Symbolism and Allegory: Hidden Meanings in Literature

BY NICOLE LAU

Great literature operates on multiple levels—the surface story is only the beginning, the literal meaning only the first layer. Beneath the narrative lie symbols, allegories, hidden meanings accessible only to those who know how to read them. Medieval scholars identified four levels of interpretation: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical (mystical). The Kabbalists read Torah on infinite levels, each letter containing worlds. The alchemists wrote treatises that were simultaneously chemistry manuals and spiritual guides, the literal operations concealing mystical transformations. This is the hermetic principle applied to literature: as above, so below—the surface story reflects deeper truths, the literal conceals the symbolic, the exoteric hides the esoteric. To read symbolically is to become an initiate, to see through the veil, to recognize that every story is also a map of consciousness, a guide to transformation, a key to hidden knowledge. Literature is not just entertainment or even art—it's encoded wisdom, mystery teaching, gnosis disguised as narrative.

The Four Levels of Interpretation: Medieval Hermeneutics

Medieval scholars developed a sophisticated system for reading sacred texts on multiple levels:

1. Literal (Historical): What the text says on the surface, the plain meaning, the story as story

2. Allegorical (Doctrinal): What the text means theologically, how it reveals divine truth, the hidden doctrine

3. Moral (Tropological): What the text teaches about how to live, ethical guidance, practical wisdom

4. Anagogical (Mystical): What the text reveals about ultimate reality, eschatology, the soul's destiny, mystical union

Example: Jerusalem in the Bible

• Literal: The historical city in Israel
• Allegorical: The Church, the community of believers
• Moral: The soul of the individual believer
• Anagogical: The heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, ultimate union with God

This method reveals: every text contains multiple truths, accessible at different levels of understanding. The beginner reads literally, the initiate reads symbolically, the mystic reads anagogically.

Plato's Cave: The Foundational Allegory

Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Republic, Book VII) is Western philosophy's foundational symbolic narrative:

Prisoners chained in a cave see only shadows on the wall, cast by objects behind them, illuminated by a fire. They mistake shadows for reality. One prisoner is freed, sees the fire and objects, realizes the shadows are illusions. He ascends from the cave, sees the sun, understands true reality. He returns to free the others, but they reject him, prefer the familiar shadows.

The allegory operates on multiple levels:

Epistemological: The journey from ignorance to knowledge, from opinion to truth

Ontological: The ascent from the material world (shadows) to the world of Forms (sun)

Political: The philosopher's duty to return and govern, even when rejected

Mystical: The soul's journey from illusion to enlightenment, from darkness to light

The cave is not just a story—it's a map of consciousness, a description of the human condition, a guide to liberation.

Medieval Allegory: Personification and Moral Teaching

Medieval literature used allegory extensively, personifying abstract concepts as characters:

Dante's Divine Comedy:

• Virgil = Human Reason
• Beatrice = Divine Grace/Theology
• The journey = The soul's path from sin through purgation to salvation
• Each circle of Hell = A specific sin and its consequences

The Romance of the Rose:

• The Rose = The beloved, but also divine love, the soul, perfection
• The garden = Paradise, the enclosed space of spiritual quest
• The characters = Personified emotions and virtues (Danger, Fair Welcome, Reason)

Everyman:

• Everyman = All humanity
• Death = Mortality calling
• Fellowship, Kindred, Goods = Worldly attachments that abandon you
• Good Deeds = The only thing that accompanies you to judgment

Medieval allegory teaches through personification—abstract concepts become characters, making invisible realities visible, spiritual truths tangible.

Romantic Symbolism: Correspondences and Synesthesia

The Romantic and Symbolist movements revived symbolic reading, influenced by Swedenborg's doctrine of correspondences:

Baudelaire's "Correspondences":

"Nature is a temple where living pillars / Sometimes emit confused words; / Man passes through forests of symbols / Which observe him with familiar glances."

The principle: everything in the material world corresponds to something in the spiritual world. Symbols are not arbitrary but reveal hidden connections.

Symbolist practice:

• Use concrete images to evoke abstract realities
• Create synesthetic connections (colors have sounds, sounds have tastes)
• Suggest rather than state—the symbol points beyond itself
• Access the unconscious through symbolic language

Symbolism is not decoration but revelation—the symbol makes visible what cannot be directly stated.

