If you want to use esoteric symbolism as a self-development tool, strap in.
This article provides you with an in-depth exploration of how to use esoteric symbolism for self-development. You will learn how to interpret esoteric symbolism and why esoteric symbolism should be used instead of exoteric symbolism.
All will be revealed.
Before you start, I would recommend grabbing a pen and pad, or have the notes on your mobile phone to hand, or open a computer file to make brief notes you can use for later reference.
Oh, and pop the kettle on. This is a long one, so you might want to make yourself a cuppa or a smoothie.
And why not treat yourself to a cheeky biscuit!
I’ll still be here when you get back.
Shall we crack on then?
Step 1: How to Interpret Symbols
Symbolism is a powerful self-development tool — when you know how to use it properly.
In this tutorial, I’m going to run you through the basics, the rules and the reasons. Then we’ll delve into a few examples so you can pick up a few tips and tactics.
How does that sound?
Brill, I hear you say.
Smashing.
The 3 Key Rules
I began working with symbols as a self-development tool in 2015. A series of events revealed their true meaning — a secret meaning I had not been able to establish from online sources.
Over the years, I figured out three key rules to follow when deciding whether a symbol is meant for you. The reason for this is that symbolism is all around us and you see it all the time.
When you notice these symbols, it can drive you stir-crazy, wondering what the “universe” is trying to tell you.
Sometimes, it’s not trying to tell you anything in particular. You just happened to see a symbol.
The three rules I use below, help to determine whether a symbol you see has as specific meaning for you.
In Brief: The 3 Key Rules To Symbolism
1. Honour synchronicity
2. Allow the symbol to come to you
3. Determine how the esoteric meaning of the symbol relates to your life around the time it appears
Rule One: Honour Synchronicity
Synchronicity is what Carl Jung called meaningful coincidences.
They are coincidences because they are unrelated incidents that appear to be related. Mostly, you will see the same symbol, say an owl, at different times in a short space of time, between one and five days, for example.
You may also see a common thread running through an incident; you are talking about carrot cake, then overhear somebody else talking about carrot cake, then see a picture of a carrot cake.
When symbols appear in synchronicity, they are meaningful coincidences because they mean something to you.
If the same symbol appears to me three times, I know it’s meaningful.
Here’s an example of how synchronicity might work in real-life.
Let’s say you’re walking by the lake and you hear a commotion over to the right. As you turn to look, you see a swan taking flight from the water.
Note: Your attention was drawn to the swan. You were not looking for the swan.
Later that day, you’re driving in your car, and your gaze is unconsciously drawn to the sign of the Swan pub.
You know those times when you look up without thinking, and your eyes become fixed on an object. That’s your unconscious drawing your attention to something.
The next day, a work colleague comes to you with an origami swan they made for you. Because that happens all the time.
Again, the swan came to you from outside of your conscious awareness.
Now, swans have revealed themselves to you three times in two days.
That is a meaningful coincidence.
They are meaningful coincidences because Swans came into your life unconsciously — you were not actively seeking them.
This is key. Symbols with meanings come to you unconsciously.
Which brings me to…
Rule Two: Don’t Go Looking For Meanings
Symbols that have a message for you come to you. Don’t go looking for symbols. That’s your ego — the outer-facing aspect of consciousness that wants to find positive meanings in your life.
If your ego is getting in the way, it’s because you’re feeling insecure and ill at ease about something you want a positive answer for. You may find an answer, but it may not be the right solution.
It’s more likely to be the answer you want it to be. And that could mislead you down the wrong alley. It’s more likely to put you back rather than carry you forward.
And that would be a shame because the beauty of working with symbols as a self-development tool is that it speeds up the process because it helps you reach moments of realisation sooner.
So remember, you will know if a message is meant for you if your attention is pulled towards something unconsciously.
Here are some examples of how symbolic meanings come to you from outside your conscious awareness.
Your Unconsciously Drawn
As I mentioned previously, when you look up without thinking, or randomly turn your head to the side, and your eyes fix on something, it’s usually your Superconscious trying to tell you something.
Dreams
An obvious one, really.
Random Circumstances
Random circumstances also tend to reveal a meaningful outcome. Either you have a chance encounter with someone in a place where you were not meant to be, or something happens to you by chance.
For example, one day you decide to turn left instead of going straight on like you usually do, and you drive past the Swan pub after just seeing a swan take flight.
Significant Events
Repetitive cycles are habitual patterns. If you have a low-quality experience and find yourself saying, “I can’t believe this has happened again!”, you need to look at the symbolic meaning of the event and adapt to the circumstance by changing your behaviour, attitude, perception or motivation.
Once you get comfortable with symbolism, you will recognise life’s repetitive patterns are symbolic and reflect your nature.
