Religious & Magickal Symbols Quiz.

[Danustouch]

http://altreligion.about.com/library/quiz/symbols/blquiz_symbol.htm

[Faery-Wings]

Wow, that was hard!

I think I migh have gotten about half right on the first try, but some of those were just guesses.

Chris

[slvr_phoenix]

Geeze. That was a painful one. Though a lot of what made it painful wasn't a lack of complete knowledge on the subject, but a lack of knowledge from their point of view. Such as when deities have several names and you know the answer, but yet that name isn't listed in their choices. (But is later given as one of the other names for the deity when they talk about it more upon getting it right.) Ah well. In any event, I only got five wrong. :) Had I thought more before I answered some of them, I'd probably have done even better. Anyway though, it was fun. Thanks. :)

[Danustouch]

I screwed up on the Swastika symbol, and on the Aztec symbol. I got the rest right, first try! wooohoooo!

[Rick]

...you are simply EVIL! :D Keep it up...

I got 10 out of the 15...


Where were the lifelines, Regis? ;)

[Danustouch]

LOL rick!

[Maggie]

Originally posted by Danustouch
http://altreligion.about.com/library/quiz/symbols/blquiz_symbol.htm

Got four wrong--can tell where there are gaps in my knowledge!

Regards,

Maggie

[Swanspirit]

Thank you ..... I got three wrong,
the Swastika ......The Aztec God ...... and the symbol for Lord Vishnu......heeheheh The About.com people do a really thorough job. I am proud to be a member there and I have been hosting an astrolgy chat there for almost two years now ...... here is the link every tuesday night at 9 PM EST or EDT , although lately it has been slow but it is slow in summer ......
http://astrology.about.com/mpchat.htm
Love and Light
SwanHOST :>

[Lilu]

13/15!!!

The Baphomet one stumped me because I went with the obvious answer (well, obvious to me anyway). And the angel one got me because I don't know anything about kabala and it's symbols.

Lilu

[slvr_phoenix]

The questions that got me were:

The Pentacle: Don't even ask. **ROFL** Upon seeing the correct answer I realised I knew that I knew the answer, and had simply failed to recall the information from the depths of swiss-cheese I call a memory. And I had to wonder why I had thought it could be anything else. I still can't even understand my own reasonong for not choosing the right answer right away. Chalk it up to a monumental brain fart. He he he. Had I actually spent more time thinking, I'm sure I'd have gotten it right. But I was too impatient to care. He he he. :)

The Valknot: The answer just seemed too obvious, so I tried to second guess myself. I should have just gone with the obvious.

The star motif: I had been looking for Astarte. Upon not seeing her, I decided to reason that maybe someone associated it to Venus as she has been identified as a star herself. Technically, I was right anyway on both counts as it was a representation of the planet Venus and Ishtar was another name for Astarte. **L** Just according to the exact answer they wanted I was wrong.

Aztec coat of arms: I've just never been a big fan of Aztec stuff. The only name I even recognized from any context was Quetzacoatl. Funnily enough, after telling me I was wrong for choosing that one, it then proceeds to say, "Although it isn't known what the spiral symbol might have meant to the Aztec people, the symbol by itself is the coat of arms of another Aztec deity, Quetzacoatl.", when I choose the 'right' one of Huitzilopochtli.

Angel symbol: Darned if I know much of anything about angels, hermetics, or quabala. Those three are definite weak points in my studies.

Obviously my opinion is that this quiz wasn't put together very well. Two times I chose a technically correct answer, but was labelled wrong because it wasn't the answer they were looking for.

[Lilu]

Originally posted by slvr_phoenix
The star motif: I had been looking for Astarte. Upon not seeing her, I decided to reason that maybe someone associated it to Venus as she has been identified as a star herself. Technically, I was right anyway on both counts as it was a representation of the planet Venus and Ishtar was another name for Astarte. **L** Just according to the exact answer they wanted I was wrong.

I ALMOST went with Venus myself thanks to the studies I did ages ago with Astarte. Astarte is supposedly an older version of Ishtar (which I almost forgot), and Aphrodite is meant to be the Greek version of Ishtar, so following in this reasoning I nearly went with Venus because she is the Roman counterpart of Aphrodite. I went straight from Astarte to Aphrodite/Venus skipping over Ishtar. If I hadn't read her name, I'd have forgotten about her and chosen Venus.

To be honest, I was looking for Isis LOL She's associated with stars too! haha

Lilu

[arewynn]

i missed three oh well
the angel michael is associated with fire/south michael archangel of the south warrior of the sacred flames his day is sunday
raphael with air/east archangel of the east mystic illuminater,star
traveler his day is wednesday
ariel with earth//north archangel of the north keeper of the sacred wisdom his day is friday
gabriel with water/west archangel of the west angel of the moon and inner vision his day ismonday.
i missed the angel one toooo.lololo
bright blessings
arewynn

[Myst]

Ok so what about the rest of the days of the week then?

