Recognizing Repeated Symbols

Finding Direction 7-2009

2011 Issues Collage

It occurred to me that there was perhaps an important image in my Issues Collage that might be a reoccurring image. If you look at the card called "Finding Direction" from 2007 you can see the bird perched and looking into the scene. In general birds are symbolically creatures of heaven because they can fly. They also symbolize the angelic or spiritual. In the 2007 card I thought of the parrot as a messenger who was calmly looking into the "right" direction while the woman in the card looked around, confused and lost. I took it as meaning that I should wait until things settled to see the clear direction for my life. That turned out to be good (and reassuring) advice.

In the 2011 image the bird is again perched and looking in the "right" direction. The potato sack woman, although appearing confident is actually feeling bad about herself, feeling confused, puzzled and star-crossed. Because of her drop in self esteem she is looking for answers in the opposite direction as the bird. Interesting that the bird is pink (a sweet and venerable color) and clinging to the cage she is no longer trapped by. The repeated message? To me it is that I need to trust spirit (star at top of 2011 image) and work to recover my true worth. I have been blue since being pushed out of the comfort of continued adjunct work by a reorganization of my primary employer. I will find the right direction.


Images in art, as in dreams, are often communications from our subconscious mind that our intuitive self wants our conscious/rational mind to see (open). When talking about the symbolic language of the subconscious I often paraphrase the statement of a Jung contemporary: "Dreams are messages from God that should, at least, be opened".