Emotional outbursts, for example, can be used to help you release a trapped part of your personality. Carl Jung called emotional outbursts complexes and noticed that they typically surface as immature behaviours.
So emotional outbursts indicate part of your personality has not had the opportunity to develop because it is repressed. Parts of your personality — the archetypes — need to be expressed, understood and developed.
This is expressed through esoteric symbolism in myth as the triple goddess Maiden, Mother, and Crone, or the hero Prince who becomes a King and a wise old man.
When you have an emotional outburst, observe what the trigger is. I could explain more about triggers and how to find the meaning behind them through symbolism, but we don’t have time for that today.
Watch this space.
Out of the Ordinary Events
Am I right in thinking you’ve had extraordinary events you couldn’t really explain — something you rarely see, if ever?
What did you learn from it? Did you learn anything, or did you not think to look?
Something out of the ordinary happened to me recently.
I was driving home to Doncaster from Crowle, and roadworks on the Gainsborough Road diverted traffic. I got stuck behind a truck trundling along at 40ish on a 60 speed limit.
As you do, I went to overtake it, but as I pulled up alongside the truck on the other side of the road, I saw lights in front of me…but they were not heading towards me, they were sideways on.
That was weird and, in the dark, I couldn’t clearly see what was happening. Still on the wrong side of the road with the truck just behind me, I slowed down.
Fortunately, so did the truck driver.
Sure enough, there was a Land Rover sideways, doing a three-point turn on a road with the national speed limit.
I remained calm, slowed down and waited for the Land Rover to straighten up and pull onto the same side of the road he should be on, which I was also on.
Thanks to the truck driver, I was able to pull back onto the right side of the road and everyone was safe.
For me, that was an unusual experience. It has never happened before.
But it happened again the next day.
Not quite to the same extreme. This time, I was on a residential street and had to stop my car whilst a Prius turned round in the middle of the road.
Two days later, I was held up by another car blocking the road doing a three-point turn.
This is synchronicity.
Rule Three: Reflect on the Esoteric Meaning of Symbols
To interpret symbolism in the most useful way, it’s a huge advantage to understand the esoteric meaning — the hidden meaning, or deeper meaning.
That’s not to say you will not find the answers you are looking for using exoteric symbolism, but in my experience, that method is widely inconsistent and can be misleading.
Exoteric symbolism runs you into another layer of symbolism, masquerading as an interpretation.
Esoteric symbolism, on the other hand, prompts you to look at the nature of the symbol revealing itself to you. For example, what is the nature of a certain animal, plant or tree?
You then reflect on what’s happening in your own life, and determine how the nature of the symbol mirrors your own nature.
Esoteric Symbolism vs Exoteric Symbolism
The exoteric symbolism you find on most websites, like angel meanings and Bible scholars, etc, is more likely to offer generic descriptions.
Generic descriptions can be misleading because they are not necessarily meant for you.
In addition, exoteric interpretations are generic because they are not meant to be revealing in the same way the deeper esoteric interpretations are. Exoteric symbolism offered by institutions and promulgated by scholars is purposely designed for the consumption of the general public.
The Cambridge Dictionary reads that exoteric meanings are: “intended or suitable for people generally, not only for some people”.
So they are generalised interpretations. They may not specifically be related to you unless the life lesson you’re learning is the same lesson the author is writing about.
Why Esoteric Symbolism Matters?
In a nutshell, esoteric symbolism is how the unconscious parts of your personality communicate with you.
You might call it “messages from the universe”, “connecting with your Higher Self” or “being with God.” There are many names for it.
At Libera Mente, we call this aspect of ourselves the “Superconscious.”
The Superconscious often tells you what you don’t already know, but what you need to know.
And you promptly ignore and go with what the ego tells you to do because that’s the most comfortable, familiar and emotionally available.
The Superconscious, or Spirit, speak to us through symbolism because symbols are a universal language that are accessible to all mankind.
That the same symbolism is found in world mythology speaks to this, and often has the same meaning.
This is also how psychology learned how to interpret dreams and why dreams have meaning.
Over time, mankind came to understand the meaning of symbols through experience. They observed the nature of a symbol because they were more connected with nature.
The Superconscious is part of our nature, but gets cut off and shut out by the ego — or in other words, the central nervous system filters out information.
Conscious Mind; Subconscious; Superconscious
Have you ever noticed how the number three pops up a lot in myth and symbolism?
Look at a church or civic building, and you will always find 3 doors, or, on smaller buildings, one door and two windows.
Have you ever noticed that?
The symbolic meaning for that, I believe anyway, is because of this: the three types of consciousness; the conscious mind, the subconscious and the superconscious.
Now you know that about buildings, you’ll see it everywhere!
Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is conscious awareness; things we know absolutely — we know what we’re doing, we know why we’re doing it, and we know we’re doing it right.
- The capacity to reason, rationalise and make a decision.
