Page Index:  - Ta - Te - Th - Ti - To - Tr - Tu -
  [Teal-colored slash ( / ) within quote indicates page break.]                    = Link to brief biographical notes and/or webliography.

Tarfon, Rabbi.

It is not for thee to finish the task, but neither art thou free to desist therefrom.

Mishnah, Ethics of the Fathers, 2:21;

In:  Gordon, Cyrus H.  Forgotten Scripts, rev. ed.  (HL038, Basic Books, 1982), p. xii.

COMPLETION; DUTY; TASKS; WORK

19880223

Taylor, G. P.

Why fear the invisible when all the hurt and pain in her life was caused by those around her?

Shadowmancer (HQ398, Putnam, 2004), p. 35.

FEAR; GHOSTS; HURT; INVISIBLE; PAIN

20041024

Remembering the past is such a wonderful thing.  In remembering you can often see the things you missed at the time.

Shadowmancer (HQ398, Putnam, 2004), p. 252.

DETAILS; MEMORY

20041030

Taylor, Richard

Language can be a troublesome medium, which symbols and images can be useful in transcending.

How to Read a Church,  (HQ562, Rider, 2004), p. 6.

COMMUNICATION; IMAGES; LANGUAGE;, MEDIA; SYMBOLS

20060223

Tefertiller, Casey.

The issue [law or order] reappears every time rampant lawlwessness makes the streets unsafe and interferes with business.  It is a question that is central to the democratic experience.  History has generally shown that when law supercedes order, crime and violence become epidemic; when order supercedes law, the enforcers overstep the boundaries of their duties.

Wyatt Earp (HP191, 1997), p. 250.

LAW VS ORDER

19980309

Temple, Richard.

'Hellenistic" is the generalised and somewhat ambiguous term that describes the religion, science, politics and arts of the Mediterranean and the Near East during the period of transition between the world of Antiquity and the Christian Era.  It is the civilisation that results from the encounter between the culture of the ancient Near East with Greek thought.

Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity (FIUGL, Luzac Oriental, 2001), p. 16.

GREECE; HELLENISM - DEFINITIONS; NEAR EAST

20040801

Today such people are likely to be drawn to oriental esoteric traditions such as Zen, Sufism, or Yoga.  The very appeal of these paths for many Westerners is the absence of luggage (in the form of associations) on the spiritual journey.

Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity (FIUGL, Luzac Oriental, 2001), p. 52.

ATTRACTIONS; RELIGIONS; SUFIS; WESTERN CULTURE - YOGA; ZEN BUDDHISM

20040801

Thielicke, Helmut.

Because success is the greatest narcotic of all, the Devil, the false prophets (Matt. 24:24), the Beast from the depths of the earth (Rev. 13:13) perform great wonders.

"The Great Temptation" (sermon, April, 1945),

In:  Christianity Today.  (July 21, 1985) p. 29.

BEAST, THE; DEVIL, THE; NARCOTICS; PROPHETS, FALSE; SUCESS; WONDERS

19850710

Tell me how exalted your God is and I'll tell you how little he means to you.

In:  The Faith Letters.  (HJ45, Word, ) p. 23.

GOD

19830400

Thiemann, Francis C.

We Americans are always looking for 'the fact' as if it were an end-all.  Other cultures see a fact as dynamic, like a caterpillar crawling down your neck.  You react to it.

Interview,

in:  Louisville (May, 1983) p. 76.

CATERPILLARS; FACTS; MEANING; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

19830500

Thomas, Lewis.

The conclusions reached in science are always, when looked at closely, far more provisional and tentative than are most of the assumptions arrived at by our colleagues in the humanities.

"Humanities and Science,"

In his: Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony (HL022, ) p. 149.

ASSUMPTIONS; FACTS; HUMANITIES; KNOWLEDGE; SCIENTIFIC FACTS

19861205

A poet is, after all, a sort of scientist, but engaged in a qualitative science in which nothing is measureable.  He lives with data which cannot be numbered, and his experiments can be done only once.  The information in a poem is, by definition, not reproducible.

