Sign...

Discrete unit of meaning

Ink drawing 9"X12" on Bristol, 2009

METROGADFLY asemic semiosis©

A process that interprets signs as referring to their denotata.

Sign (semiotics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In semiotics, a sign is 'something that stands for something, to someone in some capacity'[1] It may be understood as a discrete unit of meaning, and includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds – essentially all of the ways in which information can be communicated as a message by any sentient, reasoning mind to another.

And unless icons (iconic signs), which signify their close resemblances to things they refer to, all other signs in most part, are in a sense arbitraries and the onomatopoeia is symbolic (i.e. sound symbolism whose pronunciation suggests it meaning). Thus it is said to be that all the communication forms like sounds, gestures, icons, symbols, etc. must signify their signs to denote their referents.
The nature of signs has long been discussed in philosophy. Initially, within linguistics and later semiotics, there were two general schools of thought: those who proposed that signs are ‘dyadic’ (i.e. having two parts), and those who proposed that signs are interpreted in a recursive pattern of triadic (i.e. three-part) relationships.




Semiotics links:
Cognitive Semiotics
guerrilla semiotics
Rogue Semiotics
Applied Semiotics / Sémiotique appliquée
Talent imitates, genius steals: Meta-Semiotics (Awesome Youtube Composition)
A decision has been made... - Jesus Semiotics: What is Jesus doing in the world?
passing the open windows: s is for semiotics
CBS - Copenhagen Business School 09:00:00 The New Semiotics
Encyclopedia of Semiotics New E-Resources at Northwestern
The Discerning Brute » Blog Archive » The Semiotics of OSPOP
Tagg: Introductory Notes to the Semiotics of Music

Primed to manipulate...

Cell mechanisms primed to manipulate
Art Creations Magazine

Within every living cell are the mechanisms primed to manipulate, sort and organize the very chemicals that make life possible.

Neurobiology: Molecules, Cells and Systems

Philosophical assumptions...

Objective reality accurately perceived

Science and metaphysical naturalism

There are basic philosophical assumptions implicit at the base of the scientific method - namely, that reality is objective and consistent, that humans have the capacity to perceive reality accurately, and that rational explanations exist for elements of the real world. These assumptions are the basis of naturalism, the philosophy on which science is grounded.

Metrogadfly noetic symbolism: Inarticulate inner wisdom, understanding, illuminations and revelations; expressed with curious marks on a variety of surfaces
Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Technocalypse...

Technology and apocalyptic imagination

Thoughtware.TV - Technocalypse:

"The Technocalypse is 'the convergence of technology and the apocalyptic imagination; it is cyberspace, nanotechnology, cryonics, futurism, the eschaton encoded in the now malleable protein chains of DNA, as well as the eventual transcendence of death.' [Michael Grosso, PhD (ca. 1995)]"

Escaping soul...

Energy departs the body.

"The light of the soul"

A symbol has complex meaning; it has not only "literal" meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides and cancels out the literal meaning. A symbol may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings. Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

The sun...

Hearth of affection

A synesthetic experience

A symbol has complex meaning; it has not only "literal" meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides and cancels out the literal meaning. A symbol may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings.
Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Arthur Rimbaud: b. Oct. 20, 1854, the precocious boy-poet of French symbolism, wrote some of the most remarkable poetry and prose of the 19th century. His highly suggestive, subtle work drew on subconscious sources, and its form was correspondingly supple and novel. Rimbaud has been identified as one of the creators of free verse because of the rhythmic experiments in his prose poems Illuminations (1886; Eng. trans., 1932). His Sonnet of the Vowels (1871; Eng. trans., 1966), in which each vowel is assigned a color, helped popularize synesthesia (the description of one sense experience in terms of another), a device widely exploited by the symbolists. The hallucinatory images in The Drunken Boat (1871; Eng. trans., 1952) and Rimbaud's urging, in Letter from the Seer (1871; Eng. trans., 1966), that poets become seers by undergoing a complete derangement of the senses also reveal Rimbaud as a precursor of surrealism. Following his own dictum, Rimbaud lived an inordinately intense, tortured existence that he described in A Season in Hell (1873; Eng. trans., 1932).

