terminal 0
unfinished
NEFX - "Meditation_on_Lost_or_Forgotten_Function_and_Implications_of_Symbology_in_Long-Term_Culture" Whence the designation of traits in ancient icons of phenomenon, such as regard shape, color, gender, species or general form of being, rendering, directional orientation, representation, etc? Beings in original naked communion with their surroundings and their various (if subjectively applied) interrelations had more direct and unmediated interpretations of more fundamental (or, what is to say, untouched-by-them) things, more core elements from which other (particularly sentient beings') phenomena or ideas are constructed. In this relative clean slate, icons and symbols are envisioned as the reflection of found metaphorically similar traits between observed categories of phenomena, and they are installed and followed largely out of a sense-making impulse and also fear of the unknown. Yet it is seldom even considered the extent to which these particular thoughtforms persist to today in various contexts; in effect being very much alive, even if only in some instances being acutely felt to the extent that their lessened presence (if not the presence of its seeming opposite) prevail, and thus give contrast to presently trending known experience. The installment of aforementioned icons and symbols, with their personified form’s threatening and frightening caprice as reflecting nature, stands as consolidations of being-concerning traits in nature to be engaged with at the general collective will of the investing (summoning?) culture, to ignite in the venerator a conscious and focused care about the life-intensive deeds and experiences they may be bound to, with the added placebo of performing with a poise and confidence from the feeling of having interacted properly with the icon. The ensuing reverence can then carry back to the original things and their respective traits that inspired the installation of the icon. However, the revolutionary inspiration this fosters can prove somewhat pyrrhic in that some beings (perhaps mainly many of those other than whoever was originally so inspired, since a shift in topology of awareness breeds miscommunication and loss of the capacity for communication) are liable to distort or even dogmatically enforce it -- partly in the resulting new practice for its utility, or out of a sense of social compulsion or convention without the requisite awareness to properly partake or even have such inspiration themselves in the first place. It is less clear how unavoidable and necessary such a revolution of thought may be, but more clear that understanding and acting upon its impetus and long-term effects as an evolutionary stepping stone is crucial to progress of being, dependent upon active conscious will of beings instead of a languid trust in the automatic movement and justice of history. The question remains what the next destination and path beyond this is.