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"wow..."

Symbol is derived from the Greek word symbolon, meaning half of a broken object. Symbolon also means a gathering, collection or summary. Its earliest uses was as a proof of a pact or contract. Often a sacred object would be broken and the pieces distributed between the parties. The pieces remained the symbol of the agreement and the perfect fit with the other pieces, like a key, proved the legitimacy of the relationship.

All persons were created in His image by God and for God and have within their hearts a desire to return to God. Pagan symbols, rituals, and practices that fit perfectly with the Word of God are not a coincidence, unless one presumes that God would have been too damned dumb to plant and make use of them when calling His lost and separated Children home. Because God is the author of all truth and beauty, any traces of truth or beauty found in paganism was of God. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church"

1147 God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.

1148 Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator.

1149 The great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ.