Friday, February 10, 2012

From Three to Five

From three to five is four... or eight.
Occasionally I give clues to some of the meaning in my work. The clues below are not strictly representative to the work but give an idea as to what the symbols in the work could mean. I urge the viewer to come up with their own meaning and symbolism of the piece.

Three Multiplicity; growth; The "power of three" is universal and is the tripartite nature of the world as heaven, earth, and waters; it is man as body, soul, and spirit; birth, life and death; beginning, middle, and end; past, present and future. Three is a 'heavenly' number representing the soul as four is the body.
Four From four the first solid figure is produced; it is the spatial scheme or order of manifestation; it is wholeness; totality; completion; the body; the Earth. There are four cardinal points, seasons, winds, sides of the square, elements (west).
Five The human microcosm; the number of man; five is a circular number as it produces itself in its last digit when raised to its powers, thus it shares symbolism and meaning of the circle.
Eight Regeneration; resurrection; renewal; felicity; perfect rhythm; Eight (8) can also be representative of the lemniscate meaning infinity.
Bird Transcendence; the soul; a spirit; spirits of the dead.

The above mentioned meanings of symbols comes from research done by me and from J. C. COOPER'S AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS, copyright 1978 Thames and Hudson Ltd, London.

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