Symbols and Your Filing System
As you develop your mediumship, you will find that the spirit people love to use symbolism in their communications with you. A symbol is a visual image that represents an idea, concept, action, or feeling. You can think of symbols as spirit shorthand to quickly and efficiently convey an idea or concept. The spirit people will always use the shortest and most efficient way to deliver as much information as possible.
Some symbols are straightforward and almost universally unambiguous. For example, a red octagon means “stop” almost anywhere. A skull and crossbones warns of lethal poisons. A green traffic light means go. A heart shape means love. A diamond ring refers to commitment, engagement, and marriage. A cake with burning candles on top represents a birthday.
Often, though, the interpretation of symbols is highly subjective, as it is based upon a person’s experience and frame of reference. For example, let’s assume that a spirit communicator shows the image of a snake. Your interpretation of a snake depends largely on how you feel about snakes. If you come from a strong Judeo-Christian background, you might associate snakes with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In that case, you might interpret snake to signify temptation or betrayal. Or, if a snake once bit you, the symbol might warn you of impending danger and pain. Someone with a medical background might think of the snakes in the caduceus and associate the image with healing. To a herpetologist—or a snake charmer—snakes might simply signify work. In my life, snakes have always appeared just before major life changes, so that’s what they mean to me.
Everything in the physical realm can also serve as a symbol, including plants, features of the natural environment, animals, planets, as well as man-made objects, including architecture. A red maple leaf might represent the nation of Canada. Bears imply great strength as well as a need for periods of hibernation. Cats might symbolize independence, and dogs could symbolize loyalty. Mountains might represent challenges or the quest for spiritual knowledge. We might associate the planet Jupiter with good fortune. The Taj Mahal could be a symbol of mourning the loss of a great love. The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers might symbolize terrorism or heroic acts in spite of overwhelming odds.
Symbols can have both literal and symbolic meanings. The image of a car driving on a highway can symbolize how a person is moving though life. Yet it could also refer to the sitter’s car and indicate that there is something that needs to be fixed or a car that was significant to the spirit person conveying the message. Sometimes several possible interpretations apply. Your dad might have been killed in a car accident, and he might be showing up in a reading to remind you to replace your brakes.
There are a number of symbolism- and dream-interpretation dictionaries on the market to help you when you have absolutely no clue as to what a symbol could mean. In general, though, I recommend you develop your own associations. The best way to build your own interpretations is to ask yourself what a given symbol means to you. Once you have established a set of meanings, use them consistently. This will help your mediumship become more precise and accurate.
Exercise: Discover the Meaning
of Symbols through Journaling
Let a symbol pop into your mind. Set a timer for five minutes, and start journaling about the symbol. Write as fast as you can. Don’t stop and don’t edit; just focus on writing about the symbol. If you can’t think of a symbol, here are some you can journal about:
Exercise: Choose a Symbol to Represent Various Situations in Your Life
Quickly write down the first symbol that comes to mind as you think about each situation. After you have chosen your symbols, spend five minutes journaling about how each symbol applies to its situation. This additional exploration is likely to yield more information that can help you make positive changes. For example, if your bank account looks like a leaky faucet, you might decide to look through your account statement and identify expenses you can reduce or eliminate altogether.
Exercise: Symbol Assessment Reading
Think about an area of your life about which you’d like to receive insight, and ask your spirit guides to show you the situation—as it is now—in symbolic form. Pay close attention to what you are shown and observe each detail carefully. Spirit never wastes energy, so everything that you perceive is part of the message. For example, if you are asking for a symbol to represent the condition of a relationship, you might be shown a tree. Pay attention to the species as well as the season it is in. Note whether its bark and roots look healthy. Does it grow in rich soil or on craggy rock that its roots can barely anchor the tree in?
Exercise: Take a Symbol Divination Walk
Think about a situation in your life that you would like to understand better. Keep the question simple, and make sure you only ask one thing.
Avoid “should” questions, because your spirit helpers will never tell you what you should do. Avoid double-barreled questions, such as, “What do I need to know about moving to Los Angeles and working in the movie industry?” You’ve just asked two questions, and each one is open-ended. The same is true for “either/or” questions. Each should be explored separately.
Once you have selected your question, go outside and take a short walk. Your walk should contain changes of direction, such as walking an entire city block, skirting the circumference of your garden, or hiking a full circuit in nature. As you begin to walk, without thinking, quickly notice the first two things that catch your eye and write them down. Walk to the next corner or bend in the path, and turn in a new direction. Once again, jot down the first two things that catch your eye. Keep walking until it’s time to make the next turn. After you’ve made your turn, once again notice the first two things that stand out for you and jot them down. Explore in your journal how the things that you noticed answer your question.
If you doubt the validity of this exercise to give you good insight in symbolic form, then take the same walk at a later time and notice all the things that you overlooked on the first trip.
Mediumship and Your Mental Filing System
Your spirit guides are able to access your mental filing system and your associations with various symbols and life situations. My father, for example, was a businessman who always wore a suit. So when spirit people want to let me know that they were businessmen, they show themselves wearing suits. I grew up in Europe at a time when people still wore black to indicate they were mourning the death of a significant loved one. So when a spirit person appears wearing black, I know that he or she was either widowed or at some time had buried a child.
Your spirit helpers are also intimately familiar with your general knowledge base, which of course extends well beyond your knowledge of symbolism. If you love music and know many songs by heart, the spirit people will often make you aware of special songs they shared with loved ones or that have special symbolic meaning to the sitter. Mediums who are film buffs often receive information from the spirit world containing pertinent references to movies.
Anything you do to extend your general knowledge base also expands your mediumship. If you decide you want to familiarize yourself with various dog breeds, your spirit helpers will be aware of this, and in the future you will be able to see spirit dogs more precisely—instead of as small, medium-size, or large furry blurs with wagging tails. If you are pregnant and studying baby-name books for inspiration, you might discover an added bonus of suddenly being able to perceive a broader range of spirit names. If you develop an interest in theater and start reading and attending plays, you may start to bring through spirit communicators who shared the same interest and who loved the same plays you do.
In other words, what you do in your everyday physical life has repercussions in your mediumship. As above, so below, and vice versa. Developing our mediumship is not just about meditation and sitting in development circles. Anything that enriches your life and your mind in the physical realm also helps expand your mediumship. Indeed, you might want to get into the habit of scheduling monthly forays into unfamiliar areas to enrich your life and your base of experiences.