Ontological Symbolism: The Reality Behind the Symbol
By NICOLE LAU
Introduction: Symbols as Windows to Being
In modern thought, symbols are often dismissed as mere representations—arbitrary signs that stand for something else, useful conventions with no inherent connection to what they signify. But ontological symbolism reveals a deeper truth: genuine symbols are not arbitrary representations but participations in the reality they reveal, not signs pointing to something absent but windows opening onto something present, not human inventions but discoveries of patterns woven into the fabric of being itself. A symbol, in this profound sense, doesn't just represent reality—it makes reality present, accessible, knowable.
This understanding transforms everything. The cross is not just a sign for Christianity but a participation in the pattern of sacrifice and resurrection woven into existence. The mandala is not just a picture of wholeness but a form through which wholeness manifests. The tree is not just a metaphor for growth but a revelation of the archetypal pattern of life ascending from earth toward heaven. Understanding ontological symbolism means recognizing that symbols are ontologically grounded—rooted in the structure of reality itself—and that engaging with symbols is not just interpreting meanings but participating in the depths of being.
Signs vs Symbols
The Crucial Distinction
Signs:
- Arbitrary and conventional (the word "tree" could be any sound)
- Point to something absent or abstract
- Relationship is external and agreed upon
- Can be fully explained and exhausted
- Function: Communication and reference
Symbols:
- Non-arbitrary, ontologically grounded
- Make present what they symbolize
- Relationship is internal and participatory
- Inexhaustible depth of meaning
- Function: Revelation and transformation
Examples
Sign: A stop sign—arbitrary shape and color, conventional meaning, no inherent connection to stopping.
Symbol: Water as symbol of purification—not arbitrary but grounded in water's actual cleansing properties, its role in life, its archetypal significance across cultures.
The Ontological Ground of Symbols
Participation, Not Representation
Traditional View: Symbols participate in what they symbolize—they don't just point to it but embody it.
Example: The sun as symbol of the divine doesn't just represent God but participates in divine qualities—light, life-giving, central, radiant.
Implication: Engaging with the symbol is engaging with the reality itself, not just thinking about it.
Archetypal Patterns
Jung's Insight: Symbols arise from archetypes—universal patterns in the collective unconscious.
Ontological Depth: Archetypes are not just psychological but ontological—patterns woven into the structure of reality.
Example: The Mother appears across cultures not because of cultural transmission but because motherhood is an archetypal pattern in being itself.
Platonic Forms
Plato's Teaching: Visible things participate in invisible Forms—the eternal patterns of which physical things are imperfect copies.
Symbols as Bridges: Symbols connect the visible to the invisible, the temporal to the eternal, the particular to the universal.
Example: A beautiful object participates in Beauty itself; contemplating it can lead to vision of the Form of Beauty.
The Living Power of Symbols
Symbols Transform
Not Just Information: Symbols don't just convey information—they transform consciousness.
Participatory Knowing: You must participate in the symbol to know what it reveals; observation from outside misses the point.
Example: The mandala doesn't just represent wholeness—creating or contemplating it actually integrates the psyche.
Symbols Are Alive
Autonomous: Genuine symbols have their own life and power, not created by ego but discovered.
Numinous: They carry sacred power, evoke awe and fascination.
Dynamic: They evolve, reveal new meanings, respond to engagement.
The Symbolic Attitude
Jung's Concept: The ability to see symbolically, to recognize that things mean more than they appear to mean.
Versus Literal: Literalism sees only the surface; symbolism sees depth.
Versus Allegory: Allegory is arbitrary (this stands for that); symbolism is ontological (this participates in that).
Types of Ontological Symbols
Natural Symbols
Definition: Symbols grounded in nature's patterns and processes.
Examples:
- Water: Purification, life, the unconscious, flow, depth
- Fire: Transformation, spirit, passion, purification, illumination
- Tree: Growth, connection of earth and heaven, life, the Self
- Mountain: Ascent, the sacred center, spiritual height, challenge
- Sun: Consciousness, the divine, life-giving, illumination
- Moon: The unconscious, cycles, the feminine, reflection
Why They Work: Not arbitrary but grounded in actual properties and universal human experience.
Archetypal Symbols
Definition: Symbols arising from universal patterns in the collective unconscious.
Examples:
- The Mother: Nurturing, containing, life-giving, devouring
- The Father: Authority, order, law, spirit, logos
- The Hero: Ego development, overcoming obstacles, individuation
- The Shadow: The rejected, the dark, the inferior, the unconscious
- The Self: Wholeness, the God-image, totality, the center
Why They Work: Universal human experiences crystallized into symbolic forms.
