As opposed to the hand itself, the Palm is primarily linked with aspects of our future potential. This kind of palm reading is associated with the concept of predetermination, which views life as a destiny preordained in the higher order of reality.
In the dream sense, Paper symbolizes the physical communication of our modem world. Consequently, huge piles of paper may represent our anxiety about the 'red tape' of everyday life. The complexity of maintaining records for a huge society requires mountains of documents, which is why the 'computer' age is accompanied by the 'printer' age.
Papyrus is a transliteration of the Greek word papyros (which gives us 'paper'), itself derived from an Ancient Egyptian word meaning 'royal'. The papyrus was the equivalent of the book. In hieroglyphics the papyrus roll signified knowledge.
Paradise may represent a desire to return to the innocent problem-free simplicity of early childhood. However, this is wrongheaded, because it is unrealistic. The garden of Eden prior to Adam's 'fall' represents the oneness and harmony of all things when all things are still unconscious.
Nations at peace and societies at peace are both symbols of peace at heart and are both its consequence. The Heavenly Peace of the Chinese (Taiping) was indeed displayed in the social harmony and undisturbed government of the empire. Yu the Great regulated the world by pacifying Earth and Waters.
Because it blossoms early, the peach-tree in flower is a symbol of Spring. The same line of thought - rebirth and fertility - makes it also a Chinese emblem of marriage. The Momo or festivals held in honour of peach-blossom in Japan seem to reinforce this with the twofold notion of purity and faithfulness - peach-blossom symbolizing virginity.
Pearls have associations with water, shells and the moon (same shape and colour), all of which are symbols of the feminine in its positive, creative aspects. A pearl may therefore signify new life; a possibility of personal growth. In a woman's dream it may even, by its resemblance to a foetus, represent pregnancy.
The symbolism of pen (qalam) and book - or quill and tablet - plays an extremely important part in Islamic tradition. The Sufis teach that the Supreme Pen is Universal Intelligence. The first thing which God created was the Hidden or Guarded Tablet.
Perseus had no human father. He was directly descended from Zeus (metamorphosed into a shower of gold) and Danae. Perseus was, however, also the conqueror of Medusa, Queen of the gorgons, thanks to pegasus, the winged horse which had enabled Bellerophon to overcome the Chimera.
Both the cock and hen pheasant play important parts in Far Eastern mythology. Its call and display make the cock a symbol of cosmic harmony, a prefiguration of the coming of Yu the Great, regulator of the world.
The symbolism of a Pig involves base actions, whether they be hygiene-related or sexually orientated, the little hog lets loose. In this sense, we must observe the sloppy, muddy appearance of the swine.
The pine tree which remains green and healthy throughout the year is symbolic of eternal and transcendent spirit. The seasons which change our activity and behavior, nevertheless, cannot change the continuity of who we are.
Pan, personification of the pastoral life, who from his half-human, half-animal origins became god of woods and caverns, is supposed to have invented the pipe, and with it to have delighted gods, men and beasts.
Plains are symbols of space and of the boundless Earth, but always in the horizontal as opposed to the vertical sense. When transposed to Heaven, the word denotes the boundless immensity in which the sky-gods dwell.
From the very earliest times, planetary symbolism derived from supposed parallels between the celestial and the terrestrial or human order, whereby a special relationship existed between the movement of the stars and human fate.
Plants symbolize solar energy concentrated and made manifest.
Plants suck up the strength of terrestrial fire and draw in solar energy. They amass this power, from which they derive their healing or poisonous properties and which is the basis of their use in magic.
Far Eastern painters frequently use plum-trees as their subjects, since the tree is primarily a symbol of Spring. The North American Pawnee Indians regard the wild plum as a fertility symbol, since it is so prolific.
