Archaeological evidence shows, from time immemorial, that various visual images, specific forms, and objects of phenomena have been visualized through the image-making power of the human psyche. Through the human psyche, the various phenomena of abstract relationships, circumstances, or ideas have been translated into events representing specific pictorial images and sequences. These varieties of images, dualities of all kinds, the idea of conflict, reincarnation, religious symbols, sanctuaries and labyrinths are expressed in mythology, folklore, tales, and dramas of all kinds, and are extensively researched and analyzed in the fields of academia. The common idea is that symbols are divine language and the language of the soul. It is considered that messages descend through the realm of Cosmic Intelligence (God), though they often arise from the subconscious to be surfaced as images or ideas. This can be experienced through meditation, dreams and sensory perceptions.
The strange visual language of the subconscious has been interpreted differently by the various fields of experts. However, when one gains access to the unconscious desires, the symbols reveal clues for making important decisions about all aspects of life. It has been said that symbols are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed images. The experts agree that they are spontaneous productions of the psyche as though each has an undamaged organic source of power. The great scholars of the world dedicated their lives to searching for the secret of the timeless vision, motives, and reasons in relation to the specific area of the psyche, the phenomena of the symbols' sameness throughout the world, and what they are trying to teach, all within a variety of cultural contexts.
According to Joseph Campbell, it has always been the prime function of an "Initiation Rite" to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to restrain us; whereupon we find the ageless initiation symbolisms produced spontaneously by individuals through the subconscious. Apparently there is something in these initiatory images that is so important to the psyche that if they are not supplied from outside through rituals, then they must be announced repeatedly through inner being.