Symbols

Symbols serve as focal points, while true you can move beyond the necessity of symbols during routine, they still remain useable as strong focal points and should never be completely discarded nor forgotten....

Symbols are used by different people for different purposes.
Some use them as a reminder.
Either, "we are now doing this thing and not something else"
Or, "We need this type or thing and not something else"
Its a visual reminder to the conscious mind, to support the more analytical
half of the mind, to get the two on the same page. Its, for the More artistic/ Visual half.
It becomes a crutch when you use the symbols because, you are no longer sure of your ability.
You no longer believe or "Know" you're able, so you use the symbols thinking that
the power in what ever you're attempting is in the symbols and not in you, yourself.

You discard symbols when your "Soul" "Knows" a given thing.
In the case of Reiki, you will KNOW, when the spirit/energy is flowing. You wont have to question it any longer.
You will Know, deep in your being.
As soon as someone asks, "is it working?" it's not.
Understanding is the first step, Knowing is the goal.

I think it's human nature to want to create some sort of a constant in life, even though that's not realistic. Symbols can work that way - the world may be changing around you, but if there's a symbol that means something important to you, it can be grounding or even a uniting force between people. That being said, I prefer not to rely on symbols but rather to enjoy their beauty and meaning and the ways they bring people together. The symbol itself is only a vehicle - it's a common belief and love behind it that has the real power, the symbol is only a visualization of that. Ideally everyone would be able to make the distinction between symbol and philosophy/sentiment so that even if the symbol itself is not present, the idea can still be imagined!

Of course, I say all of this without having read anything about Reiki. And it should be noted that I'm a bit of a hypocrite - I have symbols tattooed on my body that have importance to me!

shortbread64 wrote: but if there's a symbol that means something important to you, it can be grounding or even a uniting force between people

This is basically my feeling on symbols; they're shorthand for ideas that can be easily shared, but sometimes take on a life of their own.

If I don't know your language, but show you my flag, you can guess where I'm from. If I don't know how to explain my beliefs, but I show you my religious symbol, you can guess what I think happens after death. It's not always accurate, but then again, what communication is?

Of course, sometimes, symbols take on lives of their own. Runes are a particularly good example for some people, as are the Major Arcana in the tarot. Things like that get tricky, because when a symbol has a life of its own, it generally tends to nest itself in the minds of people who aren't usually open to differing interpretations of those symbols.