- Mindfulness/paying attention can also be thought of as the conscious mind.
- Neuroscience classifies the conscious mind as the neocortex, or prefrontal cortex. This is what I call the Thinking Brain.
Symbols of the conscious mind
The type of symbols that would relate to someone being consciously aware of something would be the sun, or light, a light bulb.
Heaven, or the place where the gods of world mythologies are, is also a common symbol for the conscious mind. In Greece, Olympus is the conscious mind; in Nordic traditions, it’s Asgard.
Animals would include a lion, an eagle, and a horse controlled by a rider. If the horse is wild and running around it means your client is not in control over something in their life because it is being driven by a subconscious memory.
Subconscious
The subconscious is essentially the central nervous system — what Jung called the personal unconscious — your life experiences recorded as memory.
However, your central nervous system also relays information to the neocortex — the Thinking brain. A better way of interpreting subconscious programs, therefore, is the Emotional Brain.
The Emotional Brain interprets how you feel about something. It releases a neurotransmitter and triggers the fight, flight or freeze response.
The FFF is not all bad. The freeze response is not good, and flight mode can be good or bad depending on the situation.
Fight mode, however, is a good thing. It means you engage with life. This is how you learn and develop parts of your personality.
So the subconscious records your life and stores it as memory. Memories are processed by the Thinking Brain or the Emotional Brain and influence how you experience life.
Symbols of the Subconscious Mind
- Moon
- Forest
- Cave
- Water
- Whale
- Sea (also Superconscious)
- Hell (also Superconscious in Christian traditions)
Superconscious
Okay, this is where things get a little more complicated!
The Superconscious is the Higher Self. Easy enough to understand.
You might call it spirit. You might call it God, or source, or the Akashic Records. Messages from the universe. Divine Inspiration, Wisdom.
Intuition vs. Instinctive Brain
Have you ever had those moments when you did something instinctively and felt in flow in the moment, but later you were surprised at yourself?
In my opinion, that’s your higher conscious nature flowing through you. The Superconscious given life. God in man.
It is the “Instinctive Brain” that stores all the qualities belonging to mankind. The Superconscious, therefore, provides you with the information you need to fulfil your goal in that moment and in any stage of life
However, equally, it can take possession of the conscious mind so that you have a moment of madness when you say: “I don’t know what came over me,” or “It was so unlike me, it was so out of character.”
A moment of madness is the Instinctive Brain telling the Thinking Brain to wake up, because we often reflect on moments of madness and learn something about ourselves from it.
Superconscious is wholeness
For me, the Superconscious is the Environment/Universe. It’s energy, and all energy contains information: consciousness.
Carl Jung called this the Collective Unconscious, which he described as the blueprint of mankind. In other words, every quality belonging to man is available in the electromagnetic field around us. The superconscious stores all the information that will that make you whole.
Information stored in energy is what I call archetypal qualities: character traits, feelings, emotions, attitudes and behaviours.
The human brain has 86 billion neurones. That’s the potential for 86 billion bits of information to be communicated — if the information is available to the conscious mind.
POTENTIA = POTENTIAL
The universe consists of bundles of energy physicists call potentia — very much like potential, isn’t it?
All energy, when unexpressed, has the potential to become anything after it is “observed” — or in other words, awakened.
You ask a question or set an intention and you send out a thought. A thought is energy. The particle communicates with another particle and information is relayed back to you as a thought or intuition which prompts a feeling and action.
Physicists call this quantum entanglement or string theory. The double-slit experiment also reveals wave particles become single particles when they are observed: awakened. A thought you send out collapses a wave particle and activates the information stored in that particle.
Knowing that, what do you suppose this Bible verse means:
Just saying.
Wave Particles
When a bundle of energy is observed, the wave function collapses and becomes a single particle.
That single particle becomes the thought in your head; the motivation or courage to act; knowledge of what to do; an intuition which offers guidance.
It is the awakening of consciousness — information that becomes stored in your central nervous system.
But information from the Superconscious does not always become active unless there is enough energy for it to be heard by the conscious mind, the Thinking Brain.
The Thinking Brain makes decisions. But so does the Emotional Brain. How you respond to every situation in life is determined by the information and the archetypal qualities stored in your brains.
Quite often, the Instinctive Brain is inhibited by the Emotional Brain which is too afraid or the undeveloped Thinking Brain, which is too stubborn or arrogant to listen to new information — in other words, a subconscious program gets in the way.
Symbols of the Superconscious
- Circle
- Closed lotus flower
- Underworld (the dead)
- Infinity symbol
- Tree of Life
- Sea/Ocean
In symbolism, the Superconscious is associated with the dead. Another word for dead is unlived; unexpressed. Repressed.
The goal of life, then, is to bring the unlived parts of the personality into the conscious mind — The Thinking Brain.