Alchemical Allegory: The Great Work as Narrative

Alchemical texts are simultaneously literal (chemical operations) and allegorical (spiritual transformation):

The stages of the Great Work:

Nigredo (Blackening):

• Literal: Calcination, burning away impurities
• Allegorical: Ego death, dark night of the soul, confronting the shadow

Albedo (Whitening):

• Literal: Purification, washing, distillation
• Allegorical: Purification of consciousness, integration of the anima

Rubedo (Reddening):

• Literal: The final heating, the creation of the Philosopher's Stone
• Allegorical: Spiritual rebirth, union of opposites, the Self realized

Alchemical texts hide spiritual teachings in chemical language—the laboratory is the soul, the metals are aspects of consciousness, the Stone is enlightenment.

Kabbalistic Reading: Infinite Levels of Meaning

Kabbalistic hermeneutics (PaRDeS) identifies four levels of Torah interpretation:

Peshat: Simple, literal meaning

Remez: Hint, allegory, what the text alludes to

Derash: Interpretation, homiletical meaning, moral teaching

Sod: Secret, mystical meaning, esoteric truth

Beyond these, Kabbalists believe:

• Every letter contains infinite meanings
• Gematria reveals hidden connections through numerical values
• The white space between letters is as meaningful as the black letters
• The Torah is God's name—to read it is to encounter the divine

This approach can be applied to any text: beneath the surface lie infinite depths, accessible through contemplation, meditation, and initiation.

Modern Symbolic Reading: Freud, Jung, and Depth Psychology

Depth psychology provides new tools for symbolic interpretation:

Freudian reading:

• Symbols as disguised wishes, repressed desires
• The text as dream—manifest content concealing latent content
• Sexual and aggressive drives encoded in symbolic form

Jungian reading:

• Symbols as archetypal images from the collective unconscious
• Characters as aspects of the psyche (Hero, Shadow, Anima)
• The narrative as individuation process
• Symbols as numinous—carrying spiritual power, not just psychological meaning

Depth psychology reveals: literature is not just about external events but internal processes, not just stories but maps of consciousness.

Esoteric Symbols in Literature: Hidden Teachings

Certain symbols recur across esoteric traditions, carrying consistent meanings:

The Journey: The soul's quest, the path of initiation, spiritual transformation

The Mountain: Ascent to higher consciousness, the axis mundi, the sacred center

The Cave: Descent into the unconscious, the womb, death and rebirth

The Garden: Paradise, the enclosed sacred space, the soul before the Fall

The Labyrinth: The complexity of the psyche, the path to the center, initiation

The Rose: Divine love, the soul, perfection, the unfolding of consciousness

The Serpent: Wisdom, kundalini, temptation, transformation

The Tree: The axis mundi, the Tree of Life, connection between worlds

These symbols are not arbitrary—they emerge from the collective unconscious, carry archetypal power, resonate across cultures.

Practical Applications: Reading and Writing Symbolically

For readers:

Read on multiple levels: Don't stop at the literal—ask what the story means allegorically, morally, mystically

Notice recurring symbols: What images, objects, or motifs repeat? They're keys to deeper meaning

Look for correspondences: How do different elements of the story connect? What patterns emerge?

Trust your intuition: Symbolic meaning is not just intellectual—it's felt, sensed, intuited

Research traditions: Learn alchemical, Kabbalistic, mythological symbol systems to decode hidden meanings

For writers:

Choose symbols consciously: Know what your symbols mean, what traditions they draw from

Layer meanings: Create texts that work on multiple levels—literal, allegorical, psychological, mystical

Use archetypal symbols: Draw from the collective unconscious—these resonate universally

Don't explain: Let symbols speak for themselves—explanation kills mystery

Trust the unconscious: Symbols often emerge without conscious intention—honor them

The Eternal Veil

Literature continues to conceal and reveal—the surface story hiding deeper truths, the literal meaning veiling the symbolic, the exoteric concealing the esoteric.

The veil is necessary—not everyone is ready for the hidden teachings, not everyone can bear the deeper truths. The symbols protect the mysteries while making them available to those who have eyes to see.

Every great text is a labyrinth, a mystery school, an initiation. The surface is for the many, the depths for the few. And the symbols—eternal, archetypal, numinous—continue to point beyond themselves to truths that cannot be directly stated but only symbolically revealed.

Read between the lines. See through the veil. Decode the symbols. The hidden meaning awaits.