Acorn theory

James Hillman's 1997 book, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling, outlines what he calls the 'acorn theory' of the soul. This theory states that each individual holds the potential for their unique possibilities inside themselves already, much as an acorn holds the pattern for an oak tree. It describes how a unique, individual energy of the soul is contained within each human being, and is displayed throughout their lifetime, and shown in their calling and life's work when it is fully blossomed or actualized.

The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling

The Deep Rooted Symbolism of Trees

The Deep Rooted Symbolism of Trees:

"The apple tree is symbolic of magic, youth, beauty and happiness. The cedar tree represents healing, cleansing and protection. Palm trees are symbolic of peace and opportunity. The symbolism associated with many other trees is summarized below:
Apple tree symbolism- magic, youth, beauty, happiness
Ash tree symbolism - sacrifice, sensitivity and higher awareness
Aspen tree symbolism- determination, overcoming fears and doubts
Beech tree symbolism- tolerance, past knowledge, softens over criticism
Birch tree symbolism- new beginnings, cleansing of past, vision quests
Cedar tree symbolism- healing, cleansing, protection
Cherry tree symbolism - death and rebirth, new awakenings
Cypress tree symbolism - understanding the role of sacrifice
Elder tree symbolism- birth and death, fairy realm
Elm tree symbolism- strength of will, intuition
Hazel tree symbolism- hidden wisdom, dousing, divination
Heather tree symbolism- healing from within, immortality, initiation
Holly tree symbolism- protection, overcoming of anger, spiritual warrior
Maple tree symbolism- balance, promise, practicality
Palm tree symbolism- peace and opportunity
Pine tree symbolism - creativity, life, longevity, immortality
Willow tree symbolism- magic, healing, inner vision, dreams"

Babel's Dawn: Words Are More Human than Syntax

Babel's Dawn: Words Are More Human than Syntax:

"The central event in the evolution of language was not the rise of syntax but the emergence of a modern lexicon, words with properties “typical of any human language,” linguist Derek Bickerton told the Evolang conference in Barcelona this morning (Saturday March 15, 2008). The presentation was offered as a rejection to an oft-rebutted, but still influential paper, by Marc Hauser, Noam Chomsky, and Tecumseh Fitch on “The Faculty of Language” (available here). In its place, Bickerton championed Terrence Deacon’s work that asserts symbolic units are unique to humans and that aspects of the lexicon are genuine human universals..."

Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics

Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics:

Lectures on Aesthetics by G.W.F. Hegel
Part I Of the Symbolic Form of Art
I. Of the Symbol in General
The symbol, in the sense which we here give to this term, constitutes, according to its very idea, as well as from the epoch of its appearance in history, the beginning of art. Thus it ought rather to be considered as the precursor of art. It belongs especially to the Orient, and will conduct us, by a multitude of transitions, transformations, and mediations, to the true realisation of the ideal under the classic form. We must then distinguish the symbol, properly speaking, as furnishing the type of all the conceptions or representations of art at this epoch, from that species of symbol which, on its own account, nothing more than a mere unsubstantial, outward form. Where the symbol presents itself under its appropriate and independent form, it exhibits in general the character of sublimnity. The idea, being vague and indeterminate, incapable of a free and measured development, cannot find in the real world any fixed form which perfectly corresponds to it; in default of which correspondence and proportion, it transcends infinitely its external manifestation. Such is the sublime style, which is rather the immeasurable than the true sublime?"

The nature of symbols...

Definition of Symbols:

"Symbol is one of those words that is often used in a confusing manner. The confusion is increased by different scholars using the word to mean very different things. Most obviously, General Semantics (Alfred Korzybski, S. I. Hayakawa) use symbol for to designate what other writers call a sign.
In the usage I prefer, sign designates something which stands for something else. Any content-word in the language is a sign, being a spoken or written vehicle for an immaterial meaning that refers to some experience.

A symbol is a sign which has further layers of meaning. In other words, a symbol means more than it literally says. (Signs are literal; symbols are not)."