The Medusa and the Snail (PJ062, ) p. 107.

EXPERIMENTS; MEASURES & MEASUREABLE; POETS; SCIENCE, QUALITATIVE; SCIENTISTS

19791124

Thompson, Raymond H.

These novels strengthen the universality of the Grail legend, revealing its continuing relevance.  It is not just a curious medieval tale, but an expression of that basic spiritual yearning that is so important to mankind.

TheReturn from Avalon (1985, Greenwood Pr.) p. 30.

HOLY GRAIL; LEGENDS; SPIRITUAL YEARNING

20020217

Thoreau, Henry David.

Our intercourse was thus altogether one of unbroken harmony, far more pleasing to remember than if it had been carried on by speech.

Walden.  (LQxxx, Easton Press, 1981; 1854) p. 180.

COMPANIONSHIP; HARMONY; INTERCOURSE, SOCIAL; SILENCE

20051104

Tillich, Paul. 

It is the god of many people in the highly competitive Western culture and it does what every ultimate concern must do:  it demands unconditional surrender to its laws even if the price is the sacrifice of genuine human relations, personal conviction, and creative eros. [About "success."]

Dynamics of Faith (PF09, Harper, 1958), p. 3.

GOD - DEFINITIONS; SUCCESS; WESTERN CULTURE

19721000

Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.

Dynamics of Faith (PF09, Harper, 1958), p. 41.

FAITH; GOD - SYMBOLS; SYMBOLS; ULTIMATES

19721000

Decisive is the fact that signs do not participate in the reality of that to which they point, while symbols do.

Dynamics of Faith (PF09, Harper, 1958), p. 42.

PARTICIPATION; REALITY; SIGNS & SIGNALS; SYMBOLS - DEFINITIONS

19721000

That which is the true ultimate transcends the realm of finite reality infintely.  Therefore, no finite reality can express it directly and properly.  Religiously speaking, God transcends his own name.

Dynamics of Faith (PF09, Harper, 1958), pp. 44-5.

GOD - TRANSCENDENCE; INFINITE, THE; TRUTH

19721000

Their symbolic character is their truth and their power.  Nothing less than symbols and myths can express our ultimate concern.

Dynamics of Faith (PF09, Harper, 1958), p. 53.

FAITH; MYTHS; POWER; SYMBOLS; TRUTH

19721000

Tillich, Paul, continued

Any so-called objective interpretation of the / present is in part a self-delusion, in part boredom.

The Religious Situation (PF, Meridian Books, 1956, 1932), pp. 26-27.

BOREDOM; DELUSIONS; INTERPRETATIONS; OBJECTIVITY

19730000

Tillich, Paul, continued

It is the religious function of atheism ever to remind us that the religious act has to do with the unconditioned transcendent, and that the representations of the Unconditioned are not objects concerning whose existence or non-existence a discussion would be possible.

"The Religious Symbol"

in:  Rollo May, Symbolism in Religion and Literature (UoL; Braziller, 1960), p. 90.

ATHEISM; GOD - SYMBOLS; RELIGIONS; SYMBOLS - RELIGIOUS

19830300

It is therefore correct to say that Christ or the Buddha, for example, in so far as the unconditioned transcendent is envisaged / in them, are symbols.  But they are symbols that have at the same time an empirical, historical aspect, and in whose symbolic meaning the empirical is involved.

"The Religious Symbol"

in:  Rollo May, Symbolism in Religion and Literature (UoL; Braziller, 1960), pp. 92-3.

BUDDHA - SYMBOLISM; JESUS THE CHRIST - SYMBOLISM; SYMBOLS - BUDDHA; SYMBOLS - JESUS CHRIST

19830300

Tillich, Paul, continued

A theological system is supposed to satisfy two basic needs:  the statement of the truth of the Christian message and the interpretation of this truth for every new generation.

Systematic Theology, vol. I (MHCL, UChicago, 1951), p. 3.

CHRISTIANITY - MESSAGE; GENERATIONS; INTERPRETATIONS; THEOLOGY, SYSTEMATIC - DEFINITIONS; TRUTH

19721100

Tillich, Paul, continued

Whether or not we call it sin, whether or not we call it punishment, we are beaten by the consequences of our own failure.  That is the order of history.

