_logo_decoded ://

Your subconscious had already processed the meaning of all the symbolic components engraved in KONVENT’s visual representation ie. our logo. Communication beyond the auditory or written language happens on a visceral, intuitive level, it is encoded in our bodies, in our inner knowings, in our interconnectedness. In this article, we discuss each element and how they represent some of our key beliefs and reasons to create this community, in the form of visual symbols, carried out for centuries and rooted in the wildest forms of existence.

the serpents

Nature and beauty were often portrayed by Egyptian goddesses holding snakes in their hands, before the negative connotation of serpents in relation to female bodies began. At first in the Genesis, through the temptation of Eve, persuading her to bite the sacred fruit of knowledge. Both Adam and Eve, after having eaten the apple are hiding their genitals, or sexuality. Thus the first sign of misdemeanour in the bible is also the first sign of sexual repression, that perhaps not surprisingly, began by using a wine leaf - the wine tree being yet another symbol for the serpent of knowledge, with its branches reaching towards the light, through the rotating movement of the snake. Beyond the latin maxim of In Vino Veritas, wine plants are sacramental for multiple indigenous cultures such as the Shipibo-Conibo people of Peru, Ecuador and Brazil, and are seen as the plants of wisdom. In fact the first shaman in their cosmology was the Yage woman, who represented the wine banisteriopsis caapi for Ayahuasca, illuminating the consciousness of mankind and planting the seeds of humanity in their hearts. It was not enough to be born a human, as they believe, humans first had to be humanised, and this was done by elevating their consciousness through the help of medicinal plants such as Yage. Across a myriad of ancient civilisations, female bodies were closely tied to divine sexuality, with the serpent entwined around their bodies representing birth, regeneration, and overall protection. In Homere’s Metamorphoses for instance, Arethusa transformed herself into a serpent, portraying the powerful vulva, in order to be able to mate with her true love.

the ouroboros

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol used in numerous cultures around the world to allegorize the concepts of time, death, rebirth, continuity, repetition of history, self sufficiency and the Earthly cyclical nature. It can be traced back to circa 1600 BC to Ancient Egypt, also Ancient Greece, Native American, Hinduism, Gnosticism and Alchemy.

The name comes from the Greek terms oura, meaning “tail,” and boros, meaning “devourer.” A serpent devouring its own tail and forming a circle, is an expression of the perpetual cyclic nature of life, immortality and infinite renewal. By combining the perfect oneness and self-sufficiency of the circle, with the wise and transformative nature of the snake, we get the idea of a primordial unity and connectedness between all elements.

In Ancient Egypt the hieroglyph for a Goddess is a cobra, which is also the depiction of goddess Buto. She was protecting Isis and her son Horus - the Sun God. Buto was most commonly portrayed as a serpent surrounding a solar disk, looking exactly like an Ouroboros. This serpent was a symbol of the power of the Pharaohs and was also used by Egyptians for protection. Similarly, in Gnosticism, Ouroboros is connected to the Solar God. It is regarded as the unity of opposites and the transcendence of duality. The Ouroboros also represents eternity and the soul of the world.

In Nordic mythology, Jörmungandr is a sea serpent that circles the world and eats its tail. It is said when he releases his tail, it marks the beginning of Ragnarok or Apocalypse. This myth could be symbolically referring to the earth changes and our internal seasons. Symbolising the inner apocalypse in the sense of revealing, and the spiritual awakening that moves and shakes foundations, destroying dogmas and programmings from the depths of the unconscious. All darkness comes to the surface and the cycles are broken. The parts of ones true//er selves can be pierced back together again.

In Ancient Greece, Plato describes the serpent as the first existing creature and immortal beast in the Universe. Another Greek etymology of this symbol is the ancient myth of creation in which Ophion, the great serpent, encircled himself seven times around an egg and thus, the creation of all things hatched.

One of the most popular of these symbols in the West is spread through Yoga, more specifically the energy serpent found in Kundalini. Its first reference dates back to the 2nd century AC and found in the Kundalini Upanishad "The divine power, Kundalini, shines like the stem of a young lotus; like a snake, coiled round upon herself she holds her tail in her mouth and lies resting half asleep as the base of the body". The Kundalini energy, so it's taught, is the life force energy that lies within each individual, and is the channel through which one could attain enlightenment and awaken to the transcendental nature of existence. The Kundalini serpent is the symbol of creation, sexuality and higher consciousness. In the lowlands of South America, indigenous people believed that the disc shaped world was surrounded by water and encircled by a snake usually Anaconda - the serpent symbolising both, the rivers and their sacred plant Banisteriopsis caapi - biting its own tail.

the vesica pisces

The Vesica Pisces is formed when two identical circles overlap, with the centers of both figures, laying on each other’s outer edge. As simple as it may look at first glance, those intersecting circles are brimming with symbolic value and refer to the sacred geometry, through which the Universe and creation itself had been often depicted.

how the illusion of the many

originates from oneness?

how the one becomes all?

Each circle represents one perfectly whole and sustained unit. To create many from the one, one cannot simply put two singularities together. The many come from the one unity, casting a reflection of its perfect self, as it contains within all that already exist. It does not merge with something different and external. This is the way cells reproduce, and this is the path that symbolises the birth of cosmic consciousness.

the vesica is intersectionality, a space of common ground, shared vision, mutual understanding between supposed equals

Mathematicians and philosophers like Pythagoras, used and studied the knowledge embedded, in what they called sacred geometry. They found the Vesica Pisces to be a key symbol, containing the basis of the Golden Ratio (φ, extensively used in art and architecture), The Flower of Life, and the Fibonacci Spiral. The Vesica Pisces had also marked its presence across many ancient cultures, often as a metaphor to depict The Womb of the Goddess of The Night, The Jade Garden or A Mandrola (mystic almond in Italian).

The Mandorla represents a vulva, or in Sanskrit a Yoni. The Yoni in Tantric teachings is not reducible to the female sex organ, but rather seen as the life source, originating from the creative power of the Goddess Shakti. Yoni also means a portal, through which all forms and patterns in the universe are created, the infinite potential. This shape therefore is represented as the gateway to heaven, or a source of becoming. In Christianity for instance, the Fish - another symbol deriving from the shape of Vesica - represents the mediator between the elemental world above, and the material below.

As a passageway, the Vesica Piscis is strongly connected to the 6th Chakra, also known as the Third Eye. This spot between the brows is seen as a portal, from the physical reality into higher consciousness, into the celestial realms, and from the eternal, back into the material, ephemeral reality. The roots of this metaphorical relationship reach back to ancient Egypt, as the Vesica shape is derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph called Ru, meaning the birth-portal, as well as the Third Eye. Activating the powers of the Third Eye begins with balancing the first five chakras, starting at the base of the spine, where the Kundalini energy is rooted i.e., awakening the coiled snake.

The Vesica is a harmonizing space, a mediation between light and its reflection, a place of unity and the possibility of infinite potential which lies within each entity. This unity becomes a symbol of diversity and multiplicity. Diversity as in the coexistence of difference, which is essential and which is the one universal law of nature, we are not only part of, but which we are. Diversity is the engine of evolution. The rainforest itself, the cradle of the sacred serpent, is the space of the richest and most striving biodiversity of our planet, because nature does not discriminate. Only us, humans do. The overlapping elements are as much symbols of identity and transcendence. No one is a fixed and separate unit, we are as much part of the whole, as the whole is part of us.

At last, the two symmetrically interwoven serpents will continue their cosmic dance of reciprocity, each occupying the same space, as symbols of equality and non-hierarchy, reminding us that in life there is no one being that is more important than another.