Describe, not with words, your spiritual expression as you hold it in one simple symbol which only you have created and no other.
Attempt to effectively convey a provocation of your spirituality in this symbol entirely.
Resources:
You can attach images to your post, or use the following image host. imageshack.com
Drawing Program:
For this, probably the easiest free resource is Open Office’s “Draw” software. download.openoffice.org/index.html
It’s not outstanding, but you can quickly design a given symbol and use snap to grid if you need help to keep things even.
If you have your own software, go for it.
If you are more comfortable drawing on paper and scanning the image or taking a picture of it, go for it.
While that is a grand image indeed, I suppose I was more interested to see actual symbols or emblems rather than images.
For instance, Buddhism has a symbol, Christianity has one quite recognizable symbol as well, Deist’s continue to search for such a thing, Islam has a symbol, etc…
The challenge, then, is to put down into lines what you feel spiritually in a manner that conveys this.
It is a challenge because it requires you to work out the lines to accomplish how you feel spiritually, rather than relying on something that already exists.
You’re creating a limit to visual symbolism and denying what you’re asking. What is an image and what is a symbol is as individual as each person’s spirituality. I have a special place and in a special frame of mind, what I see before me is the symbol/imagery of how I sense my spiritual nature. I can’t think of any reason to post this image/symbol to submit it to someone else’s criteria of what is or isn’t a “symbol” of spirituality.
Yes, I am creating a limit to communication. That is the nature of why it was titled a challenge, and also the nature of words themselves.
This is probably something that could be called an icon just as easily as it could be called a symbol.
That’s perfectly fine. I’m not forcing anyone to participate. I’m offering a challenge to partake in.
No-Body,
That…is simply the most magnificent symbol of one’s spirituality that I’ve ever seen.
I can see everything in it which you hold reverent, and what you expressed is massive - yet elegantly simple. Ironically, this is the same quality of what your symbol is expressing.
I can see the entire universe in one glance.
Your symbol conveys an observational collage of everything of wonder in the physical universe on a grand scale.
In this symbol you have:
A galaxy
Several scales of a planet, and planets.
Topography
Volcanic eruption into the stratosphere
Solar eclipse
Solar flares
Comets
Star constellations
And, more amazingly, you capture the intangibly of time as a symmetrical impression
Only topping this, is that you convey the beautiful symmetry of asymmetrical nature, and do so in an account of the cyclic rise of how creation in the universe takes place in a seemingly endless rotation.
And it’s quite possible that I could notice more over time.
I will truly enjoy reflecting upon this image.
The message that you convey is truly breath taking ontologically.
(this is now my phone’s wallpaper )
No-body’s image makes me think of God’s Eye permeating through every layer of existence spiralling down to the most minuscule being ever created. Showing that He is ever watchful of His Creation.
What interested me the most about this once I was finished was that I was almost mad to see a type of yin yang in the center. Mad in that I was just going with it and not attempting to form something that was already out there, since that was part of the challenge. But then I just found it interesting that it popped in there on its own. I almost made an effort to get rid of it, but then didn’t. One thing I always love about painting or drawing is that things just happen and you have to let them lay.
I’m glad that you enjoy it. What I really like is that you’ve essentially nailed where I am spiritually by way of this image. I believe that all things in the universe are connected to one another. I’m a big fan of chaos theory, chaos math, fractals, things like that. Everything is uniquely different from one another yet almost identical across the entire universe. The planets and the stars, the neutrons and electrons, weaving everything together.
I can absolutely see that and you’re pretty close to how I feel about it. The eye, while not intentional really, to me shows how I feel about everything that exists today. And when I look at it all I can see is myself frantically searching for that final answer to all of my questions that are spinning around out there.
This was precisely the reason that I put forth the participant challenge.
I believe that if someone earnestly expresses their spirituality in like fashion to how you did (to paraphrase): “I sat down and closed my eyes for a bit and started drawing (so to) describe, not with words, (my) spiritual expression as (I) hold it (in) attempt to effectively convey a provocation of (my) spirituality in this symbol entirely.”
That a vivid spiritual understanding will be comprehended through it. And that as such, spiritual emotion will be understood where words fail to accomplish such.
I can grasp, for instance, your spiritual attachment in emotion of wonder, awe, gratitude, and reverence in your spiritual holding.
The saying of this doesn’t accurately explain this either, as I can comprehend the degree of magnitude in which these emotions impress upon you because of that symbol - something which words cannot convey at all.
I think that I wasn’t clear enough for some others, but I’m hopeful that with your grasp of the challenge and participation, that you will have helped clarify where I was not articulate and that others will now also participate along.
The experience of communicating in this method, I feel, is primal and provocative in many ways that words alone fail.
For one thing, you cannot argue with a symbol.
You either get it, or you do not.
In this sense, it is a more clean expression of our spirituality and provides a means of conveying our humanity of emotion in spiritual perspective more articulately than through the design of words alone - which words designate a challenge of argument almost upon their very existence.
A spiritual expression in a simple symbol (something you can easily reproduce), at least for me, could only be the yin yang symbol. Simplicity is key for any symbol (something complex may be an emotive expression but it isn’t a symbol), and for me it must express the duality of Truth forming an overall oneness. It is something which is at my core, as I think it is for all of us.
I have for quite some time tried to envision a symbol for me and my idea of Truth and my relationship to it, my agnostic-deist-veritology, but every time I keep coming back to the yin/yang. I know it’s ubiquitous, being found in every tattoo parlor and book on spiritual symbols, but isn’t that the point. Whenever I try to make one that is my own, only I understand it.
I agree with No-Body that his drawing is more of an image than a symbol, but the central theme, the (universe ?) as an eyeball with a yin/yang for a pupil, is very interesting and provocative.
One possible meaning; take those words out of the post and you are left with my spirituality in its fullest expression. All other meanings are interpretive.
This is a positive exercise; meaning, it is not an exercise to prevent you from something, or say something is wrong. The restrictions are only for the purpose of exercising other parts of yourself.
This is an exercise, which means two things:
…A) You don’t have to nail it. The point is to try. The only reason you show the design at all is to see how it works.
…B) It’s meant to be practiced continually.
If doing it all in this environment here on ILP is something that anyone doesn’t feel comfortable doing, then I implore you to do this on your own and show just someone that you know and ask them to tell you what they understand from the symbol spiritually; what they think you are trying to say with it.
That is an expected approach, and valid; to have a symbol that is no symbol.
I would challenge you further, however, to try lines or shapes in some fashion so as to attempt to direct the thought of the viewer in at least some minor direction towards your sensations spiritually (even if the lines only point to an empty void in some manner).
Perhaps this is something that cannot be done and will not work for you, that is possible.
However, I would challenge you to try.
TPT
I agree with Turtle. I think you have a lot swirling around, and I think it’s worth a shot.
Even if you end up hating what comes out and thinking that it’s not right; you can still use that spiritually to reflect upon why it is not right - where it is not fitting.
I think Arc’s post fits into the subject line. While it is (I believe Hebrew) a script intended to be read, a lot of people might take it as a symbol if they can’t read it.
While that may be the case, it is an already pre-existing symbol.
For instance, I don’t want someone to throw up a cross because they are Christian, as that symbol is not directly out of their spiritual emotions in origin.
It is one that is adopted and subscribed to, and has preconceived meanings that clutter the conveyance of the expression.
This exercise is about challenging ourselves to do something most of us never even think of doing; draw from the depths of our spiritual sense and let it land onto a page as it hits you.
It would be akin to asking someone how they feel about the person they love and they just grab a Hallmark card.
It kind of misses the point of the exercise.
)