"We Live in Two Orders,"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 19.

DEFEATS; FAILURES; HISTORY - JUDGEMENT; JUDGEMENTS; PUNISHMENTS; SIN

19831200

We always wish to teach God the path of justice.  We tell Him that He must punish the bad and reward the good, especially in relation to ourselves.  But He accepts no counsel concerning the course of history....

"We Live in Two Orders,"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 21.

GOD; GOOD & EVIL

19831200

Let us learn from the catastrophe of our time at least the fact that no  life and no  period are able to overcome finiteness, sin, and tragedy.

"We Live in Two Orders,"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 22.

FINITENESS; LIFE LESSONS; SIN; TRAGEDY

19831200

Glory without purity is the character of all pagan gods.  And purity without glory is the character of all humanistic ideas of God..../ The glory of the gods who are not holy in this double sense can fulfill only one country, one family or tribe, one nation or state, or one sphere of human life.

"The Experience of the Holy"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976, 1948), pp. 89-90.

GOD - HOLINESS; GODS - PAGANISM; GODS - HUMANISM

19850318

Consequently, the prophetic ecstasy, as opposed to the mystical ecstasy, is never an end in itself, but rather the means of receiving the divine commands which are to be preached to the people.

"The Experience of the Holy"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976, 1948), p. 90.

ECSTASY; MYSTICISM; PROPHETS

19850318

Therefore, salvation is....rather a judgement which declares that we do not deserve to die, because we are justified--a judgement which is not based on anything that we have done, for then certainly we would not have faith in it.  But it is based on something that Eternity itself has done, something that we can hear and see, in the reality of a mortal man who by his own death has conquered him who has the power of death.
      If Christmas has any meaning, it is that meaning.

"The Destruction of Death"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 90.

CHRISTMAS; DEATH; JESUS THE CHRIST - BIRTH; SALVATION

19850412

Faith in divine Providence is the faith that nothing can prevent us from fulfilling the ultimate meaning of our existence.

"The Meaning of Providence"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976, 1948), p. 106.

FAITH; FULFILLMENT; MEANING; PROVIDENCE - FAITH

19850320

Death is not merely the scissors which cuts the thread of our life, as a famous ancient symbol indicates.  It is rather one of those threads which are woven into the design of our existence, from its very beginning to its end.

"The Destruction of Death"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 169.

DEATH; LIFE & DEATH

19850412

But it is man only who is able to face his death consciously; that belongs to his greatness and dignity.  It is that which enables him to look at his life as a whole, from a definite beginning to a definite end.  It is that which enables him to ask for the meaning of life--a question which elevates him above his life, and gives him the feeling of his eternity.  Man's knowledge that he has to die is also man's knowledge that he is above death.

"The Destruction of Death"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 171.

DEATH; ETERNITY; MEANING

19850412

And within Christianity there is only one "argument" against death:  the forgiveness of sins, and the victory over Him who has the power of death.*

*Heb. 2:14-18.

"The Destruction of Death"

in his:  The Shaking of the Foundations (PG079, Scribners, 1976), p. 172.

DEATH; FORGIVENESS

19850412

Tillich, Paul, continued

Mystery...is present whenever one speaks of God and divine "things."

Systematic Theologys, I (MHC, UChicago Pr.), p. 3.

GOD; MYSTERY; THEOLOGY

19721100

God is the subject, not the object, of mediation and salvation.  He does not need to be reconciled to man, but he asks man to be reconciled to him.

Systematic Theologys, II (MHC, UChicago Pr.), p. 93.

GOD; HUMANS; RECONCILIATION; SALVATION

19721100

Tolkien, J. R. R. 

You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?  You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all.
    "Thank goodness!" said Bilbo laughing....

The Hobbit (PH080, ?) pp. 286-7..

HUMILITY; LUCK

19770500

Misery me!  I have heard songs of many battles, and I have always understood that defeat may be glorious.  It seems very uncomfortable, not to say distressing.

