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Hello everyone, this week we are going to be talking about the symbolism of hair. How it relates to death, how it relates to power, how it relates to covering. It’s going to be continuing the discussion that I’ve been having after the video I made on the Lord of the Rings and also this last video I made on technology. And so I think there will be a lot to talk about. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring together the biblical elements, but it will also help you to understand how hair functions in our life, but also in all kinds of stories. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world. So first of all, I want to welcome you to the new set of the symbolic world. Since December I’ve been working on trying to change this little office space that I have into something a little bit more akin to a studio. So now I have lighting, I have a different camera, and I also put up some art in the background, some lighting. So hopefully you’ll have something to look at except my face when you’re watching my videos. I will probably in the next Q&A I will explain some of the different, why I put up all these different pieces of art and maybe I’ll mention them in other videos as well. But this video on the symbolism of hair was suggested by Jacob Russell. Jacob Russell, I’ve mentioned before, he runs the Symbolic World Facebook group. I’ll put a link to that in the description. And Jacob, if you’re looking to continue the discussion on everything we’re doing here, really that is turning out to be the best place. There’s an ongoing discussion, people posting, people interacting with each other, people also helping each other out on their own journey to kind of integrate the symbolism into their lives. I tend to pop in there as well. I’ll leave comments, reactions, and sometimes I’ll even post something there. And once in a while you might get some previews that only supporters usually have access to. So if you want to continue the discussion, I would suggest that you go there. And so the discussion in this video is going to be about hair. It is a very difficult discussion and that’s why I, in a certain manner, took so long before Jacob asked me to make this video to get to it. The reason why I took so long is I needed to make a few videos, hopefully to prepare people in their thinking for this video. That’s why I made the video for the One Ring and Lord of the Rings, and I also put up this last video on technology. Because hair is a, it has to do with a very large paradox in scripture, which I’ve talked about quite a bit, which is the relationship between death and glory. How in the story of scripture, glory turns into death, but then also death is turned into glory. And we see that, of course, when I say that, there’s an intuition. We have this intuition that it’s right. You know, think about how we celebrate war heroes. But also think of the story of Christ himself, who on the cross brought those elements together, where he was both in his lowest point in terms of dying, but also as Christians, we believe that he was also attaining the highest point and entering into the Holy of Holies of the temple at the same time. And so those two things come together. Seems like a paradox, but hopefully I’ll be able to at least point you to some, to some elements which can help you understand how this is possible. And it’s important to understand that because of what’s happening right now, and because of all the things that happen in society, it seems like we need more people who are able to flip the script, who are able to change death back into glory. And so hopefully this will be a little bit of a help. And so when we look at hair, we have to understand, we have to look at hair, just look at what it is. That’s always a key to understanding what symbolism is. What is hair? How does it function? Not in terms of scientific composition, but really in terms of how we experience hair. And when we kind of understand that, we’ll be able to understand how it works. What’s the function of hair? Well, we know that hair is there to protect you, right? You have hair all over your body. You have hair on your head to protect you from the sun, to protect you from the cold. You have eyebrows to protect your eyes from sweat. And so hair is related to this notion of the garments of skin. So I’ve mentioned this a hundred times before, but for those who haven’t heard it, when Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, God gave them these garments of skin. And the garments of skin have to be understood as this kind of layer of death that is put around Adam and Eve in order to protect them from the world of death. And so it’s like a layer of death to protect you from death. And you can understand that in terms of hair is a perfect example, because hair is dead. And this is explicitly mentioned in the Church Fathers, especially St. Gregory of Nyssa, who talks about how hair is a symbol of death because it doesn’t have any feeling. And we can keep going because it is the thing which grows out of you, but then is also not totally you. And so as we understand this notion of something which grows out of you, but is not completely you, it’s like a dead version of you, we can understand it, we can extend it to pretty much everything which is external to you. So we have to link this symbolism of hair to the symbolism of power, of power to act in the world or strength, strength to be able to act in a world, because all that you do, let’s say you build a house, let’s say you write something, let’s say all your actions are coming from you, but they are also these remnants of you. There are also these dead, these dead aspects of you. But they are not only that, but they are also your glory, because they are that which comes out of you. And also is that’s what people see of you. And so they also act as this glory. And so as we move on, as I show you and I give you examples of this, hopefully you’ll be able to understand a little more as I show you the biblical examples. And so there are many places in scripture which will make this interesting connection between hair, between death and glory. So for example, there is a verse in Proverbs which talks about how a gray head is a crown of glory. It is found in the way of righteousness. And so here we have this beautiful relationship between the idea of aging and approaching death, the idea of this hair becoming white and so