The bridge is a symbol of passage – symbolically connecting our world with the afterworld.
In Ancient cultures, including Ancient Rome, the constructions of bridges were considered as sacred and usually would be accompanied by rituals in order to secure the passage. Priests then were responsible for the bridges and from this emerged the term “Pontiff” – that until this day is used by the Pope.
Rainbows as well as the Milky Way are also considered as bridges towards other levels of existence.
But bridges are not only connections between two worlds; they also represent a passage towards a new form of existence. In Ancient China, virtuous men would be able to walk over a bridge that was a thick as a hair, while corrupted people would fall into the abyss.
So now you take the floor: what do you associate with the bridge?
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Todos los dias tenemos la experiencia de construir o destruir puentes, si, pueden representar el paso de un estado de conciencia a otro, porque requieren de una apertura del corazon para tenderlos hacia el otro, de voluntad para ejercitar la libertad de hacer en nosotros lo necesario para encontrarnos con otra persona , otra ideologia, otra religion en el camino, o incluso de soltar expectativas y lanzarnos al vacio luchando, esperando poder lograr llegar al otro lado. Los puentes que tendemos dan definicion y al mismo tiempo amplitud a nuestra vida… cambian nuestro estado original y nuestra tendencia comodina a quedarnos sentados en el otro lado esperando a que alguien tienda el puente hacia nosotros…
hoy abro todo lo que yo soy y lanzo mi puente hacia el otro lado del universo… espero pasar y encontrar todos los milagros que he sembrado desde mi esperanza.
Very interesting I have to pass only associate bridges with
feeding the ducks
Yes,always…Bridge is the symbol of connection…and sometimes shortcut of a difficulty/difficult path! Otherwise bidge plays a very paradoxical role becuse some bridges are always busy whereas some are places of solitude. But it’s basic trait is connectivity!
lol Catherine M!Yes those bridges too..
to bridge connections…
ahem… computer terminology.. but what on earth does that mean?!!!
creating an internal server??!?!
for me a brige is intemporal,when you are on a brige you’r not in the watter,not really on the groud,and not really in the air .Just like a point in suspention betwen two worlds,one knone and the over is not yet.at this moment you still have the choice ,if you cross you’ll know what’s after and if you go back you ll never be the same.
a brige is a freespace like a nomansland for spirit.
i picture a bridge over a calm lake and under a cherry in blossom…
it comes in my mind: safety, tranquility, connection and yet frailty
For days, I wanted to add: teeth, also, yes. lol
Interesting Legend,dear Thelma,it`s remeber me a romanian Legend about´ The Monastery of Builddmasters Manole´!It tales the same thing:he tried to bild it in the day,but after night everything were collapsed.He had a dream that only when he will build his own beautiful wife inside the wall ,the monastery will remain untangible.
Because of his strong belive,he sacrificed his wife,and in the place where she was criying,it´s apeared a fountaine.
Maybe it is the Bridge from material to the Devine ,The Feminine Power.
Love
Mirela(the woman in elevator)
Bridge:
A connection.
A possibility.
But if it’s ruined, it depends on the person, if the bridge is never crossed again, it is because of:
1. Unableness or unwillingness to rebuild it.
2. Fears… why not to cross it.
3. Letting go, finding a new bridge.
…
Dreams are the bridges that connects me to my past present and future.It connects me to another realms of this world.I didn’t create this bridge and i don’t know why i have access to this bridgse which connects me to many places in past and future.
I went out to get some air today,it’s been years to be precise that i haven’t been out in the open air,and when i went to the mall,i came to the place,a place which i had seen in my dream .Last year i though that place must be in some place in europe thinking the unique structure thinking must be in some part of usa or europe and i had seen myself in that place in my dreams before.but today i saw it was here,maybe due to my long hiatus,i wasn’t aware of the progress that place had made.I stood there and thought for a while,i didn’t know what to think.I have been in bridges which took me to centuries back and 20 years ahead of time.
I read news now and then,i see new things happening.I see people saying this and that,all i do is keep quiet.
Most amusing conversation i read and i find it funny is about the anti christ.They get so hype about the person and so on,and people have left no one to blame from obama to prince will to all those leaders as if they have been told by God.I also use to think ohh must be so scarry and all the scarry stuff.But when i see him,from far ,i do feel sorry,he is just an ordinary man,he has fear of God prays to God,he does things and feel things like all of us.No matter what other say ,he is good not bad or not even worst like adolf hitler.Infact i wish i could tell him just remain like this.I know many people admire him love him and i think he is like normal person.I was thinking what will make him go agaist christ and so on.