Emotional wounds cause the personality to become fragmented, dismembered. To become whole, you need to re-member the dismembered parts of your personality.
Yes, the sea/ocean could be the subconscious or superconscious. It recognised to belong to the Unconscious which can either be a subconscious program we don’t see or the Superconscious which has not previously been expressed.
The reason for the sea/ocean being a symbol for the unconscious is that all life comes from the sea — which can be good or bad experience.
So if sea/ocean comes up in a reading, the best way to go is that there is something you’re not seeing, but is, nevertheless influencing your life.
Water is often associated with emotions. So if water features alongside the sea, it’s more likely to be a subconscious program because subconscious programs are always fuelled by emotions — neurotransmitters.
Part 2: How Esoteric Symbolism Works?
Symbols help you to see what the conscious mind cannot see. Archetypes guide you to self-knowledge.
The unconscious does not have a spoken language through which it can communicate with mankind. It communicates with you through symbols.
Symbols are rooted in neural networks. The brain links symbols to existing knowledge, cultural references, and personal experience.
Let’s look at some examples which illustrate the distinction between esoteric symbolism and exoteric symbolism. This is important to note and helps to explain everything above.
The Exoteric Meaning of Dolphin Symbolism
A typical website on the internet interpreting the meaning of dolphins will say something along these lines:
- Communication
- Romance
- Transformation
- Freedom
Think about how any of those might relate to you.
You might think that you’re going to have a romantic experience which will transform your relationship with your partner. Maybe you will communicate better.
Or if you’re single, you might expect you’re going to meet someone special.
And you would be wrong, because the symbolic meaning of dolphins has nothing to do with love or intimacy.
And this is my issue with exoteric interpretations. They’re generic, superficial and potentially misleading.
The Exoteric Meaning of Dolphins
When you apply esoteric symbolism, identify the nature of the symbol and what it means to you.
What do you know about dolphins?
Sometimes, it’s worthwhile doing more research because you find stuff you don’t know which could be relevant.
For example, you know dolphins live in the sea. The sea is a symbol for the unconscious. So dolphins are prompting you to connect with yourself — to have a word with yourself: communication.
What you may not know is that dolphins only survive underwater for 10 minutes. They have to come to the surface for air. They are supposed to come to the surface!
What else comes from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind?
Thoughts. Memories. Information.
Look at the word In-formation. You are in a state of becoming. Integrating repressed information into conscious awareness is a transformation.
That’s two exoteric meanings ticked off the list, and neither has anything to do with relationships and love.
Shall we dig a little deeper?
Esoteric Symbolism — Communication
Let’s look at how you can level up your understanding of esoteric symbolism by breaking down the clues provided by exoteric symbolism.
For anything to be believable, there has to be an element of truth.
When you become more skilled at recognising the nature of symbols, you learn how to extract your Truth when it’s revealed to you.
Remember, look at the nature of the symbol to identify the deeper, hidden meaning.
Communication — what does this mean?
Essentially, it does mean communication, but in this instance, with dolphins, it’s asking you to communicate with your unconscious, or rather than part of your personality (the emotion) which is “split-off” and wounded.
Here the dolphin dives into the sea — the subconscious. In reality, your attention has to turn inwards and listen to the wounded emotion.
How do you feel? What is the emotion telling you?
The body and the brain communicate through the central nervous system. Neurones communicate with each other, and the information stored as memories influences how you think, feel and act.
Observing how you feel is the body’s way of communicating with the brain. When part of the personality is split off, it is repressed or suppressed — forgotten, ignored or buried.
Dolphins prompt you to listen to how you feel. When you do, you come to a point of self-awareness.
In Greek mythology, dolphins are associated with the sun god Apollo.
Guess what, the sun is a symbol for self-awareness.
This is the relationship you have with yourself; communication between your brain and your body, or your intellect and your instinct.
The Exoteric Meaning of Romance
I will forgive you if you’re thinking: “Alright, smart arse, how do you interpret romance if dolphins are not related to intimate relationships?”
It’s normal to immediately associate romance with intimate relationships.
But there is a deeper meaning.
In esoteric symbolism, romance can also refer to the relationship you have with the environment, and as noted above, with yourself.
You may need to develop self-love, for example. Or you may need to bring balance and harmony to the Self-ego axis. More on the Self-ego axis later.
Romance is, therefore, related to relationships and love. But in esoteric symbolism, love is a binding energy on the same spectrum as passion.
If you are familiar with the term “attachments” passion binds you to things you love doing or which provide a source of comfort, joy and pleasure.
So romance is something you love doing. You have a relationship with the material world.
And let’s face it, you love doing whatever you are addicted to.
Addictions are attachments — coping mechanisms that repress the part of your personality that is wounded but seeking expression.
Are addictions good for you?