Resume

Ronald D. Isom
Blog: http://metrogadfly.blogspot.com/

Education:
A.A. Belleville Junior College 1959
B.S. in Art Education Illinois State Normal University 1961
M.S. in Art Illinois State Normal University 1962

Teaching:
Student teaching: Metcalf Elementary, Univ. High School, Normal IL. 1961
Graduate Assistant Illinois State Normal University 1962
Niles Township High School West 1962-66
Belleville Township High School East 1966-1994
Chairman of the Art Department 1970-1993
Chairman of the Fine Arts Department 1993-94
Summer school Belleville East 1996-94
Belleville Area College night school 1966-1994
Artist-in-residence Governor French Academy Belleville, IL. 1994-97

Teaching areas:
High school: painting, ,ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, jewelry.
College: drawing, painting, art appreciation.

Art, Sociology and symbols...

To the human mind, symbols are cultural representations of reality. Every culture has its own set of symbols associated with different experiences and perceptions. Thus, as a representation, a symbol's meaning is neither instinctive nor automatic. The culture's members must interpret and over time reinterpret the symbol.

Symbolic Ethnicity
"Symbolic ethnicity" is a term coined by Herbert Gans. It refers to ethnicity that is individualistic in nature and without real social cost for the individual. These symbolic identifications are essentially leisure time activities, rooted in nuclear family traditions reinforced by voluntary enjoyable aspects of being ethnic

Art collections...

University of Iowa
Arts in Transit
Governor French Academy
Illinois State University
Illinois Teachers Retirement
Southwestern Illinois College
Mitchell Musem Mt. Vernon
Lowell L. Isom & Susan Vugteveen
Ronald & Cindy Isom
Roland D. Isom
Victoria Isom & Sheri D'Hansel
Numerous private collections in the Metro east and Chicago area.

History of the universe...

The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less
Quantum fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Strong nuclear interaction. Particle-antiparticle annihilation. Deuterium and helium production. Density perturbations. Recombination. Blackbody radiation. Local contraction. Cluster formation. Reionization? Violent relaxation. Virialization. Biased galaxy formation? Turbulent fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Compression. Opaque hydrogen. Massive star formation. Deuterium ignition. Hydrogen fusion. Hydrogen depletion. Core contraction. Envelope expansion. Helium fusion. Carbon, oxygen, and silicon fusion. Iron production. Implosion. Supernova explosion. Metals injection. Star formation. Supernova explosions. Star formation. Condensation. Planetesimal accretion. Planetary differentiation. Crust solidification. Volatile gas expulsion. Water condensation. Water dissociation. Ozone production. Ultraviolet absorption. Photosynthetic unicellular organisms. Oxidation. Mutation. Natural selection and evolution. Respiration. Cell differentiation. Sexual reproduction. Fossilization. Land exploration. Dinosaur extinction. Mammal expansion. Glaciation. Homo sapiens manifestation. Animal domestication. Food surplus production. Civilization! Innovation. Exploration. Religion. Warring nations. Empire creation and destruction. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation without representation. Revolution. Constitution. Election. Expansion. Industrialization. Rebellion. Emancipation Proclamation. Invention. Mass production. Urbanization. Immigration. World conflagration. League of Nations. Suffrage extension. Depression. World conflagration. Fission explosions. United Nations. Space exploration. Assassinations. Lunar excursions. Resignation. Computerization. World Trade Organization. Terrorism. Internet expansion. Reunification. Dissolution. World-Wide Web creation. Composition. Extrapolation?
Copyright 1996-1997 by Eric Schulman.

Line of beauty...

“The Line of Beauty is a term and a theory in Art or Aesthetics used to describe an S-shaped curved line (a serpentine line) appearing within an object, as the boundary line of an object, or as a virtual boundary line formed by the composition of several objects. This theory originated with William Hogarth (18th century English painter, satirist, and writer), and is an essential part of Hogarth's theory of Aesthetics as described in his Analysis of Beauty (1753). According to this theory, S-Shaped curved lines signify liveliness and activity and excite the attention of the viewer as contrasted with straight lines, parallel lines, or right-angled intersecting lines which signify stasis, death, or inanimate objects.”

