Archetypal Symbols

Light vs. Darkness               

Light usually suggests hope, renewal, or intellectual illumination; darkness implies the unknown, ignorance, or despair



Water vs. Desert 

Because water is necessary to life and growth, it commonly appears as a birth or rebirth symbol. Water is used in baptismal services, which solemnizes spiritual births. Similarly, the appearance of rain in a work of literature can suggest a character’s spiritual birth. (e.g. The Wasteland, the sea and river images in The Odyssey.)



Heaven vs. Hell 

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi">Man has traditionally associated parts of the universe not accessible to him with the dwelling places of the primordial forces that govern his world. The skies and mountaintops house his gods; the bowels of the earth contain the diabolic forces that inhabit the universe. (Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy).

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