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Glossary of Traditional Symbols in Western Literature

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Spring Birth, youth, fertility, rejuvenation
Summer Maturity, vigor, accomplishment
Yearly Cycle Autumn Fruition, fulfillment, aging, preparation for death
Winter Death, emptiness

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Dawn Birth, enlightenment, deliverance from fear, new beginning
Morning Youth, optimism
Afternoon Maturity, vigor, accomplishment
Daily Cycle Sunset Death, moral glory
Twilight Death, departure, mystery
Night Death, the unknown, frightening, desolate, erotic

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Up Toward spiritual, intellectual, heaven
Down Toward material, carnal, hell
Direction East Toward one’s origin, beginnings
South Toward sensuality, freedom from restraint, lush antiquity
West Toward death, adventure, Manifest Destiny, expansion
North Toward wilderness, purity, moral repressiveness

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


White Purity, innocence, spirituality, holiness, peace, hope, wisdom
Black Sorrow, evil, death, depression, judgment, evaluation, law, loneliness
Gray Mediocrity, sickliness, industrialization, aging
Red Sexual passion, anger, healthy spontaneity, energy, life, blood, love, anger, bravery, strength,
excitement
Green Youth, vigor, the natural, harmony, balance, growth, nature, gentleness, reliability, calmness,
Colors rebirth, jealousy, envy
Yellow Sickliness, weakness, decay, fear
Purple Royalty, riches, spirituality, magic, inner-awareness, reformation, purification, trust, faith
Blue Coolness, calmness, idealism, truth, self-reliance, integrity, nobility, intellect
Orange Physical vitality, pride, enthusiasm, ambition, mentality, endurance
Brown Tradition, organization, solidarity, conventional ideas, earth, country, reliability
Pink childish innocence, or a characters child-like personality.

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Light Reason, knowledge
Wind The power of Nature, inspiration, power
Storm clouds The hostility of Nature
Rain Transformation, restoration, baptism, cleansing, gloom, promise/covenant, fertility
Weather
Snow Cessation of life, transformation, purity
Fog Uncertainty, mystery, obscurity
Sky Freedom
Water Quenching of thirst, death by drowning, purification, baptism
Ice Rigidity, death, compulsive symmetry

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Sun Reason, enlightenment, success, elemental energy, life
Celestial Moon Mystery, the imagination
Bodies Stars The immutable laws of the universe
Comets and Unnaturalness, portents of disaster
Meteors
Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance
1 The Undivided Oneness of God / God the Father; the Godhead / denotes unity and commencement,
especially of the creation.
2 the two natures of Christ; both the Divine and the material / denotes difference / also denotes division
and this occurs in the sense of being double-minded etc. in speech
3 the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, the three Magi and their gifts / denotes completeness in the
sense of three lines to a figure
4 The number of order in the universe is 4—the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water; the four
seasons; the four points of the compass; the four phases of the Moon (new, half-moon waxing, full,
half-moon waning)
Numbers As the sum of two, a feminine number, and three, a masculine number, five is important in many
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cultures. It is a symbol for man. On a figure of a man, a line joining head to out- stretched arms and legs
forms a pentagram, and also there are five human senses. Muslims pray five times a day and there are
five pillars of piety in Islam.
6 According to the Bible, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Denotes the
Human Number. Man was created on the sixth day /Six represents balance, love, health and also luck,
as it is the winning throw at dice.
7 Seven is a sacred number, representing the union of divinity (number three) and earth (number four).
Each of the four phases of the moon lasts seven days and there are seven days in the week.
9 Nine is the sacred number; three multiplied by itself to give eternity, completion, and fulfilment.

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Spring (water) Mysterious source of energy or inspiration
Earth Source of life, gross materiality
Ocean The ungovernable, the infinite, the unfathomable
Forest Natural chaos, evil, mystery, freedom, spontaneity
Topography Mountain Obstacle, mystical illumination, purity
Desert Sterility, impotence
Running water Life, purity, fertility
River Journey, fertility, voyage
Cave Lust, history, protection, ignorance
Cliff Crucial situation, inaccessibility

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Lion, tiger Predators
Rat, mouse Secretiveness
Spider Predators, calculation, artistry
Quadrupeds Spontaneous animalism
Reptiles Deceit, Satan, evil, horror
Animal Life Horse Masculinity
Bull Masculinity, violence
Bee Industriousness, conscientiousness, citizenship
Ant Industriousness, anonymity
Grasshopper, Carefree improvidence
cricket
Wild bird Freedom
Caged bird Unjust imprisonment, violation of nature

Subject Image Possible Areas of Significance


Home, house A family, an inhabitant, a mother’s body
City, town Rationality, order, restraint, anonymity, human fulfillment
Windows/Doors Freedom. Windows symbolize passage, where light, air, sounds, knowledge, objects etc., may pass
through, coming and going. The soul has a window, the mind. Both symbolic entrances into new worlds
Human’s Road / path The course of human life, journey, decisions,
Environment Hearth Security, hospitality, warmth, family
and Tools Knife Violence
Candle Illumination, the “fire of life,” passion, brevity
Ship Vehicle for transformation
Theatrical stage The human condition, men’s “role playing,” actors on the stage as a metaphor for life.
Consumes, warms, and illuminates, but can also bring pain and death; thus, its symbolic meaning varies
FIRE wildly, depending upon the context of its use / Fire can also be seem as a force of purification

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