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In one of my first workshops, I had to create an editorial illustration, which I'd never done before. I decided to take the workshop because I already knew I might do a magazine or a newspaper for my CPP.

I found some aspects challenging. I had to pick a topic and create few quick sketches and then my tutor picked the one that I had to enlarge and make into an illustration.
It was a fun experience  and it showed me how an industry job such as this would work.

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A workshop I found very fun was world building. At that time I thought my project will take a slightly different shape and I will be building a world around the idea of symbols but shortly after that changed.

However, I think this workshop will still be very helpful to me later on, in unit10.

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I did get the chance to explore one of Maxwell's ideas.

I created a concept world around one of his pages about the symbol of the all seeing eye.

The style of the building was also inspired by the brutalism design

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In another workshop I further explored some of Maxwell's conspiracies.
This was inspired by his research about the Pope's hat and it's actual meaning

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Some workshops were very fun and at that time I thought very helpful for what my project was going to be originally.
My project and initial question changed so some of the workshops ended up not playing much of a role later on in my work, but I still think there's a lot of things I took from them that I can now use in my work.

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Coming up with my question

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I got very interested in symbols while reading Matrix of Power by Jordan Maxwell so I knew I wanted to do something around that.

At first I thought I was going to build some kind of a concept world to talk about symbols but then I was told I would have to narrow my idea a little bit.
I was interested in the psychological effects symbols have so I also started reading Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung.
The first official version of my question was ''The psychological effects of symbols on civilization''.

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I started to look into interpretations of symbols and deeper meanings.

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I think it’s very tempting to treat every element in literature as a symbol of something. For example, a storm brewing on the horizon must be a symbol of the emotional turmoil that the main character is going through; or, the black car that the main character drives are a foreshadowing of his death; and so on. It’s important to remember that sometimes a storm on the horizon simply represents bad weather. Some cats are white, some are black, and some are ginger. That doesn’t mean that white cats are more innocent or pure, or that the owners of black cats are morbid characters who are going to die. We’re all going to die, and sooner than we think, unfortunately.

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I took certain pages of Maxwell's book during that time that seemed relevant.

I started looking into his idea of symbols around us and how they influence creation

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He saw everything around us as symbols used to build cities and nations. From architecture to flags. He argued it was used as subliminal imagery. Symbolisms being placed where the simple person wouldn't look for them.

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At this time I was focusing on how symbols are used to build communities and how they represent nations through history. Maxwell's book was an interesting read since it proposed a lot of everyday objects we see have hidden symbolic meanings all over them making it easy to control the general public without them realizing

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I looked into 3 most common found symbols in the modern world.
Emotional and religious symbols appealed to me the most.

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I started to collect what I had so far in a document. I had a meeting with my tutor and we discussed that perhaps it would be easier if I focused on a specific aspect of symbols.

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I started looking into Jung's idea of symbols and their contribution to the emotional and psychological archetype.

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Reading into psychology of symbols I started to realize the biggest response come from religious symbols. People felt most strongly when it came to symbols to do with either spiritual practice or religion.

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The symbolic process

To trace the origin, development, and differentiation of a symbol is a complicated process. Almost every symbol and picture in religion is at first either directly or indirectly connected with the sense impressions and objects of the human environment. Many are derived from the objects of nature, and others are artificially constructed in a process of intuitive perception, emotional experience, or rational reflection. In most cases, the constructions are again related to objects in the world of sense perception. A tendency toward simplification, abbreviation into signs, and abstraction from sense objects is quite evident, as well as a tendency to concentrate several processes into a single symbol. A good example of this last tendency may be seen in ancient Christian portrayals of the triumphant cross before a background of a star-filled heaven that appear in the apses of many basilican churches. In these representations the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, exaltation, and Transfiguration of Christ are joined to apocalyptic concepts (centring on sudden interventions by God into history) inherent in the doctrine of the Last Judgment. An excellent example of such an apse mosaic is to be found in the S. Apollinare in Classe, near Ravenna (in Italy). On the other hand, there is a tendency to accumulate, combine, multiply, and differentiate symbolical statements for the same thought or circumstance, as seen, for example, on the sarcophagi (stone coffins) of late Christian antiquity—especially in Ravenna. Here, the same idea is symbolically expressed in various manners—e.g., by means of persons, objects, animals, and signs, all appearing side by side.

