Humanity and Symbols

Human beings use symbols constantly.

Most of the time, we barely notice that we are doing it.

A red patch on the skin may tell us something is irritated. A road sign tells us when to stop. A photograph can reconnect us with a person, place or experience we had not consciously thought about for years.

Numbers allow us to measure, compare and exchange. Money itself depends heavily upon symbolic agreement. The number sitting in a bank account is not food, electricity, shelter or labour, yet we collectively agree that those numbers represent value.

Words are symbols too.

The word tree is not a tree. It is a collection of sounds or marks that we have learned to associate with something else.

And even that association is not fixed.

In everyday language, tree may mean a living plant. In computing, a tree can describe a branching data structure. A mouse can be an animal or a computer device. A cloud can hold rain or data. Fish can be a noun — there is a fish — or a verb — are you going to fish today?

The symbol remains recognisable.

Context tells us what is intended.

Symbols help us carry complexity

Symbols allow us to compress enormous amounts of information.

A photograph may be a flat image, yet it can open an entire network of memories.

A single number on a laboratory report may direct attention towards a much larger physiological process.

A red traffic light means far more than “there is a red light.”

The symbol points somewhere.

But then we arrive at an important question:

Where does the meaning of the symbol actually come from?

Take the number seven.

Seven is seven mathematically.

But ask what seven means and suddenly context matters.

It may be a quantity, an address, a score, a date or part of a code. It may carry one meaning within one system of numerology and another within a different symbolic framework.

The number has not changed.

The structure around it has.

A symbolic system needs structure

If we are going to use a general symbol such as a number inside a particular system, there needs to be enough stability for the symbol to mean something.

If seven means one thing today and something entirely unrelated tomorrow, the system loses its usefulness.

But structure is not the same thing as absolute truth.

Tarot gives us a familiar example.

A traditional Tarot reader works within an established pictorial system. The cards have recurring images, relationships and inherited meanings.

But the card alone is not the reading.

The reader still interprets what those symbols may mean for this person, this question and this situation.

And that may be one of the reasons people seek out a Tarot reader in the first place.

They are not necessarily incapable of thinking about their own question.

They may simply want another perspective on it.

A symbolic system can change the point from which we are looking.

It may reveal something we had not considered.

It may connect things that appeared unrelated.

It may make us ask a different question.

Or it may give us a more complex or wider perspective on the question we already have.

This is one reason I use symbolic systems

This is also part of why I developed symbolic structures within SSS and QSP.

When I draw a string of codes in SSS, I am working within a defined system. Those codes have stable meanings within that structure.

But the codes are not a verdict about you.

They provide another perspective on the question.

SSS asks:
What is operating in me right now?

It offers a focused map of what may be active through the body, feelings, senses and responses around a particular concern.

QSP asks:
What is the deeper pattern beneath this?

It is designed for questions that feel more complex, persistent or multilayered.

In both systems, the symbol is not the end of the enquiry.

It helps us decide where to look next.

What is relevant here?

What appears connected?

What fits?

What does not?

What have we not yet considered?

Sometimes you already know the story you have been telling yourself about a problem.

You may have thought about it for years.

What you need may not be another version of the same explanation.

You may need another place from which to look.

Which reading might fit your question?

If your question is mainly:

“What is operating in me right now?”
An SSS Snapshot may be the simplest place to begin.

If your question is more:

“What is the deeper pattern behind this?”
A QSP Reading may be more appropriate.

And if you are unsure, you do not need to understand my internal systems first. Tell me what is happening and what you would most like to understand, and I can help you decide where to begin.

https://shamarie.com.au/field-readings/
[Contact Shamarie / Help me choose]

A good symbolic system does not need to hand us an unquestionable answer.

Sometimes it helps us ask a better question.

Sometimes it gives us a more complex, wider or simply different perspective on the same question.

And sometimes that shift in perspective is what allows something previously unseen to come into view.