Symbolic Immortality...

Symbolic remains from our lives after death

Symbolic Immortality: Thoughts About the Future :
"The term symbolic immortality as coined by Harvard psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton, MD, refers to what remains from our lives after death. These may be material, such as what we have built, created, or given birth to, or ephemeral, such as our thoughts, our values, our jokes, or our network of friendships. Freud, for example, after sixteen years of treatment for the painful and humiliating symptoms of mouth cancer, was more concerned about the possible loss of his theories than the loss of his life. His hope for symbolic immortality was that his theories would live on after his death. Jung, a Protestant visionary, on the other hand, believed both in the pre-modern and modern Christian hope of resurrection and immortality. He was more concerned about the state of his soul."

Links:
Memories
Immortality, Symbolic - Modes of Symbolic Immortality
Legacy Lessons of Symbolic Immortality
Symbolic Immortality on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Symbolic Immortality- Humanity's Common Bond and Worst Enemy Inebriated Discourse
Symbolic Immortality, Series in Ethnographic Inquiry, Sergei Kan, Book - Barnes & Noble
Literal and symbolic immortality: the effect of ev... [J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003] - PubMed result

Questions...

A symbol has complex meaning; it has not only "literal" meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides and cancels out the literal meaning. A symbol may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings.
Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Metrogadfly noetic symbolism ©...

Metrogadfly noetic symbolism ©: Inarticulate inner wisdom, understanding, illuminations and revelations; expressed with curious marks on a variety of surfaces
Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Symbolic interactionism...

 Reality constructed by symbols
Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective on self and society based on the ideas of George H. Mead (1934), Charles H. Cooley (1902), W. I. Thomas (1931), and other pragmatists associated, primarily, with the University of Chicago in the early twentieth century. The central theme of symbolic interactionism is that human life is lived in the symbolic domain. Symbols are culturally derived social objects having shared meanings that are created and maintained in social interaction. Through language and communication, symbols provide the means by which reality is constructed. Reality is primarily a social product, and all that is humanly consequential—self, mind, society, culture—emerges from and is dependent on symbolic interactions for its existence. Even the physical environment is relevant to human conduct mainly as it is interpreted through symbolic systems.

Read more: Symbolic interactionism 

Glimpses...

Fleeting glimpses of quantum entities in a field of disturbance

Science and Art: physics as a symbolic formation

Journal Synthese
Publisher Springer Netherlands
ISSN 0039-7857 (Print) 1573-0964 (Online)
DOI 10.1007/s11229-009-9630-9
Subject Collection Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
SpringerLink Date Thursday, July 30, 2009


"Abstract The reflection on the preconditions and evolution of science has played a decisive role in the development of Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy, contributing to its functional and thus inherently pluralistic and holistic view of knowledge. To present Cassirer’s conception of physics as an open symbolic formation enables us to reveal and study the radical features of his epistemological model..."

Internet connection:
Ernst Cassirer on art public and private
Ernst Cassirer. Art history
Cassirers - the Breslau generation

Parallel universe...

The symbologist dilemma

Symbols spread out through many worlds and are quantized through time in any given world.

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Symbolgist:

Joseph Campbell

Keith Critchlow

Carl Jung

Robert Lawlor

Marion Woodman

Jonathan Young

Mel Brooks' the Critic: ‘It must be some symbolism… I think it’s symbolic of junk’ | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California

It must be some symbolism… I think it’s symbolic of junk :
Mel Brooks’ the Critic
Thursday, June 25, 2009
by samuel raphael franco

Metrogadfly noetic symbolism...

Myth master

"Unplumed by the discursive intellect"

Metrogadfly noetic symbolism: Inarticulate inner wisdom, understanding, illuminations and revelations; expressed with curious marks on a variety of surfaces.

