Packing Slip 
item |
The Signs of Life Quiz |
contact |
Liz Warren (South Mountain Community College) liz.warren@smcmail.maricopa.edu |
college(s) |
South Mountain Community College |
discipline(s) |
Mythology, Humanities |
summary |
One of the the exercises that students in my mythology class (ENH-251) really enjoy is a brief exercise from Angeles Arrien's book Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shjapes and How to Use Them. It helps them understand how symbols work in the context of their own lives. |
details |
Angeles Arrien is a cultural anthropologist and student of Joseph Campbell. Through cross cultural study she identified five symbols that she says occur in art and decoration around the world with similar meanings. The five symbols are: Circle - symbolizing wholeness Equidistant Cross - symbolizing relationship Spiral - symbolizing growth and change Square - symbolizing stability Triangle - symbolizing goals, dreams, and visions In her Preferential Shapes Test, she asks people to first draw the shapes and then rank them 1-5 with one being the most preferred shape and five the least. The five ranked positions also have meanings: 1 is where you think you are 2 is your strengths 3 is where you really are 4 is your motivation 5 is what you are avoiding or in denial of Students really enjoy it, even if part of them thinks its a lot of new-age hooey! It's a very effective way to begin discussion of Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, of how symbols and archetypes are linked, and how myth serves as the container for symbolic experience. Check out the book - it's beautiful and fun and still in print. Note! As a professional courtesy to the owner of this package, if you use some aspect of this package or have some thoughts about it, please share your feedback via the comments form below. |
web links |
http://www.angelesarrien.com/ |
shareback |
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extra |
Last modified: Feb-28-2003 Date created: Feb-28-2003 Visitor count: 2132 Dublin Core Metadata record  |
Maricopa Learning eXchange
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/slip.php?item=659
