Symboleering: The Pursuit of Symbols

Finding a name for what I do took a long time. Really, in an examined life, who can describe all the different approaches and techniques we employ?  In my effort to keep an eye on the golden thread, the path to balance and serenity through my tumultuous and emotional life, I have tried comparative mythologies, formal meditation methods, psychedelics, psychics, prognostications of every stripe, poetry, art, and quantum physics. I recommend them all (well, the psychics were a little iffy). But each one, to give it a chance, requires a lot of focus - and I am so easily distracted. Squirrel! and I am off again.  What WORKS for me has become an amalgamation of all those, the gradual development of a philosophy that assumes connections among and beyond the lifeforms I call reality. 

SYMBOLEERING is the active pursuit of synchronicity in my life - by watching for signs and symbols around me. When I view my surroundings thinking "like" or "as," a bridge becomes me crossing the river of time to another phase of life (The Bridge: Using Symbols to Build your Life); the building going up next door becomes the edifice where I imagine the basement as the foundation of my future and I can fill it with a list of personal necessities  (physical activity, community with friends, and so forth) that I want as the building blocks of that foundation. The analogies cause me to think about myself.

In the morning I stop and look into the sky for a sign about the day - birds soaring mean one thing, lack of birds means another, birds coming to rest a third. Is it a lone bird?  That is me. Is it a pair of birds? That is me and my partner. (A whole flock is too much trouble though and means "no message today":) I take what I get and relate it to tasks or dreams or issues or whatever is in my head to make some sense of it, making it up as I go. 

The thing is, humans are designed to make connections, to connect the dots, and the thoughts gathered by symboleering, regardless of whether you think they are messages from the universe or just silly frippery, can be analytical tools to use on your own psyche. Try out ideas, images, dreams. Find meaningful stories in what you notice and you will find you have a new perspective on yourself, and you may just have something to learn.