"From the Greek noēsis/ noētikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjective understanding. As defined by the philosopher William James in 1902, noetic refers to "states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority..."Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cassandra-vieten/what-is-noetic-science_b_287779.html

Noetic links:
How Bad Can It Be?: Noetic Science Goes to the Movies Popdose
Mind Energy and the Noetic Sciences: Dan Brown, Edgar Mitchell and Their Study of Noetics Suite101.com
Weighing The Human Soul Noetic Sciences - World of Noetic Science
Entangled Minds: The Noetic Universe
More on Noetic Science and Consciousness « 4abettalife Blog
CSP - Noetic Gnosis: Cosmic Consciousness
Institute of Noetic Sciences: Home Page
Manifesting Evolution In Consciousness

Noetic Books:

A new day...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Ink drawing 9"X12" on Bristol paper

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day. Dalai Lama


A symbol has complex meaning; it has not only "literal" meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides and cancels out the literal meaning. A symbol may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings.

5th. Prophet...

A symbol has complex meaning; it has not only "literal" meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides and cancels out the literal meaning. A symbol may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings.

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visions of childhood...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naive candour of a child. Claude Debussy

Curiosities of the mind...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision. Aldous Huxley

Thinking...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Curious private inner thought

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it. Mahatma Gandhi

Subtle...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Ode to Agnes Martin

Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.
Agnes Martin

Agnes Martin, The Peach, 1964. © Estate of Agnes Martin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.Photo: Bill Jacobson.
Canadian-born American Minimalist Painter, 1912-2004

Links:

Agnes Martin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Artist Profile of Agnes Martin, Contemporary Abstract Painter - Her Life and Work
Agnes Martin Online

Eternal relic...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Try as you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love. Victor Hugo

Number logic...

651203
My imperfect number

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare. Rene Descartes

Links:
Perfect Numbers
Relation Pascal Triangle and Catalan Numbers
Net47 presents THE 47 SOCIETY
The Prime Pages (prime number research, records and resources)
Egyptian Fractions
Numb3rs: Watch Full Episodes and Video and Join the Ultimate Fan Community - CBS.com
Numbers - The OWL at Purdue
Numbers in Over 5000 Languages
What's Special About This Number?
Erdös Number Project - The Erdös Number Project - Oakland University
Symbolic Meaning of selected numbers
The Meaning of Numbers
Spiritual Meaning of Numbers
UbuWeb Sound - Marcel Duchamp


The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor The Invention of Fractions by Jessica Goodfellow:

The Invention of Fractions

God himself made the whole numbers: everything else
is the work of man.
—Leopold Kronnecker

God created the whole numbers:
the first born, the seventh seal,
Ten Commandments etched in stone,
the Twelve Tribes of Israel —
Ten we've already lost —
forty days and forty nights,
Saul's ten thousand and David's ten thousand.
'Be of one heart and one mind' —
the whole numbers, the counting numbers.

It took humankind to need less than this;
to invent fractions, percentages, decimals.
Only humankind could need the concepts
of splintering and dividing,
of things lost or broken,
of settling for the part instead of the whole.

Only humankind could find the whole numbers,
infinite as they are, to be wanting;
though given a limitless supply,
we still had no way
to measure what we keep
in our many-chambered hearts.

STRANGE INTERNET 651203 CONNECTIONS:
Olfactory receptor, family 1, subfamily F, member 2 (OR1F2P)
Item # 651203, Kinedyne Standard Logistic Straps on CHARLES P. LAUMAN CO., INC:

Knowledge...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not. Carl Jung

Links:
Welcome to Explorations in Science with Dr. Michio Kaku
Knowledge
Test you Classical Knowledge / Quiz School
Core Knowledge Foundation - Educational Excellence and Equity for All Children
The archaeology of knowledge -- Foucault 9 (1): 175 -- Social Science Information

Harmony and health...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord. Plutarch

A painting is a symbol for the universe. Inside it, each piece relates to the other. Each piece is only answerable to the rest of that little world. So, probably in the total universe, there is that kind of total harmony, but we get only little tastes of it. Corita Kent

Jean Delville...

The Art of Jean Delville (JeanDelville.com)

"Jean Delville (January 19, 1867 – 1953) was a Belgian symbolist painter, writer, and occultist. He founded the Salon d’Art Idealiste, which is considered the Belgian equivalent to the Parisian Rose & Cross Salon and the Pre-Raphaelite movement in London."

I was found the Jean Delville site via the excellent blog by John Coulthart

2,000 Symbols from matchstic on Vimeo.

A great video for anyone who loves symbols!

