microcosm, or heaven and earth. Some of the information or meaning of a symbolic image is not readily visible. Symbols and artwork have design elements – geometric patterns – underlying the surface images. Art is symbolic; it is abstraction of thought. Much symbolism used by fine art Masters contrasts the religious icons of the Church, in that one is esoteric (with hidden meaning), the other exoteric (easily understood by all). Popes, princes, and kings commissioned Masters to create artwork. Many of these artists incorporated pagan symbolism into their masterpieces; some works were created as protective amulets, some depicted heretical spiritual beliefs such as Gnosticism. The Masters esoterically preserved these suppressed philosophies in great works of art. This visual cryptography was taught to apprentices and passed on to followers by the “underground stream.” Initiates understood the messages underlying the beautiful imagery. Commissioned portraits also depict symbolism, denoting genealogies, position, nationality, and social status. Knowledge of the secret meaning of symbols could, in times past, be truly perilous. Oscar Wilde wrote: “Art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril…” The visual codes that make up the vocabulary of esoteric languages arose partly from the necessity to communicate heretical ideas covertly. The fine art arena was a perfect vehicle to depict ideas that were otherwise censored – a form of cryptography. Out of that code grew a symbolist movement that continues today in the fine arts arena. Understanding the symbolic code used by the Masters during the Renaissance helps bring deeper meaning to their work, and reveals much to us of their history.

Available now at Amazon - from Michelle Snyder, her tenth book is a major revision of her first book - Symbology: Decoding Classic Images - and is complete with larger color illustrations, additional material, glossary, bibliography, maps and timelines - a valuable reference for the serious seeker and builder.