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I feel one of the biggest examples of Jung's idea of symbol alteration and perception would be the Swastika.

The swastika is an ancient religious symbol but many people around the world think it's origin is closely connected to Nazi Germany.

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The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being." The motif (a hooked cross) appears to have first been used in Eurasia, as early as 7000 years ago, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky. To this day, it is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism. It is a common sight on temples or houses in India or Indonesia. Swastikas also have an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures.

The symbol experienced a resurgence in the nineteenth century, as a result of growing European interest in the ancient civilizations of the Near East and India. During his extensive excavations, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient Troy. He connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was a “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors.” Other European scholars and thinkers linked the symbol to a shared Aryan culture that spanned Europe and Asia.

In the beginning of the twentieth century the swastika was widely used in Europe. It had numerous meanings, the most common being a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.

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The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being." The motif (a hooked cross) appears to have first been used in Eurasia, as early as 7000 years ago, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky. To this day, it is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism. It is a common sight on temples or houses in India or Indonesia. Swastikas also have an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures.

The symbol experienced a resurgence in the nineteenth century, as a result of growing European interest in the ancient civilizations of the Near East and India. During his extensive excavations, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient Troy. He connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was a “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors.” Other European scholars and thinkers linked the symbol to a shared Aryan culture that spanned Europe and Asia.

In the beginning of the twentieth century the swastika was widely used in Europe. It had numerous meanings, the most common being a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.

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Through that research I started to write a document about the psychological effect of symbols.
That topic was very big and the more research at this stage I added the more complicated it got.

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I started making my magazine file so I also started researching principles of magazine design. I viewed my CPP as an artwork hance I wanted to make the magazine as professional as I possible could.

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I focused on religious symbols the most in my magazine as I felt it was a topic I could easily research and write about.

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I had read a lot of Maxwell's proposals of what certain religious symbol actually meant.

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He made a connection between the zodiac wheel and the Christian Cross

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Reading through all of his research on this matter I was fascinated because it was very far from what I've grown to think the cross was.

I found this to be an example of Jung's idea about a person's perception of symbols.

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My question was still psychology of symbols but I have started to research primarily religious symbols and their effect on us.

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Study examined the influence of religious symbolism in public space on psychological well-being.  Crucifix display reduces negative affect among students strongly identifying with religion.  Crucifix display reduces negative affect among students frequently attending church.  Increase of negative affect among non-religious students was less pronounced.  Religious symbols such as crucifix are instrumental in human everyday symbolic life and affect well-being.

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Anthropological, sociological, and psychological theories suggest that religious symbols should influence motivational processes during performance of goal-relevant tasks. In two experiments, positive and negative religious (Christian) symbols were presented outside of participants' conscious awareness. These symbols influenced cardiovascular responses consistent with challenge and threat states during a subsequent speech task, particularly when the speech topic concerned participants' mortality, and only for Christian participants; similar images lacking Christian meaning were not influential. Results suggested that these effects were due to the learned meaning of the symbols and point to the importance of religion as a coping resource.

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Does the cross have an impact on the brain because we recognize that it represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, or is there something inherent about two lines crossing each other that gives the cross a particularly strong impact on the brain, regardless of the beliefs associated with it?