showing this coming closer to death, but also becoming a glory. And so I mean it’s very intuitive if you encounter this person with white hair, you have light coming out of their hair, coming out of their head. So you have these strands of light which come out of your head. And so it becomes this crown of glory, but it is also a sign of death. There is a place in scripture where it talks about how the young should rise up and stand and honor the aged and the gray headed, the people who have white hair, and then you should also revere God. And so this relationship between the glory of the person, but then also moving up towards the glory of God basically. And so once you understand that, this idea of white hair as being this connection between death and glory, and also just the idea of light coming out of someone’s head, you can also understand why, for example, in the book of Daniel, the son of man, and then in the book of Revelation, the returning Christ is represented as having a white hair, hair as white as wool, because there it is again, that relationship between death and glory. But you can also understand, there’s another place, for example, in Corinthians where it talks about how women should have long hair because it is their glory. And so you can see how this hair is a covering and is a glory. Now, this is something that a lot of people struggle to kind of understand because they tend to think of glory as just light. But in scripture, it really isn’t just light. There is a, it’s light, but it’s also a kind of dark covering at the same time. The perfect example is, of course, in the transfiguration where Christ is transfigured and then the disciples are, see this blinding light and then it talks about how this light cloud overshadowed them. So there’s this coming together of light and darkness, of showing and hiding. And that is really the paradox of everything which is exterior, exterior to yourself. I talked about this with the ring. Anything that shows you also hides you to it can also come to hide you at a certain extent. Everything you do externally can show who you are, but it can also be a way of hiding you. And once you understand that, you can understand so many things that Christ talks about in the New Testament. That’s why Christ is so obsessed with hypocrisy. That’s why almost everything Christ says is about dealing with hypocrisy. Because Christ doesn’t want there to be your outer actions to be a form of death, but wants your outer actions to be connected to you and be a form of glory. And so that’s why Christ is always talking about, one of the reasons why Christ is constantly talking about hypocrisy as being one of the main problems. And so this idea that hair, that let’s say white hair, we talked about this white hair, which is glory. Well, there are also places in scripture where it is more strictly related to death. For example, in the Leviticus, it talks about a form of leprosy in which one of the signs of the leprosy is that the hair is in the, where the, in the infection, the hair in the place where there’s leprosy has turned white. And so that becomes one of the markers to know that this person is impure and has to be put aside. Now, this is really, now we’re diving into, we’re diving into the deep stuff of symbolism, which is, like I said, symbolism is structural. And so the glory on your head, the white hair will set you aside, will mark you, will be a crown, an ornament, which will mark you as being different from others in a good way. So it shows your glory. And then the white hair in the infection will also set you aside, will become like an ornament, something which makes you special, but in a bad way. It sets you aside, makes you impure. And so there are these two extremes you can imagine, one which is being set aside in the right way, that is set aside for holiness, and another which is being set aside, you know, cast off because it is impure, because it doesn’t fit. Now there’s a very, like I said, because symbolism is structural, you can use sometimes the same symbolism to talk about one side and to talk about the other. And we saw that right now in this idea of white hair. Now, because like I talked about, this notion of the garments of skin as something to protect us from the world, hair as something to protect us from the world, also hair as being something which comes out of you but is not totally you, then it becomes related to power in general, to strength. And so of course, when I say that, everybody will think of the story of Samson, which makes absolute sense that it would come to that, because the story of Samson is exactly about that, this idea of this long hair which becomes the key to his strength, and you know, because it is this strength, really, really strength in a very physical way, that is the capacity to act upon the world, capacity to beat up someone, capacity to build a house, capacity to act or to protect yourself from the outer world in that sense, like real power, physical power. And so the hair becomes an image of that. And it also becomes akin to your actions, right, to your outer actions. So for example, a good example of this notion of how it can be related to your outer actions and kind of how you act in the world, a good example is the story of Absalom, the son of David. In the story of Absalom, it talks about how he had this beautiful long hair, right, and so he had this hair that was so long and so beautiful that every year he would have to cut it because it became too heavy. And so he had to cut his beautiful hair because it became too heavy, then it would grow back again. And so this is really this image of Absalom as being the up and comer, this young buck who wants to replace his father through his own kind of power, his own strength. But then Absalom gets caught up in his outer power and his hair gets caught in a tree. And as his hair is caught in a tree, then the David soldiers are able to kill him. And so there you can see how this strength, this outer strength is a danger because if you rely on it, then you can also become, it can catch you up. We’ve talked about that before in terms of technology, how every time you give in to outer strength or once you rely on your outer strength, you also make yourself weaker because you become dependent on your capacity to act in the world. And those things will go away. Our strength, our power to act in the world will disappear. And so that’s why, for example, you’ll see in the