The Hobbit (HJ411, Houghton Mifflin, 1966) p. 297.

BATTLES; DEFEAT; DISTRESS; GLORY

19810500

Tolkien, J.R.R., continued

I think that many [readers] confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

"Forward," Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, 2nd. (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 7.

ALLEGORY; APPLICATION; READERS; AUTHORS

19870600*

'Deserves it!  I daresay he does.  Many that live deserve death.  And some that die deserve life.  Can you give it to them?  Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.  For even the very wise cannot see all ends.' (Gandalf)

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, 2nd. (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 69.

CONDEMNATION; JUDGEMENT; LIFE & DEATH

19830800

'The wide world is all about you:  you can fence yourselves in but you cannot for ever fence it out.'

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, 2nd. (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 93.

AVOIDANCE; DEFENCES; FENCES; PENS & CORRALS; WORLD, THE

19850625

Courage is found in unlikely places...."

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, 2nd. (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 94.

COURAGE

19830800

I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back.  It isn't to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want--I don't rightly know what I want:  but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire.  I must see it through, sir, if you understand.

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, 2nd. (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 96.

DESTINY; DUTY; FREE WILL

19830900

Just chance brought me then, if chance you call it.  It was no plan of mine, though I was waiting for you.

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 137.

CHANCE; EXPECTATION; PLANS

19840619

If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so.

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 261.

FEAR; FOLK, SIMPLE; GUARDIANS; SECRECY

19840600

'Then be comforted,' said Elrond.  'For there are other powers and realms that you know not, and they are hidden from you.  Anduin the Great flows past many shores, ere it comes to Argonath and the Gates of Gondor.'

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 281.

ANDUIN; FUTURE, THE; HIDDEN PLACES; KNOWLEDGE - LIMITS; POWERS; REALMS

19840624

For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice.  But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts.

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 282.

MALICE; MEASURES & MEASUREABLE; POWER; VALUES; WISDOM

19850703

Memory is not what the heart desires.  That is only a mirror, be it clear as Keled-zâram.  Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf.

Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 395.

HEARTS; KHELED-ZÂRAM; MEMORIES; MIRRORS

19840703

Tolkien, J.R.R., continued

There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.

Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 43.

BEGINNING; CHALLENGES; DEEDS

19840825

Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to....

Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 68.

NAMES; STORIES

19840825

The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear.

Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 296.

EMPLOYEE-EMPLOYER RELATIONSHIPS; MASTERS; SERVANTS

19831000

Tolkien, J.R.R., continued

And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can / still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come.  For I also am a steward.  Did you not know?

[Spoken by Gandalf to the Steward of Gondor.]

Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) pp. 30-31.

DUTY; NIGHTS; STEWARDSHIP; TASKS

19831000

[Eowyn:] "I have waited on faltering feet long enough.  Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?"
"Few may do that with honour," he [Aragorn] answered.

Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 57.

DUTY; HONOR

19831000

But I will not have him slain.  It is useless to meet revenge with revenge:  it will heal nothing.

Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 298.

HEALING; KILLING; MERCY; REVENGE

19831000

So I thought too, once.  But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam.  I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me.  It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger:  some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.  But you are my heir:  all that I had and might have had I leave to you.

Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King, (PJ226, Houghton Mifflin, 1965) p. 309.

DANGERS; HEAIRS; RESCUERS; SACRIFICE; SAVIORS

19831000

Tolkien, J.R.R., continued

History often resembles 'Myth', because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.

"On Fairy-Stories" (1967) in Tree and Leaf (HN162, 1989), p. 31.

HISTORY; MYTH & HISTORY

19950409

A child may well believe a report that there are ogres in the next county; many grownup persons find it easy to believe of another country; and as for another planet, very few adults seem able to imagine it as peopled, if at all, by anything but monsters of iniquity.

"On Fairy-Stories" (1967) in Tree and Leaf (HN162, 1989), p. 38.

BELIEF - CHILDREN; BELIEF - ADULT; MONSTERS - BELIEFS

19950410

Tolstoy, Leo N.

Without faith it is impossible to live.

