by Joanne Smith

Created on: November 21, 2008   Last Updated: September 16, 2010

The vulnerability we have to be swayed by symbols has more to do with our views of the issue before being met with the symbol.

Being a clairvoyant personality I do my readings using only my third eye's perception. I am faced regularly with people who ask if I use tarot cards. When my response is no, they question if I could. They already have it in their minds that when a proper reading is conducted tarot cards are read. They also tie magic into the cards, even though the cards themselves hold no value without the reader. The symbols those others find so captivating are meaningless to me because I don't use them to do what people come to me for; I go without.

A lack of need for validation allows symbols to be powerless to those who would be potentially influenced.

A supermodel advertising a diet product to a woman who struggles to put on weight has little impact because the woman is not looking for a thinner body. She is not striving for what is being shown. Show the same advertisement to a woman struggling with her weight and that supermodel is then seen as a goal or target. The supermodel is then a symbol of a greater than my own body.

Marketing is designed to show us our shortcomings and then give us the product that will diminish our new problem, the one they have convinced us we have. They will then give us a polished symbol that we can relate to, but are not able to achieve to keep us reaching for our desire.

Symbols are only effective if you understand them. A wish made on a shooting star or shinny penny cast into a well are only symbols if you believe they bring you luck. Otherwise they are falling stars and wasted pennies. A black wedding dress in our society implicates negativity and death but in other cultures white is the symbol of death and black is the sign of love and family.

The power of a symbol is only as powerful as we allow them to be. It is through our superstitions and stereotypes that symbols evolve. We allow them access into our minds when we reveal our basic desires and fears. We grab on to what we can when we are down on our luck or our hope.

God is only a symbol to many who believe that Buddha is the real God. Others who revere animals as Gods find the symbols we use as laughable. Symbols materialize from our own desire to make things a reality. We are in love so to make it last forever we wear wedding rings. To prove our faith we wear certain attire in the name of our religions.

Babies and those who do not understand society symbols don't turn to manufactured beliefs to validate realities. They determine fact from fiction based on tangible results, trial and error. It is only as they grow older in a society that insists on showcasing our dreams and desires through a daily wave of symbolism. It is then only the people who give their power over to the ads and hype that give symbols their magic, in my opinion.

Learn more about this author, Joanne Smith.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.