I was talking with papa,why would he be bad later? i feel sorry for him in some way too,then i realised why?When jesus will come of course he will take over all the attention,all human on this earth will kneel down or bow down,and will praise him.A simple thing jelousy,yes jelousy is the thing that will make him anti christ ,because no one will give attention to him,no one will talk about him like they do now,not that he is so famous but he is ok,maybe he will rise to more limelight later,maybe the most polpular person in future God knows.
Then all the evil power of the world will make use of him ,when he will be covered with jelousy.
I think anyone who is jelous of his neighbor is anti christ.Don’t make so much ype about how , who and where he is going to be ,it maybe you,me or anyone,because jelousy is the marking of the beast and anyone who possess it will be anti christ.
Since i already travelled through the bridge to some point in time,i saw him,losing all his power and giving up and returning like loser.I don’t know i still feel sorry for him,i haven;t prayed for anyone not even for me or my family but i feel like praying for this man.I wish people would pary for him in silence too that he would be given strength to overcome the jelousy which will make this simple human into something and someone bad as people are waitiing it to happen.I know what is written seldom changes but ,i never lose hope,so even if i will be the only 1 in this world to pray for him to give him strength then i will do whole life.Maybe that is why i saw him giving up his power willingly rather than fighting against christ,which is better and maybe that can be possible if i pray for him everyday for many years.
Bridge sometime help us to go through places in future so that we can correct our present.If i was lucky enough to get acess then there should be meaning to that,God is all merciful and maybe he wants all to have that mercy and kindness more than jelousy.
News from over the bridge
Hope
Bridges over the Nile. Cairo at night…Lots of lights..Fantastic view.
A bridge gets us from here to there when there is an obstacle in between.
So for me:
“Bridge” – meditation
“Obstacle” – the mind that never stops thinking
“Here” – every day’s roller coaster between pleasure and pain
“There” – bliss
Love
Yes, the rainbow is believed to be a bridge between the physical and the spiritual worlds, and legend foretells of a time when the “Rainbow Warrior” will lead the world to freedom.
The name Rainbow Warrior has probably now been immortalised by the ship used by environmental group Greenpeace (the first one of this name was blown up by French Secret Services in New Zealand in the 80′s). It relates back to North American Indian culture.
But there are several such symbols around the world, not least the Indalo of southern Spain, which is very much a good luck talisman. It dates back to Neolithic times (the symbols found on caves in the province of Almeria have been dated approx. 4500 BC). However, it is unclear whether the origin of the word itself relates to “Indal Eccius” (meaning Mesenger of God in ancient Iberian) or to a Saint, San Indalecio, sent by Rome to evangalise the Iberian peninsular in the first century AD, who was subsequently Martyred in Almeria.
Either way, hundreds of thousands of people put their faith in this little rainbow man, the Indalo, as a guardian angel, linking them to “the other world” and protecting them from evil, and bringing them good fortune.
I think of a bridge in a shape of a upsidedown u only flatter…so when you cross it to the other side you realize you are somewhere else but also in the same place altitude wise.
Cheri
don’t we just love fathers!?! ;o)
In response, my experience has been to build the bridge myself and not wait around(for the miracle of all miracles) …
then suprisingly I’ve realised that all along maybe he’s been waiting for me to lead the way over the bridge…
not quite what i had had in mind all the years, but at least we get to stroll upon the bridge briefly ;o)
Hello!
The only bridge I can really think of right now is the very discrete and misunderstood one which stands between my conscious and subconscious being.
M.
Eu acho que ponte é como uma fonte forte de luz que pode te ligar com Deus através do pensamento e com outras pessoas.
Eu gostei muito desse texto principalmente quando fala que quando antigamente fazian-se pontes, existia também uma homenagem de ritual, que a meu ver tem tudo a ver. A ponte mexe com a arquitetura do tempo. Muito bacana esse texto.
beijos,
Mari Raphael.
When I picture a bridge in my head. I picture a wooden bridge over shallow water because a bridge for me is someting that you need to cross so that you can attain whatever it is you want in life.
Angeline
Tke care everyone!
It is such a coincidence that I read about this topic, because I feel myself right now on my new bridge, as I have completelly changed my mind concerning everything in my life: Crisis are the best chances to improve, because they make us understand our deepest desires and dreams. Thanks for your help, as you always send me the message I need to hear!
Oh the bridge?My father who is not in contact, though I write to him from time to time.I say my father because he said once to me he will not build bridges that go nowhere( meaning his daughters).
So I am always trying to cross the bridge that goes nowhere.
The folk ballad
The Bridge of Arta:
Masters forty five and apprentices sixty
a bridge they were building at the river of Arta once
All day they built it, and in the evening it collapsed.
