And I don't necessarily mean an insignia, or a family crest, or anything like that. It could be an object, a place, a person, a quote, even a concept. But is there something precious to you? Something that you feel represents you or something important to you? My own symbol is the color magenta. It's the only color on a traditional color wheel that isn't represented by a distinct wave of light, yet it visually bridges the gap between red and purple, and we even perceive it in nature. And that's about the extent to which we can know, factually, what's up with magenta, but it leaves so many questions unanswered. Why does nature have no pure magenta? Why do we superimpose it onto certain objects? Does it exist independent of our observation? If not, what exists in its place? It's like the self-obfuscating mystery, and that kind of thing fascinates me and informs a lot of my core worldviews. I also have a friend who's exceptionally fond of the number 8. He studies mathematics and philosophy, among other things, and it just speaks to him in many ways and sort of bridges the gap between those disciplines. The shapeliness of it, the fact that the infinity symbol resembles it, the places it pops up in equations, the fact that it's an even number... and he just extrapolates more and more from that, things like "It's the perfect number of people for a party" that could be subjective or could be an incredibly intuitive conclusion.
I absolutely love a quote from the Christmas Carol version Scrooge: The Musical. It's said to Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Present, and is one of the ghost's last lines in the movie: "There is never enough time to do or say all that we would wish. The thing is to try and do as much as we can with the time that we have." I have tried to live by this, (though I do not do so well at succeeding) and thinking about it always makes me feel better when things don't go my way. Of course, in a way, I've made Christmas itself my symbol. I watch Christmas movies even in August if I want to (and none more often than Scrooge: The Musical). Red is my favorite color, I sing Christmas carols all year long when I can get away with it, and I even have my room decorated with fake Poinsettia garlands that shall not come down. I absolutely love the general feeling of brotherly love you feel around that time, and I try to love like that all year round. lol, so basically, I'm Buddy the Elf, reciting the Code of the Elves. 1. Treat every day like Christmas. 2. There's room for everyone on the nice list! 3. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. So yeah, sappy as it sounds, my symbol is Christmas. :D
For myself I can't think of one at the moment, however I do have some imagery regarding my parents. My Mom and Dad have these animal associations (like favorite animals taken a step further) of a butterfly and a wolf respectively. So I've always visualized them as a couple as a wolf with a butterfly perched on it's nose, often silhouetted by the moon.
The numbers 786. It's become a sort of numeric symbol which Muslims can identify with. "786 is the total value of the letters of "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim". In Arabic there are two methods of arranging letters. One method is the most common method known as the alphabetical method. Here we begin with Alif, ba, ta, tha etc. The other method is known as the Abjad method or ordinal method. In this method each letter has an arithmetic value assigned to it from one to one thousand"
I am not certain I would go so far as to call it my personal symbol, but my favorite letter in the Cyrillic alphabet is Ж. In the majority of languages belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch, the word for "to live" begins with a ж or a ž (depending on whether the language is written in Cyrillic or Latin, but the pronunciation is the same); I thus associate it with life, living. Speakers of a language will often agree upon certain-- associations, let's say. The sort which is utilized in graffiti as a means of garnering certain reactions from audiences by relying on whatever preconceived ideas they associate with [the letter in this case]. Ж is not exempt. Informally, it's associated with rebirth. The union of man and woman. A simplistic, stick figure depiction thereof anyways. I do not know how much sense I am making, I am very tired.
