A symbol is a stand-in for something else. What? Anything you wish and anything your mind can conjure: ideas, feelings, objects, events, shorthands, messages, memory aids.

We use symbols to condense meaning into its smallest form, for immediate reference, portability, and emotional impact.

The main purpose of a symbol is to evoke and reinforce memories and feelings at lightning speed. Even a casual glance will retrieve the message it was meant to convey.

Unlike words and numbers, which are primarily designed to communicate meaning to our rational mind, even though they too can be used as symbols as well, the latter reach much deeper into our emotional core and evoke automatic responses often beyond our control. 

This is their power and their failure: once a symbol was associated with a certain meaning, it is nearly impossible to disentangle it from that meaning.

When we hear the word symbol, we immediately relate it to the common language of symbols we are all familiar with, a cross, a ring, a heart, mean the same thing to everyone, in every language, but the most powerful symbols are personal. 

Sometimes these loaded objects are valuable heirlooms, but most often than not they are just humble containers for the meaning we chose to pack inside them: a common pebble picked off a beach during a happy family vacation embodies more emotional power than a precious jewel.

Symbols can be anything that speaks to the heart, although for practical purposes it helps if they are small and portable, so you can carry them with you wherever you go. 

Once a symbol is loaded with significance, its message delivery becomes automatic.

This is the way symbols are supposed to work: they cut through the narrative to reach emotions directly. 

Their powerful trigger mechanism was not lost on faith, advertising, politics, and the military, all of whom extensively use symbols to create commonality of thought and evoke positive feelings about the object of their focus.

Some symbols, like logos, religious artifacts, or insignia, are powerful motivators, used to sharpen focus and return the attention to the message they’re designed to convey, while others act in more subtle ways to evoke elusive feelings hard to put into words – a cozy blanket by the fire, a flock of seagulls, the sound of the rain.

We rarely think of these as symbols, and that makes them even more powerful – they appeal to desires and emotions we’re unaware we have.

I’ll quickly run through a few more examples, and as I do, I’m sure you’ll recognize them, because you saw them countless times, in stock photos, advertisements and social memes – a shell on a beach, rain on a windowpane, a campfire at night, a solitary tree, a lightning bolt, a steaming cup of tea, a Christmas decoration, joined hands, a budding branch, children playing with puppies.

In conclusion, what are the points worth remembering?

1. Symbols are compact carriers of meaning.
2. Once a symbol is loaded with significance, it’s almost impossible to dissociate it from its message.
3. Personal symbols empower and shield people emotionally, especially during difficult social interactions. Status symbols are very good examples of that.
4. Symbols are fast acting and provoke reactions before the rational mind has time to check them. The emotional response they evoke is usually beyond our control.
5. Personal symbols are usually small, inconspicuous and portable, and their meaning is kept private.
6. The significance of a symbol worn on the body increases in direct proportion with the time it was worn. Symbolic items bond with their users.