Masters complain about the calamity and apprentices cry:
“- alack upon our vexation! And shame on our works!
All day we build it and in the evening it collapses!” …
One bird flat-hatted there around and sat down on the other side of the river.
it was not bird’s warbling, nor sparrow’s chirrup it had.
It sang, spoken in human tongue :
“- if no human sacrifice, then never this bridge shall stay …
But do not sacrify an orphan, nor stranger, or a traveler,
only Headmaster’s pretty spouse,
who later comes in mornings and lunches brings late …”
When I was a child and I used to hear this legend I felt fear for the beautiful wife of the Masterbuilder who had to be sacrificed and build in the stones of the bridge.
I remember the beautiful bridges of Paris, I saw ten years ago and I am looking forward to .. pass them soon.
I think the LONDON BRIDGE is … falling down… ;]
I remember my father telling me : Do not destroy bridges!!
A bridge is the ..end of isolation. It is the passing from one state to another. Our passing from the material world to the Divine.
The symbolism of unison. ‘No man is … an island’.
I think also the aeroplane-bridges for .. saving human beings, dear/est Paul from Austria.
LOVE,
Thelma
That is a beautiful quote Paul of Austria, that is the truth Thanks.
Association of the Bridge
Love is the bridge that joins hearts
Repair, Restoration, Unity
To bridge a gap beween people and nations
Music, Poetry, Literature, Art, Prayer
Upwards and Across, the Cross, Masculine and Feminine
Union and link between Heaven & Earth
The flowing river of life in London, Thames symbol of the Goddesss
The answer to the Mystery.
All Ways.
The definitions and symbolism provided here by Paulo, but also Annie, regarding music as a bridge – are lovely.
I was suprised to see how many uses of the word bridge there were – in music, computers, etc..
so here are some (from wiki)…
————————————
• Bridge (instrument), the device that anchors the strings to or holds the strings above the body of a string instrument, such as a violin or guitar
• Bridge (music), an interlude that connects two parts of song
• 3rd Bridge, an extended technique for string instruments
[edit] In computers
• Adobe Bridge, a program included with the Adobe Creative Suite to link the other programs together
• Bridge pattern, a computer science design used to separate an abstraction and its actual implementation
• Network bridge, an electronic device used to connect two computer or telephone network segments
• Protocol bridge, an electronics device or piece of software that translates from one communications protocol or programming API to another
• Bridge (exercise), most commonly, the balancing of the body on the head and feet
• Bridge (graph theory), an edge whose removal disconnects a graph
• Bridge (grappling), in wrestling, a move intended to dislodge an opponent in top control
• Bridge (interpersonal), in social networks, a relationship that acts as a communication channel between different groups
• Bridge (prosody), a point in a line of poetry where a break in a word-unit cannot occur
• Bridge (ship), the area of a ship from which it is commanded
• Bridge loan, a short-term loan to cover a gap in time until a new long-term financing is realised
• Bridge program, a higher education program
When I saw this post, I couldn’t name at once, what I exactly associate with a bridge. I went for a walk and stand for a while on a bridge. I live in Holland, there are thousands of them here.
Bridges make possible to live in Holland, without them everybody would stay on their own piece of land, isolated. Bridge is a way to unite, to communicate. It is a two-way traffic, maybe not simultaneously, but there is always a way back. You can cross the bridge in both direction. Therefore I associate it with feedback.
On a bridge you stand above something, above water, another road, an abyss. Crossing a bridge, you skip all what is under. Is to be on another side is always a goal? Look at the boat that drifts under.
When I saw this зщые, I couldn’t name at once, what I exactly associate with a bridge. I went for a walk and stand for a while on a bridge. I live in Holland, there are thousands of them here.
Bridges make possible to live in Holland, without them everybody would stay on their own piece of land, isolated. Bridge is a way to unite, to communicate. It is a two-way traffic, maybe not simultaneously, but there is always a way back. You can cross the bridge in both direction. Therefore I associate it with feedback.
On a bridge you stand above something, above water, another road, an abyss. Crossing a bridge, you skip all what is under. Is to be on another side is always a goal? Look at the boat that drifts under.
Ponte é o caminho que faz a ligação entre 2 mundos; que podem serem parecidos ou bem contrastantes, como os que acabei de percorrer:
Reflexivo………………Expansivo
Inverno………………..Verão
Oriente………………..Ocidente
Japão………………….Brasil
The term ‘digital divide’ is often used, indicating the chasm that exists between those having access to technology and those who do not.
