| A Little Bit of Symbolism |
| Written by abby | |
| Friday, 04 January 2008 | |
 The founders of the 12 Steps and Alcoholics Anonymous thought it proper to use a symbol as the trademark for their program. So in July of 1955 they came up with a triangle surrounded by a circle. They found it to mean this for them: "The circle stands for the whole world of A.A., and the triangle stands for A.A.'s Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity, and Service. Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession. That we have chosen this particular symbol is perhaps no accident. The priests and seers of antiquity regarded the circle enclosing the triangle as a means of warding off spirits of evil, and A.A.'s circle and triangle of Recovery, Unity, and Service has certainly meant all of that to us and much more." (c. 1985, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, page 139) According to A Dictionary of Symbols, the triangle in the circle also means "Ternary in the universe: the spiritual principle within totality." (1962, page 124) This book also goes on to describe ternary, the number three, in this way: "Three symbolizes spiritual synthesis, and is the formula for the creation of each of the worlds. It represents the solution of the conflict posed by dualism. It forms a half-circle comprising birth, zenith and descent. Geometrically it is expressed by three points and by the triangle. It is the harmonic product of the action of unity upon duality. It is the number concerned with basic principles, and expresses sufficiency, or growth of unity within itself. Finally, it is associated with the concepts of heaven and the Trinity." (1962, A Dictionary of Symbols, page 232) What better way to ward off evil than to associate with the concepts of heaven and the Trinity. The 12 steps gave us a foundation in which to base our reality and through their principles of recovery, unity, and service we "have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed." (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 25) |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 13 January 2008 ) |