Symbol, Soul, Body

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

It used to be great! All the "insignia" were in plain sight! If a girl with a braid is unmarried, and if she is wearing a headscarf, then she is already a woman, not a girl. Probably, since then, only black scarves for funeral have remained, and so - the tradition has been lost. People of a certain clan-tribe wore the same jewelry, beads, for example, other distinctive signs. However, even now representatives of any sub-culture are finding ways to distinguish themselves from other people with some element of clothing or other decor

That is, earlier people did not seek to hide their identity (their essence), but to show it to the world, using some kind of identity markers. Using some symbols that help to clarify for their bearer, and for those around them who is who.

Thus, the symbol, as a marker of identity, plays a huge role in our life, and perhaps this is why girls are so eager to put on a wedding ring in order to realize themselves in a different quality. Complete a specific initiation. The stamp in the passport is a new form of symbol that expresses the same idea. We probably still suffer from the loss of this legacy.

The psyche needs help in the transition from one state to another. For example, about the same wedding, or rather, I will focus only on marriage, the fact of getting married for a girl … the girl was dressed in white clothes symbolizing a shroud. She was buried as a girl, special grandmothers cried for her, she was decorated with flowers and her face was covered. A veil, a veil, or just a canvas had to be lifted by her husband, bringing her back to life in the role of a woman, his wife. Hair was removed under a scarf, clothes were worn completely different, and the life of the ex-girlfriend changed dramatically.

All external attributes accompany the initiation process that takes place deep in the psyche. Now psychologists advise cleaning and rearranging furniture as an aid to “reboot consciousness”. All these are attempts, from my point of view, to return to rituals and facilitate the process of initiation (transition) into another state.

And you yourself? Have you ever bought yourself a gift after graduating from high school or university? Didn't you expect such gifts for memorable anniversaries? And when choosing an anniversary gift for someone, what do we usually think? candy will be eaten, dresses worn out. And you need such a gift for the memory to be. Memory. We need some kind of symbol that will remind of us (the donor) and the given date. Married ladies and married men wear wedding rings; girls are often given gold when they come of age. The examples can go on. People want to mark some significant event with something imperishable, indestructible. Something that will be the Symbol of this event.

So tell me later that K. G. Jung exaggerated the meaning of symbols in everyday life. By and large, we have not learned to do without them. Our clothes express our mood, our way of life, our identity no less than our words about ourselves, or even more. There are several brilliant articles on this topic, but, however, you yourself can easily form your own opinion about a girl with a backpack instead of a handbag, dressed in a sports jacket and jeans, and a girl wearing a mini-skirt, boots and fishnet tights with tight waist. And you can't go wrong if you see a girl in a black cloak and pointed hat when Halloween has already passed.

In connection with the mention of the name of K. G. Jung, I will recall his model of the structure of the psyche, and I will explain that the external attributes (symbols) that we wear refer to the Person. To that part of the psyche, which, as it were, says to others: this is what I am / what I am. The person (mask) does not so much hide our true essence as it presents to the world our opinion about ourselves. She is our presentation of ourselves to society. That’s how I’m on the outside. This is how I think of myself. I dress, do my makeup, choose jewelry in preparation to tell society who I am today. If I'm wearing a wedding dress - I'm a bride, if mourning ribbons - I'm a grieving woman, if an elegant dress - I'm a lady who came out, well, and so on.

There are also more powerful identity markers. Affecting not the Person, but the Ego. Not temporary symbols like a ring or a dress that can be taken off these days. Literally a hundred years ago, clothes were “non-removable,” in the sense that a married woman was not allowed (due to her status) to wear a braid, and a worker could not wear a hat, but only a scarf. And some people still need symbols that will stay with them forever - so deep are their transitions. Not clothes will be affected, but the body, a deeper psychic reality. For example, tattoos. For example, piercings.

By the way, in some archaic tribes, especially in hot countries, it was tattoos that were a symbol of the identity of each person. Information about a person was written in indelible ink on his body. Sometimes right on the face - a kind of walking living passport. From the drawings, one could read his life story and find out his family ties.

And piercings. Pierced ears no longer bother anyone in our society, but punctures of the tongue, eyebrows, nose or other parts of the body are confusing. Sometimes piercings are done in order to indicate their belonging to a group, to a sub-culture, to a certain group of people. Sometimes….

“….. How could he? … Leave me alone in this life, me and your child, and die … so stupid, stupid … we are young, it never happens. Zina could not find a place for herself, she rushed around the apartment, wringing her hands. There were no tears. And it was very scary, so scary that…. But what about his things? they are all here, and not even the ashtray is cleaned. She also scolded him … Yes, it would be better if he went to another! Then she could just be angry. Find support, consolation … Although …. Her friends comforted her every day. But there was no relief. She was sobbing in someone's knees, but she realized that she was alone in her trouble. They don't understand.

Now apathy … the mood is cloudy, like the smoke of cigarettes …. and this song of his, again about cigarettes … "so sad that I want to smoke" … Zina, weak from sleepless nights and hunger, not quite understanding what was happening, put an ashtray next to her with such a familiar smell. She now knows why, for all her love of order, she didn't clean this damn ashtray. A piece of it is still there. His scent, the one she swore at during his lifetime. Zina trudged to the kitchen, where there was a pack of cigarettes in the cabinet.

She smoked and smoked … without feeling nausea, dizziness, staying as in a dream. I woke up only after realizing that the pack was over. And her soul is just as empty. She fell asleep. “Well, why, why,” she thought through her sleep, “why didn't he stop me? Did you take the cigarettes away from me? He hated smoking women! He would never, never let me get poisoned! Well, where? … Well, where are you? Take away my cigarettes !!! - Zina woke up from all the scream and sat down on the sofa.

"Now anything can happen to me." This thought pulsed in Zina's brain, overflowing with meanings. "Anything. And he will not protect me. Anything. And he won't help me. Anything. And he will not forbid me. Anything. And his opinion doesn't matter anymore. More precisely, it means, but with this value I can do what I want. For example, send him to hell! " Zina fell asleep again.

In the morning Zina got ready and quickly left home. Her phone was off. She disappeared from the horizon of everyone who wanted to put a shoulder under her head. She was ONE. And in the evening she returned. She turned on the phone and immediately turned it off, because the disgusting squeak of messages about missed calls, about hundreds of missed calls, cut her ears. She went to the bathroom, splashed there for a long time, rolled in the foam, listening to the murmuring sound of water. Then, wrapping herself in his robe, she turned on the tape recorder, choosing at random a disc of music, and went to a large mirror.

A tired, grief-stricken young girl looked at her. Eyes sunken from poor sleep, food and packs of cigarettes on an empty stomach were deep under the eyelids, and their expression was unreadable. Zina opened her robe with a regal gesture.“Everything will be as you want!” - came from the speakers of the tape recorder, and for the first time in many weeks Zina broke into a happy smile, looking at the red stone of the earring in her navel. The same piercing that her husband was against.

“So I cut this umbilical cord,” flashed through her head, without affecting consciousness. In my mind, it was: “The universe is on my side! She herself said in a song that "Everything will be as I want!". The way will be! I let!

Your Irina Panina.

Together we will find the path to your hidden possibilities.