No.
Neither are attachments, which are coping mechanisms.
Romantic love is on the same energy spectrum as passion.
So is anger.
You’re passionate when you argue. It’s destructive, but it’s still passion.
Some people even look for an argument to bring drama into their lives, to feel alive.
That’s what passion does. It awakens your emotions, your inner world.
Your inner world is the sea. Like dolphins, emotions can’t stay submerged consistently. They need to be expressed. Emotions inform your decision-making.
Attachments are not always romantic, but they are fuelled by passion, which is typically tied to romance.
Do you see the deeper meaning?
So when you see romance given as an interpretation of a symbol, don’t go straight to intimate relationships. Ask yourself whether you have any maladaptive passions that are repressing part of you personality seeking to be given expression.
This will ordinarily be accompanied by feelings of anger, frustration, jealousy, disharmony, frivolousness, promiscuity, obsessive behaviours or self-indulgence.
These character traits are associated with the Lover archetype, which I associated with Aphrodite. The Greek goddess of Love, Sex and Beauty is associated with love, lust, pleasure, passion and procreation.
Oh, and her symbol is the dolphin.
So if dolphins are showing up in your life, consider whether you have a relationship with someone or something in your life that needs attention.
Do you need to have a word with yourself?
Do you have any destructive attachments?
What is fuelling your passion, and how is it preventing part of your personality from being given expression?
Self-reflection brings about self-awareness — Apollo.
Self-awareness is the catalyst for change.
Change enables you to develop healthy attachments — Aphrodite.
This is how you transform your life.
The Exoteric Meaning of Transformation
Transformation is something that happens after you change habitual behaviours, fixed attitudes or maladaptive motivations!
When you see transformation given for the interpretation of a symbol, the question to consider is whether you recently experienced a change in your personality or if there is potential for change.
Because dolphins are related to the sea and thus the subconscious, your Superconscious is telling you to look within and discover what you need to change.
Sometimes though, a symbol will appear to you as confirmation that a change has taken place or is taking place.
This will be an important distinction to make because transformation is given on exoteric websites for, it seems, every symbol.
In my opinion, that’s because symbolism was designed as a tool for personal development — the process of transforming the personality, and thus your life.
Consequently, you can mostly disregard transformation as a stable interpretation. It’s more advantageous to ask, what needs changing?
But that’s why you’re seeing symbols anyway. They prompt transformation or confirm transformation.
The Meaning of Freedom in Esoteric Symbolism
When “freedom” is given as an interpretation, it will probably relate to mental and emotional freedom.
Mental and emotional freedom releases you from a cyclical pattern or habitual behaviour that has imprisoned you in your comfort zone.
Habitual ways of being keep you trapped in repetitive cycles. You will typically see this image symbolised by slavery, chains and the Devil.
If you look closely at the Devil card in the Rider-Waite tarot deck, the chains hanging around the necks of the naked couple are loose. The chains can be lifted off, and the couple could walk free from enslavement.
Habitual patterns mean you are one-sided; unbalanced, out of sync, not in harmony with your True Nature.
Freedom is breaking away from one-sided habits. When you remain in your comfort zone, there is no opportunity for personal growth.
Consequently, you’re more inclined to become stuck, co-dependent, conform to the demands of others, a people-pleaser, apathetic, withdraw, aloof, stubborn, passive and numerous other traits that hold you back.
These traits are bits of information that are communicated via neural networks stored in your personal energy field. Information makes you who you are.
Moreover, all the information that is accessible to your neural networks is a record of your past. Unless you liberate your mind from the grip of emotional wounds, you become a slave to your past.
When you upgrade your subconscious program, you unlock or “awaken” the repressed parts of your personality. You are “reborn.” Sound familiar.
When you free repressed parts of your personality from the unconscious, you give them expression. Another word for expression is life. The opposite of life is death.
The Devil is associated with dead souls. Satan is associated with temptation, and temptation keeps you attached to addictions.
When a personality trait is awakened, i.e. courage, that quality is accessible to your neocortex — the part of your brain that makes decisions. You therefore have the freedom of choice to be courageous.
When you can summon courage in situations you couldn’t in the past, you have released yourself from the grip of cowardice — the opposing force to courage.
So what archetypal quality does the dolphin offer?
What do you know about dolphins?
They are agile, intelligent, social and playful.
Do you need to be more flexible in an area of your life where you are being rigid, pedantic or short-sighted? Do you need to use your intellectual capacity to solve a problem that you have been ignoring?
Maybe you’re working too hard and need to go out with your friends. Or perhaps you are too serious and need to be playful more often.
Only you can answer these questions.
And the answers come from within. They are hidden. These are the secrets to your life.
Symbolic Meaning of Waterfall
This example of symbolism reveals the absolute nonsense proffered by institutions and academia, together with how some exoteric commentators can actually offer reasonable guidance.
