Saturday, August 18, 2012

Saturday Symbol Fairy 8/18/12


We've had several crazy storms at my house this past week so I'm paying tribute to the power and beauty of nature by discussing the symbolism of lightning.


Lightning symbolizes sudden illumination and the loss of ignorance. It can also represent destructive or creative power as well as angry intervention or retribution by the gods. This is seen in the Tarot, where lightning is interpreted as a sign of divine presence. Similarly symbolic, thunderbolts are a common attribute of many sky gods, embodied in the S-shaped motif on the clothes of the Romano-Celtic sun or sky dieties and in Thor's hammer.

On a related personal note, my sweetie of twenty-two years uses a lightning bolt as a maker's mark and as the division on his Society for Creative Anachronism heraldry.


He chose this emblem because of a scar he's had on his forehead for as long as he can remember. Imagine our surprise when we first learned of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter! Given its meaning, a lightning bolt is the perfect symbol of Harry Potter's adventure and his dealings with Lord Voldemort. And my sweetie? I wonder...

2 comments:

  1. Sarah,
    Love the symbolism explanations, and of course the tie-in to literature and life! Thanks.

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  2. Thanks, Laurel. I'd go into even more detail if I could remember to create these earlier and not right before I have to be somewhere.

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