My Confession, chapter X;

in:  Niebuhr, H. Richard.  Radical Monotheism and Western Culture. (PK19, ), p. 20.

FAITH

19860223

Tozier, A. W. (Aiden Wison).

If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.

The Knowledge of the Holy.  (RAP, HarperSanFranciso, 1961), p. 8.

GOD; IDOLS; IMAGINATION; INTELLECT

20050903

Trautman, Rhodes.

Whatever you get will probably be obsolete by the time you install it, but that is no reason to wait forever to upgrade your system.

"Storage Media for Microcomputers,"

in:   Online, Nov., 1983, p.19.

COMPUTERS - OBSOLESCENCE; COMPUTERS - UPGRADES

19831100

Trueblood, Elton.

There is not much to choose between the dictatorship of the Right and the dictatorship of the Left

The Humor of Christ, (PH115, , ), p. 71.

CONSERVATIVES (POLITICAL); DICTATORSHIPS; LIBERALS (POLITICAL); POLITICS

19841006

Tuchman, Barbara.

In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.

A Distant Mirror (PJ094, 1979), p. 210.

CONTENTMENT - HISTORY; ABSENCE OF RECORD; SILENCE

19931114

Turner, James.

...the cruelty of one enemy cannot excuse the inhumanity of another.

Memoirs of His Own Life and Times, ed. L. Thompson. (Edinburgh, 1829), p. 20.

In:  Wedgwood, C. V.  The King's War.  (HQ291, Folio Soc., 2001) p. 49.

CRUELTY; ENEMIES; INHUMANITY; WAR, ACTS OF

20040324

Turner, Victor.

By "ritual" I mean prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers.

[Continued by next quote, TURNEViFS19c.]

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 19.

BEHAVIOR; BEINGS, MYSTICAL; BELIEFS; MYSTICAL THINGS; RITUALS - DEFINITIONS

20070420

The symbol is the smallest unit of ritual which still retains the specific properties of ritual behavior; it is the ultimate unit of specific structure in a ritual context.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 19.

[Continues previous quote, TURNEViFS19b.]

BEHAVIOR; RITUALS; SYMBOLS - DEFINITIONS; UNITS

20070420

I found that I could not analyze ritual symbols without studying them in relation to other "events," for symbols are essentially involved in social process.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 20.

RITUALS - CONTEXTS; SOCIAL PROCESS & PROCESSES; SYMBOLS - CONTEXTS

20070420

Ritual symbols are at one and the same time referential and condensation symbols, though each symbol is multireferential rather than unireferential.  Their essential quality consists in their juxtaposition of the grossly physical and the structurally normative, of the organic and the social.  Such symbols are coinci/dences of opposite qualities, unions of "high" and "low."

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) Pp. 29-30.

OPPOSITES; PHYSICAL QUALITIES; RITUALS; SIGNS; SOCIAL QUALITIES; SYMBOLS - CLASSES

20070420

Ritual, scholars are coming to see, is precisely a mechanism that periodically converts the obligatory into the desirable.  The basic unit of ritual, the dominant symbol, encapsulates the major properties of teh total ritual process which brings about this trnasmutation.... Norms and values, on the one hand, become saturated with the emotions, while the gross and basic emotions become ennobled through contact with social values.  The irsomeness of moral constraint is transformed into the "love of virtue."

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 30.

CONSTRAINTS, MORAL; CONVERSION; DESIRES; EMOTION; OBLIGATIONS; RITUALS; SYMBOLS; VALUES; VIRTUE

20070430

Before proceeding any further with our analysis, it might be as well to restate the major empirical properties of dominant symbols derived from our classification of the relevant descriptive data:  (1) condensation; (2) unification of disparate meanings in a single symbolic formation; (3) polarization of meaning.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 30.

CONDENSATION; POLARIZATION; SYMBOLS - MEANINGS; SYMBOLS - PROPERTIES; UNIFICATION

20070430

After all, the ritual symbol has, in common with the dream symbol, the characteristic, discovered by Freud, of being a compromise formation between two main opposing tendencies.  It is a compromise between the need for social control, and certain innate and universal human drives whose complete gratification would result in a breakdown of that control.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 37.