A symbol has complex meaning; it has not only "literal" meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides and cancels out the literal meaning. A symbol may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings.

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Links:

Thought signs: The semiotics of symbols-- western non-pictorial ideograms

Signs And Symbols Of Primordial Man

Signs Symbols and Icons

Aztec umwelt...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

The Mystery of Consciousness - TIME
Umwelt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pragmatism and Umwelt-theory
Consciousness [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

METROGADFLY symbolic writing:

Consciousness

Perplexing concept
ambiguously abstract
mental state subjective
first-person point of view.

Brain activity
metaphysics immortality
free will analytic mind
dualism materialism.

Neural activity
how or why brain states,
explanatory gap
mind and matter.

Consciousness and the Symbolic Universe:

"Although a developed aesthetic sense and good manipulative skills are necessary for the production of art, they are not sufficient in and of themselves. What sets true artistic expression apart from the behavior of an animal, such as a bowerbird that decorates its’ nest in order to attract a mate, is that artistic expression requires higher-order consciousness. Higher-order consciousness means that the artist is not only aware of aesthetic differences, but they are also aware of their own awareness and hence the possibility that others share this awareness or experiential world. One way to get a handle on the evolution of higher-order consciousness is through a phylogenetic comparison."

Dan Dennett on our consciousness

Symbolic dance...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

representative, illustrative, emblematic, figurative, allegorical.

Competing ideas...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Survival of the species?

Religious Tolerance for Competing Ideas: Why is Monotheism Intolerant?:
"Polytheism, paganism, pluralism, new age spiritualism and secular governance have all stood for religious freedom and equality, whilst the horrific spectre of oppression and violent coercion have resulted mostly from Abrahamic monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam."

Etymology
The Latin root for the verb "to compete" is "competere", which means "to seek together" or "to strive together". However, even the general definition stated above is not universally accepted. Social theorists, most notably Alfie Kohn and cooperativists in general, argue that the traditional definition of competition is too broad and vague. Competition which originates internally and is biologically motivated can and should be defined as either amoral competition or simply the survival instinct, i.e. behavior which is neither good nor bad, but exists to further the survival of an individual or species (for instance hunting), or behavior which is coerced (for instance self-defense). Social Darwinists, however, state that competition is not only moral, but necessary for the survival of the species.

Guest commentary:

Patrick Harvey:
Interesting bit on comparative religion, but pretty much more about an agenda than reality. The examples of over the top, systematic persecution of other belief systems by folks into "polytheism, paganism, pluralism, new age spiritualism and secular governance are legion. The real determinant is usually less about the conceptual superstructure of the religion/belief system than it is about the toxic mix of absolutist beliefs and state power.

Playing with nature...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Alan Watts describes it (in The Joyous Cosmology, 1962; p. 55):
"A journey into this new mode of consciousness gives one a marvelously enhanced appreciation of patterning in nature, a fascination deeper than ever with the structure of ferns, the formation of crystals, the markings upon sea shells... More and more it seems that the ordering of nature is an art akin to music-- fugues in shell and cartilage, counterpoint in fibers and capillaries, throbbing rhythm in waves of sound, light, and nerve. And oneself is connected with it... [an] interweaving of paths, circuits, and impulses that stretch and hum through the whole of time and space. The entire pattern swirls in its complexity like smoke in sunbeams or the rippling networks of sunlight in shallow water. Transforming itself endlessly into itself, the pattern alone remains."

Alan Watts Bibliography

Source...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come. Michelangelo

Perception (00068)
Art relationships
perceptual meaning
Gestalt principles
Higher order
principles exist
spatial grouping
articulated associate
combine stimuli
Gestalt laws
Combinations
dissimilar forms
similar forms
virtue grouping
factor dissimilarities
the components
kind of meaning
principle perceptually
solves differences
Whole elements
appear strongly
virtue differences

Emerging form...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

The Coming of the Universe into Existence: "Before the Big Bang, there was no such thing as matter. From a condition of non-existence in which neither matter, nor energy, nor even time existed-and which can only be described metaphysically-matter, energy, and time were all created in an instant. This fact, only recently discovered by modern physics, was announced to us in the Quran 1,400 years ago"

In the garden...