I then give you my interpretation using rule number three: reflecting on the esoteric nature of a symbol.
First up is this unrevealing interpretation published on Wikipedia (which was offered by AI search, so is probably the one most people will read and think, oh).
“Waterfalls often symbolise beauty, power, and the flow of life. In various cultures, they can represent purification, renewal, and the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.”
This description is not wrong, per se, but in my view, doesn’t offer anything of value. It’s just another layer of symbolism to decipher.
What’s more, it’s misleading. Purification and renewal imply you’ve gone through a change and your life or personality has improved in some way.
When you read my interpretation, you will realise how misleading that is.
What you actually have here is a prime example of how commentators with alleged “authority” provide you with misleading information. The troubling thing for me is that most symbology websites recite the same superficial twaddle.
However, occasionally you will discover symbolism websites with writers who can think for themselves. I was quite impressed by one young lady who described the symbolic meaning of waterfalls as:
- Emotional healing and release
- Spiritual cleansing
- Letting go of negativity
- Transformation and growth
- Alignment with natural flow
This is closer to the truth than Wikipedia, and if we put them side by side, it’s clear to see how much more revealing it is. A little at least.
- Emotional healing and release (renewal and connection between the physical and spiritual worlds)
- Spiritual cleansing (purification)
- Letting go of negativity (purification)
- Transformation and growth (renewal)
- Alignment with natural flow (connection between the physical and spiritual worlds)
The conclusion offered by the writer of this website is also closer to the esoteric meaning than Wikipedia. She write:
“Waterfall symbolism represents the powerful flow of life, transformation, and emotional release. As a symbol of movement and renewal, the waterfall reminds us that change is natural and necessary for growth. Its continuous flow encourages letting go, embracing transformation, and finding balance within life’s journey.”
So pretty close, but still not specific.
Esoteric Meaning of Waterfall
This is how I interpret a waterfall.
Consider the nature of a waterfall. It’s a change in the landscape and breaks the flow of the river. Water in a river is energy that represents the flow of life.
Rivers that do not have waterfalls are constant. The water runs the same way every time without a break. This is synonymous with habitual patterns.
A change in the landscape is related to the earth element, a symbol representing materialism, rigidity or resistance to change, and weak-mindedness.
Again, we’re seeing the one-sided habitual pattern we saw with the dolphin. But a waterfall is not asking you to communicate with yourself to discover what you need to change; it’s telling you to change.
The message here is: you’re resisting change, and you’re heading for a fall.
The fall in a biblical sense is when Adam and Eve are thrown out of Eden — the garden of paradise. Paradise represents inner peace and that you are content with life as it is.
In other words, you are in your comfort bubble.
Let’s consider the nature of a river.
Rivers flow. They meander.
Look At The Bigger Picture
Are you drifting along, meandering through life? If you are, do you know where you’re going?
The water in a river knows where it’s going. Back to the sea.
When water hits a waterfall, it does not know where it’s going. For a while, it gets stuck in the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall. Some droplets splash onto the rocks and fade in the sun. (They transform.)
Are you feeling stuck? Has your life hit rock bottom?
Because that’s where you could be heading if you have a fall.
Rivers can also be turbulent. A waterfall is very turbulent for individual droplets that come “crashing down to earth.”
When you reflect on the nature of the symbol, ask whether your life is feeling turbulent right now. If it is, you could be heading towards a waterfall.
Does life feel chaotic, fast-paced and non-stop? If so, you could be on the verge of going over the edge.
The waterfall you are heading towards will bring everything crashing down, but in the end, things will calm down in the tranquil pool of water at the foot of the waterfall.
But in the pool, you feel stuck until you rejoin the river and flow back into the ocean.
Water is symbolic of emotions. Emotions influence how you behave, and your actions determine your flow of life. When you remain trapped in cyclical patterns of habitual behaviours, attitudes and motivations, the repressed parts of your personality rebel and create challenges, conflicts and problems to teach you a lesson.
So a waterfall is telling you to break maladaptive habits and change something in your life that is preventing you from moving forward with the flow of life.
Something you have been ignoring for a long time is eventually going to create chaos and make you feel stuck.
What happens when we break habitual patterns? Transformation, renewal and purification.
How do you do that?
By integrating repressed parts of the personality into conscious awareness — the “connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.”
See, Wikipedia wasn’t wrong. But it was very misleading.
Let’s break it down even further.
How A River Is Formed
Think about how rivers are formed.
— Water from oceans turns into vapour and rises into the atmosphere.
— The vapour cools and forms clouds.
— Rain or snow falls over land — often in hills or mountains — gathers water and flows back to the ocean
Water has essentially travelled from ocean to ocean, a cyclical pattern. Energy flows in cyclical patterns unless the cycle is broken by a change in your energy.