Roadmap...

Many of my drawing have shapes and lines that resemble symbols found on roadmaps. The squiggles and lines form marks on the earth. Trees and organic shapes populate many my compositions. I am either looking for a roadmap or creating a roadmap of my life. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In order to take that step you need to know where you are going and where you have been.

Verdant yourh...

Verdant youth is ever green like Christmas trees. It is unripe in knowledge and judgment, unsophisticated, raw and green. As we age the green youth of creativity turns to brown and withers in many individuals. Retaining some of the raw nature of our verdant youth is essential to creative development. The sight of the bright green and shining Christmas tree reminds me of my youth. The future was bright and their were many things to discover. My limited knowledge and judgment allowed me to probe and experiment. Each day I trying to capture some of that youthful spirit and reignite the pilot light of discovery

The sign post symbol...

The sign post image is a recurring theme in my art work. I have always been intrigued by signage, symbols and omens. I feel the sign post images are in some way mile-markers upon which to measure my progress along the road of life.
Since the dawn of society, diviners and artists have been finding signs and artistic stimulation in world around them They see omens and signs in pools of water, in leaves, in the shape of a stone, in animal bones, and clouds in the sky. Because these “seers” have been able to tap into a deeper level of awareness, they have come to sense hidden truths in powerful and mysterious ways. Many native cultures believe everyone has an innate sixth sense and can learn how to interpret the signs of nature.

Personal iconography...

Fish images have been appearing in my work for over fifty years. They became part of my personal iconography during my junior and senior in college. At that time, I was very involved in Catholicism and I used many church symbols in my work. After college I drifted away from the church and embraced a more humanistic belief system. The fish symbols remained and were joined by hundreds of other esoteric symbols. Each day the symbols grow and combine to form new and sometimes undecipherable symbols. The have become the heart and soul of my work and they drive all my creative efforts.
Developing a personal iconographic system is essential to creativity. The symbolic content of a work of art is read by the heart, mind and soul of the observer. Art that only mimics the world is limited to superficial interpretation.

Think like an artist...

Title: A Personal Vision Quest: Learning To Think Like an Artist.
Author: Dake, Dennis M
Abstract: Using the metaphoric story device of two tribes, one that builds their culture around words and the other which depends primarily on visual perception, this paper suggests a distinctive mental paradigm at work within the society of artists, who pursue visual literacy through graphic ideation. The author discusses his education in art and his discovery of "memes," the smallest recognizable pieces of information, and notes that holistic memes have given him a perception of the ethical values and biases of the tribe of the vision. Discussion then moves to the differences between the thinking of visual artists and those without artistic inclinations, as identified by neuropsychologists and psychologists. Artists, who are more aware of the abstract structures underlying visual perception, are better able to control and manipulate the viso-spatial abstract structure of their visions for communicative and creative purposes. Visual artists of acknowledged creativity have also been found to demonstrate much greater use of allusive--or loose categorical--thinking than non-artists. Research has suggested that the superimposition of separate entities and phenomena in the same space within the human brain is the triggering mechanism for creative thought, or homospatial thinking. Psychomorphology holds that the mind (psycho) and the world of visual forms (morphology) are intimately and integrally entwined. As illustrated in the author's abstract layered-form and shaped canvas paintings, flexibility and fluency are necessary to effectively develop effective visual stimuli; this design fluency has been identified with the right hemisphere of the brain. Visual literacy requires a deepening of visual understanding achieved through visual experience in addition to the word based study of human perception. (Contains 19 references.) (AEF)

Reading list 1...

Kris, Ernst. Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art. New York: International University Press. 1952

Mills, George. "Art: An Introduction to Qualitative Anthropology," in Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism , Vol. XVI, No.1 Baltimore: The American Society for Aesthetics, 1957.