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Subjects completed the Quest Scale to measure religious and spiritual orientation and beliefs. This scale is a 12-item questionnaire based upon a distinct motivational construct of intrinsic and extrinsic orientation characterized by how much an individual is purposely asking questions about existential or spiritual questions. Each item on the Quest Scale is scored on a Likert scale from 1–9, with strongly disagree and strongly agree. This scale may help evaluate whether this domain of religious beliefs, namely an openness and inquisitiveness regarding religious ideas, modulates the brain’s response to different religious symbols. In particular, we have hypothesized that those individuals who are more open to religious ideas, will have less responsiveness in the emotional areas of the brain to various religious symbols. However, if there is no relationship between the Quest score and activation in the primary visual cortex related to religious symbols, the results would imply that an open or closed approach to religious beliefs does not contribute to the primary processing of religious symbols

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Our results reveal significant effects of religious symbols on both the primary visual areas and also on emotional areas of the brain. Furthermore, there were differences in neural activity during the processing of religious symbols and specifically as they relate to different emotional valence. Finally, it appears that different perspectives on religious beliefs, as measured by the BAGAF and Quest score are associated with differences in the brain’s perception of religious symbols.

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My main focus was now religious symbols and their impact on psychology, rather than all symbols.

I decided to ask my friends their view on the Christian Cross and alter it to see if it will arise different opinions

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I read a paper looking into a similar idea but on a larger scale. The ideas of Jung were discussed when viewing the psychological response and the blind follow of religious symbolism

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https://issuu.com/symbolmagazine/docs/cppfinal

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The relationship between religious and personal beliefs and mental health has been studied extensively, indicating considerable correlations among these variables.¹ However, scientific approaches to this field are complex and multidimensional. With respect to anxiety disorders, the empirical evidence is scarce and warranting of further research. The current review discusses research findings on the relation of religiosity/spirituality (R/S), paranormal beliefs, and magical ideation to mental health and – in particular – anxiety disorders. Results on obsessive–compulsive disorders (OCD) and other anxiety disorders (excluding acute stress and post-traumatic stress disorder) are presented separately, in order to investigate possible etiopathogenetic and cognitive differences between both groups. The literature is presented as an empirical narrative review, providing an introduction of the topic, an overview on the most important and clinically relevant publications with respect to R/S, personal beliefs, and anxiety disorders and, finally, particular emphasis on the dimensional constructs of R/S and possible treatment options.

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After I had most of my text written I focused on my CPP design

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After I had most of my text written I focused on my CPP design

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My magazine was an informative piece that I have conducted from the point of a journalist. My target audience would ideally be young adults interested in religious symbology and some aspects of psychology

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I looked at different ways in which text and image could interact to keep the audience engaged and still offer good readability

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I experimented with titles converting them into the image to engage the reader.

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I was satisfied with my designs so I started to experiment with the text itself. I took examples from modern magazines. Enlarging text when wanting to engage the reader into a certain topic

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For my cover I created a digital painting inspired by the idea of psychology and religion I added some symbols such as the cross as an earing and the '' all seeing eye '' for my research into Maxwell's work

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I made a cross design and decided to keep it a bit rugged and see if the difference in the design from the usual would matter to my friends

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I added the red cross on the painting I did as a ''symbol'' of expression of opinion.

I kept my main question but added a smaller one in relation since my researching is looking strictly into religious symbols.
After a meeting with my tutor I decided to keep it simply to the Christian Cross in that way I was able to narrow down my text since before that I had a lot of points where I would go off into other aspects of symbols and on some pages it was hard to tell what my main focus was.

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I'm quite happy with how the magazine itself turned out as a design piece. I definitely want to explore it further as it is something I'm looking into as a professional practice in the future.

I think I ran into a few blocks with my research as I picked a very wide topic that had many aspects attached to it.
I think focusing on just the religious symbols and later on cutting some of my text down to focus even more onto the Christian Cross as a symbol and keep the interview with my friends as the main source point to me as someone who took the role of a journalist and perhaps an investigator I think I found it a lot easer to then edit my document in relation to text, image, and research.

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"You'll not only lose your mind, but you'll lose your soul" | Christopher Lee on the occult

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Did Christianity Steal the Egyptian Ankh?

