Category: Symbolism & Esotericism
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What Is Symbolism in Literature? Definition, Examples and How to Interpret Symbols
A green light across the water. A crown. A locked door. Blood that keeps returning throughout a play. A road that leads a character away from home. In literature, ordinary objects, colours, places, characters and actions can acquire meanings that go far beyond their literal role in a story. This is the basis of symbolism,…
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The Wizard of Oz Symbolism: Meaning of the Yellow Brick Road, Silver Shoes and Emerald City
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of those stories that seems simple until we begin looking at its symbols. Published by L. Frank Baum in 1900, the novel follows Dorothy from the grey plains of Kansas into the extraordinary Land of Oz. Along the way she meets a Scarecrow who believes he has no…
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Esoteric Symbols: Meaning, History and Origins
What Are Esoteric Symbols? Before exploring individual glyphs and their hidden geometries, it is essential to answer a fundamental question: what are esoteric symbols, and why do they continue to exert such a powerful fascination on us thousands of years later? We often dismiss them as nothing more than mysterious “drawings”, but the reality is…
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What Is Esotericism? Meaning, History and Psychological Interpretation
Esotericism is a broad field of doctrines, traditions, and paths of knowledge concerned with the deeper or hidden dimensions of reality, often explored through symbols, analogies, initiation, and practices of inner transformation. The word esoteric derives from the Greek esōterikós, meaning “inner” or “belonging to an inner circle.” In this sense, an esoteric teaching was…