Read, Sir Herbert. "Dynamics of Art," in Eranons Yearbook , 1952. Zurich: Rhein Verlag, 1952

Neumann, Erich. Amor and Psyche . New York: Pantheon Books, 1956

Langer, Susanne K. Philosophy in a New Key - A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Right, and
Art. New York: Pelican Books, 1948

Cassirer, Ernst. An Essay on Man. New York Doubleday Anchor Books, 1953

Abell, Walter. The Collective Dream in Art. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957

Fieldler, Leslie. " Archetype and Signature," Art and Psychoanalysis . New York: Criterion Books, 1957

Morris, Charles. Foundations of the Theory of Signs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis. New York: A Doubleday Anchor Book, 1957

Babbitt, Irving. Rousseau and Romanticism. New York: Meridian, 1955

Baird, James. Ishmael. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956

Blanchard, B. The Nature of Thought. London: Allen and Unwin, 1939

Bodkin, Maud. Studies of Type Images in Poetry, Religion and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951

Bryson, Finkelstein, MacIver, and McKeon. Symbols and Values. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954

Jung, C.G. Contributions to Analytical Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1928
-----Essays on a Science of Mythology. New York: Pantheon Books, 1949
----"Joyce's Ulysses," in Spring, 1949. New York: Printed privately for the Analytical Psychology Club, 1949.
----Modern Man in Search of a Soul. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1933
----Psyche and Symbol (Violet de Laszlo, ed.) New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1958
----Psychology and Alchemy. New York: Pantheon, 1953

Panofsky, E. , Studies in Iconology ( New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962), pp.257-59

Perosa, A. , "Febris: A Poetic Myth Created by Polizano, " J. Warburg Courtauld Inst. 9:74 ff.

Praz, Mario Chapter 1, "Ut Pictura Poesis," Mnemosyne: The Parallel Between Literature and the Visual Arts, Bollinger Series, (Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press, 1970).

Hinks, R. Myth and Allegory in Ancient Art (London: Warburg Inst., 1939)

Hodges,H.A. The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey (London: Routledge, 1952)

Corbin, Henry Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, trans. R. Manheim (Princeton, N.J.:Princeton U. Press, 1969)

d'Alviella, Goblet. The Migration of Symbols. London, 1894.

Audsley, W.J., and G.A. Audsley. Handbook of Christian Symbolism. London, 1865

Beza (Theodore de Beze). Icones. Geneva, 1580.

Ciarrocchi, Arnoldo. Italian Votive Tablets. Udine, Italy, 1960.

Faerno, Gabriel. Fabulae. Rome, 1564.

Fromm, Erich. The Forgotten Language, An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales and Myths. New York, 1951.

Freitag, Arnold. Mythologia Ethica. Antwerp, 1579.

Hulme, F.E. The History, Principles and Practices of Symbolism in Christian Art. London, 1892.

Katzenellenbogen, Adolf. Allegories of the Virtues and Vices in Medieval Art. 1939; rpt., New York, 1964.

Knight, Richard Payne. The Symbolic Language of Ancient Art and Mythology. 1818; new ed., New York, 1876.

Oakeshott, W. The Sequence of English Medieval Art. London, 1951.

Morgan, H.T. Chinese Symbols and Superstitions. S. Pasadena, Calif., 1942.

Tervarent, Guy de. Attributs et symboles dans l'art profane, 1450-1600. Geneva, 1958.

Whittick, Arn. Symbols, Signs and Their Meaning. London, 1960.

Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. New York, 1946.

Emanation...

A vibration that is issued or comes from a single source. In mysticism the world is sometimes considered to be the most physical, dense, or "gross" emanation of the godhead. The mystical cosmologies of the Kabbalah, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism conceived the Creation process in this way.
In the Kabbalah, for example, there are ten emanations, or sephiroth, fcrom Air Soph Aur – the limitless light. These emanations are manifested through Four Worlds, which were successively more dense. They were named Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah, respectively. A.G.H.

Definitions...

"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Isaiah Berlin

Iconography - set of symbols or images used in a particular field of activity such as music or the movies and recognized by people as having a particular meaning.

Ideogram - a symbol used in some writing systems, e.g. those of Japan and China, that directly but abstractly represents a thing or concept itself rather than the word for it.

