Reprinted from Studies in Comparative Religion*

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A pre-eminent teacher of the Sophia Perennis discusses the meaning and interpretation of symbols. Symbols represent principial, universal ideas and truths. In art, for example, symbolic meaning should go beyond the aesthetic character and attendant emotional responses evoked by shapes, colors, and sensory experiences. Symbols in the traditional context appeal not only to the beauty of the senses, but pierce "through the senses to the intellect," where we discover knowledge of what is Real; symbols are signposts of the Way, traces of Hidden Light. In our times, we have strayed far from the Way, and the recognition of symbols in their full capacity is more than ever necessary for us to remember "the one thing needful" and to find the the meaning we have forgotten.