THE MISUNDERSTOOD LANGUAGE OF SYMBOLS

An essay by Cynthia, for anyone who has ever been mislabeled for speaking the language their soul remembers.

Introduction: Why I’m Writing This Now

There is increasing confusion — sometimes hysteria — around symbols, eyes, sigils, constellations, alchemical diagrams, sacred geometry, astrological maps, and any form of metaphorical or esoteric language.

I see people around me treating these things as inherently “evil,” “demonic,” “dangerous,” or “occult.” I watch misinformation spread faster than understanding, and I watch artists, mystics, creators, and simply symbol-literate people get accused of things they are not.

And I feel it personally, because I’ve been mislabeled my entire life.

I have been called:

• a witch

• an occultist

• evil

• woo woo

• a false prophet

• too intense

• too symbolic

• too magical

• too much

And in the same lifetime, often by the very same people, I have also been called:

• deeply creative

• artistic

• intuitive

• expressive

• loving

• visionary

• original

• gifted

Both have been true — not because I am contradictory, but because people read me through the lens they are capable of understanding.

This is the heart of the misunderstanding around symbolism: People project their literacy or illiteracy onto the symbol, and onto the person using it.

This essay exists to correct that.

My Background: A Native Speaker of the Symbolic Tongue

I was not raised as a fundamentalist Christian. I was raised on myth, metaphor, gnostic texts, and ancient patterns.

My earliest frameworks were not:

“Believe this or be punished.”

They were:

“Look deeper.” “The world is layered.” “Meaning lives beneath the surface.” “Truth is discovered, not dictated.”

Because of this, I never learned to fear symbols. I learned to read them.

I didn’t learn to give my authority to something outside myself. I learned that insight and intuition come from within.

I didn’t grow up thinking “the unseen” was evil. I grew up knowing the unseen was a dimension of understanding — not a threat.

So my native language became:

• metaphor

• pattern

• archetype

• dream

• symbol

• myth

• artistic gesture

• inner knowing

This is why people who resonate with me find me creative, expressive, spiritual, visionary. And why people who lack symbolic literacy label me witchy, woo woo, or even evil.

It’s not that my language is strange. It’s that their frame of reference is limited.

The Core Misunderstanding: “The Symbol Is Evil”

This belief is the root of most misinformation.

A symbol is neutral. A symbol carries context, not inherent morality. A symbol becomes charged by:

• culture

• history

• usage

• intention

Not by its shape.

The same spiral can be:

• a Celtic glyph

• a galaxy

• a fingerprint

• a snake curling to shed its old skin

• the labyrinth of the psyche

• the cycle of time

• the movement of life unfolding

None of that is evil. All of that is human.

But when people see a symbol used by someone they fear or mistrust, they transfer that fear onto the symbol itself.

This is symbolic illiteracy masquerading as spiritual discernment.

How Religion Trained People to Fear Their Own Language

Much of the Western world was taught:

• To distrust themselves.

• To obey external authority.

• To reject anything that came from within, because it might be “deceptive.”

This conditioning severed people from:

• intuition

• metaphor

• personal meaning

• inner experience

• symbolic understanding

Symbols activate the inner world — and institutions built on external authority cannot allow people to rely on themselves.

So symbols were demonized, not because they were evil, but because they were dangerously empowering.

“Illuminati” and the Modern Panic Around Symbols

The modern fear of the “Illuminati” is a perfect example of symbolic confusion.

In truth: Illuminated simply means “those who can see.”

People who think in symbols naturally express themselves symbolically. Not to confess secrets. Not to announce hidden agendas. Not to manipulate the masses.

But because that is their innate cognitive language.

People say:

“They have to tell you what they’re doing.”

No. They’re not telling you anything. They’re simply thinking out loud in the language of metaphor, geometry, and archetype.

It is absurd to punish people for speaking the world’s oldest language.

Why I Am So Mislabeled

People who are literalists often interpret symbolic communication as threatening, deceptive, or “occult,” because they cannot map it onto their worldview.

When they see me —my symbols, my baubles, my sigils, my Mirror metaphors, my cosmic language —they feel disoriented.

And instead of asking:

“What does this mean?”

They collapse into:

“This must be evil.”

That reaction says nothing about me. It reflects their inner programming.

Meanwhile, those who are symbol-literate, intuitive, artistic, or simply more open, recognize me immediately as:a creator, a myth-maker, a pattern-reader, an alchemical artist, a storyteller.

The contrast is extreme. I have lived at that crossroads my entire life.

Why Symbolism Must Be Defended Now

We are in a cultural moment where fear spreads faster than nuance. Symbolic languages — Gnostic, Hermetic, mythic, astrological, artistic — are resurfacing. People are craving meaning again. Archetypes are returning. Dreams are intensifying. Creativity is rising. The Veil is thinning.

And fear-based groups are reacting by tightening their grip on literalism.

It is essential that someone explains: Symbols are not gateways to corruption. They are gateways to understanding.

Artists use symbols. Mystics use symbols. Psychologists use symbols. Even advertisers and UX designers use symbols — icons, visual metaphors, archetypes.

Symbolic language is not fringe; it is foundational to human cognition.

My Personal Need to Clarify

I am not evil. I am not a witch in the way people fear that word. I am not a dark prophet. I am not manipulating anyone through symbols.

I am simply someone who speaks in metaphor naturally, who was raised with a different spiritual grammar, and who refuses to betray her inner knowing.

When I express myself symbolically, I am not casting spells. I am revealing the internal architecture of my mind.

People with symbolic literacy understand this instantly. People without it misinterpret it.

So part of my work now is to teach —not to convert, not to defend myself endlessly, but to bring clarity into a world that desperately needs it.

Closing: A Reclamation of the Symbolic Self

I speak the language of symbols because it is the language my soul remembers. It is not witchcraft. It is not evil. It is not manipulation.

It is art, and memory, and pattern, and spirit, and meaning.

Symbols are the oldest mirrors humanity ever held up to itself.

And I refuse — absolutely refuse — to let misunderstanding, fear, or dogma turn that mirror into a weapon.

I am reclaiming my native tongue. And I am inviting others to remember theirs.

Symbols activate the inner world