I associate a bridge with the efforts being put forward to ‘bridge’ that divide, making technology available to all. Just imagine, if everyone on earth had access to technology, your writings would have a far greater exposure.
the bridge is a path between two worlds, two edges and two situations..
when we are standing on a bridge, we dont belong to any of the worlds or sides.. our situation is hanged untill we make the desicion to move to one side of the two..
The bridge can symbolize the pending life, the hanged desicions and hesitation…
from that perspective.. i can tell that many people live all thier lives on bridges, and many lives are wasted awaiting a move to one of the sides in order to be lived…
To me.. life on a bridge is -in most of the times- a must and healthy for a certain time, but not when you dont have the courage to move to one of the side and close the hanging chapter of your life..
thanks
Rasha
Le Pont de L’Alma.
a bridge can be used to help us conquer our fear. we rely on their stability and steadiness to get us to the other side of whatever it may be, water, a canyon, a steep path. A bridge allows us to get from one place to another, to move to the next level of communication, intimacy, a relationship….life!!!
Bridge-building, connection, traffic, strong, walking above ground
Simon and Garfunkel’s lyrics that are something like this: “Like a bridge over troubled water / I will lay me down…”
I also think of a saying, which now eludes me, but has to do with making sure that you don’t burn all of your bridges.
I also think of the movies “Bridge to Terabithia” and “Bridges of Madison County”. (I also have a soft spot in my heart for Clint Eastwood movies, LOL!)
in my country we have a song which a few words say
….”all the complete world its a vvvery narrow bridge,,,,,
and the most important is not to be scared at all….
this song when ever i sing i get super emotional,, and i believe in this song and b4 a surgery or something scarry- i sing this song,,, and it feels better,,,,
it helps to think that we can do and over come the fear!
The Bridge of Sighs, the Bridge over Troubled Waters, The Bridge on the River Kwai, atomic secrets passed on a little bridge in Santa Fe, La LLorona weeping for her misdeeds, her tears falling into the heedless water below: technicolor and lyrical their stories are deep and troubled.
I like a good drawbridge over a moat.
Nut – Goddess Mother of Ancient Egypt
When I think of a bridge I think of a connector between the past and the present. I see the bridge as a safety net over troubled waters (or through life difficulties).
The bridge reminds connection ,as u said.To me soon comes in mind nice cities renown for their bridges,as Prague,Venice,Amsterdam,so on and so forth.Is interesting that Budapest,the capital of Hungary ,has a bridge that units two cities,that is one today,one Buda,and other Pest.Thats Elizabeth bridge.Nice to see,if one happens to be there.Than sure,in Venice the lovers bridge.
I am standing right now in front of this bridge and looking at it, standing at one end and staring down the expanse of it. It is long, and perilously narrow – like a razor’s edge, or a hair split in two. This bridge is not for me to cross; I stand where I stand, and I wait. I wait, because this bridge is for him to cross – the only way that he can reach me now. And I did not want it to be like this. In fact, I resisted the building of that bridge from the very start. I thought I could enter into his world – that seemed easier, more plausible. And I did: He didn’t open the door – I rammed into it and come bursting through to the other side. And for one gleaming night I was on fire. On fire like a dying star, and not the kind that merely fizzles out – the kind that implodes in a flash and shatters in on itself in a million flaming fragments, and nothing, not even him sitting on top of me, could hold me down or hold me together, or put the fire out that was, in a moment of self-immolation, consuming the whole of me.
And then I woke up and there was this bridge. I stand here, staring down the long thin expanse of it and wonder, “How will he ever manage to cross it?” It won’t be under ordinary circumstances -that’s for sure. It will require some feat equal to that of the gods themselves – some test of worthiness and sheer will that most mortal men would never even dare.
And what will that require, exactly?
It will require a phone call, and him hearing a voice at the other end of the line, saying, “This is Acme Rehab Clinic. Are you calling on behalf of yourself, or someone else?” And he’ll have to answer, “I’m calling to make an appointment to check myself in….” And that is when I will see his form appear in the distance, a dark silhouette, at the other end of that long, narrow bridge.
Otherwise, or until then, there is just me, standing here, staring down that razor’s edge, wishing that bridge did not have to be there at all, yet knowing that the world can be no way other than the way it is.
(For anyone wondering, the above passage is merely fiction – fiction in the same sense that all life is “fiction” in that it is with our thoughts and our dreams and our desires that we create life, daily new.)
mysterious,connection,fragile,fog,light,unknown,unconscious,life,resurrection,death,reborn.
It must be noted that just as a Bridge leads us towards something … it also gives us a comfort factor of returning back to where we started from.