A change leads to renewal, and renewal can lead to purification.
The energy you transform manifests as an experience in life — matter. The material world is the earth element, the landscape the river carves through.
When you continuously repeat the same thoughts, actions and behaviours, you consistently transform the same energy and manifest the same experiences.
When you change your perception, you can then change a behaviour, attitude, or motivation. That change transforms energy and thus the lived experience.
A change in energy can remove a barrier, help you to navigate rocks in the river, and even avoid experiencing a fall.
To change the cycle of bad experiences, you have to break away from habitual patterns of behaviour. So the next a droplet of water falls from a nimbus cloud, it might land in a river that does not have a waterfall.
A waterfall warns you to change: a state of mind that enables an emotional release.
Breaking away from old patterns of behaviour and introducing new ones changes how you experience life. Learn how to overcome conflict and challenges, and you will live with inner peace (paradise).
Thought-Provoking Quote
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”
~ Henry Ford
Exoteric vs Esoteric Meaning of Waterfall
Below is a breakdown of the interpretation offered by the reasonable exoteric commentator (in bold) alongside my interpretation (after the =).
Emotional healing and release = moving from tension to calm
Spiritual cleansing = repressed part of the personality available to the conscious mind/opportunity for growth
Letting go of negativity = letting go of destructive patterns, habitual behaviours, negative attitudes, misguided motivations
Transformation and growth = rebirth of the personality, new skills, attitudes or strength of character you need to overcome the conflict or challenge you’re experiencing or need to confront
Alignment with natural flow = following your intention, purpose or independence, trusting the process and going with the flow of life
Do you see how esoteric symbolism is more specific and meaningful as an interpretation?
Another stumbling block you may come across when using exoteric websites is that they literally name the theme and don’t offer any real explanation for it.
Let’s take a look at another symbol which is often misconstrued and explore how exoteric interpretations can be potentially misleading.
Exoteric Meaning of Raven
I typed the symbolic meaning of ravens into Google. The details I have entered below ranked at number one — and I don’t know why.
The only information this website offers is how ravens are considered across various cultures. There is no attempt to provide any insight, opinion or discussion of the symbolic meaning.
To remind you, my search was for “the symbolic meaning of ravens.”
This is what Google wants to serve you:
Wisdom and Knowledge: Ravens are often linked with insight—whether through divine omniscience (Norse), prophecy (Celtic/Greece), or cunning intelligence (Native American).
Messenger Role: Across many mythologies, ravens act as carriers between worlds—connecting gods to humans or life to death.
Transformation: Their presence frequently signals change—be it creation myths where they bring light or trickster tales emphasising adaptability.
Ambiguity Between Life and Death: Ravens are associated both with death (scavengers on battlefields) and life-giving forces (creators who bring fire), reflecting nature’s inherent dualities.
Mystery: Their black feathers and haunting calls evoke mystery surrounding what lies beyond human understanding.
And this is the conclusion:
“Rich with paradoxes — wise yet mischievous; dark yet enlightening — the raven invites us to explore mysteries hidden beneath appearances.”
If I didn’t understand esoteric symbolism, none of the descriptions above would make any rational sense to me. They are another layer of symbolism that has been parroted.
Do the descriptions mean anything to you? Leave a note in the comments if they do. I would love to hear from you!
Esoteric Meaning of Raven
Ravens appear to have a dual meaning. At least, that’s what exoteric sources lead you to believe. But ultimately, the function which the raven represents results in the same outcome.
The duality is determined by which path you choose to take.
Ravens are regarded as a “Trickster” and a “Transformer”, a “Creator” and a “Deceiver”.
Exoteric sources report ravens symbolise harmony, wisdom, good fortune, healing and “magic”, but are also associated with war, bad luck and death.
That doesn’t sound great.
However, war, bad luck and death — “ego death” — lead to harmony, wisdom and good fortune.
War is the battle within, the tension between two opposing forces. War can also relate to the battle you have with yourself when you are trying to change a habit.
Changing habits is one of the hardest things to do. I have battled with addictions. It took years. But if you don’t challenge your programming, you continue to generate “bad luck”.
There is no such thing as “bad luck”. It’s negative, dark or bad energy that creates the misfortune in your life. When you transform this energy, you will experience harmony, wisdom and good fortune.
This is otherwise known as healing.
The deception of the “Trickster” Raven makes you believe that your wrong ways are the right thing to do. What you create is the result of your thoughts, emotions and actions.
Harmony, wisdom and good fortune are also what you create if your Trickster is fun-loving, playful and innovative. The Trickster archetype is not only deceitful, but it helps you to shatter illusions.
Ravens are also known for their intellect — the ability to discern, rationalise and reason.
This is why ravens are noted as Creators and Transformers. Through discernment, rationalising and reasoning, you can create new experiences of reality.