Geometric Symbols
Definition: Symbols based on geometric forms and their inherent properties.
Examples:
- Circle: Wholeness, infinity, the Self, completion, eternity
- Square: Earth, matter, stability, the four elements
- Triangle: Trinity, ascent, fire (pointing up), water (pointing down)
- Cross: Intersection of opposites, suffering, sacrifice, the four directions
- Spiral: Evolution, growth, the path inward, cycles
Why They Work: Geometric forms embody mathematical/metaphysical principles.
Religious Symbols
Definition: Symbols that make the sacred present and accessible.
Examples:
- The Cross: Sacrifice, redemption, intersection of divine and human
- The Lotus: Purity arising from mud, enlightenment, spiritual unfolding
- The Mandala: Wholeness, the cosmos, the Self, sacred order
- The Chalice: Receptivity, the feminine, the heart, the Grail
Why They Work: Condensations of profound spiritual realities into accessible forms.
How Symbols Reveal Being
The Symbolic Mode of Knowing
Not Conceptual: Symbols reveal what concepts cannot grasp—the ineffable, the numinous, the whole.
Not Literal: Symbols point beyond themselves to what they participate in.
Participatory: You must engage with the symbol, not just analyze it from outside.
Transformative: Symbolic knowing changes the knower, not just adds information.
Symbols as Mediators
Between Worlds: Symbols bridge visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious, human and divine.
Making Present: They make accessible what would otherwise remain hidden or abstract.
Example: The sacramental bread doesn't just represent Christ but makes Christ present (in traditional theology).
The Hermeneutic Circle
The Process:
- Encounter the symbol
- It reveals something of its meaning
- That revelation changes you
- The changed you sees deeper meaning in the symbol
- Which reveals more, changing you further
- The circle spirals deeper infinitely
Inexhaustibility: True symbols are never exhausted—they always reveal more.
Working with Symbols
Contemplation
Method:
- Choose a symbol (mandala, tree, cross, etc.)
- Gaze at it without analyzing
- Allow it to work on you
- Notice what arises—images, feelings, insights
- Let the symbol reveal itself
Active Imagination
Jung's Method:
- Allow a symbol to appear from the unconscious
- Engage with it—dialogue, interact, follow where it leads
- Don't control or interpret prematurely
- Let it transform through the engagement
- Integrate what it reveals
Ritual Engagement
Embodied Participation:
- Create the symbol (draw a mandala, build an altar)
- Enact the symbol (walk a labyrinth, perform a ritual)
- Embody the symbol (become the archetype in sacred drama)
- Let the symbol work through your body and actions
Dream Work
Dreams as Symbolic:
- Dreams speak in symbols, not literal messages
- Each image participates in archetypal patterns
- Engage symbols as living presences, not puzzles to decode
- Let them reveal their meaning through sustained attention
The Death of Symbols
When Symbols Become Signs
The Problem: Modernity reduces symbols to signs—arbitrary representations with no ontological depth.
Example: The cross becomes just a logo for Christianity, not a participation in the pattern of sacrifice and resurrection.
Result: Loss of symbolic consciousness, inability to access depths of meaning.
Literalism
The Mistake: Taking symbols literally—the creation story as geology, the resurrection as resuscitation.
The Loss: Missing the symbolic truth by clinging to literal interpretation.
The Recovery: Seeing through the literal to the symbolic—what the story reveals about being, not just what it reports about events.
Reviving Symbolic Consciousness
The Need: Modern consciousness has lost symbolic depth—everything is reduced to literal or arbitrary.
The Path: Recovering the symbolic attitude, learning to see depth, engaging participatorily.
The Result: Re-enchantment of the world, access to meaning, connection to the sacred.
Conclusion
Ontological symbolism reveals that genuine symbols are not arbitrary signs but participations in reality, not human inventions but discoveries of patterns woven into being itself. They don't just represent—they make present. They don't just point—they reveal. They don't just mean—they transform. Understanding this transforms how you engage with symbols: not as puzzles to decode or decorations to admire but as windows into the depths of being, bridges between worlds, and living powers that can transform consciousness. The symbol is not less than reality but a concentrated form of it, not a substitute for direct experience but a means of access to what would otherwise remain hidden. To engage symbols ontologically is to participate in the revelation of being itself.
NICOLE LAU is a researcher and writer specializing in Western esotericism, Jungian psychology, and comparative mysticism.