Err I did the test and got two wrong I think. Then again the ones I got wrong I got really wrong, and didn't get the right answer till the third or fourth try :)

[Swanspirit]

and the ones I got wrong I have no interest in OR I am blocked in that area ..... depending on how I look at it ..... the Aztec and Mayan pantheons have not ever interested me , although my brother studied and loved MesoAmerican Art when he was he was getting his degree in fine art . I was simply not drawn there, and even am repelled ..... which leads me to think perhaps I might have some blocking there LOL well I might not explore that avenue this lifetime.
I know and love Ishtar , once had a cat named Ishtar .....
and I KNEW the Swastika was Celtic but didnt want to know if you know what I mean .... I have some blockage there as well , definitely some negative stuff with the Swastika really can hardly stand to look at it,being half Jewish as I am ..... and I think it might be older than the reference they gave as well ......
ahh well not something to base your self esteem on LOL.. but a brief if superficial overview ... I love symbols , now if you want the IN DEPTH version..... try Man And his Symbols by Carl Jung , now there is the real thing :>
Love and Symbolic Gestures
Swannie

[arewynn]

tuesday samuel
thursday sachiel
saturday cassiel
lol
arewynn

[reanna]

Cool quiz!! Thanks for posting that:):):)

[slvr_phoenix]

Actually Swannie, the swastika has been represented in many forms other than just Celtic. It's one of those few symbols that almost has to have come from some greater source because all around the world several cultures have 'originated' the design without knowledge of each other. I believe even the Native Americans have such a symbol.

Also, in each case that I've heard of, the symbol originates with points facing counter-clockwise. I believe Hitler intentionally reversed it's facing when he created the swastika to harden people against the original symbol. Just as Levi intentionally reversed the pentacle to create the goat's head pentagram. (Though arguably for different reasons, even if it had the same result.)

I hope that one day you can look past the swastika to the true symbology from before Hitler, just as we as pagans can look past Levi's goat-head to find joy in the true meaning of the pentacle. Otherwise, you are just serving to feed energies to the corruption of things once universally beautiful.

[Swanspirit]

What they say about advice?
This is a thread about a quiz about symbols , which are very personal to each person that sees them. That is part of the beauty of symbols that each person responds to them in thier own way , has their own personal meaning , and proces concerning them .To try and tell someone they are, " just serving to feed energies to the corruption of things once universally beautiful."
because someone has a personal response to a symbol that meant death and destruction to millions and might be a key to a past life or who knows what , is a HUGE generalisation and not a valid observation at all but a gross generalisation based on your opinion , which appears biased because you know something of me but not me personally.
And from what you did say I can tell you know little to nothing about my personal process,(and you didnt ask ) or my knowlegdge of symbols , or my personal path or my path in this lifetime. Read again the part where I said I love symbols , and I read Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols in 1979, and have that book and many others including Barbara Walkers Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects , where she lists the Gammadion Swastika made from four greek gammas , the lunar swastika from Knossos with the crescent inside and the arms counter clockwise like the Hindi Sauwastika , which was expressive of the moon retrograde path .Then there is the Roman Swastika with extra arms , the rattlesnake swastika from a Native Amercian burial mound , the runic one , the solar one which is the Gnostic world symbol , the sunbird one from Native american burial mounds , and then the THE swastika which is named from the Sanskrit so be it or amen, which has been a religious emblem of wolrdwide occurance since 10,000 BCE, appearing onthe oldest coinage from India , onimages of Buddha in Japan, and on Goddess figures in Roman and Greek cultures.
Then there is the tetrascele, one with arms and horse heads which is a symbol of the sun chariot, and the wolf's cross , from an old Nordic calendrical sign.
And you know someone , yes a man, lol, once ridiculed using symbols from a WOMANS (womyns wombins Womuns )dictionary to help interpret a dream, and I thought then what an idiot , so I am sure you wont have that response !!!!!!!!!
I understand that people when they just obtain knowledge sometimes are in a hurry to "share" and does seem to be what is going in with you in your sincere effort to provide me with your opinion ,but your opinion isnt knolwedge its just your opinion . I deeply and sincerely hope you someday gain the maturity and self control to do other wise, because if not, you are just making pagans look like proseltysers, giving out advice willy nilly , not knowing how to start a sentence with the word I , continually pointing at other peoples behavior intead of examining your own etc etc , all those things that mature people know about and know what is going on when that happens.

I can tell you know something about some symbols and have some aquantance and maybe even some intimate knowledge with swastika than I do ,( and I think you could have shared that without getting so personally involved in my process),but not too much about boundaries and crossing them; but have your own ideas about who is to be the recipient of your advice , which appears to be anyone you so choose whether or not they ask or solicit said "advice or opinion "in any way .
I know some people who send anonymous letters with advice but at least you arent going that far LOL.
So I hope you aquaint yourself with some literature on the true meanings of boundaries so you can not add to the idea that pagans are rampant boundary crossers, intrude where they arent wanted , and say things about which they have little knowledge.There are SO MANY lessons to be learned in this world and not all of them are in books, and have symbols .
Love and Light
Swannie

[mol]

:thumbsup:

I got a 100%

:nyah:

[Lilu]

ok... how many "try agains" before you reached that 100% though mol???? :nyah:

[slvr_phoenix]

Geeze Swannie, you sure can rant a lot. If it makes you feel better, rant all you like. Maybe people will think the better of you for it.