A fertile and delightful spot or region

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

A painting is a symbol for the universe. Inside it, each piece relates to the other. Each piece is only answerable to the rest of that little world. So, probably in the total universe, there is that kind of total harmony, but we get only little tastes of it. Corita Kent

Magic window...

Mysterious quality of enchantment

Eyes jump in pursuit of visions,
glowing orbs of plasma spew forth
releasing hordes of neural panic,
spilling colors and exotic shapes.

METROGADFLY symbolic writing

Asemic symbolism...

Asemic symbolism (definition)
Asemic symbolism has no verbal sense, though it may have a clear contextual sense. Through its design, composition and symbolic content, asemic symbolism may evoke an understanding, meaning or intuition. Through its composition and symbolic content, asemic symbolism may provide an understanding of complex ideas. This form of art depends on the viewers knowledge of philosophy, art history, mathematics, religion, philosophy, physics, sociology, nature and other esoteric subjects for it to make sense, or it can be understood through aesthetic intuition.

Asemic symbolism is truly a product of the Internet. Search engines have made it possible to generate thousands of links for words, and images. It also provides a way to unify esoteric ideas in a spontaneous manner.

The asemic symbolism process has five parts:

1. Creation of a spontaneous drawing (the genesis or nexus of all asemic symbolism; proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint )

2. Manipulation of the drawing through the use of a computer (with image software)

3. Formation of a spontaneous title using Asemic Symbolic Divination a technologically advanced form of scrying.

4. Researching the title on the Internet to provide possible explanations or meanings of the drawing ( link the drawing title to as many sites as possible)

5. Publishing the manipulated drawing, title and links to a web site

The bi-product of this process is an acute awareness that everything in our universe is related. Much like the physics concept of a "theory of everything", asemic symbolism is rooted in the ancient idea of causality. Publishing on the Internet allows the asemic symbolic art work to grow in geometric proportions. Linking is the key to provide a self sustaining life to the art work.

Asemic symbolism is not an art movement. Movements have almost entirely disappeared in contemporary art where individualism and diversity prevail. It is however a creative process that utilizes the manipulation of materials to find or define unity in the known or unknown universe.

Asemic symbolic predation is an organic metaphor that describes an
interaction where a predator design feeds on another design or visual source known as the prey

An example of an asemic symbolic listing on the internet: http://metrogadfly.blogspot.com/

Organisms...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die. Gore Vidal

Rejuvenation...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Keep your battery charged!

Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery - it recharges by running. Bill Watterson

Serene...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age. Florida Scott-Maxwell

Can't wait of the eighties!

Tranquility...

Free from stress or emotion

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Vertical movement...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Vertical is to Live—Horizontal is to Die" Buckminster Fuller

AMERICAN SCHOLAR, Vol. 39, No.1, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, Washington, D.C., Winter. 1969

Tree of understanding...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. Immanuel Kant

Isom codex

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

The Isom codex is a collection of approximately 3,000 drawings and computer enhanced drawings. I started to seriously develop my personal iconography about fifteen years ago by doing one or two drawings a day on 8-1/2" X11" paper or 9"X12" bristol paper. I primarily used colored pencils and rolling writer pens. Some of he drawings were enhanced with Corel paint or Photoshop. I posted the drawings on Blogger adding a quote, personal commentary or Internet connection related to the spontaneous title.

Symbols from the cosmos...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order. Carl Jung

Meandering spiral...

Universal evolution

Ronald D. Isom

Spiral - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The spiral plays a certain role in symbolism, and appears in megalithic art, notably in the Newgrange tomb or in many Galician petroglyphs such as the one in Mogor. See also triple spiral.
While scholars are still debating the subject, there is a growing acceptance that the simple spiral, when found in Chinese art, is an early symbol for the sun. Roof tiles dating back to the Tang Dynasty with this symbol have been found west of the ancient city of Chang'an (modern-day Xian).

