Writings

"Aut-ib, the Hieroglyph for JOY"

"when the heart goes open"
"when the heart expands"
"the heart goes wide"

"JOY"

Ib is the hieroglyph for the heart. It's the vessel in the middle of the hieroglyph, a container that can hold happiness, sadness, joy, anticipation... We say our hearts can be broken. Pictures that describe a broken heart show it like a broken piece of pottery, like the vessel above would look if it were cracked.

Now imagine this vessel is in your chest area holding all the feelings that are in your heart. You are wearing a necklace that hangs down on your chest with bangles, maybe bones, like an African necklace.

Suddenly you feel an overwhelming feeling of joy. Something very WONDERFUL happens and you gasp slightly. At that moment there is a stretching feeling that happens in your heart. We might say, "I feel like my heart could burst!"

The hieroglyph portrays this in a vivid way. In the picture the necklace you were wearing has flown upward -- because of the expanding in your heart it was blown up, as though a strong burst of wind burst forth from your heart.

Once we know what the symbol is, it speaks to us directly by showing us the joy-experience. Like the little icon on your computer screen of a printer for print document, we look at it and know immediately what it means without having to "translate" it from a word to a meaning. With this hieroglyph, as with a computer icon, we KNOW it, without having to think about it. The hieroglyph reminds us directly of the feeling of joy.