New Testament, there’s a way to kind of play with those relationships where, for example, two interesting ideas in the New Testament, two images of hair come up which are very fascinating to help you understand how you can emphasize different aspects. For example, in the Epistle to Timothy, St. Paul talks about how he says that women should not adorn, should be modest and should not adorn themselves extremely with braided hair and gold and costly garments. And so he’s talking about this hair as an adornment. And he doesn’t want women to adorn themselves too strongly, but to adorn themselves with good works. And that’s what I’m talking about. And so he’s saying here are these external signs of you and this ornamentation and the real glory is the good works that you do. Those are the good works. But you can also then oppose the inside and the outside. And St. Peter does that himself. He says your adornment should not be merely external, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, this unfading beauty, which is great in God’s sight. And so he’s saying, so you could say your outside work should be good, your glory should be good, but instead of just being this kind of pretty adornment, your work should be the adornment. And then you can also oppose them and say, you know, you shouldn’t focus on the outside. You should focus on the inside. OK, so for example, also, I think in the Old Testament, there is a place where it talks about how the glory of young men is their strength and the honor of old men is their gray hair. So you can see again this relationship between now emphasizing on one side strength and then on the other side hair. But in other places, those two, the hair for the young man and his strength are also connected together. And so it kind of shows you how symbolism, although it isn’t, it’s never systematic. Symbolism is never a systematic thing. It is nonetheless coherent in how it kind of lays itself out. And so that’s how you can also understand this idea of the Nazarites. And so Samson was a Nazarite. He’s a very strange Nazarite because he actually doesn’t follow the rules of the Nazarite. But the Nazarites were people who dedicated themselves to God and in dedicating themselves to God, they would let their hair grow long for a certain amount of time, the time that they were dedicated. And then when their dedication was finished, then they would cut their hair and they would offer it to God as an offering, as a burnt offering. They’d actually put it on the altar of offerings and would offer it up to God. And so you can see once again how this growing of the hair is related to a following of a vow to do all these different things so that then when you’re done, you cut your hair, you take all those works that you’ve done, and you bundle them up in your hair, and then you offer them up to God as a sacrifice. And what’s interesting is that the opposite can also be true. For example, in the New Testament, it talks about St. Paul cutting his hair in order to follow a vow. And you see that, of course, in the act of tonsuring that was there in the Roman army, but that is also still there in the church where you cut your hair in order to accomplish a vow. And you can see that as starting over, right? Cutting your hair is like a form of death as well in the sense of you remove all this external stuff that you have. It’s an ascetic act. You have all these externals and you say, no, I’m going to remove them and I’m going to focus on this one thing. And so shaving your head, cutting your hair can be a form of focus where you’re removing all these externals, all these ornaments, all these things, and you are focusing on the vow that you gave. So that brings us maybe to the last example of kind of understanding the relationship between hair and works or hair and externals is really this idea that we see in Scripture how all your hairs are counted. Or this notion that no hair on this person will be harmed. For example, you see that when the three youths are put into the oven in the book of Daniel where it says not one hair on their body will be damaged. And so every place where it talks about how all your hair will be counted and also this notion that no hair will fall off or no hair will be removed, it has to do with this idea of in a certain manner of the totality of the incarnation or the totality of creation where all things will be measured, all things will be accounted for. It’s related also to when Christ talks about how not one letter of the law will fall before the end. This idea that even the externals, this external law, will all of it is part of this story, this whole thing. And the same with works. It’s like you, what’s important is let’s say like St. Peter talks about how you need to focus on the inside and then the outside, your hair, your actions, your everything you do, use that external power in order to manifest that inner thing. And then those works, those externals will become your glory. You run the race, you attain the goal and then you receive a crown. So there’s a relationship between this glory and the actions that you put out in the world. And also let’s say that you could call the specificity of yourself, that is that which makes you you. And part of it is everything about you, as much as your internal as your externals, all of that is part of the totality of what you are. And that the glory of that, these dead works, these dead things that you do, you know, these this art that we make, these buildings that we build, the technology that we create, all of it can be flipped, can be filled with light and become a form of glory out of their, their let’s say dead selves. And so that’s, that’s I think the symbolism of hair. I know that this might have been a little bit convoluted because it’s a very difficult subject to talk about. But I hope that I’ve given enough for everybody to at least meditate on the on the question of hair. And I think the next video I will do will be on Rapunzel and the story of Rapunzel as an example of a proper use of hair, its relationship to death, its relationship to to to glory, to beauty, to all of that and how it all comes together. So I hope you enjoyed this video. As usual, thank you for your support. Share, you know, all that stuff. Comment. You know, I don’t answer a lot of the comments, but I do read them. Don’t worry. I read pretty much all the comments and I tried to answer once in a while. So so so stay engaged and I’ll see you soon.