the cross has been described as the sign of signs .............................................................................................................................................................................................
	the cross symbol sign and symbol basically, anything that represents something else is a sign. some, such as traffic signs or the male and female signs on restrooms, have a strictly limited meaning. a stop light is a stop light - no more, no less. a symbol must, according to carl jung, not have any definition at all. it has many levels of meaning, not just one obvious one, and should represent a concept which is initially difficult to grasp intellectually in the full scope of its meaning - like a work of art which defies any simple description of all its nuances. (if you can define it precisely, it may have changed from a symbol to a sign). symbols are ideas. whenever we use one we are pointing to the idea behind that symbol. ‘the sign is always less than the concept it represents, while a symbol always stands for something more than its obvious and immediate meaning.’ - dr. carl g. jung, ‘man and his symbols’, 1964 symbols are fascinating, because they stir your imagination and intuition to help you discover new meanings and insights. they invite you to explore the possibilities, and force you to go beyond limited definitions and literal thinking if you want to understand the concepts they represent. --- cross symbol the basic shape of a cross, has since prehistoric times been employed in almost every culture throughout the world and all the roughly similar shapes of cross symbols have wildly different meanings. the cross variously symbolised health, fertility, life, immortality, the union of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, the sun, the stars... it is seen a world centre and a cosmic axis, the cross represents the human form, with its four cardinal points it can be mapped to fourfold systems: the four directions: north, south, east, and west; the 4 seasons; the four elements; the four winds... --- a coordinate one of the most used archetypes, the cross stems from the deepest collective levels of the human psyche. on a deeper level of interpretation (and maybe it’s the most correct interpretation), cross symbols have a commonality that point to a kind of significance that is truly transcendental: because of the intersection of its two lines, the cross is ‘nothing else’ than a coordinate - used to represent the location of the point in the plane or space. an universal symbol of (human) existence, here and now! --- christianity the cross had symbolic meaning before it assumed its christians connotations. it has been employed as a sacred, protective, or decorative emblem in almost every culture throughout the world. it has been found in china and africa, it appears on bronze age stones in scandinavia ; in ancient greece; in pre-columbian america, and in the euphrates-tigris region around 1500 B.C. the origin of the word ‘cross’ is the latin word ‘crux’, from the verb cruciare, meaning to torture. when the successful new ideology of christianity began to spread, the worship of suffering also spread... and the promoters of apostles had the honor of having a torture rack named after them (like the cross of st. peter, the cross of st. andrew, the cross of st. phillip, etc.). --- page 1 of 3 see : page 2 the many permutations of the cross page 3 modern crosses © designboom this illustrated study is provided for educational purposes only, no reproduction, re-use or transcription for any commercial purpose or use of the content or images is permitted. for inquieries : mail@designboom.com detail of ‘the institution of the crib at greccio’ fresco by giotto ‘presepe di greccio’ / institution of the crib at greccio by giotto, 13th century, st. francis of assisi. --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------