For your information though, I didn't offer you any advice. I merely expressed my hope that one day people can stop dwelling on the negative things that have been done to symbols. And as you had expressed this dwelling upon the negative, I expressed hope that you could turn to the positive. Am I no longer allowed to hope for positive things in people's lives? It seems to me that you have an awfully funny way of responding to people offering you uplifting energies in the hope that your life may benefit.

By holding on to a negative emotional response to something, you are merely adding to the strength of what caused that negative emotional response. It is re-affirming that negativity. This doesn't happen to be just my opinion. It happens to be one of the fundamental basics of all work with energies. The entire New Age movement is founded upon this very detail. So are countless religions.

And I would hope that we as Pagans would be able to understand this and know that to cleanse and heal the damage things like that cause, we need to return positive energies instead of negative ones.

For example, what percentage of people even two decades ago thought that the pentacle was a sign of worshipping Satan? By putting positive energies into it, we have reclaimed the pentacle and are giving it back it's true meaning. Had we responded with anger or other negative energies, we would have merely re-affirmed that it was 'evil'. But instead we responded with kindness, love, and other positive energies, and have managed to reverse people's belief about the symbol.

And I hope that one day we can do the same to reclaim all symbols that have been corrupted in a similar manner, such as the 'swastika'.

And moderators, please forgive me for going off topic with this post, but I felt that my hope that symbols can be reclaimed was something that I should share with all of the community instead of just with Swannie.

[Swanspirit]

even tho words are originally made from symbols which carried meanings ...... I am glad you expressed hope that people can change , but I wasnt ranting , I was sharing my knowledge of a symbol ..... so I am sorry you misinterpreted the symbols in front of your eyes and put your own spin on them up to and including the hope that people will think me better for it . Self worth is not based on outside opinion but is based on inner truth, and experience ... which is a fundamental and psychological developmental stage reached by maturing and growing . I sincerely hope that one day you can reach that as well , so yes we all can express hopes.........
And I dont use the negative positive polarity paradigm in my beleif and value system its far too limiting ... I cannot and will not speak for MOST PAGANS here because I dont want to generalise , but my system has many more and deeper shades of values and meaning than negative and positive .
So I can hope someday these little symbols we call words can be understood because so many misunderstand so much.
That is why there are so few "universal" meanings to symbols but every culture shares them , and has their own assocations with them Many many culures have symbols with what I believe you are calling "negative" and for good reason... they connote danger or anger or concepts that carry many shades of meaning far beyond negative and positive , the Skull is an example of what I am saying ..... used as symbol to revere our ancestors; by pirates on the High Seas, and on poison bottles to denote danger . Great Symbol..... many shades of meaning beyond "positive and negative"
Love and Understanding
Swannie:wave: :wave:

[mol]

Originally posted by Lilu
ok... how many "try agains" before you reached that 100% though mol???? :nyah:

HEY!

Are you calling me a cheater???

:nonono:

[Lilu]

Originally posted by mol


HEY!

Are you calling me a cheater???

:nonono:


Who me?!?! :huh:

Nah... I'm just teasin' :D

:shift:
And these new smilies are SO CUTE!

Lilu

[Myst]

Originally posted by Swanspirit
even tho words are originally made from symbols which carried meanings

Ok you yourself said symbols are personal and people have their own meanings and interpretations of them, therefore impressions shared about these symbols as a personal understanding are NOT wrong, regadless of who shared them. This is not an argument over who knows more about history and symbolism, nor is it a discussion on whether men oppress women. For Goddess' sake can't you people have a conversation about something without turning it into an argument? This thread is about a symbolism quiz and the history and meaning of these symbols, not personal arguments between people.

[Swanspirit]

Thank you
Love and Light
Swannie

[arewynn]

and what shade were you in when you posted, certinly not in the
law of return shade ,as far as adult goes the original post did not
pot shot anyones beleifs. the visious response did.as far as
symbols go they are not open to our interpatation if we know thier meaning .they symbolize what they stand for.it is beyond tragic that a monster took that which stood for thousands of years to some point universaly as a symbol of the calander,the four points,and luck just to mention some , and turned it into his badge of dishounor.seems that to this very day he still promotes his hate threw us.maybe the following sites will be helpful.maybe some day we can retake that wich does not belong to him.its time we stop letting him which is hate teach us to.
bright blessings


www.gentleswastika.com
History of the Swastika, The
http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa120699a.htm

arewynn

[Rick]

OK, then, let's keep the discussion here on the quiz... if you wanna discuss the symbology, take it to Politics, or History. And remain civil.

[Astraea]

The flaming chalice, valknot, and symbol of Vishnu questions got me. I had to guess on the swastika question but got it right. That was a great quiz, thank you for sharing, Danustouch!