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Tower: Spiritual elevation and ascent. It shares the symbolism of the ladder and the pillar. |
Tree: Again the ladder and the pillar and the tower, but a tree not only branches out in all directions, it also is alive and rooted. And from the beginning trees carry special attributes. "the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" and the 'Tree of Life' both from (Gen. 2:9) Good fruit and bad fruit. Several times the cross is referred to as a tree, Christ is the True Vine. Man is depicted as a tree in Jer.17:7-8. Fig trees are spoken of and miracles and parables surround them. But you're always going to run into the universal symbol of a tree either as a softening touch for your backgrounds or as a symbol for a family tree. And that too is Biblical. It was Isaiah who said: "There shall come forth a shoot from the tree of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Referring to Jesus. |
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Unleaven: The Israelites ate unleaven bread for seven days to prepare for the exodus from Egypt. Unleaven dough is able to absorb yeast (Holy Spirit) and is the backwards symbol of Leavened bread. See also: Leaven and Bread. |
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Vase: Just as a vase will hold water to its own shape so God holds all things to the design of His Will. A vase holding a lily, seen in many works of the Annunciation, represents the order established over the chaos of the waters of the deep by the Spirit of God. See also water. |
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Vesica piscis: Also known as mandorla is the elongated almond-shape formed by 2 intersecting circles. The circles depict heaven and earth. See also Fish.
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Wheel: No
metter how you employ this symbol it will always remind people of
the Hindu Caste System. And it also gets a lot of attention from all
those seklf declared sane people over at the Church of Wicca.
But this is a library of Christian symbols so let's focus on the
wheel's Christain symbom. And because I am one to lean toward the
Hindu symbol as well as an adant believer of "Time" as it
is defined by modern science, I will quote from The Elements of
Christian Symbolism by John Baldock for this definition and the next. |
Wilderness: Wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness brings to mind images typical of the sinner's state, In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. (Deut 32:10). See also Israel and Desert. |
Wine: Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.(Acts 2:13) Like now wine is the straight path to a silly time. From the first book of the Bible to its last: When he (Noah) drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.(Gen. 9:21) For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. (Rev. 18:3) wine gets a bad rap. But there are 3 kinds of wine in the Bible. The first is like grape juice - "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." (John2:10). The second is for medical and fermenting reasons - The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." (Luke 23:36) and: He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.(Luke 10:34). And the third was refined wine for a good time and good dinning. It is this wine which, like bread, is produced by a process of transformation involving yeast, see leaven and unleaven. Thus the bread and the wine of the Holy Eucharist. Wine will always symbolize the blood of Christ. , "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.(1 Cor. 11:25) But as you learn your Bible history, wine will take on the 3 levels of symbols. Then reading the last passage I typed will still make sense when you also read Revelations 14:9-10, : "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath." Bottoms up! |
Woman: Will you believe that one of our members actually wrote me (during the construction of this library) "...and I can't wait to see what you say about WOMEN after that anti-feminist report about men!" Well, I do enjoy commenting here and there, my dear members, but most of what you get here are direct quotes from the Bible and from Biblical scholars, but I'll try to be gentlemanly with this one. (Gosh, that sounds somewhat chauvinistic-piggy, doesn't it...yikes, never know where I stand with these gals.) In symbolic terms 'Woman' stands for what is referred to as the feminine principle whereas 'man' represents the masculine. See also Right and Left. That's a quote from John Badock (giggle). "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name... he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree...He has helped his servant Israel... as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever." (Excerpts from Luke 1.) Surely the greatest honor bestowed upon any human being was the dignity of bringing to birth God's own Son. But let's look at it from a more truthful perspective. There is neither salve or free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:28) |
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Woodpecker: A
bird which no culture or religion has over looked. In
Christian symbolism it is the Devil itself and heresy undermining
belief.
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Zodiac: The Zodiac is a wheel divided into 12 units called houses. If you place the earth at the center it appears to pass through each house over a long duration of time. Each house takes a different amount of time to pass over but each house remains an equal size. We are presently leaving the house of Pieces and entering the house (or age)of Aquarius. Mostly the Zodiac is of the non-secular world and you might as well leave it there. See also Twelve. Clicking on image will bring you to a full page of our Zodiac collection. As with most images shown in this library, if you click on them they will bring you to the page where MyDrawingBoard posts the files for you. Members Only |