Phonogram - a symbol that represents a word, part of a word, or an individual speech sound.

Pictogram - a graphic symbol or picture representing a word or idea in some writing systems, as opposed to a symbol such as a letter of the alphabet representing an individual sound.

Asemic writing - a wordless open semantic form of writing . The word asemic means “having no specific semantic content”. Illegible, invented, or primal scripts (cave paintings, doodles, children's drawings, etc. ) are all influences upon asemic writing. But instead of being thought of as mimicry of preliterate expression, asemic writing can be considered as a postliterate style of writing that uses all forms of creativity for inspiration.

The Artist-scientist - is one of the Jungian archetypes in mythology. Like all of these archetypes, the artist-scientist is an abstraction of life and the human mind. While never as common as archetypes like the child or the Hero, the artist-scientist is immediately recognizable. They are a builder, an inventor, a seeker, a dreamer, and a thinker. Distracted by their own thoughts, they frequently have to be pulled in out of the rain. They are simultaneously vastly knowledgeable and yet innocent, impulsive yet cautious. They represent the wonder to be found in curiosity, and the dangers.

Semiotics - term used in media studies it basically means 'signs' and 'symbols' it symbolises a meaning. It is also the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood.

Doodles - The word doodle first appeared in the early seventeenth century to mean a fool or simpleton, and is thought to derive from the Low German dudeltopf, meaning "fool" or "simpleton". This is the meaning meant in the song "Yankee Doodle", originally sung by British colonial troops prior to the American Revolutionary War. This is also the origin of the early eighteenth century verb to doodle, meaning "to swindle or to make a fool of". The modern meaning emerged in the 1930s either from this meaning or from the verb "to dawdle", which since the seventeenth century has had the meaning of wasting time or being lazy.
In the movie "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" Mr. Deeds mentions that "doodle" was a word made up to describe scribblings to help a person think.

Dreams - A dream is an experience of a sequence of images, sounds, ideas, emotions, or other sensations usually during sleep, especially REM sleep.

Symbology - concept was developed by Victor Turner in the mid-1970s to refer to the use of symbols within cultural contexts, in particular ritual. In anthropology, symbology originated as part of Victor Turner's concept of "comparative symbology". Turner (1920-1983) was professor of Anthropology at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and finally he was Professor of Anthropology and Religion at the University of Virginia. In 1940, Robert A. Heinlein used "symbology" in Blowups Happen, a mathematics-based short story. He uses the word as a way to establish conceptual connections between behavioral psychology and mathematics.

Asemic Symbolic Divination and/or Isomorphic Technoscry...

Asemic symbolic divination is the use of art through its design, composition and symbolic content, to evoke an understanding of future events or reveal occult knowledge by means of augury or an alleged supernatural agency. Through its composition and symbolic content, asemic symbolic divination may also provide an understanding of complex ideas. This form of art depends on the viewers knowledge of philosophy, art history, mathematics, religion, philosophy, physics, sociology, nature and many other esoteric subjects for it to make sense. It can be understood through aesthetic intuition.

While other forms of divination such as dowsing uses a forked willow branch or brass wire rods, isomorphic technoscry or asemic symbolic divination utilizes a drawing utensil during the creation phase as the vehicle which allows the metaphysical "effluvia" to emerge or coalesce on the desired workspace.

"The interpretation of the cryptic, symbolic divination required participation of the recipient. The prophecies were often ambiguous, so their value was not that they gave a correct answer, but that they opened up new areas of reality to examination."
The Courage to Create by Rollo May Book Summary by Susie Pedigo

The ideomotor effect is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously (i.e., without conscious awareness). As in reflexive responses to pain, the body sometimes reacts reflexively to ideas alone without the person consciously deciding to take action. For instance, tears are produced by the body unconsciously in reaction to the emotion of sadness, usually without any intervention of conscious will.

