A Theory Regarding the Symbolism of Cupid

"Occulted" Truths Hidden in Plain Sight

To “occlude” something is to hide it—ergo, the study of that-which-is-hidden is one and the same thing as the study of occultism. Such topics as magic, the paranormal, psychic phenomena, astrology, divination, etc., generally fall under this umbrella of “occult” (or at least “occult adjacent”) studies.

I wrote somewhat recently on Badlands that one can either assume that dark occultists engage in symbolic, ritual magic for no reason at all, or, alternatively, because such activities accomplish real things in tangible reality. Which do you think is more realistic?…

The Universe as a Living Language

Setting aside for the moment our questions about dark occultism, it’s a provable fact that the universe is a vast, living language. I won’t get into the hardcore specifics here, as my Proof of God series goes into this in detail (for the record, Part 4 is shaping up to be the most conceptually dense literary undertaking of my life thus far… coincidentally, it’s also been one the most rewarding projects i’ve worked on as well… I thank you guys for your patience in waiting for me to complete it).

This may sound a bit odd at first, but stay with me here: every object in dimensional space corresponds to a linguistic-mathematic description rendered within dimensionless “space”, if you will. Reality, to use a term coined by Chris Langan, is “self-dual”. That is to say, its physical and metaphysical aspects cannot stand apart, for they are in fact two expression of one and the same reality—two sides of a coin, in a manner of speaking.

Reality is, on one level, a singular object—we could reasonably call this the “Absolute” level of reality. Every level “below” the Absolute level corresponds to a division in reality—notice, I didn’t say a division of reality, for reality remains singular. The division is not in reality itself, but rather in a self-multiplying array of potentials for self-representation.

Mind, energy, and purpose together comprise what Langan and Leibniz refer to as the monic substrate—aka the “ground state”—underpinning existence itself. This substrate never becomes more than One thing—it does, however, represent itself to itself in theoretically infinite ways (ultimately, for the purpose of gaining self-knowledge).

Just like how the heads and tails of a coin are not themselves two different objects, but rather two aspects of one object, so too can the seemingly-separate contents of existence be described as differentiated aspects of one object. That object is THE universal, living language—the monic substrate. There is nothing in existence that is not made out of it; though the things made out of it possess (as their inheritance from God) a certain degree of choice, corresponding to their “level” of cognition/awareness. There are necessary laws underpinning the stability of existence—these laws amount to the “users manual” for the universe proper, and, importantly, nothing can contradict said laws without “self erasing”.

(This is why it’s monumentally stupid to choose evil… but we’ll save that conversation for another time…)

At the “highest” level of reality, everything exists at once in a form that can be described as pure language. This is how the monic substrate sees itself (God is indeed alive and conscious, you see…). At the physical-sensory level of reality (the realm of the “many”, where you and I reside), we experience this living language as the very objects and events that inform our experience. There is, in fact, no separating the contents of existence from the living language that produces and perceives them.

The basis of symbolic, ritual magic is the fact that physical proximity and descriptive/linguistic proximity are two different things. This is why things like voodoo and synchronicities exist. A great many branches of “occult” study are wholly concerned with the manipulation of symbols via ritual in order to manipulate events in the real world—when you recognize that reality is a living language, and that this language pre-exists the objects it creates, then all action-at-a-distance type phenomena become immanently explainable.

Though it wasn’t until Chris Langan published his Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU) before a complete scientific description of this process had been made public, the fact remains that many “occult” traditions have, at the very least, observed and acknowledged that there exists a connection between mind, language, and real-world events. It’s no coincidence that this type of knowledge is routinely ridiculed by “respectable” academia and “science”—because THEY want to keep it for themselves, if you catch my drift…

The “elites” maintain a sort of power over the “masses” because the masses, in the aggregate, do not acknowledge the true place of consciousness in reality.

For the record, I do NOT recommend going nuts practicing ritual magic to become all powerful, or to fight the cabal, etc—the highest magic in existence comes from seeking earnestly to do right by God. (If you want to wear robes and a wizard’s hat while you serve God then, by all means, knock yourself out—but it’s not necessary.)

An indispensable part of serving God is to seek knowledge—for, contrary to what nihilists and materialists tell us, the universe is quite logical and meaningful. The universe would not exist if it were not intelligible; and it would not be intelligible if it didn’t possess intrinsic logic. The more you learn to apply logic to various facts and facets of existence, the more skill you will develop with language itself, and this corresponds to a very REAL increase in metaphysical influence.

Your mind isn’t “nowhere”—it exists in the sea of consciousness, ultimately as a unique, differentiated aspect of the monic substrate out of which existence itself is made. Your mind shares a common syntax with the entirety of existence—you wouldn’t exist were that not the case. (If that last sentence didn’t make sense, don’t sweat it. Read on…)

Few things matter as much as the quest for proper understanding; when we learn how to read the environment, as well as the symbols used by other human beings, the benefit to our lives is incalculable.

With that in mind, it’s time to talk about the symbolism of Cupid.

Why is Cupid Depicted as a Baby With Wings? And What’s Up with the Bow and Arrow?

As far as I’m aware, no one in the public sphere has provided the following “decode” for Cupid. The importance of analyzing Cupid—or any other popular symbol repeated throughout popular culture—is simply to help us learn more about reality, and about the society in which we live. Are there any deep truths about reality encoded into this symbolism? Undoubtedly, yes…

To begin, the fact that Cupid is a baby clearly symbolizes reproduction. We don’t need to elaborate very much on this—when people fall in love, babies often result. But why does the baby have wings?

