Because of its long red feathers, the Maya regarded the macaw as a symbol of fire and solar energy. 'The hieroglyphic kayab, depicting a macaw's head, denoted the solstice and this the Chorti translated with a blazing Sun'. In the fives-court at Copan, six statues of macaws are drawn up in lines of three facing east and three facing west.
The symbolism of Magic refers to illusions, surprise and impossible feats of reality. Accordingly, in a dream sense, a magic act may represent an enactment of the seemingly impossible. In other words, we may be expressing extreme self confidence or conversely, a delusional sense of our superreal personal ability.
Magpies are commonly synonymous with tattlers and thieves, a fact easily explicable in terms of the bird's behaviour. This is also why the magpie-thrush, the borling-borlang, symbolizes for the Montagnards of southern Vietnam the ancestor who taught them the art of conducting trials - or at least of holding palavers.
In the dream sense, a Mailbox may represent expectation, desire and hope. Furthermore, the mailbox may be compared to a womb which accepts the combination of procreative life and delivers a new life into truest fruition. Our mailbox dream may be reminding us to experience the truth but rather right here at home with our friends and neighbors.
The archetypal image of a Mandala, replete with a square within a circle, symbolizes the infinite radiance of microcosm to macrocosm. Used in Hindu and Buddhist traditions to represent the foundation of universality, the mandala embodies the form (see Circle) of its own all-encompassing meaning.
In the dream sense, articles constructed of Marble, may symbolize fragile beauty, inspired artistry and superhuman eternal adoration. As such, we need to determine the form and/or character depicted in the contour of the marble. Sculpture represents the immortal spirit of man, but never man himself.
Nearly all religious traditions contain instances of sacred marriages. They not only symbolize the potential for union between God and the individual, but also the coition of divine principles which will engender definite essences. One of the most famous of these marriages was between Zeus (Power) and Themis (Justice or Eternal Order).
While Europeans may read into the marsh the sense of sloth and idleness, Asia does not regard absence of movement as something negative. The Chinese hexagram t'ui, which duplicates the sign for still water, carries the meaning of concord, fulfilment and wealth. In Sumerian mythology, the marsh is passive, female, undifferentiated matter.
A mask may represent the persona, the image you present to the world. Perhaps the dream is asking you to take a fresh look at that image and also to look behind it. It may have served you and supported your ego in the past, but possibly you are now beginning - or being urged - to see yourself in a new way.
The age-old symbolism of the Maze involves the closed pathways and open roads we traverse in order to find our deepest desired goals. As such, we witness the trip through the Maze as the journey into self-understanding. The overall conceptualization of the maze illustrates a layout which is predetermined by some greater force who in turn.
Mead was the Celtic beverage of immortality, drunk by the gods in the Otherworld - when the monks came to write these legends down they often substituted wine - and also at the ritual feasts during the great festival of Samain. In contrast with beer, which was the drink of the warrior caste, mead, in the Celtic world, was the drink of the gods.
Mercury is a universal alchemical symbol and in most cases that of the passive, moist principle, yin. In alchemical terms, 'solution', bringing back to mercury again, is regression to an undifferentiated state. Just as a woman submits to the male, so mercury is subservient to sulphur.
The archetypal symbol of Metal may involve a hardness, or coldness, of character. In the dream sense, we may be depicting a shield, or barrier, against personal and entirely human, heartache. We are replacing soul and emotion with cool reason and innovative spirit.
Like the solstices in the annual cycle, so midday and midnight are not simply points of the greatest concentrations of yang and yin, but also starting points for ascending movement of opposing principles, since the ascendant portion of the day runs from midnight to midday, its descendant from midday to midnight.
Milk may symbolize mother-love, or your nurturing as a child. It may symbolize nourishment for your psyche, enabling personal expansion. Drinking milk may symbolize sharing in divine life or consciousness; or awareness of the one source of all life, one life-force. The symbolism of milk refers to nurturing.
In Maya-Quiche mythology (Popol-Vuh) the Milky Way is described as a great white serpent. The Aztecs believed that the Serpent of the Milky Way was eaten each day by an eagle standing for Uitzilopochtli, the god of the midday Sun, associated with the south and the colour blue.
What you see in the mirror will probably be yourself, but as seen by your unconscious. For that reason it may startle you; but take it seriously if you want self-knowledge. It may represent the way you see yourself; or the way you want others to see you.
Mist is also a symbol of the mixture of Air, Water and Fire which existed prior to the creation of solid matter, like the original as it was before the six days' Creation and before all things were given their shape.