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I suspect most of us have seen movies where a cross is used to ward off evil. The thought is that holding a small replica of a cross will provide protection from satanic forces, or from vampires and such. Others will wear a cross around their necks as though it were a lucky rabbit’s foot, offering some value to the one wearing it. I have nothing against the wearing of a small cross. It can be a useful reminder of what Christ did for me. As well as telling the world around me just who I belong. But there is nothing magical about a cross, any cross. A cross will not ward off evil more than any other object I might hold up. It is just a lifeless object with no inherent power. Even the cross that Jesus hung on has no magical power. It was a simple instrument of execution used by the Romans to punish and deter rebellion. The significance of the cross lies not in its physical being, but in what it represents.

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The cross has significance as a reminder of what Jesus did for us. It is a powerful symbol to remind us of the price paid for our redemption.

Whether we wear it, display it, or just think about it, the cross can, and should, draw us nearer to the one who hung on it.

It is hard to overestimate the importance of what happened at the cross. On the cross, Jesus dealt with my sin, cancelling my indebtedness, and freeing me to live.

On the cross, Jesus defeated his enemies and was enthroned as king. In the entire history of this universe, I do not believe that any event has more significance than the cross and what took place that day.

I have had many good and exciting things happen in my life, as did the Apostle Paul (Philippians 3:4-6). But when he looked at his life, and all he had accomplished, his attitude is summed up in this passage. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

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It's commonly worn by the people, who use it as a symbol of how awesomely non-Christian they are. The cross is pretty Christian, right? So by turning it upside down, see, you're being disrespectful, and thereby being like "See, I'm not a Christian!"

Well, sorry to ruin your blasphemous fun — that is the exact opposite of the meaning an upside-down cross had in the first place. See, for a long time, it was representative of the Crucifixion of Saint Peter, one of Jesus' disciples and the very first Pope ever. When he was crucified (because at one point, Christians were legitimately super-oppressed) he insisted he is crucified upside-down, because he felt he wasn't good enough to be crucified the way that Jesus was. So the symbol somehow went from a sign of penitence to God, to a sign of how much cooler and more awesome Jesus was, to an FU to the entire religion. Except that last one is wrong wrong wrong — if you want to be a cool rebel, but you're a Christian, rock that upside-down cross. Otherwise, steer clear, you're embarrassing yourself.

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Historically speaking, European societies were predominantly Christian, which made the question of religious presence in educational spaces unproblematic. After all, many countries trace the start of their educational systems to church-run schools. However, two developmnts have problematised the previously normalised marking of public spaces with Christian symbols: the modern secular state (presupposing at least a minimal distance between state and religion) and the growing pluralisation of contemporary societies (despite the fact that most European states continue to have at least nominally Christian majorities). Crucifixes on school walls now pose questions of religious freedom and the equality of religious and non-religious views, since such Christian markings of public spaces potentially symbolically exclude all those (non-Christians and non-religious) who do not identify with them. In this way, the symbolic marking of public educational spaces with Christian artefacts could mean a violation of the fundamental human right to religious freedom, which is inseparable from the right to alternative – including non-religious – beliefs

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When children enter public school spaces, they learn about the place of religion in their country and society not only through the curricula of Religious Education classes or other subjects covering content on religion (such as History or Literature), but also through observing how expressions of religious belief and affiliation are managed by people in places of authority. Even countries that do not have a designated RE curriculum nevertheless implicitly teach their pupils about what expressions of religiosity are acceptable and normalised within a society and which are deemed out of place and marginalised. It is therefore vital that we – either as academics, policy-makers, or concerned stake-holders – take the topic of religious symbols in schools seriously when discussing, planning, and managing the education of children. With this paper, we have taken a look at the diversity of responses to a particular religious symbol (the Muslim veil), as well as the specificities of a particular policy proposal (in the country of Slovenia) for dealing with religious symbols in schools more widely. Having examined some aspects of the breadth and depth of the topic at hand, we now want to draw attention to a few broad conclusions of the above discussion and some of its implications as a way of emphasising the importance of the issue and the scope of the challenge in addressing it.