When you see ravens coming into your life, it’s a prompt to observe how you are creating problems, conflicts and challenges through self-deception. This is how you learn; this is how we grow.
Note, how I say “self-deception” here. Not the deception of someone who is “mischievous and dark, hidden beneath appearances”.
Raven As Trickster
Raven is regarded as a Trickster and a Deceiver. The intellect can also deceive you. The intellect tricks you into thinking all sorts of self-deceptions.
“I can do this. Oops, no, I can’t.”
“So-and-so did that. Oops, no, she didn’t.”
“This and that is going to happen. Oh shit, it didn’t.”
When you repress parts of your personality, the central nervous system creates a solution.
A coping strategy.
Coping strategies work for a while. But essentially they are maladaptive, and eventually, they become problematic.
Coping strategies are the deception of “bad luck” stored as a memory and communicated via neural networks.
Remember, a memory is information, knowledge, consciousness. In Norse mythology, the god Odin has two ravens, Huginn, which means thought, and Muninn, which means memory.
Coping strategies lead you down the wrong path; they trick you. In multiple cultures, ravens are thought of as Tricksters because they are associated with deception.
But Tricksters in mythology, like the Greek Gods Hermes and Prometheus, are also known as the Great Revealer.
Prometheus, for example, stole fire to give to mankind, fire representing passion, drive and innovation. The evolution of mankind accelerated when we discovered fire.
Native American myths also speak of a raven stealing fire — so there is a theme running throughout world mythologies that points to the same meaning.
The Trickster is known as The Great Revealer because it tricks you into doing something stupid and making a fool of yourself.
Alternatively, you can use the Sage’s method of self-observation and learn how you are creating challenges, conflicts and problems in your life through your thoughts, emotions and actions.
You can learn the easy way through the intellect of the Sage, or the hard way, through the deception of the Trickster.
Esoteric vs Exoteric: Raven
Messenger Role: Raven functions as a psychopomp— a guide between “realms of existence” — conscious, subconscious and Superconscious. We do this through meditation, quiet contemplation, and self-analysis.
Wisdom and Knowledge: In Norse mythology, the ravens Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) travel between worlds, gathering information before returning to Odin with knowledge.
Knowledge leads to understanding. Understanding leads to wisdom.
The raven is a symbol of consciousness that transcends the physical plane into the Superconscious. The information you receive through self-observation is self-knowledge.
Retrieving memories and self-knowledge can be uncomfortable truths, but the information is necessary to overcome the problem you’re creating.
Knowledge with understanding is wisdom.
In Greek mythology, the raven is associated with the god Apollo — the sun god, which means self-knowledge.
Transformation: Self-knowledge leads to new ways of being. It can transform your life in small ways or significant ways.
Ambiguity Between Life and Death: Death, I explained above, relates to the Underworld — the Superconscious. The Superconscious is what Carl Jung refers to as the collective unconscious — the storehouse of every quality accessible to mankind; the instincts of the archetypes.
When you see death given as a symbolic meaning, it usually refers to death and rebirth; renewal, resurrection, reincarnation, purification.
The Law of Thermodynamics shows that energy does not die; it transforms. So does your personality. There is no such thing as “ego-death”. You train the brain how to cope with life better.
Death and rebirth means:
- Breakdown of existing behaviours, attitudes or motivations
- Dissolution of subconscious programs the ego relates to
- Access to information that encourages new ways of being
- Adoption of new ways of being that transform your life
Mystery: A mystery in something you don’t know about, something unseen. The contents in your subconscious that you are not consciously aware of are unseen.
Conclusion
If you see a synchronicity of ravens, you’re probably experiencing a problem that you are creating because of a maladaptive coping strategy. But your fixed belief is deceptive.
Something which you adamantly believe you are doing right has been challenged. But you can’t accept that your concrete belief or way of being is wrong.
Reflect on how a conflict of interest in your mind could be creating “bad luck” in your life. This is the war between intellect and instinct.
That’s what I believe exoteric interpretations mean by “explore mysteries hidden beneath appearances.”
Two pieces of advice. Two very different outcomes.
Which one makes more sense to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Want to know more about symbolism and archetypes?
You may have noticed that I referred to archetypes and archetypal qualities in this article.
Archetypes are parts of the personality that influence patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviours. They are central to how you experience life.
Archetypal qualities are the specific character traits that each archetype gives you, i.e. courage, intellect, compassion, but also cowardice, ignorance and hate.
You can learn more about how well developed or undeveloped your archetypes are in our self-development program Beyond The Comfort Zone.
If you consistently encounter “bad luck” and struggle with recurring conflicts, challenges and problems, Beyond The Comfort Zone helps you to break away from habitual patterns that cause chaos and enrich your life by developing the repressed parts of your personality.
