Written During Apprenticeship:

I love thinking about symbolism.

How much depth there can be hidden within a symbol, the layers of meaning we can find within such a small image, concept, word, or idea.

Recently I have been diving into understanding Native American symbols better (If you couldn't tell, Coyote holds a special place in meaningful symbols for me).

In my reading, I found something very interesting.

The author of the book I was reading spoke about a variety of animal symbols from the Native American faith(s), but many of the symbols felt.... very general.

The author told stories about how certain tribes interpreted one symbol, and how that symbol means something different in another story.

All similar backgrounds, yet different understandings of the same symbol.

As the author spoke more, I had a realization - though many of the symbols may have similar meanings among tribes, and group meanings as a culture, all of the symbols can also have different personal meanings and different meanings based on physical locations.

What an Animal Symbol means in the Northen Tribes may have a different meaning in the South Western Tribes.

Just because there may be a Cultural understanding that certain Animal Symbols may mean ill-will, sometimes that same Animal was a Symbol of power and hope for an individual.

As Jedi, we look at a large amount of symbols from various faiths, with deep histories and backgrounds and meanings.

We each find our own Paths, our own symbols, that can be tremendously meaningful to us.

However, there is also a danger we must be wary of as we find symbols of meaning to us.

The symbol is not "the thing", it is simply a personal understanding we have found for ourselves.

Others may understand our symbol completely differently, it may have a whole other meaning to them.

In some cases the symbol may mean the exact opposite thing to them that it means to you!

This can be difficult for us, especially as some symbols feel truly important to us, and for it to be seen negatively by others can feel personal.

But it isn't personal, it is just a different context that the symbol has to that individual.