Symbolism in History – Ancient Lost Knowled

Symbols form the most ancient use of ‘communication’, some believe humanity’s use of symbols to date back as far as 1.2 million years. Of course it started out with relative ‘simple’ markings. As time passed, and various cultures developed – the use of symbols grew in its complexity. So naturally, different symbols came to mean many different things…and quite often certain symbols would have a different association depending upon the culture it was found in. However quite interestingly the converse has often proven true; even though many of these cultures were separated by both time and distance, they often came to use similar symbols to represent the same subjects.

Taking a look at the eagle, the Native Indians saw the Eagle as a symbol for great strength, leadership and vision. As if to seemingly mirror this, the eagle has been used as a ‘banner’ by many of the great empires throughout history, from Babylon to Egypt, through to Rome and even the United States. In early Christianity the eagle was seen as a symbol of hope and strength. It is passing strange that such different cultures across thousands of years have adopted the same symbol.

The Buried Meanings of Symbolism

As shown before, symbolism carries within it often deep meaning which over the passing of centuries gets buried in literal interpretations and dogma. In this vein sun worship has been a large part of history, and many symbols can be found which reflect this. One of the most well known of sun worshippers, are the ancient Egyptians. But also sun worship was a large part of Aztec, Mayan, Native Indian and Greek cultures. The sun has always been worshipped as the giver of life, it was seen as the truth, light and life. The symbolism is clear enough – life and being comes only through the sun. It is also worth remembering the Christian Sun God – which is symbolically taught as the Son of God.

So interpreting symbolism works by understanding the associations of any particular story. When those association become buried, the original symbolical understanding often becomes ‘lost’, the original meaning then gets replaced with a literal interpretation. But even within the interpretation of symbolism itself there is a a blind spot. This blind-spot is related to certain pre-suppositions. For example modern thinking assumes that ancient cultures had a primitive understanding of the human body. Because of this assumption certain interpretations of symbolism are not even considered.

The following image shows the Egyptian Eye of Horus (or Eye of Ra) and how how it precisely matches exact formation of the thalamus within the human brain (click for a larger image).

The similarities are not just uncanny – they are exact. Yet this is viewed as nothing more than a coincidence, because in modern thinking it is assumed that the Egyptians could not have had this knowledge. Thus we are blinded to the obvious. The Eye of Horus was also broken into six basic components, each representing a different sense; smell, touch, taste, hearing, sight and thought. The thalamus is the part of the human brain which translates all incoming signals from our senses. Could the symbolism of this be any clearer?

There is a great deal of information buried within the symbolism of mythology, religion and ancient tradition. This information not only uncovers long lost ‘secrets’, but also provides a key into one of the greatest mysteries; understanding ourselves. As researchers dig deeper into this amazing symbolism not only is new knowledge being found – but perhaps it is leading to the discovery of the origin of knowledge itself.