The spiral is the most ancient symbol found on every civilized continent. Due to its appearance at burial sites across the globe, the spiral most likely represented the 'life-death-rebirth' cycle. Similarly, the spiral symbolized the sun, as ancient people thought the sun was born each morning, died each night, and was reborn the next morning.
Spirals are also a symbol of hypnosis, stemming from the cliché of people and cartoon characters being hypnotized by staring into a spinning spiral (One example being Kaa in Disney's The Jungle Book). They are also used as a symbol of dizziness, where the eyes of a cartoon character, especially in anime and manga, will turn into spirals to show they are dizzy or dazed. The spiral is also a prominent symbol in the anime Gurren Lagann, where it symbolizes the double helix structure of DNA, representing biological evolution, and the spiral structure of a galaxy, representing universal evolution."

Sacred Insects

Sacred Insects: It is generally thought that the fly in egyptian mythology gave protection against disease or misfortune. Stone amulets in the form of flies were being made in Egypt as early as 3500 BC or thereabouts. In the Old and Middle Kingdom periods (2686-1650 BC), the fly was also depicted on various ritual artifacts, including the so called 'magic wands' often carved from hippopotamus ivory and probably intended to protect the owner from harm.

Typical flies (blow-flies and flesh-flies) attracted to carrion and meat; similar flies must have
been very familiar to the ancient egyptians, much as they are commonly seen today around
the food waste and household refuse of most human settlements .

Although the precise symbolism of early fly amulets remains obscure, their significance during the later New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BC) is better documented. At this time the military decoration known as the 'order of the golden fly' (or 'fly of valour') was introduced and awarded for bravery in battle. The fly was perhaps used in this way because of it's apparent qualities of persistence in the face of opposition. One of the best known examples is a gold chain with three pendants in the form of 'flies of valour' from the tomb of Queen Ahhotep I (c.1550 BC) and now in the Egyptian Museum Cairo.

Jungle...

The jungle symbol represents confusing

and overwhelming thoughts regarding the nature of existence.

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future. Albert Camus

Drawing in tongues...

Symbolic Glossolalia

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Drawing in tongues is the drawing of fluent language-like syllables, often as part of metaphysical experience. Some consider these symbols to be meaningless, others consider them to be a personal language.

Symbol of our time...

JOHN FENZEL: April 2007:

"Preventing Pandemics through Vaccination: A Look into the Past"

CBC News: Analysis & Viewpoint: Richard Handler:
From Moses to AIDS, disease as symbol
Aug. 21, 2006
"Throughout history, disease has been a symbol of its time. Historians know this well. One of the leading popular books of late is called Rats, Lice and History. As Massey lecturer Ronald Wright noted in 2004, it wasn't the Spanish that conquered the New World, it was illness.
Disease as a symbol has an ancient pedigree. In the book of Exodus, Moses threatens the Egyptian pharaoh with 10 plagues. Eventually the pharaoh relents and allows the Jews to leave after the last of the plagues claims the first-born of every Egyptian family..."

Symbolic refuse...

Quisquiliae

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Asemic definition: Symbolic bowels of an animal or fish; symbolic refuse animal or vegetable matter from a kitchen; hence, anything symbolically worthless, disgusting, or loathsome.

Land of the lost...

Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways where I went and cannot come again. A. E. Housman

The search for answers...

I have spent most of my life searching for answers regarding how to be a good and meaningful son, sibling, father, husband, father, teacher and artist These questions have monopolized my thinking for many years. Searching for that perfect solution to the complicated vagaries of life constitutes a philosophical question about the purpose and importance of human existence. The concept can be expressed through a variety of related questions, such as Why are we here?, What's life all about? and What is the meaning of it all? It has been the subject of much philosophical, scientific, and theological, speculation throughout history and there have been a large number of answers from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. Albert Camus observed, we humans are creatures who spend our lives trying to convince ourselves that our existence is not absurd. The meaning of life is deeply mixed with the philosophical, scientific and religious conceptions of existence, consciousness, and happiness, and touches on many issues, such as symbolic meaning which has been very important to my art work and writing.

To some, it may appear that I am flaying about in the “wind of society” obsessed with “meaningless windmills” and leading a crisis filled life. I may never find definitive answers to my questions, but the search has been exciting and challenging. Each day is filled with reading, blogging, web surfing, drawing, marvelous grandchildren, supportive family members, gracious former students and a vibrant wife full of life.


Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.