Spencer Heath Archhive

Item 381

Taping by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath.

July, 1955

There has been entirely too much scoffing and scorning of the superstitions, because the ritualistic practices connected with them have a profound poetic and ritualistic significance usually far beyond the under­standing of those who superstitiously engage in them. The use and beauty of religious symbolism lies in its significance, not in the symbol itself, which may be and often is very crude. To divest symbolism of its deep significance and treat it literally is a kind of religious profanation. And yet for very crude minded persons, even a literal significance is in some degree uplifting, so only there be a sense of mystery and awe aroused, a recog­nition of something having a worth and power and beauty beyond their ken. (That last observation is one that is too often neglected by people who think they are liberal minded, you know.)