In literature, gardens were also known as Locus amoenus (pleasant place). There is certainly something very pure and innocent in being in a garden.Īs such, this concept has been around ever since the Middle Ages. They are pure and offer people a place of rest. Gardens are also sometimes symbols of innocence. Again, it’s a creature that is often depicted on Christian paintings as the symbol of purity. The lamb is a very common symbol of innocence. They’re not fully aware of their surroundings and can get preyed on if they are not protected by their parents. Because of this, they are often seen as innocent.īesides, newborn animals look very innocent. They are not aware of the dangers around them and are too naive to survive on their own. Newborn animals are powerless and often weak. This symbol is quite similar to children. The wedding bride often wears a white dress, depicting her innocence before the marriage. But even in our everyday life, white is seen as the color of purity. White is a highly respected color in Christianity. In many paintings and even Hollywood movies, Jesus Christ is depicted wearing a white tunic, which is the ultimate symbol of purity and innocence. This is heavily connected to Christianity, but white has long been used as a symbol of innocence and purity. That’s when a child starts to lose innocence. They get introduced to the adult world, and they find many things fun and even rebellious – things like drugs, alcohol, and crime. It’s often in the teen years when children start to get exposed to the real world and they start to lose their innocence. They’re also not fully aware of the world around them, and what they are capable of. They’re also yet to see the evil in the world and what a man is capable of. They are still naive and not aware of the dangers around them. ChildrenĬhildren are some of the most innocent creatures on Earth. What has all this to do with the lotus? We will take it up in our next piece.Final Thoughts 5 Symbols that Represent Innocence 1. Then there were Gods of Destruction, Disease and Pestilence alongside Gods of Health, Prosperity, and Love. There were Mother Goddesses and those of harvests, etc. Each ancient civilisation had their own Gods of Creation, of Birth and Death and of Rain and Thunder. We weren’t alone in imagining a heaven peopled by many Gods, the Mayans, the Incas, The Egyptians, The Sumerians, The Chinese, The Babylonians, The Romans, The Greeks and every other ancient civilisation created her own theory of creation of the Earth and imagined a pantheon of Gods. ![]() The more we began to explore and observe, the more things we discovered that we did not understand, and we began to imagine a heaven that was busy with many Gods looking after different things. As we began to settle down to agricultural activity and domesticate animals and plant seeds, we learnt a whole lot of things that we did not understand earlier, and that which we did not, we attached a supernatural power to it. Let us try to understand this a bit more. But in the way things evolve, we can clearly say that the veneration of the lotus has to predate the times before we imagined Gods. All these things existed, but we were not yet aware of them, so it is not going to be easy to put a date on it. It is difficult to say when exactly the veneration of lotus began, it must have started at a time when we did not have a calendar, with its years, months, weeks, or 24-hour days. One of the names for the lotus is Pankaj - Born out of the Mud. ![]() So she saw the filth, she saw the beauty blooming within and thought to herself - you can rise above all this filth and be pure, thus birthing the idea of the lotus as a symbol of purity. We think it was a woman because women notice these things, much before men do. We believe that this person who first noticed the beautiful lotus was a woman. It is in a time like this that someone comes across a pond of stagnant water, filled with dead and decaying leaves, the water of the pond filled with slushy mud and crawling with all manner of creeping creatures, and amidst all this, there was this beautiful lotus, swaying in the gentle breeze. Because everything was alive and had emotions, it could become happy or get angry, it could be benevolent or malevolent, things could be pleased and placated by offerings, and when happy, they could help us. ![]() We believed that everything, even things that we consider lifeless like rocks, mountains, pebbles, earth, sky, clouds, rivers, lakes, ponds, had life and was animated. We invested everything that we did not understand with magical or supernatural powers, this is the age of animism.
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