Symbolism and the Symbolic
From the Works of René Schwaller de Lubicz

Symbolism which is a mode of expression is distinguished from the symbolic, which can be thought of as the application of a ‘state of mind.’ In other words, symbolism is a technique used to express meaning through images whereas the symbolic is the form of writing used to describe something. Symbolism can be auditory as well as visual.

Anytime an image, word, phrase, sound, harmony, or gesture has significance through memory or imagination a symbol is being dealt with. This, of course, presupposes that the observer knows the meaning of the symbol’s determined aspect, which is required to evoke a non-determined aspect within the mind of the observer. On the other hand a symbol such as a trademark means nothing unless it’s meaning has been previously explained to the observer.

The Exoteric and the Esoteric

Music is a symbol in that its melody evokes an emotional response, such as the beauty of harmony, or the creepiness of disharmony. Scary music, music that is purposely disharmonic, has the same effect regardless of culture. In literature a metaphor is a symbol that evokes meaning through analogy, and allegory through a play where imagination replaces the given description. These are examples of exoteric symbolism where the symbol and evocation are objective. On the other hand, esoteric symbolism is different. It is of an abstract, pre-existing nature and part of intuition, what more appropriately can be referred to as innate consciousness.

A roaring sound or two glowing eyes from the woods at night makes one afraid without knowing anything about the woods, eyes, or the sound. The sound of fingernails raking a chalkboard gives rise to goose bumps and a cringing expression. There are also the soothing effects of monotonous tones that lulls one into sleep. These effects are constant, and are neither a surprise nor derived from imagination. These types of reactions are the effects of esoteric symbolism.

The esoteric symbol is a fact that elicits an abstract vital response that is expressed physically, mentally, or emotionally. In a non-living being its effect is an energetic reaction. For example, the atmosphere of a cathedral or church with its vaulted ceiling, columns, and stained glass windows are related to the creative ‘magic’ of spiritual action. This is in relation to the unknowable cause of existence, which is the essence of harmony, justice, order, and beauty. Its effect is only produced through a perfect unity between the nature of the Cause, the setting, and the favorable circumstances of the moment. In this moment lies the basis for understanding original causality. Constituting that which makes us alive, the ‘Cause’ exists in everything – an unarguable point since we obviously are here.

Through scientific analysis we know it is fact that the origin of matter is energy. As long as life is considered to be solely biological and physical, by viewing natural phenomenon only as a quantitative sequence of events, one can dispute causality. Exoterically, through the mental consciousness, ones sees only polarized energy and nothing more. However, this is a matter of denial for everything that is quantifiable has a quality about it. Movement of quality (the abstract unknown substance) is energy, so it is also Cause. And without Cause there can be no phenomenal effect, so energy that makes up all phenomenons must also be the Cause. As a result, innate consciousness exists through a fusion of the Cause, and its materialization into the concrete produces the same Cause in us.

Cause and effect are not separable by time. For example, no chemical reaction can liberate the elements during the moment of their transference from one combination to another. In biology, with the uniting of the sperm with the nucleus of the ovum, chemical reactions take place outside of time. In the crucial moment of conception the law of Creation is obeyed. It is instantaneous. Therefore, all creation is constant existing only in the eternal Present. Inorganic matter follows the same law. Any unformed substance receives form as a result of an activity balanced by an opposite activity. The effect of the activity is neutralization, which never occurs without the reaction of resistance. In other words, it is simply a chain of activities, where reaction becomes a new activity of the first effect, and in that way is also the new cause.

For us, this chain seems to be located in time and space. However, that is a perception from an exoteric point of view. Growth occurs over time, but for cause and effect there is no time. Time can be thought of as a quantity in duration through the union of parts (symbols of the universe), where these parts (quantities) constitute a chain that has an apparent beginning and an end. Therefore, it is objective.

The Symbolic as a Transitory State

This idea of the ‘present moment’ is fact for all that occurs does so now. Remembrance and anticipation, the past and the future, are mere reflections of the mental consciousness. Our perception is a function of the past and the future, but it always occurs in the present moment. This is an esoteric reality that we mentally ascribe with an exoteric character.

Take the image of the axis. A body revolving will always turn on an axis. The tangential projection of a diameter from the plane at right angles to this axis moves in opposite directions. At the body’s center, directly on the axis, the tangential projection is canceled, imposing immobility on this center, which is not possible. In compensating for this impossibility, the axial pole is displaced and moves in the direction opposite the body’s rotation, and in effect creates precessional motion. If the axial center would stop as the body continued to rotate, it would breakup after reaching a certain threshold in velocity. This creates a mystery. The axis is not the abstraction of a concrete surface nor is it possible to define it as cause or effect. The axis, which is really an imaginary line, is actually a fact of a mystical character. It is symbolic. Herein is an apparent contradiction between the symbolic and the historical. It exists, yet remains exoterically incomprehensible. However, if we view the symbolic as a transitory state from the abstract to the concrete unifying the discontinuity of appearance in the continuity of the present, then the symbolic no longer contradicts the historic fact. As a result, the historic fact appears as the exoteric character of an esoteric reality.