COMPROMISES; DREAMS; DRIVES, INNATE; FREUD, SIGMUND; RITUALS; SOCIAL CONTROLS; SYMBOLS

20070430

The symbol is an independent force which is itself a product of many opposed forces.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 45.

FORCES; OPPOSITES; SYMBOLS

20070430

A symbol, then, is a blaze or landmark, something that connects the unknown with the known.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 48.

BLAZE MARKS; KNOWN, THE; LANDMARKS; MEANING; SYMBOLS - DEFINITIONS; UNKNOWN, THE

20070418

This brings me to another important property of many ritual symbols, their polysemy or multi-vocality.  By these terms I mean that a single symbol may stand for many things.  This property of individual symbols is true of ritual as a whole.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 50.

MEANINGS - MULTIPLICITY; POLYSEMY - DEFINITIONS; RITUALS; SYMBOLS - CORELATIONS

20070418

Ritual may be described, in one aspect, as quintessential custom in that it represents a distillate or condensation of many secular customs and natural regularities.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 50.

CONDENSATIONS; CUSTOMS; DISTILLATES; RITUALS - DEFINITIONS

20070418

When we talk about the "meaning" of a symbol, we must be careful to distinguish between at least three levels or fields of meaning.  These I propose to call:  (1)the level of indigenous interpretation (or, briefly, the exegetical meaning); (2)the operational meaning; and (3)the positional meaning.

[Continued by next quote, TURNEViFS50z]

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 50.

EXEGESIS & EXEGETICAL; MEANING - LEVELS; OPERATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS; POSITIONAL INTERPRETATIONS; SYMBOLS - MEANING - LEVELS

20070418

The exegetical meaning is obtained by questioning indigenous informants about observed ritual behavior  Here again one must distinguish between information given by / ritual specialists and information given by laymen, that is, between esoteric and exoteric interpretations.  One must also be careful to ascertain whether a given explanation is truly representative of either of these categories or whether it is a uniquely personal view.

[Preceded by above quote, TURNEViFS50y; continued by the following quote, TURNEViFS51a]

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) Pp. 50-1.

ESOTERIC INTERPRETATIONS; EXEGESIS & EXEGETICAL; EXOTERIC INTERPRETATIONS; LAYMEN; RITUALS - INTERPRETATIONS; SPECIALISTS; SYMBOLS - INTERPRETATIONS; UNIQUENESS

20070418

On the other hand, much light may be shed on the role of the ritual symbol by equating its meaning with its use, by observing what the Ndembu do with it, and not only what they say about it.  This is what I call the operational meaning, and this level has the most bearing on problems of social dynamics.

[Preceded by the above quote, TURNEViFS50z]

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 51.

MEANING; OPERATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS; RITUALS; SOCIAL DYNAMICS; SYMBOLS - INTERPRETATION

20070418

The positional meaning of a symbol derives from its relationship to other symbols in a totality, a Gestalt, whose elements acquire their significance from the system as a whole.  This level of meaning is directly related to the important property of ritual symbols mentioned earlier, their polysemy.  Such symbols possess many senses, but contextually it may be necessary to stress one or a few of them only.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 51.

CONTEXTS; GESTALT; POLYSEMY; POSITIONAL INTERPRETATIONS; SIGNIFICANCE; SYMBOLS - INTERPRETATION; SYMBOLS - MEANINGS

20070418

It must not be forgotten that ritual symbols are not merely signs representing known things; they are felt to possess ritual efficacy, to be charged with power from unknown sources, and to be capable of acting on persons and groups coming in contact with them in such a way as to change them for the better or in a desired direction.  Symbols, in short, have an orectic as well as a cognitive function.  They elicit emotion and express and mobilize desire.

The Forest of Symbols:  Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.  (FIUGL, Cornell U. Pr., 1967) P. 54.

CHANGE; COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS; EFFICACY; EMOTIONS; ORECTIC FUNCTIONS; RITUALS - POWER; SYMBOLS - POWER

20070418

quoT.html
20070501