There are many bridges from Passive Failure to Active Success….but the important just as we cherish the bridge that brought us to success…it is important to demolish it…so that we don’t go back to failure.
When you have NO OTHER GO but to succeed ..you usually do!!!
I think in this moment, we all need to be our own bridges or the bridges we’ve been looking for. We are the point of connection and we need to see ourselves as that. Once we do “feel” ourselves as the bridge, then the separation will disappear. Easier said than done!
Sherryb (EvolutionInConsciousness.blogspot.com)
Pontiff comes from the Roman term pontifex, literally meaning maker of bridges as a priest was deemed to be the one bridging the gap between man and gods. It came to mean simply priest, but then our word priest comes from presbyter…
The Romans did everything with a ritual or ceremoney; and every home had its shrine to the household gods and the ancestors, and a small gift of grain or flowers was placed there at the start of every day.
For me, bridges make me think of…The Three Billy Goats Gruff!
trip trap trip trap TRIP!!!
I guess I have already mentioned something about the Pons Facere, the Pontiff or the “bridge maker”. Funny thing is that I was made Pontiff once and being able to connect worlds, people and the sort has given me en entirely different perspective of life. I had to reinvent myself and that is what I am doing right now. Problem is that not everyone stands by me during this process. At times I feel lonely, though I understand what life is and I know the feeling is there precisely when my faith leaves me.
A bridge barely exists because of an angular stone that holds the entire structure. It is not only a question of strength, but one tiny little stone does hold still an enormous bridge.
In my own story, of everything I have been through, I feel the weight of the bridge today.
I guess I am getting old… or so.
All the best,
Hernán
The bridge helps us to go further. It could be strong, made of stones, or fragile, only sustained by ropes and damaged supports. Also, the ultimate bridge may be invisible, the man who cross, enough noble to make appear the path under his feet, and reach the opposite ground.
As in life, sometimes we have to walk calmly, other times, walking is an act of bravery.
I used to live at Bridge House…
the house (which was once) just before the railway bridge
on high ditch road.
my aunt lives at high ridge, upper hale.
she and her younger sister (my mum) grew up in Hale…
anyway… consequently, The bridge to me symbolised safety.
intrigued and mystery, adventure.. because it crossed the old railway line…
and because of this abandoned space…
the bridge was like a safe oasis passing over the risky, dark scrubland of the old railway line below!
this issue was repeated in Edinburgh, where i went to university…
the town planners had wanted to expand the city… they built New town… however, this was at the foot of the castle mound..
but all the offices, university, government etc institutions were the other side of town… which meant going through the old part of the city which had become run down, occupied by ‘misfits’ etc etc..
so they built The Bridges – south bridge, north bridge…
to completely bypass over the whole affair and link the new town to the institutions.
The other potent symbol of bridges that I feel worth a mention here.. is that of the strange pedestrian bridge that the nazis constructed for the jewish inhabitants of the ghettos, to cross the main road seperately.
So there are conflicting experiences of how a bridge is symbolised… what it means…
I know it is a place or point for reflection on the past, present and future though.
In November and December, 2008, 2 stars shine in the sky: 1 star shines near my star ( vénus ): side by side, they shine in the sky; and spiritual events very intense accompany my days.
This weekend 27/28 in February, 2009, after some months, I saw again O. (2 rainbow: narrative on the post the bridge) and before returning at home, he said to me:
“Come to see outside stars”, and I saw the moon ( his moon) under my star ( vénus ) as a cradle which welcomes me and protects me: on February 27th, a date important for us, and on this February 27th, I told everything to him(her) mystic events lived on my St’s road jacques and also since my return at the house
Stars symbolize for me the time of listening which it offered me (and hundreds of kilometres crossed to come to listen to me: thank you O. for the reception of my words, of ” the reception of the receiving moon vénus “)
LOVE
Sounds of a Harp.
It’s a bridge to spirit.
Le pont ; le pont entre 2 mondes ; le pont est un point de passage de la vie vers une autre existence , une autre berge …
The bridge; the bridge between 2 worlds; the bridge is a passage of the life towards another existence, another bank…
In July, 2006, the first time when I went to walk on St Jacques’s road, a the end of day without rain and in front of us, in a moment of intense sharing between me and O. whom I went to find (to make together the road St Jean de pied de port / roncevalls): 2 rainbow appear on the mountain in front of us
It is only recently since my return of St Jacques’s road in December, 2008 ( 2nd road): that I remembered myself these 2 rainbow.
And today in my questions, the question ” what wants to say the rainbow? ” And we answered me, as for Noë in the Bible, the rainbow means ” an alliance between God and the man “
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