Stage hypnotists exploit the ideomotor effect for entertainment value, convincing volunteers to perform some action without consciously deciding to do so. The volunteers usually have no memory of their performance, much like sleepwalkers who are unaware that they are acting on stimulus existing almost entirely in their own minds. More subtle unconscious physical reactions are often used by magicians and illusionists to perform "mind-reading" tricks.

Automatic writing, dowsing, facilitated communication, and Ouija boards have also been attributed to the effect of this phenomenon. Mystics have often attributed this motion to paranormal or supernatural forces. Many subjects are unconvinced that their actions are originating solely from within themselves.

The term was first used in a paper discussing the means through which the Ouija board produced its results, by William Benjamin Carpenter in 1852. In the paper, Carpenter explained his theory that muscular movement can be independent of conscious desires or emotions.

Scientific tests by the English scientist Michael Faraday, the French chemist Michel Chevreul, and the American psychologists William James and Ray Hyman have demonstrated that many phenomena attributed to spiritual or paranormal forces, or to mysterious "energies," are actually due to ideomotor action. Furthermore, these tests demonstrate that "honest, intelligent people can unconsciously engage in muscular activity that is consistent with their expectations" (Hyman 1999). They also show that suggestions that can guide behavior can be given by subtle clues (Hyman 1977).
Some alternative medicine practitioners claim they can use the ideomotor effect to communicate with a patient's unconsciousness using a system of physical signals (such as finger movements) for the unconscious mind to indicate "yes", "no" or "I'm not ready to know that consciously". Scientific studies have not been conducted to support this method.

Isomorphic art...

According to Douglas Hofstadter:"The word 'isomorphism' applies when two complex structures can be mapped onto each other, in such a way that to each part of one structure there is a corresponding part in the other structure, where 'corresponding' means that the two parts play similar roles in their respective structures." (Gödel, Escher, Bach, p. 49)

In abstract algebra, a group isomorphism is a function between two groups that sets up a one-to-one correspondence between the elements of the groups in a way that respects the given group operations. If there exists an isomorphism between two groups, then the groups are called isomorphic. From the standpoint of group theory, isomorphic groups have the same properties and need not be distinguished.

Isomorphism
1. Similarity in form, as in organisms of different ancestry.
2. A one-to-one correspondence between the elements of two sets such that the result of an operation on elements of one set corresponds to the result of the analogous operation on their images in the other set.
3. A close similarity in the crystalline structure of two or more substances of different chemical composition. Isomorphism is seen, for example, in the group of minerals known as garnets, which can vary in chemical composition but always have the same crystal structure.
Final Answers© 2000-2007 Gérard P. Michon, Ph.D.
Groups andSymmetries
At the deepest level, all we find aresymmetries and responses to symmetries.Steven Weinberg (1933-) Dirac Memorial Lecture (1986)
Monoids are endowed with an associative operation and a neutral element.
The inverse of an element comes in two flavors which coincide when both exist.
Free monoid: All the finite strings (words) in a given alphabet.
Groups are monoids in which every element is invertible.
A subgroup is a group contained in another group.
Generators of a group are not contained in any proper subgroup.
Lagrange's Theorem: The order of a subgroup divides the order of the group.
Normal subgroups and their quotients in a group.
Group homomorphism: The image of a product is the product of the images.
The symmetric group on a set E consists of all the bijections of E onto itself.
Inner automorphisms: Inn(G) is isomorphic to the quotient of G by its center.
The conjugacy class formula uses conjugacy to tally elements of a group.
Simple groups are groups without nontrivial normal subgroups.
The derived subgroup of a group is generated by its commutators.
Direct product of two groups (also called a direct sum for additive groups).
Groups of small orders and their families: Cyclic groups, dihedral groups, etc.
Enumeration of "small" groups. How many groups of order n?
Classification of finite simple groups, by Gorenstein and many others (1982).
Sporadic groups: Tits Group, 20 relatives of Fischer's Monster, 6 pariahs.
Classical groups: Their elements depend on parameters from a field.
The Möbius group consists of homographic transformations of È{¥}.
Lorentz transformations may change spatial orientation or time direction.
Symmetries of the laws of nature: A short p