This implies something etheric, spiritual, angelic, heavenly, etc. Souls/angels tend to be portrayed by religions/popular culture all over the world as winged people—again, this is fairly common and doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation. The fact that Cupid has wings means we’re dealing with a baby who hasn’t incarnated yet—an as-yet-to-be conceived baby, in other words.

The symbolism of Cupid may indeed refer to the idea of an unborn spirit who influences his/her parents to meet and fall in love, so that he/she can secure a means of incarnating.

It’s a rather mind-blowing thought, isn’t it? A spirit on the other side of the veil influencing things to get their parents-to-be to meet and fall in love… This implies a being that has access to future timelines and possibilities. The notion that beings on the other side of the veil could do such things is, in fact, supported by the CTMU, and corroborated by many people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs) who were granted access to entire timelines while temporarily “dead”. For more on this, click on this link to see a whole library of folks telling their stories from the other side.

This brings us to a small-but-necessary tangent…

There’s a tendency amongst New-Agers to see all synchronicities as “divine guidance” or auspicious/benevolent signs. Personally, I don’t doubt that they often are—but we can’t rule out that they may sometimes come from other beings with their own agendas. I, for one, never go out seeking encounters with spirits—instead I seek God first and foremost and let God sort out who does or doesn’t enter into my “field”. Signs and synchronicities are a dime a dozen when you operate that way, anyways…

To be frank, I’m looking forward to a time when people stop treating spiritual matters like some sort of exotic form of tourism—for this can have very negative consequences. People go schizophrenic sometimes by opening themselves up too much too quickly to influences from “the other side”, inviting things into their lives that have no business being there. (Among other things, Ouija boards are dangerous as hell).

Ultimately, I believe that our heart, deep down inside, knows whats best for us—and I do think that we sometimes have real family on the other side looking to be born through us…

And speaking of hearts, why does Cupid carry a bow and arrow with which to pierce people’s hearts?

Arrows = Eros… (You see? These symbols aren’t constructed at random for no reason…)

Many of us have known what it’s like to “fall” in love, and love often feels like something that penetrates us deeply, all the way to our heart. I believe that this is why Cupid’s arrow/eros punctures the heart, and not any other part of the body—this symbolism suggest that the quality of love induced by Cupid’s arrow/eros is above that of mere lust. The fact of the matter is that children ought to be conceived by people who genuinely love each other; so, in that sense, the symbolism of Cupid is very instructive.

The bow is very significant as well, for it corresponds to that aspect of eros/arrow that involves building and releasing tension. Without tension and release, there is no eroticism—it is the tension and release of the bow that causes the arrow/eros to fly. See how that works?

When we add it all up, we thus far have these features embedded in the symbolism of Cupid:

1. A baby-spirit influencing events to get people to fall in love so they have a set of parents to be born to.

2. A multi-faceted mechanism/tool with which to make this happen.

Isn’t it downright incredible how many metaphysical and metaphorical ideas are encoded into this symbol? The highest art of the so-called “occult” fraternities is the art of hiding things in plain sight. Frequently, this means in symbolic form, often disseminated through popular culture in such a way where the average person has no idea what’s really being communicated.

I’m not necessarily saying that the symbol of Cupid was itself invented by dark occultists—but I have ZERO doubt that, like with all other popular symbols, they can and do work with it in order to perform various acts of voodoo. Indeed, any time we see the symbol of Cupid portrayed in a negative manner, then that could be rightly considered as an attack on love itself.

Ultimately, I hope that this little exercise in symbol analysis opens up a world of possibilities for you guys. The more deeply we perceive the multi-faceted, “occulted” (aka hidden) meanings behind popular symbols, the more situationally aware we will become.

The more we perceive the hidden truths that are being symbolized all around us, the harder it becomes for us to be deceived—THAT, my friends, is the true value of doing this kind of analysis.

Some Parting Thoughts

At the end of the day, what is culture if not a particular group of symbols, stories and rituals that rightly belong to a people? If people didn’t communicate with symbols, civilization itself would never have arisen. As far as the subconscious mind is concerned, to re-frame/re-define a symbol is to alter reality itself.

Symbol-literacy is an incalculably valuable stepping stone on the path to true freedom, as well as the rehabilitation of civilization itself. Meaning and representation are FAR more closely linked that secular society acknowledges—there are high paid linguists out there who will tell you with a straight face that language is ultimately arbitrary, but they could not be more wrong about this.

Where, indeed, did language come from? As far as we’re concerned, it came from human beings, who themselves are a product of the universe—the monic substrate that is itself made out of pure language. To the best of my knowledge, there doesn’t exist any genuine mathematic proof for the existence of randomness, anyways… so until someone comes up with such proof, this means we have ZERO justification to presuppose that ANYTHING in existence can be described as “purely arbitrary” or “random”.

There’s a reason why letters are shaped the way they are, why symbols are shaped the way they are, why words sound the way that they do… We may not know in every instance what that reason is, but it’s there nonetheless.

I hope each one of you reading this finds great comfort (and entertainment) in contemplating these ideas.

Blessings to all of you—American Hypnotist, signing off…