The Leaf

When I was in my early 20s, I read a lot of Joseph Campbell. In a collection of short excerpts from his talks, there was one that has always stuck with me.

He described this popular image of the Hindu God, Shiva, where he's standing mid-movement on one leg. The other leg up in the air, bent at the knee and ankle. His multiple arms were held out in various positions, sometimes holding objects like a flame or a drum.

The foot he's standing on is often positioned on a small person or baby, crouched on the floor, sometimes holding a leaf.

The small person is meant to represent someone who's so obsessed with the material world (the leaf) that they don't even know there's a god dancing on their back.

Since reading this passage, I studied Eastern religions in collage and learned than Joseph Campbell, as popular and successful as he was in his time, was not the be-and-end-all of mythological interpretations. I never again encountered this reading of Shiva iconography, so who's to say if his reading was "right" or not.

But still since then, I've always interrupted a leaf in my path as a sign to pay attention to what's going on in the more-than-material world.

When it comes to signs and reading into them, you gets to decide what they mean and what you'll do with what you perceive.

If something serves you, it's best to pay attention. If it doesn't, no need to dwell. There's no doubt something more meaningful is on the way.

All signs point to something, but you can't know what they say if you only take them for face value.

Don't be that guy who doesn't know his back ache is from the God of destruction himself.