Alanna Dailey - Natural Symbolism

Natural Symbolism: Required Reading
I have always been fascinated with how oral cultures use nature to symbolize concepts. For instance a cave is often used to symbolize a womb and good fertility. In The Ritual Process, Victor Turner describes his understanding of the Isoma ritual. The ritual is to appease a woman’s ancestors who have cursed with barrenness or sick/stillborn children. Before the ceremony, the shaman mixes a medicine composed of various ingredients from nature. Each ingredient is symbolic and correlates to each step of the ritual as well as the conditions of the participants. The wooden of one tree is used to represent health and strength that is to come, and the bark of dead or dying tree is use to represent the present conditions the participants. I find this symbolism clever and it enforces the human and nature relationship. Using nature as representations of what one is and what one could become is fascinating. Essentially, from nature they are learning self- identity (I am like this tree because it is sick) and using it as role models (I want to be like this tree because it is strong and healthy). One really is one with nature if that is where they learn self-identity and expectations.