I grew up a free spirit, unfettered from religious, national or traditionalistic imperatives. As for myself, cultures of the world were as equaly acceptable as that of my own. My need for spirituality (and thus the understanding of religion) was developing through practicing art, studying its history and human psyche.
The internet, libraries and an easy access to the overall knowledge gathered through history of the mankind come as a privilege Alexander The Great, a conqueror whose legacy laid the foundations of the Alexandian Library, the largest and the most magnificent temple of the ancient world’s knowledge, following his aspiration for collecting knowledges and readiness to recognize both religious and national differences (unfortunately, even the greatest minds of the ancient world didn’t take seriously the slaves human rights issue), once dreamed about.
Since the Pre-Raphaelites, the decadence of the symbolists had reflected in keeping distance from the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, a material imperative of those times and quite unreasonable ways of consuming natural and abusing human resources (and as a matter of fact, these ways haven’t changed a great deal ever since).
A symbol, by it’s very nature, refers to an absent reality. In matmatics it signifies an unknown quantity, in religion, poetry or art it lends substance to an unknown quality – a value that remains out of reach.